Setting aside the fact that this may be one of the most depressing sentences that anyone has ever written about art, if “branding” does make up a 50% share of what it takes to become “a world-conquering artist”, it makes sense that NFTs are conquering a very similar space. - The Guardian
Ukraine’s folk-rap band Kalush Orchestra has qualified for the final. But the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organises Eurovision, ruled that no Russian act would be able to participate this year, after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. - The Conversation
Carlin is a venerated figure in his chosen field who unites performers as disparate as Joe Rogan and Jim Gaffigan, but he’s also someone whose influence transcends comedy. - The New York Times
This "post-book blues" thing is a side-effect that doesn't seem to get mentioned much, if at all. It's not an in-person relationship as such, but it is one forged in a unique, unwritten contract with the reader or listener. - BBC
While liberals lost their way doing “Orange Man Bad” comedy during the Trump administration, a new ecosystem emerged of right-wing comedians—on podcasts, YouTube, and, yes, Fox News—that’s been growing increasingly popular. - Fast Company
The figure of Christ the Redeemer that reigns over Rio de Janeiro is 98 feet tall (not including the pedestal or the mountain it sits atop). This new statue, Christ the Protector, is in Encantado, Rio Grande do Sul, a small city closer to Montevideo than to São Paulo. - Artnet
“It’s still a way to erase identity,” said Corine Wegener, on why culture continues to be a major target in contemporary warfare. Some 200 cultural sites in Ukraine have already been reported to have been targeted in the war with Russia. ARTnews
For a start, you have to cut more than three quarters of Shakespeare's four-hour text. And you have to find some way to make those all-too-famous lines — "the elephants in the room," composer Dean calls them — compelling and singable. (They had an ingenious idea for that problem.) - Playbill
This accelerating erosion has not been big news during a time of pandemic, war and actual erosion, and yet the absence of magazines authoritatively documenting such events, or distracting from them, as they used to do with measured regularity, is keenly felt. - The New York Times
"During the 1910s and '20s, Millay achieved the kind of fame that was unusual for a poet then and unthinkable now. ... But fame is rarely an unmixed blessing, particularly when it arrives early in life. Like Judy Garland or Britney Spears, Millay had to grow up in public." - The New Yorker
The iPod debuted in 2001, and it changed everything. While other devices existed that let you carry around your MP3 collection, the iPod quickly became ubiquitous for the ease with which you could buy songs and add them to the device. - Protocol
The Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery, like most of its counterparts in Ukraine, hid its collection to protect it from destruction or looting by invading Russian forces. Now some of its artworks are going back on display in the museum's 18 branches across Lviv province. - The New York Times
Netflix offers a variety of payment tiers for streaming access; its most popular plan costs $15.49 a month. The new ad-supported tier will cost less. - The New York Times
An elderly American woman, who may have been feeling ill or may have tripped on the slightly raised platform, landed on Guido Reni's St. Francis receiving the stigmata (1612) at Rome's Galleria Borghese. The damage? A 1½-inch "slight superficial tear." - Artnet
When two of their colleagues were fired for complaining to management about unsafe working conditions, the dancers at Star Garden in North Hollywood voted to unionize with the independent labor organization Strippers United (and were promptly locked out). Antonia Crane, founder of that union, reports the story. - The Nation
