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Boris Pasternak’s Grand-Niece Loses Her Copyright Suit Against A Historical Fiction Author

"Anna Pasternak claimed seven chapters in Lara Prescott's (novel), The Secrets We Kept, copied elements from her own book Lara, a 2016 biography of her great uncle's lover Olga Ivinskaya," the inspiration for Lara in Doctor Zhivago.  (Anna Pasternak did not read Prescott's book before bringing the suit.) - The Guardian

History’s First Named Author And What She Achieved

Enheduanna, the daughter of King Sargon, founder of the Akkadian Empire, played perhaps the leading role in consolidating the religion of conquered Sumer with that of Akkad; her surviving work includes 42 hymns to the goddess Ishtar/Inanna and three freestanding poems. - BBC

Warner Bros. Discovery Is Spending $4 Billion To Shrink Itself

"The newly combined media company said that costs associated with cutting content" — such as the Batgirl film whose release was canceled entirely — "could reach $2.5 billion, making up a significant part of the total $3.2 billion to $4.3 billion in charges related to its financial restructuring." - Reuters

Dept. Of Silver Linings: Artemisia Gentileschi Painting Identified After 2020 Beirut Explosion

"In one Lebanese mansion an anonymous painting — pierced by shards of glass from a blown-out window and impaled by wood from the window frame — gained something extraordinary. It is now recognized by experts as a long-lost painting of Hercules and Omphale by Artemisia Gentileschi." - The New York Times

Mike Davis, L.A. Urbanist And Author Of “City Of Quartz”, Is Dead At 76

"(His) work exposed L.A.'s social fractures and disquieted its most ardent boosters, and (his) mark on the intellectual history of Southern California remains indelible. ... Though best known for City of Quartz, Davis wrote more than a dozen notable books over his more than four-decade career." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

Arkansas Museum Of Fine Arts Gets A Starchitect Makeover

"The countdown is on for the much-anticipated April 22, 2023, reopening of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock as it emerges from an ambitious redesign led by Studio Gang that fuses together a hodgepodge of several decade-spanning expansions with a natural light–flooded central addition." - The Architect's Newspaper

One Day Before They Were Due, England’s State Arts Funder Postponed Its Plans For The Next Grant Cycle

"Arts Council England has revealed it has hit the brakes on its imminent investment programme announcement. ... The 2023-26 programme has promised to be a seismic moment for many arts organisations, with ACE suggesting it will incorporate a 'levelling up' strategy to move funds away from the capital." - WhatsOnStage (London)

Feeling Trapped By The Nonbinary Gender Brand

We got stuck with this particular version of nonbinary identity—singularly focused on pronouns, clumsy corporate integration, and iconoclastic affect—because nonbinary identity has become a brand. It is both a way of being in the world and an empty signifier. - The Baffler

Meet Italy’s New Minister Of Culture: He Wants To Shake Things Up

Citing 19th Century patriotic poetry and Mussolini-era writers and philosophers, the freshly appointed culture minister of Italy’s new right-wing government has promised a new era for the country’s cultural sector and revealed he wants to reform state funding for the performances arts. - Deadline

How “Strictly Come Dancing” Is Changing How People See Dance

With this year being hailed as the most diverse series ever, Strictly is attempting to better reflect the diversity that exists across the British population by challenging the dominant norms in dance traditions and styles that feature on the show. - The Conversation

A Linguist Weighs In: Just How Do You Say/Spell Ukraine’s Capital?

‘Kiow’ and ‘Kiou’ seemed to be the most common terms in the 18th century, while ‘Kief’ was the most popular word at the turn of the 19th century, was still common towards the end of the century, and at the turn of the 20th was in competition, so to speak, with ‘Kieff’ and ‘Kiev’. - 3 Quarks Daily

A Jobs Crisis In The Arts? Here’s What The Numbers Say

In the arts, entertainment, and recreation industry grouping, the job vacancy rate was 6.8% in March 2022, double the rate before the pandemic (3.4% in the last quarter of 2019). - Hill Strategies

Nope, Sorry. Cooperation Isn’t Always A Good Thing

We often talk about cooperation in glowing terms, associating it with ideas of virtue and morality. But viewing cooperation solely as a force for good betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of how evolution works. - The Guardian

118 Composers Join Forces To Complete One Of Bach’s Great Unfinished Projects

Original sources indicate that J.S. planned to have 164 chorale preludes in his Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book), but he only wrote out 46 of them.  Organist William Whitehead decided to commission preludes on the remaining 118 chorale melodies — in each composer's own style, not in Bach's. - The New York Times

The News Is Broken. It’s Not Going To Get Better

I am learning to accept that our mainstream media will not adapt to the needs of this moment in our public life. Having talked and written about institutional bias of this sort for many decades, I am beginning now to accept that the central institutions are not going to change. - James Fallows

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