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Why American TV Went Silent During The Oscars Slap

Does it make sense to continue to threaten the major networks and their shrinking share of viewers with huge fines for the utterance of words that are legally permissible everywhere else in the universe of television?  - Slate

“The Music Is Ambrosia” — John McWhorter On Scott Joplin’

"Joplin is more than just someone who wrote some great piano pieces, was Black and died. He is part of the story of American classical music that has never quite captured popular attention." - The New York Times

A Generation Gap Among Podcasters

Survey results show a divide between those who've been producing podcasts for more than five years and less than that — on censorship, false or dangerous content, the role of Apple, technical details, and even what makes a podcast a podcast. - Inside Radio

Audiences Still Want Mask Requirements And Vaccine Checks: Study

"Based on responses from 2,128 D.C. area theatregoers from March 14-17, significantly more audience members responded negatively than positively about ending these requirements in theatres." - American Theatre

After Decades As A Half-Hidden Niche, LGBTQ Romance Novels Are Big Business

Time was, these books were published only by indie presses and, at least in mainstream bookstores, shelved separately or not sold at all. Now sales are up over 100% in the past year and 740% over five years, and you can buy queer romances at Walmart. - The New York Times

Choreographer Sues Maker Of Video Game “Fortnite” For Stealing His Moves

Kyle Hanagami, a Los Angeles-based commercial choreographer, has filed suit against Epic Games for taking, without permission or compensation, his copyrighted movement from a dance video that went viral and selling it to players of the game Fortnite Battle Royale for their avatars to use. - Radar

Kirill Serebrennikov Has Left Russia For Good

After a long period of house arrest and a travel ban based on embezzlement charges widely understood to be trumped-up, the dissident director has settled in Germany. - Variety

Paris Opera’s Chief Wants A German-Opera-House-Style Group Of Staff Singers

"He plans to create a troupe of 15 to 20 professional singers who will be on salary (not working as freelancers, as most soloists do) and take all but the biggest roles. He believes greater job stability had become more appealing over the past two years." - The New York Times

How The Letter “Z” Got Co-Opted By The Russian Army Invading Ukraine

In short, the letter Z (which doesn’t actually exist in the Cyrillic alphabet used in Russia) has been transformed and made toxic; it’s a remarkable example of how swiftly and decisively the meaning of a symbol can be completely reinvented, seeming at random. - Fast Company

The Inventor Of The Animated GIF Just Died

While he claimed to have “never got 1 cent” for creating the GIF technology, his invention transformed the internet ecosystem and the ways in which people communicate online. - Slate

What Did Jefferson’s Call To “The Pursuit Of Happiness” Really Mean?

Jefferson’s Enlightenment contemporaries fully understood. They accepted happiness as our greatest good. But only in theory. And theory, as they were often quick to insist, was not practice. - The American Scholar

Twelve Masterful Literary Descriptions Of Food

Even in the hands of the greats, food scenes can seem less than central to a story, more filler or filigree than substance. - The Atlantic

What We Learned At America’s Biggest Writers’ Convention

This year’s conference was generally low on jargon, but there were still notable moments of turbidity in the conference guide. - Los Angeles Times

Which Museums Have Recovered Visitors As COVID Eases

As elsewhere in the world, the US museums that struggled the most in 2021 were the big names: the world-famous museums in the big cities that have been gutted by the evaporation of international tourism. - The Art Newspaper

How A Couple Of Philadelphia Stations Invented The Local TV Newscast (And Messed Up American Race Relations)

In 1965, KYW-TV debuted Eyewitness News, followed in 1970 by WPVI's Action News, creating many of the local newscast conventions still in place today. Soon those formats were copied all over the country. Yet the "if it bleeds, it leads" mentality made some longstanding American problems worse. - The Philadelphia Inquirer

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