The previous occupant had skipped the ceremony and held no reception while in office. President Biden, who did hold a White House reception, said to honoree Lorne Michaels, "You make me laugh at myself a lot." - Seattle Times (AP)
Myth is everywhere on Broadway and in opera right now, including a collaboration between 88-year-old composer Wayne Shorter and the younger composer/performer/lyricist Esmerelda Spalding. Why now? "In uncertain times, myths give us something sturdy to lean on, a narrative handrail to grip." - Washington Post
Toek Tik, the Cambodian man known as "The Lion," helped plunder ancient sites - then, recently, spent years telling police and cultural workers about the thefts. He has died, after contracting COVID-19, at 62. He said, "I want the gods to come home." - The New York Times
It's perhaps a cliché now to have the cast dance in some fashion, even when they're not in a dance movie like Black Swan or Dirty Dancing - but some movies and stars perform better than others. - The Collider
Last month, a TikTok user picked up a copy of Cain's Jawbone and made a TikTok, wherein she said, "I’ve decided to take this nearly impossible task as an opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream and turn my entire bedroom into a murder board," - LitHub
"Artists are taught to see each other as competition ... and to believe that failure to achieve status in their chosen field is solely due to a lack of individual talent." The pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests, and social media changed all that. - Los Angeles Review of Books
Thomas Gavin stashed stolen antique firearms "in his hideout — a cluttered, non-descript barn in rural Pennsylvania. Gavin's crime spree was so under the radar, no one caught on until 2018, when he tried to unload a rare, Revolutionary-era rifle to a local antiques dealer." - NPR
"By bringing this modern cultural artifact here from white neighborhoods, had I set myself up, set up the neighborhood? Was I contributing to gentrification and sending the wrong message about how I wanted the neighborhood to be?" - The New York Times
Being an intimacy director involves so much behind the scenes comes - helping actors resist producers who put "pressure on actors reluctant to shoot a scene, using the oldest trick in the book: if you don’t do it, there are plenty of others who will." - El Pais
For fine arts students, the pandemic has been rough. Colleges including the Massachusetts College of Art and Design "sent home 'care packages' tailored to different majors and rejiggered curriculums to prioritize in-person studio time for the students who needed it most." - MSN (Boston Globe)
Shenandoah saw a tree being cut down and decided to leave office work. Good decision: The singer, who died at 64, recorded many albums and sang for presidential inaugurations. She "played guitar, piano, flute, cello and other instruments, gave as many 200 concerts a year." - Washington Post
