Music

The Arkansas authorities Thursday seized the liquor license of a concert hall planning what had been billed as the first major rock concert since the pandemic, forcing the promoters to delay the show, which was originally scheduled for Friday in Fort Smith.A day earlier the state Department of Health issued a cease-and-desist order to the promoter, Temple Live, anticipating that it intended to violate state rules governing the reopening of concerts. The promoters said they were applying to reschedule the concert, featuring Travis McCready, a country-rock singer, for just a few days later, Monday, May 18, at Temple Live.The promoters denounced what they characterized as a pre-emptive, and heavy-handed enforcement action while, they said, negotiations were ongoing.“‘We the people,’ three amazing words, and they have been trampled on today,” Mike Brown, a representative of Temple Live, said at a televised news conference.Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas said that the concert failed to meet the state’s public health directives for live concerts. The challenge had attracted national attention because the show was seen as a potential test of whether fans were ready to return to live musical events after the coronavirus brought the concert industry to a halt in March.Starting Monday, May 18, the governor is allowing indoor venues such as theaters, arenas and stadiums to reopen in Arkansas, but he had insisted that audiences be limited to fewer than 50 people. Temple Live had planned on more than four times that number of fans — 229 — in the 1,100-seat theater for the concert, which was scheduled for just three days before the relaxed guidelines took effect.Promoters had remained defiant this week, accusing the state authorities of discrimination because churches were already allowed to open, with social distancing requirements but without limits to the number of people attending. “We are not trying to be difficult,” Mr. Brown told reporters on Wednesday. “We just want to be treated fairly and with respect.” Mr. Brown said tickets for the Friday show would be honored on Monday.He had asked the authorities to provide scientific evidence that the virus could be more easily transmitted at a concert than a church. In public comments Wednesday, a health department official said the concert was different because people would be attending from different states and so coming into contact with people they would not normally encounter.Attention is now likely to shift to another concert the promoter is planning involving Mr. McCready, scheduled for Saturday in Pineville, Mo., about two hours away.That concert is to be held outdoors at the Tall Pines Distillery where the audience is being limited to 400 people. The setting for the concert is an eight-acre field, which organizers said will make it relatively straightforward to meet social distancing requirements. More

“You’ve got to fall on your face to sit at the table,” says the erstwhile R.E.M. frontman. More

It is no surprise that the storytelling series Maurizio Cattelan initiated doesn’t include “Goodnight Moon” or “The Tale of Peter Rabbit.” As an artist, Mr. Cattelan is known for skillfully subverting the expectations of his audience. Instead “Bedtime Stories,” a new digital offering from the New Museum, features cultural luminaries like David Byrne, Takashi Murakami and Elizabeth Peyton sharing selections from their favorite books, many of which are not standard nighttime fare for children or adults.Mr. Byrne, for example, will read from “The Three Christs of Ypsilanti,” a case study by the social psychologist Milton Rokeach about an experiment he conducted on three patients who believed themselves to be Jesus Christ. “Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note,” by Amiri Baraka, and “Gravity and Grace,” by Simone Weil, are among the atypical books that other participants chose.“It would have been quite depressing if all the invited artists and contributors had chosen fairy tales and children stories,” Mr. Cattelan said by email. “We look to artists for their ability to show us the unexpected so I am thankful to all the participants for coming up with some genuinely weird stuff.”As the project took shape, some of the contributors decided to write material of their own rather than pull from their libraries. In its debut installment, which was released on the museum’s website and social media channels on Thursday, the punk-rock icon Iggy Pop shares his memories of his beloved dog by reading a love letter he wrote for the deceased pet. In a later installment, Marilyn Minter, a painter and photographer, will recite a political limerick she wrote about President Trump.While he is known for playful provocation, Mr. Cattelan was earnest about his hopes for the series: “I thought of this project really not as an artwork but simply as a way of being together with others in a moment of isolation.” Stories, he explained, can also be a welcome diversion from the barrage of images we’re often submitted to. “You could say all of my work is about the power of images and their seductiveness and their complexities. But sometimes it’s worth showing less and listening more.”Other contributors to “Bedtime Stories” will include Jeff Koons, Camille Henrot, Raymond Pettibon and Maya Lin. A new segment will be posted daily. More