My composition chops were extremely rusty and needed buckets of WD-40 put on them. What was interesting is how once you get started, you actually get in the zone; all of a sudden wonderful things start occurring to you. - Van
Consistency isn’t of value, in and of itself. If the outcomes are bad, the fact that they were arrived at by employing a consistent decision-making process doesn’t improve the outcomes themselves at all! - 3 Quarks Daily
Disasters compress time, and in a world besieged by them, dramatic shifts occur: For planners and architects and officials, whose work typically unfolds over years, disaster recovery requires and enables otherwise-unthinkable haste. - The New York Times
"One of the main lessons we can learn ... is the ability to maintain musical traditions while also responding to the surrounding culture. While the primary goal of show-style bands is to put on a show, their point of departure is still first and foremost great musicianship." - I Care If You Listen
"It wasn't until ballet came into my life that I started to feel that I could be a person, a person in the world, like I could express myself. It was like I'd gone 13 years of my life without truly expressing what was inside of me or feeling comfortable in my skin. And it was ballet." - NPR
"One of Mike Birbiglia's simplest and best talents is his instinct for leaping from sprawling existential ideas to prosaic little experiences. ... (His) power is to make that leap seem easy without undermining its magic: Here's the small thing that illuminates the big abstraction." - Vulture
I’ve watched Elon Musk treat Twitter as a comedy club on the one hand, and the universal town square on the other. What he doesn’t seem to realize is that it is neither. - The Atlantic
Seattle was a thriving, energizing, musical city. It was synonymous with Sub Pop and KEXP. It was home to literally hundreds of rock, pop, hip-hop, soul, hardcore, metal, and experimental acts. Now, venues are dark. Musicians are moving away. - The Stranger
"(They) crossbred throwback Western with modern antihero drama, grazed on the myth of the West and hormone-injected it with rural-vs.-urban culture war. ... Yellowstone might be the one show that can tell your right-wing uncle that white people stole America and not make him change channels to Hannity." - The New York Times
What happens when you go look at a painting you’ve never seen before? What I think happens is that you’re seeing it in the context of all the other pictures you’ve ever seen. When you go and look at something new, what you’re saying is, “What’s different about this experience?” - The New York Times
"The Pakistan government has banned Joyland, the film that will be its Oscars contender, after pressure from hardline Islamic groups who called its depiction of a love affair between a man and a trans woman 'repugnant' and 'highly objectionable'." - The Guardian
"His four previous works, each two or three years in the making, have combined dance, music and storytelling to preserve LGBTQ history and illuminate the past, drawing on archival research and oral histories. ... Now, for the first time, his dance is looking to the future." - San Francisco Chronicle
"The Giacometti Foundation will take up residence in the former Gare des Invalides, better known in postwar years as the former headquarters of Air France. Its opening is scheduled for 2026." - The Guardian
Jonathan Cohen, a 44-year-old cellist, harpsichordist and conductor from Great Britain, begins his term next season. He currently leads his own London-based ensemble, called Arcangelo, as well as Les Violons du Roy in Quebec City. - MSN (The Boston Globe)
The 85-year Grammy winner, whose biggest hits were "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Killing Me Softly With His Song," has been diagnosed with the neurological syndrome amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ("Lou Gehrig's disease"). - AP
