Monster Tycoon

✍🏾 Arts Culture Sports 🎙️

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

Joe Lim estimates that 90 percent of what you see on the internet is advertising in disguise, and he should know. For three years, Lim ran a company called Floodify, which at its peak operated 65,000 dummy social-media accounts used to drum up attention on behalf of paying clients.

The point of this kind of marketing is that nobody is supposed to notice it. But lately, the machinery has started to show.

In April, Justin Bieber headlined two consecutive weekends at Coachella. Coachella is the biggest stage in pop music save only for the Super Bowl, the kind of event that in theory generates its own attention. And yet on both weekends, a Discord server writer Lane Brown had been monitoring hosted paid campaigns for Bieber’s Coachella performances, offering clippers — people who are hired to turn a song, trailer, interview, stump speech, or whatever into short, social-media-friendly fragments — as much as a dollar per thousand views.

“On social media, popular opinion is being formed, measured, and manipulated all at once, and every signal the platforms produce — a trending song, a backlash, a talking point, the feeling that ‘everybody’ is suddenly talking about the same thing — can now be fabricated by unseen actors with hidden agendas,” writes Brown.

“Everybody is doing this now,” Lim says. “And if you’re not, you’re behind.”

Brown reports on how the same techniques are now being used to fool people on every app they go to in order to find out what other people think, not just in music but across entertainment, politics, consumer products, and celebrity gossip: https://t.co/hlcdfSmzPc

[WBEZ @WBEZ]

You may recognize Carrie Coon from her work on White Lotus, The Leftovers, Gone Girl and more. But here in Chicago, she is perhaps best known as an ensemble member of Steppenwolf Theatre, alongside her husband, the actor and writer Tracy Letts.

https://t.co/WqW2vEJ1VC

[WBEZ @WBEZ]

Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Susan Booth is putting her own twist on Harold Pinter’s love triangle. Helen Hunt stars in Goodman Theatre’s new production of Betrayal alongside Robert Sean Leonard and Ian Barford.

https://t.co/g09Q2v4uN8

[Kendrick Lamar @kendricklamar]

Super Bowl LIX. New Orleans.
https://t.co/RwqVLDGdgf

[WBEZ @WBEZ]

In The Hot Wing King, winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, opening Friday at Writers Theatre and running until July 21, they cook and eat real wings on stage. Here’s how they pull it off.

https://t.co/YZOvzh7YBj

[In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons @WBEZIntheLoop]

Reset is joined by @RealMDavis to get the low-down on all the best happenings in Chicago’s theater scene this summer. https://t.co/Qlbu5ms13s

[Seattle Seahawks @Seahawks]

2 tackles, 3 batted balls, and 2 dogs 🌭

[Kendrick Lamar @kendricklamar]

Not Like Us
https://t.co/QT59YqdUQ6

[WBEZ @WBEZ]

May brings new works with big names, from “George Costanza” as a shady lawyer at Chicago Shakespeare to former pop star #MichelleWilliams in a pre-Broadway musical reimagining a cult classic. #MichaelShannon will once again take the stage in #Chicago.

https://t.co/wB82VyJQIn

[WBEZ @WBEZ]

Get a behind-the-scenes look at Chicago’s dynamic arts & culture scene! Our new weekly performing arts newsletter Green Room will help you stay ahead of what’s hitting Chicago stages, galleries, museums and more. Sign up at https://t.co/mMCQcT69Zu

[In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons @WBEZIntheLoop]

Chicago’s robust theater scene is sure to have a show for everyone, and WBEZ’s theater reporter @RealMDavis has his finger on the pulse.
https://t.co/CuzaphBTc7

[Monster Tycoon @RealMDavis]

My latest

[WBEZ @WBEZ]

Is Chicago still a liveable city for its storefront actors? WBEZ spoke to storefront performers from around the city about their experiences in non-Equity theater.

https://t.co/4Y6vp7NYYD

[philip lewis @Phil_Lewis_]

'The Supreme Court announced that it will not hear Mckesson v. Doe. The decision leaves in place a lower court decision that effectively eliminated the right to organize a mass protest in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.'

https://t.co/55CdClF5KG

[WBEZ @WBEZ]

If you haven’t walked in the lobby of Lookingglass Theater Company lately, things might look a little different.
What you won’t see: people. The building is quiet as the theater undergoes renovations in preparation for the company’s reopening this fall.

https://t.co/M5ncOSxHOu

[Chicago Sun-Times @Suntimes]

Phylicia Rashad is in Chicago to direct Steppenwolf’s upcoming world premiere of "Purpose," which is currently in previews and opens on March 24. https://t.co/xIERY1FhAP

[WBEZ @WBEZ]

Phylicia Rashad is in Chicago to direct Steppenwolf’s upcoming world premiere of Purpose, which officially opens March 24. https://t.co/TmrIQ9ej3J

[In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons @WBEZIntheLoop]

WBEZ has a new theater reporter! Here’s recommendations from @RealMDavis for upcoming shows around Chicago.
https://t.co/rA8U9xwC3j

[Kristen Schorsch @kschorsch]

A unique theater experience in Chicago's Albany Park community:
✔️No stage
✔️No seats
✔️Audience is split into groups & moves through apartments to experience different stories
✔️Sliding scale tickets

Sound like your jam? Details via @RealMDavis @WBEZ: https://t.co/jItqJVvKTv