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A Former NFL Defensive Lineman And His East Baltimore Animation Studio

NFL player Trevor Pryce visited 20th Century Fox in 2005 and fell for animation. Now, his Kulipari series - "Kulipari, an Australian Outback aboriginal word for poison, is set in the Amphibilands, a secluded community of tree frogs" - is produced in East Baltimore, not traditionally an animation hub. - Baltimore Sun

Do Protest Songs Make Any Difference?

Hard to quantify, but a new English-language protest song database that goes back to the 17th century says they can. - - BBC

The Shimmers That Bring Fiction To Light

In Joan Didion's essay about writing to find out what one thinks, she also wrote, "'The arrangement you want can be found in the picture in your mind. The picture dictates the arrangement.' This is a much stranger reason to write than to clarify an argument." - The Paris Review

Turns Out Our Brains Have A ‘Low Power’ Mode

And when mice are in it - specifically, when they're not getting enough glucose - their brains stop processing details of vision. The study suggests humans probably have this mode as well. Tunnel vision? Real. - Wired

The Thrill Of A Great Takedown

Honestly, readers love them. "There’s something a little sexy about a well-executed negative review. ... A great pan does not just point out what’s missing from a book. It can fill those gaps with exhilarating, new conversations." - The Atlantic

Comedy As The Ancient, And Modern, Practice Of Joy

D'Lo is a "self-described queer/transgender Tamil Sri Lankan-American cultural-worker-activist-poet-writer-actor-comic" in L.A. He says, "as comedians we have a lot of power. We can say what we need to say in a way that people will receive." - Los Angeles Times

Susie Steiner Helped Reinvent The Crime Novel Even As She Went Blind

The author, who died at 51, only had time to produce three books in her series, but her agent says, "I’ve lost track of ... the number of publishers, scouts and film companies who’ve used her name to describe a genre of writing they want." - The New York Times

At Least One United States Court Understands Comedy

Roy Moore, whom history will remember for putting a marble Ten Commandments monument at the Alabama Judicial Building and being banned from a mall for his interactions with teenage girls, just had his $95 million lawsuit against Sacha Baron Cohen for a "pedophile detector" TV episode tossed. - Washington Post

Bookstores Are Back, Baby

Indie bookstores are positively booming - and they're more diverse than ever. This is a shock (a wonderful shock), considering that in the early days of the pandemic, "hundreds of small booksellers around the United States seemed doomed." - The New York Times

Making Activist Art A Conduit For Hope In Troubled Times

Andrea Bowers's show opened on June 24, the day that the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe. "When you enter the first gallery, you’re greeted immediately by a big, blinking yellow and red neon sign that reads, 'My Body My Choice Her Body Her Choice.'" - Los Angeles Times

How The Waterlily Changed Architecture

"When seeds of this amazing plant first made their way to Victorian England from South America, they sparked off a race among the British aristocracy as to who could be the first to get one to flower." But there was no space big enough. - The Guardian (UK)

James Caan: An Appreciation

For instance: "He was unforgettably perfect — carnal, wild, exciting. Caan may not be the actor you first think of in relation to The Godfather, with its astonishment of legends, but the film is impossible to imagine without his volatile, kinetic performance." - The New York Times

You Are Not The Great American (Or British, Or French, And So Forth) Novelist

And the sooner you embrace your essential ordinariness, the better for your writing. - LitHub

The Point Of Pointless Goals

Let us now praise things that bring us joy, like the person who determined to walk across the United States in a cartoon bear suit, and succeeded in his goal. "A good meaningless goal is an act of protest against the self-optimization hamster wheel." - The Atlantic

A New Delhi-Based Queer Arts Group Abandoned Documenta After Racist And Transphobic Harassment

Documenta apparently told the group to rely on a private security firm and German police, both of which organizations proved, the artists say, to be not just unhelpful but damaging to artist and attendee safety. - Hyperallergic

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