"We have not been able to sleep, eat and live peacefully. We are fed up with the scary dreams and are returning your valuables," said a note left by the thieves who had taken ritual objects from a temple to Balaji, an incarnation of Vishnu, in Uttar Pradesh state. - The Guardian (AFP)
"The United Kingdom will hold formal talks with Greece regarding the potential repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles, which have been in the British Museum since 1816. ... The contested sculptures were stripped from the Acropolis in 1801 by Lord Elgin while Greece was under Ottoman occupation." - ARTnews
She came to prominence as co-founder of string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, moved to a solo career, and now directs the Silkroad Ensemble, the world-music group founded by Yo-Yo Ma. But she trained as an opera singer, and her first opera is now premiering at Spoleto USA. - The New York Times
A staff memo from Gimlet Media chiefs said that "the decision to end this iteration of the show" was made as the series's two hosts, Alex Goldman and Emmanuel Dzotsi, were leaving. The move comes after a turbulent 18 months at Reply All, Gimlet, and parent company Spotify. - The Verge
Five years ago the German painter, one of Europe's most prominent living artists, announced that he was ending his career. But he couldn't stop painting, and now he has a major exhibition at a museum near Basel. - Artnet
We begin with the hypothesis that, due to the rate of growth and development of A.I. technology, #resistanceisfutile. Which is to say that computer-composed music is here, and the conversation needs to change. - NewMusicBox
He won an Oscar for the stirring score to 1981's Chariots of Fire, which was followed by Blade Runner a year later. Paying tribute, US composer Austin Wintory wrote on Twitter that Vangelis "changed an entire era of music". - BBC
“We had a few fully-masked concerts. We did livestreaming. We had a couple of adverts filmed here. We sold takeout meal kits when we couldn’t open the restaurant. The biggest one of all: we repurposed the theatre lobby into a wine bottle shop.” - Toronto Star
For some philosophers, the experience of color is most similar to that of pain: an internal state that resists quantification. But who wouldn’t rather philosophize about azure instead of aches and pains? - Lapham's Quarterly
Many of us find ourselves in the alienating position of using (even relying on) technology companies we distrust and hate, knowing that they are bad for us and for society, but somehow being unable or unwilling to escape. - New Statesman
At the end of a bumpy Broadway season that started late and was repeatedly disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, the once-ordinary rituals of Tonys time have taken on a new significance this spring, as a beleaguered theater industry grasps for reassurance. - The New York Times
"Starting out as an informal gathering of local men painting wherever they could find some shade, Papunya Tula has become one of the most respected players in the world of Indigenous art, with two art centers (in tiny desert towns) and an art gallery in Alice Springs." - Smithsonian Magazine
A “classic” is not an entry on some fixed list of books. Most of the time itis just a term for older—let’s say >25 years—books that we still read. Claiming that the classics are just the work of “straight cis Western white men” doesn’t strike me as a progressive stance. - CounterCraft
