Pedro Almodóvar's Parallel Mothers starts out with a very Almodóvar situation, two single women about to give birth, but the movie’s really about the ongoing fallout from the many extrajudicial murders committed by Franco's regime, a topic most Spaniards have spent decades avoiding. - The New York Times Magazine
He'd made some comedy-horror mashups and one arthouse hit when he set to work on the Tolkien adaptations, so he wasn't someone you'd think of giving nine-figure budgets to. The bet paid off, of course: the films took in $3 billion. Here's how they came together. - Variety
While the specifics differ (as do outcomes, somewhat), the common thread seems to be that these towns built gathering places — community centers or gardens, cafes, public squares with seating and playgrounds. And they've made a real difference. - Fast Company
The Mosul Book Forum, which offers concerts and events along with books, opened three months after the city was liberated. Said cofounder Fahad Sabah, "If we have to rebuild our city, we need to rebuild our minds as well as our buildings and streets." - Literary Hub
The Morgan Art Foundation's filing in US federal court accuses publisher Michael McKenzie of "allegedly forging Indiana's artwork, defaming the foundation, and intentionally interfering with its exclusive contractual rights to reproduce the artist's 'Love' works." - Artnet
On Monday, 273 teachers and students from the school flew from Qatar, where they landed at a US base after fleeing the Taliban, to Lisbon, where they have been granted asylum. - AP
The artist Lorenzo Bussi (alias "Art Builders Group") and the workers devised the action, titled "Is Everyone's Work Equally Important?", at the top of the stairs leading to the Frank Gehry building's entrance. The pay rate they're protesting? €5 ($5.65) an hour. - Hyperallergic
For several years, a mixture of denial and deep optimism have kept up the facade. News outlet leaders believe that, since others are perceived to have success with podcasting, their payoff must be right around the corner. - NiemanLab
M+ seemed inevitable, so right. But if you looked closely enough, divisions between the city and its various cultural saviours were starting to emerge. - Apollo
Optimization cannot reconcile people’s conflicting world views. Though conflict has always been the meat of politics, political differences today mean that people not only disagree over solutions and precise settings of valuation parameters; they also clash over the fundamental terms. - Boston Review
In the old college system there were lists of books that every student was supposed to study—a canon. The canon was the curriculum. In the modern university, students elect their courses and choose their majors. That is the system the great books were designed for use in. The great books are outside the regular curriculum. - The New Yorker
As devastating as the pandemic has been to lives and livelihoods, a number of opera singers have found themselves emerging back into live performance with careers in better, more interesting places than they were when the shutdown began. - NPR
No one in the music world has been more ambitious or creative in exploring the ways musicians can create soundscapes in dialogue with the surrounding world. And he has been doing it for decades, all over the globe, from Siberia to the Grand Canyon. - Ted Gioia
Anthony Freud's term was to have expired this year; in October, LOC's board extended it for five years with no public announcement. When asked, the company has given no reason for the silence. Freud's management has come under increasing criticism in recent years. - Chicago Classical Review
We consistently see that longer education does raise our cognitive abilities: a person’s IQ gains one to five points for each additional year of education. The evidence also suggests these effects aren’t just flashes in the pan: they last throughout our lives. - The Guardian
