Less than a year after the Israeli airstrikes that destroyed his beloved two-story bookshop, owner Samir Mansour "is now preparing to reopen as both a bookshop and library, in a new location" - with some of the 150,000 books donated from around the world - The Guardian (UK)
The 84-year-old Swiss photographer of the flamenco world fell sometime on the evening of January 19. A homeless person in the area called authorities the next morning, but it was too late. - El Pais
The effort is concerted. "Many parents have seen Google docs or spreadsheets of contentious titles posted on Facebook by local chapters of organizations such as Moms for Liberty. From there, librarians say, parents ask their schools if those books are available to their children." - The New York Times
Or so says cellist and composer Nancy Ives. "Something has to happen where the elements are transmuted into something new in relationship to each other," she says of her piece in honor of Beethoven's 250th birthday. - Oregon ArtsWatch
"The latest developments are escalating pressure on Spotify to clarify how it will weigh promoting the free speech of its content creators against the impact that some can have on public health during the pandemic." - Washington Post
"One of the problems that minority writers face is: How many writers are there? If it’s just you, you’ve got to be pretty careful. As times change, and there are more voices, you can relax a little. But there is still a little voice in the back of my head." - The New York Times
"The building of Stonehenge was not a single event but a series of interventions in the site, beginning in 3000BC with the first earthworks and spanning 1,500 years – or 90 truncated human generations." - The Observer (UK)
Well, it's not Yeats, after "a somewhat cack-handed, though reasonably successful, conspiracy ... involving a local pathologist, a number of French (and probably Irish) diplomats, certain member of the Yeats family, and god knows how many bemused gravediggers and customs officials." - LitHub
Musicians aren't getting paid well, but Spotify "pays most of its revenues from songs back to labels and artists and has rarely turned a profit. In 2019, the company announced a new focus on 'audio,' meaning recorded books, live chats, and the booming medium of podcasts." - The Atlantic
Meanwhile, "officials in New Mexico are still examining how a live bullet got on set and then into the gun that Baldwin was practicing with and whether anyone should be held criminally responsible." - The New York Times
Something about another wave, the seeming impossibility of it all - and a family pulling together, maybe? Or, well, a lot of repeat watchings and non-stop soundtrack listens, driven by at-home kids - The Guardian (UK)
First, of course, you could just buy music. But if you're a streaming fan, there are a lot of other options, some of which even seem to pay musicians in a half-decent way. - Los Angeles Times
Matos, who has died at 53, and his colleagues reinvigorated and made famous the Afro-Puerto Rican music plena and bomba "by infusing them with jazz textures, exuberant horn sections and Cuban batá rhythms." - The New York Times
