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How Our Concept Of Work Has (Is) Evolved

"Work, and the way it fits into one’s life, can be and often has been, less rigid and routinized than is common today. In modernized societies, work is organized around the clock, and most jobs are shoehorned into the same eight-hour schedule. In the past, and in some cultures still today, other factors–the seasons, the weather, tradition, the availability...

The Archaeologists Of New York

Urban archaeologists can unearth 300-year-old trash, and turn it into narrative (and historical) treasure. "The biggest thing for me is saving something that would not have been saved if I didn't take action," one says. - Aeon

Is Hollywood Trapping Women Directors In The Franchise Machine?

Or are Chloé Zhao, Emerald Fennell, and others just getting their due like their young male counterparts? Hm. "Marvel, DC and co have awoken to the viability of female-led stories, which has meant a demand for women to direct them. Patty “Wonder Woman” Jenkins was an early example, but there are others. Cate Shortland, purveyor of thoughtful, female-centred stories...

People Love Their Physical Music

Or at least, a Hollywood record store shuttered for many months by the pandemic: "'We’ve been waiting for a year,' said Silver Lake resident Kerri Barta, who was near the entrance on the cusp of access. Until COVID-19, a visit to Amoeba was part of the weekly ritual for her and companion Jason Yates. 'It’s been a big hole...

Slow Art Is More Than Just Taking Time With A Painting Or Sculpture

Slow Art Day, April 10, is about a lot more than getting lost in a Lee Krasner or a Betye Saar. Though that might be a first step: "Studies suggest that the average museumgoer looks at an artwork for less than 30 seconds. And with crowds that seem to push you from one piece to the next, overwhelmingly large exhibitions,...

The Hospitality Industry, Hard Hit By The Pandemic, Wonders If It Can Change Again

What's going to happen as more and more people are vaccinated to the industries that supported thousands of aspiring actors, musicians, and others in the arts? "There’s a reckoning in the hospitality industry right now as these workers — and their bosses — contemplate how much of the old normal they’re are willing to return to. The restaurant trade has...

Keeping Ancient Music Alive, No Matter What

The Ashti Peace Choir, at the Yazidi refugee camp in northern Iraq, is trying to keep music alive despite the desperate history and circumstances of the women in the choir. The group, founded by a 22-year-old who has lived in the refugee camp since 2014, "has become part of an effort to preserve a vital part of Yazidi culture,...

While We Wait For The Oscars, Ranking The Best Picture Nominees From The Past Five Years

With 43 to choose from, which movie will win? And which one can best be described as "self-conscious Scorsese imitation"? - Los Angeles Times

Winfred Rembert, Artist Who Survived A Lynching And Southern Prisons, Has Died At 75

Rembert's art "told the story of the Jim Crow South. It was exhibited in galleries and museums and helped support his family, though they lived in poverty." - The New York Times

Game Of Thrones: The Musical?

OK, we'll be honest, not a musical. A play. Or two? Seven? Hm. However, why Game of Thrones? "It was an epic, at times beautiful, show and all these attempts to reanimate its corpse can feel like a cheapening of the original experience. But there’s something else: Why not host a stage production from literally any other author or...

The SAG Awards, As They Happened

Kinda live, except pre-recorded, with a lot on the cutting room floor. In any case: All of the winners! Right here. - Variety

We Can’t Travel Much Now, But Here Are Some Literary Destinations For The Future

To paraphrase Shakespeare, "Work, work your thoughts, and therein see" ... anything from Paris to London, Lyme Regis to George Orwell's final destination. - The Guardian (UK)

Hey Literature, Women Can Stutter Too

There's truly, in the American literary canon, only one - Merry Levov, of Philip Roth's American Pastoral. What gives? And what do literary writers believe stuttering represents in the first place? - LitHub

Arthur Kopit, Playwright Who Shook Up The Theatre, 83

Kopit "thrust Off Broadway into a new era with the absurdist satirical farce Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad and earned Tony Award nominations for two wildly different plays, Indians and Wings, and the musical Nine." - The New York Times

Can The Huntington Change Its History Of Inequity?

Like most Gilded Age institutions, the Huntington has a lot to figure out. "Certainly, getting to a more equitable version of the future is going to take some work — and some unsentimental self-examination. 'We need to look with a detached historical eye and not do hagiography,' Nielsen says." - Los Angeles Times

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