Worth a Look

Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...

What We Learned While Trying To Find A New Bechdel Test

FiveThirtyEight: In our recent project looking for the next Bechdel Test, we tried to find new ways to evaluate whether Hollywood was doing a good job of representing all kinds of people equitably on screen and behind the scenes. To put the new tests through their paces, nine FiveThirtyEight staffers watched the 50 top-grossing movies of 2016 and ran them through 12 new tests aimed at measuring gender inequality in Hollywood films.

Posted by David at 1/25/2018 01:14:00 PM

TV writers are sharing their salaries in a Google spreadsheet to combat pay disparity

The Verge: TV writers, producers, executives, and assistants have been anonymously sharing their salaries in a widely circulated Google spreadsheet this week as part of an effort to help people working in the entertainment industry achieve pay parity, The Hollywood Reporter reports.

Posted by David at 1/25/2018 01:11:00 PM

When Pop Culture Sells Dangerous Myths About Consent

The Atlantic: Edward Cullen. Chuck Bass. Lloyd Dobler. Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That guy from Love Actually with the sign. The lead singers of emo bands with their brooding lyrics. Many of the romantic heroes that made me swoon in my youth followed a pattern and, like a Magic Eye picture, only with a little distance did the shape of it pop out to me. All of these characters in some way crossed, or at least blurred, the lines of consent, aggressively pursuing women with little or no regard for their desires. But these characters’ actions, and those of countless other leading men across the pop-culture landscape, were more likely to be portrayed as charming than scary.

Posted by David at 1/24/2018 11:41:00 AM

Read 'Em And Weep: Celebrating 35 Years Of Opera Supertitles

NPR: In 1983, the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto tried a grand experiment. While the singers performed Elektra in German onstage, simultaneous translations in English were projected above the stage. These "supertitles," as they've come to be known, were quickly adopted at opera houses and are now an expected part of the opera-going experience.

Posted by David at 1/22/2018 12:19:00 PM

When People are the Product: Why Reliance on Young Artist Programs May Lead to Financial Ruin for Opera

medium.com: There’s no question that many regional opera houses in the US are struggling. Corporate giving to the arts has never really recovered since the dotcom crash, private philanthropy is shifting increasingly towards education, healthcare, and religious organizations, and a lack of standardized musical education means that every new operagoer has to be taught and then converted.

Posted by David at 1/24/2018 12:27:00 PM

Worth a Look - Time's Up

And five more...

Theater Where Kevin Spacey Was Artistic Director Creates New Initiative to Report Harassment

jezebel.com: London’s Old Vic theatre has established a new channel for employees to report harassment as an alternative to human resources and management.

Posted by David at 1/26/2018 11:21:00 AM

Alyssa Milano, Halsey, more stars speak at the 2018 Women's March

www.usatoday.com: From New York to Los Angeles, women are gathering for the Women's March 2018 — and celebrities are joining in.

Stars are speaking up across the nation Saturday to advocate for change, bring awareness to the #MeToo movement and more.

Posted by David at 1/22/2018 12:22:00 PM

Sexual Harassment is Pervasive Among Self-Employed Creatives

Rising Tide: Our recent research revealed that sexual harassment is pervasive in the creative economy — 54% of self-employed and freelance women reported they have been harassed at least once. This is higher than the numbers already reported in the traditional 9-to-5 workforce, where 48% of currently employed women in the United States say they have been sexually harassed. The problem is far too commonplace, but victims are speaking up, empowered by movements like #MeToo, which elevate their collective voice to share unfortunate realities.

Posted by David at 1/25/2018 01:04:00 PM

Long Wharf Theater Leader Is Accused of Sexual Misconduct

The New York Times: Ms. Rubinstein is one of four women who spoke on the record, describing unwanted sexual contact by Mr. Edelstein since his arrival in 2002 at Long Wharf, a respected nonprofit theater in New Haven that has had several productions mounted on Broadway. Six other former employees, women and men, described frequent sexually explicit remarks in the workplace by Mr. Edelstein, a prominent figure in American theater circles.

Posted by David at 1/25/2018 01:34:00 PM

Producers Guild of America Sets Anti-Sexual Harassment Guidelines

Variety: The Producers Guild of America has issued its “Anti-Sexual Harassment Guidelines” to its 8,200 members in the wake of expelling Harvey Weinstein from its ranks.

The guidelines, issued Friday on the day before the PGA’s awards show, are the initial recommendations from the PGA’s Anti-Sexual Harassment Task Force, which was created last October after the start of the massive sexual harassment scandal that engulfed Hollywood. The PGA’s board of directors ratified the guidelines unanimously this week.

Posted by David at 1/22/2018 12:19:00 PM

Worth a Look

Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...

‘Roseanne’ in the Trump Era

www.vulture.com: I’m not great at tweeting about politics because it takes me too long to emotionally process news before I can come up with a witty, quippy, retweetable tweet. By last summer though, I was finally able to accept the election results and get my brain functioning enough to get back to tweeting in a timely fashion. After a couple of months of unanimously positive feedback, I had a chilling realization: There was a lack of negative comments when I posted anything critical of our current administration. Trolls are abundant online, so why wasn’t anyone lashing out against me, calling me a “libtard,” a “snowflake,” or “lacking common sense”?

Posted by David at 1/17/2018 11:59:00 AM

Female Lighting Designers: Past, Present, and Future

THE INTERVAL: Women lighting designers started in the spotlight. In the last century, women were at the forefront of lighting design’s major changes, both technological and conceptual, and yet men have dominated its ranks. One would think that a profession created by women would remain in the hands of women, but for theatrical lighting design that has not been the case, and questions persist in the minds of many of today’s lighting designers: Can women hold on to their legacy? Are they disappearing from the profession?

Posted by David at 1/17/2018 11:57:00 AM

Dear NBC: Straightwashing is Not OK

The Mary Sue: There are so many important, interesting, inspiring stories within the LGBTQIA community. If only the producers and television executives telling those stories actually acknowledged where they came from. In the case of the upcoming NBC drama Rise, its protagonist, based on a real person, will be missing a key element of his identity. The person is gay, but the character will be straight.

Posted by David at 1/15/2018 02:20:00 PM

Republicans’ tax attack on actors

NY Daily News: You can call me a multitasker; I’m a working actress, an accountant and also a tax attorney. My resume may sound a little unusual, but when April 15 hits, I will fit in with tens of millions of working Americans who have been hurt by sweeping changes in the tax code.

Posted by David at 1/15/2018 02:16:00 PM

The Public Domain Starts Growing Again Next Year, and It’s About Time

Electronic Frontier Foundation: Have you ever wondered how it’s possible for there to be two Jungle Book movies to be in development at the same time? Why everything seems to be based on a work by Shakespeare? Or why it always seems like someone is telling a version of The Wizard of Oz? The answer is that these works are in the public domain, meaning that copyright law no longer prevents other artists from adapting them to create new works.

Posted by David at 1/15/2018 02:05:00 PM

Worth a Look - Time's Up

And five more...

The Larger Lessons of Mark Wahlberg's $1.5 Million Salary on 'All the Money in the World'

The Atlantic: When All the Money in the World was fast-tracked into reshoots to replace scenes featuring Kevin Spacey (who has been accused of sexual assault), Michelle Williams saw it as a powerful sign that Hollywood was changing. At the director Ridley Scott’s insistence, the studio was spending upwards of $10 million to recast Spacey with Christopher Plummer in the role of the oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. As the film’s lead actress, Williams immediately signed off on the decision. “They could have my salary, they could have my holiday, whatever they wanted,” she said at the time. “Because I appreciated so much that they were making this massive effort.” To Williams, the reshoots were a statement, but to her co-star Mark Wahlberg, they were an opportunity.

Posted by David at 1/18/2018 01:33:00 PM

Women jazz musicians are using #metoo and taking a stand against sexism

theconversation.com: Every year since 1986, the Les Victoires du Jazz Awards selects France’s best jazz musicians. In 2017 all the nominees in all categories were men. Two decades ago this would not have been a story, but today it stands out and shows that there is something off and obsolete about this old boys’ club. It may have also been the case that, 20 years ago, female jazz musicians may have been reluctant to kick up a fuss. Fortunately, not anymore.

Posted by David at 1/15/2018 02:23:00 PM

Guthrie vows to investigate harassment claims

Minnesota Public Radio News: The Guthrie Theater is launching an investigation after allegations of sexual harassment by a former employee.

The female carpenter resigned earlier this week after working on the Guthrie staff for three and a half years, a position she described as a "dream job."

Posted by David at 1/19/2018 12:21:00 PM

It’s time to seriously address harassment and abuse

Protocol: DURING A RECENT City Arts and Lectures program, Tom Hanks was asked by interviewer Dave Eggers to comment on the sexual harassment and abuse cases coming to light in Hollywood. He launched into a well thought out and poignant observation about the current rash of accusations in Hollywood and elsewhere.

He pointed out that, in the workplace, those in charge assume (incorrectly) a certain privilege because of their status that they believe allows them to make the rules and to demand and expect that their requests, demands, and desires be obeyed. He admitted that this was not a new phenomena, but, while it may actually stem from some primordial male trait, it is inexcusable, not only in the workplace, but in civilization.

I have yet to meet a woman who can tell me that she has not experienced at least harassment, if not worse, at work. They get it not only from their bosses and others in positions of power, but from men they work with and strangers on the street. It is pervasive.

Posted by David at 1/16/2018 12:04:00 PM

Robert Brustein Doesn’t Understand Consent: The Dangers of the White Male “Genius”

Bitter Gertrude: As a very young woman, I haunted thrift stores, which, in those days, were chock full of amazing finds. Thrift store book sections filled my library, and I would buy anything related to theatre and devour it to supplement the reading I was doing in my theatre classes. Eventually, a slow, sinking realization started creeping in at the edges as I read book after book by theatrical “geniuses,” all white men. I remember paging through Robert Brustein’s Theatre of Revolt thinking, He does not consider women people.

Posted by David at 1/16/2018 12:06:00 PM

Ellipses...

If you're like me you would have thought "grab 'em by the pussy" would have been the bottom.  If you're like me you were wrong...  I considered recommending work buy a $50,000 printer today, then I reconsidered...  A week ago today it was 60 degrees colder.  If you don't buy into climate change you are being willfully ignorant...  We're trying a point system for potty training the boy.  I didn't anticipate needing to handle negative scores...  Sometimes these days I begin to wonder if I ought to be doing something more important.  I have no idea what that would be or how it would work...  Season 5 of The Guild was a lot more ambitious than what had come before that, and season 6 more than season 5...  The folks in Rochester have set up an appointment for me next month.  I thought that appointment was going to be here.  Guess I'll need to get to the bottom of that...  It seems like the Qdoba I like is permanently closed, at least Google thinks so.  Have to find a new lunch spot...  There's this indicator lamp on my laptop blinking to alert me to a hardware problem.  I wish I could shut it off...  Tonight the evening news was running a countdown clock to the Steelers game on Sunday.  It's a big game, but that might be a little over the top...  I'm reading a Star Wars short story book.  The last story posited that R5-D4 blew his own motivator on purpose in order to help R2.  That's pretty cool...  FIOS is running a listing on one channel that says "This channel has been removed" for weeks now.  Just a thought: how about putting new programming there?  Not thrilled paying for a blank channel...  If you've got a minute to talk to your Senator you should tell them SESTA is a bad bill.  Unfortunately my Senator is a sponsor of the bill.  It's unlikely I'd be able to turn him around...  Should you be wondering, the answer to his question is: because they're the ones the dream is most precious to...

Ellipses...

It is really cold, like I can't remember the last time it was this cold...  Yes, I know, it has been a very long time since there's been much of anything on this site.  I'm sorry...  Not for nothing, but there's no way they get an infrastructure bill that means anything after the tax plan they already passed...  There's no Steeler game this weekend, I know that's a good thing, but still...  My laptop needs a new battery.  Did I mention I just bought my laptop?  No?  Well really it was work that just bought this laptop...  Can't decide if I like the new Mythbusters...  I need an Amazon feature that lets me know if a book I am buying is already on someone else's Kindle so I don't gift them something they already have...  If the popular consensus is that the economy is doing really well then I think we are using the wrong metrics to measure the health of the economy...  The boy was 0 for 2 today...  I can't say for certain, but two nights ago I think is when it really started to fall apart...  Facebook thinks I want to relive memories from 9 years ago a lot right now.  Facebook is wrong...  I'm binge watching TableTop.  That game "Gloom" looks pretty cool...  The more I think about it them more it seems like when someone gets their party's presidential nomination all NDE's they are party to should expire...  I've got another week before classes start, but I think I will need to do the office thing a bunch before then...  Did I mention it was really cold?  It is really cold...