"To speak to MTT about music is not so far removed from speaking frankly of life and death. His music — whether conducting or composing — has everything to do with the push-and-pull of opposing forces and the musical space in between them." - Washington Post
The director, whose The Power of the Dog has 12 nominations, says that's because "the designer is one of the very first people I bring onto a team. All the work that do as designers is so vital, and it is really deeply valued." Just not live. - Variety
"The messiness on ... points to a central crisis within the 'Real Housewives' universe: Can shows predicated on entitlement and endless pot-stirring evolve into entertainment that is over-the-top and meaningfully inclusive at the same time?" (Uh ... not so far.) - Los Angeles Times
In short, one artist's work was removed for being "antisemitic," and then other artists covered their work in protest, the museum's chief curator resigned, and now the museum has closed. - The Observer (UK)
A close reading of Auden's "Musée des Beaux-Arts" reveals a lot about Europe just before WWII - and, perhaps, about our own times. - The New York Times
And, as a matter of fact, if the Academy can't fully respect them, get them their own show. Yes, their own awards show - focused on craft skill. - Variety
Streaming is starting to sort itself out. "The nixing of the content deal comes as Comcast tries to grow its own streaming service, Peacock. ... Peacock has 9 million paying subscribers and 24.5 million monthly active accounts, Comcast said in January. Hulu has 45.3 million subscribers." - Los Angeles Times
This metaphor might not work for younger writers, but: "I was suddenly free of the 'logical order' I had thought was so important. ... It was fun. It was hard. It was like making a mixtape for the crush I had on all of my characters at once." - LitHub
Time to pull up and reconsider that lightning-fast reshare impulse: Did the Kremlin make the image you're about to share? (In one prominent case just as Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, it sure did.) - Vice
The Hipgnosis Songs Fund long game continues. (As Pitchfork points out, "The firm has acquired several major publishing catalogs from legacy artists, including Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham, Jimmy Iovine, and Neil Young.") - Variety
Bandcamp was the one streamer that every fan of music trusted to take care of its artists. When people started leaving Spotify over Joe Rogan, Bandcamp was recommendation for more ethical streaming. Now? Skepticism reigns. - Slate
An intellectual property lawyer explains: "The fundamental issue, I think, is that fashion companies are under pressure to produce large volumes of new and fashionable goods, so their designers often go for the quick fix." And artists can rarely afford to pursue legal action. - The Observer (UK)
The main character is "directing a multilingual production of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya with a cast composed of actors who speak English, Chinese, Tagalog, Japanese, and Korean Sign Language." The actors' - and the audience's - task is to trust the rhythm and emotional response. - The Atlantic
Ferrante: "I don’t like artists who imagine themselves shamans, and I would prefer that we definitively stop making the alphabet sacred, that we complete the secularisation of literature, that we stop feeling we’re just below the gods and directly inspired by them." - The Guardian (UK)
Why? Series like Inventing Anna and The Dropout "create a shared universe in which scamming and entrepreneurship meet in a chaotic portrait of American decline." - The New York Times
