| 1. N.F.L. DRAFT POSES CHALLENGES FOR LOCAL NASHVILLE MUSICIANS: The N.F.L. Draft is slated to draw more than 100,000 people daily to Nashville Thursday to Sunday, to see headliners like Tim McGraw and Dierks Bentley. But with the influx of football fans inevitably pouring into bars near the event, local musicians are urging visitors to remember to tip, as the event poses many challenges. Associated Press: “As construction downtown increases, parking fees go up and most musicians have to carry their gear (guitars, drums, amps, etc.) through crowds and traffic to the venues, especially when streets are closed to allow for foot traffic. Those challenges escalate during a special event like the draft. On Tuesday, the mid-afternoon shift change for musicians coincided with the construction of banners, lights, security cameras, television screens, and temporary studios for live television crews covering the draft. Musicians loaded down with gear were weaving through closed streets, barriers, and selfie-snapping tourists. ‘The musicians are the bedrock of this lower Broadway scene,’ said Dave Pomeroy, president of the Nashville Musicians Association, AFM Local 257. ‘Unfortunately they are consistently at the bottom of the food chain and have a lot of challenges.’ Pomeroy said his union has been trying to work with the city to deal with the logistical complications the draft has brought to those working downtown. They’ve made placards for musicians’ cars so they hopefully won’t be towed while temporarily dropping off equipment. Some parking garages offer discounts to musicians, but they still have to fight the influx of visitors to even find available spots.” 2. IS THE AGE OF INSTAGRAM MUSEUMS OVER?: A couple years ago, Instagram museums with bright, colorful photo backdrops, ball pits, swing sets, and infinity rooms were a hit with influencers. But now, the trend seems to be dying, as many young Instagram users veer toward a simpler, less curated and unfiltered aesthetic. This doesn’t bode well for traveling pop-ups like the Happy Place, Museum of Ice Cream, and more. The Atlantic: “According to Taylor Cohen, a digital strategist at the advertising agency DDB, the Instagram aesthetic’s saturation point came sometime in mid-2018. ‘It’s not the same as it was even a year ago,’ she says. Consider, for example, the Happy Place, an Instagram museum that opened to great fanfare in Los Angeles in 2017 and bills itself as the ‘most Instagrammable pop-up in America.’ When it opened, people were thrilled to fork over the nearly $30 admission price ($199 for a VIP pass). But when it arrived in Boston this month, it landed with a thud. Instagram museums and walls were built to allow normal people to take influencer-quality photographs—but they worked so well, those types of photos became common enough that they don’t resonate like they used to. In the beginning, ‘you had everyone posting these normal photos, and so that rainbow-food photo stood out,’ Klein says. ‘But because so many people adopted that aesthetic, that has become passé. We’re living in influencer overload.’” 3. OSCARS WON’T EXCLUDE NETFLIX FROM BEST PICTURE CATEGORY: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences won’t exclude Netflix from best picture consideration for next year’s ceremony. At its annual April rules meeting, the Oscars board voted to keep Rule Two, Eligibility, which requires a film to screen in an L.A. County theater for no more than a week to qualify for best picture. The 92nd Oscars take place February 9, 2020. The Hollywood Reporter: “In the aftermath of Netflix's success with Roma at the 91st Oscars—the film won three Oscars, including best director, suggesting it came close to winning best picture, too—some in the Hollywood community, including directors branch governor Steven Spielberg, expressed a desire to make it harder for films that do not receive sizable theatrical runs to compete for the Academy's top honor. But many key players in the Hollywood community, including indie filmmakers and filmmakers of color, rose up in defense of Netflix, or at least for not raising the bar for eligibility for the best picture Oscar. And that side has prevailed—for now.” | 