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
The former longtime host of NBC's The Tonight Show, who is now 72, reportedly suffered burns to his face in a gasoline fire which broke out in the garage where he keeps his collection of vintage cars. - The Hollywood Reporter
"A Tory revolt has emerged over 'patronising' claims that funding for established cultural institutions contributes to the government's levelling up pledge, amid concerns from ministers and MPs that 'real levelling up' projects for the underprivileged have been slashed." - The Guardian
Parker brings more than 25 years of experience in leadership roles at a range of arts organizations. Most recently, he was the president of Decca Records US at Universal Music Group. - Louisville Courier Journal
“The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way,” he said. “It’s not easy. Building Amazon was not easy. It took a lot of hard work — a bunch of very smart, hard-working teammates, and I’m finding — and I think Lauren is finding the same thing — that charity, philanthropy, is very similar.” -...
How is it that the dawning of the age of reason, which saw science and technology become preeminent in western culture, coincided with the industrial revolution, which is turning out to be disastrous for the natural world and, quite possibly, humanity too? - 3 Quarks Daily
Music was an essential ingredient in Sendak’s creative process. “The work can’t happen without music,” he said in 1994. “I think everything I’ve done is a collaboration with a composer.” - ArtForum
Measure P went before Fresno voters in November 2018 to add a 3/8th-cent increase to the sales tax for 30 years to benefit parks and arts. It appears the measure will generate $7 million in this fiscal year, and combined with a carryover from the previous year, the actual pot is $10.5 million. - Munro Review
Geopoliticians’ reluctance to reckon with the climate crisis comes from their sense that there are only two options: transcend the landscape or live with it. Either globalisation will release us from physical constraints or we’ll remain trapped by them. - The Guardian
About 48,000 unionized academic workers across the University of California’s 10 campuses — who perform the majority of teaching and research at the state’s premier higher education system — walked off the job Monday morning, calling for better pay and benefits. - Los Angeles Times
As a practical matter, turning out movies that look worse in a theater than they might on a TV screen is a real problem for an industry that desperately needs box office revenue to survive. - Washington Post
The team found that all violins produced combination tones, but the oldest instruments produced the strongest ones. The magnitude of the most prominent combination tone for the oldest violin, made in Bologna in 1700, was about 75 per cent larger than the one from a modern mass-produced instrument. - New Scientist
Researchers in Japan played Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major (K. 448) for 10 rats, and tiny wireless accelerometers affixed to the animals’ heads revealed that the rodents subtly nodded in sync with the musical beat. - The Wall Street Journal
Which debut novel might hear its name called? Will nonfiction about viruses or chronic illness defeat Imani Perry's sweeping take on the history of the South? And in young people's literature, will a high school lesbian crush or a 12-year-old Chinese American in Minnesota prevail? - Vox
The director "was certain that viewers would never mistake her absurdist, autobiographical ... queer coming-of-age film, in which the titular heroine battles gender dysphoria and a toxic romance with a fellow comedian, for an official DC Comics movie." Warner Bros. disagreed. - Los Angeles Times
