Aaron Blabey "had been working a series of increasingly dissatisfying day jobs — from acting to advertising — and although his children’s books were 'warmly received' (as he put it), the earnings were not supporting his family." He gave himself an ultimatum. It worked. - The New York Times
Mark Swed: "The consequence of the current loss is enormous and hard to process because little of their music is part of the regular performing, recording or broadcasting diet. ... Nor has there been, outside of local memorials, widespread acknowledgment of, let alone tribute to, their significance." - Los Angeles Times
Think Keanu Reeves in Always Be My Maybe, Anna Faris in Keanu (unrelated to Reeves, kind of), LeBron James in Trainwreck ... the list goes way back. - Time
Tamara Lanier is fighting "to reclaim the daguerreotypes of her ancestors from the Peabody Museum at Harvard University," where they'd been since Louis Agassiz commissioned the photos in the 19th century "to 'prove' his white supremacist ideas about race." - Hyperallergic
Yes, the reclaiming started in the 1960s. But "today's new cohort of designers is going a step further – not just questioning western dress forms, but searching for and breathing new life into lost aesthetics, craft and processes." - The Observer (UK)
Much like the recent Eternals, banned in a variety of countries for a gay relationship and kiss, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness with its out lesbian superhero America Chavez won't be welcome in countries that have laws banning homosexuality. - Los Angeles Times
The historic theatre was hit "twice in the span of a single week — a repeat offense by the same suspect that reportedly resulted in $45,000 in damages to the near-century old venue." - San Francisco Chronicle
Indie bookstores are thriving. "During the lockdowns these small shops discovered how much they were valued by their customers; booksellers tell me about switching to mail order, doing deliveries by bike and on foot, setting up subscription schemes ... reinforcing personal relationships that have built up over years." - The Guardian (UK)
Yeah, never a good sign: "The city gave up its customary percent for art ordinance as part of its contract with the property’s developer, Hollywood Park." And now, as the developer seems to refuse to move forward with artists' projects? There's little recourse. - Los Angeles Times
Boyce is the first Black woman to represent the UK at the Biennale. The jury "commended Boyce for raising 'important questions of rehearsal' as opposed to perfectly tuned music" in her piece Feeling Her Way, which combines music, sculpture, collage, and video. - The Guardian (UK)
"The movie’s deep, sometimes unnervingly honest explorations of racism ― not to mention colorism, white supremacy, colonialism and displacement ― still feel groundbreaking 30 years later." - HuffPost
Kinder Album says, "Now I need to draw, I don’t have time to think, I need to express the feelings of the moment, because tomorrow something else will happen. Before the war, I had a lot of time. Now I don’t." - The Guardian (UK)
Why not, she says - there’s no reason not to work just as hard promoting your book as you did writing it. "The worst that can happen is you’ve spent a little energy on something that didn’t result in you being a bestseller." - Irish Times
Panah Panahi is the son of acclaimed, and officially stifled, filmmaker Jafar Panahi. "No matter how hard you try to be positive and go on fighting, we feel completely trapped. The only possible option is this dream, sometimes reality, of fleeing." - The New York Times
