The Life and Death of Hollywood by Daniel Bessner

I try to not be too dour about the state of major U.S. filmmaking, knowing full well that the death of cinema has been declared many times over across the decades. Writing for Harper’s, Daniel Bessner makes a persuasive case that the end might indeed be nigh this time. The symptoms he cites are familiar — the dominance of franchise films, the greed of venture capitalists who can’t spare a sniffle for the concept of art — but he comprehensively assembles the details in a powerful, persuasive, and downright dismaying manner. It’s a wonder anything of any worth gets made at all under the current system.

Music Riches Are Waiting to Be Found by Bob Mehr

Bob Mehr, who knows a thing or two about musical excavation, writes about the efforts of Master Tape Rescue to unearth historic recordings that have been sitting for decades in random garages, attics, and other sites of lonely storage. This story is essentially the opposite of the heartbreaking tale of the Universal Studios fire that transformed countless treasures of twentieth century popular music into ash. There is heroism here. This piece is published by The New York Times.