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R. Murray Schafer, Canada’s Leading 20th-Century Composer, Dead At 88

"(He) composed a large body of music in all genres — symphonic, chamber, opera, choral and oratorio — and was best known for his groundbreaking creations that were performed outdoors and incorporated sounds from nature into his music." (It was Schafer who gave us the term "soundscape.") - CBC

Hachette Will Pay $240 Million To Buy Leading Indie Publisher

No, they're not spending that kind of money for a literary press. Workman Publishing is the company behind the Page-a-Day calendars and the Brain Quest and What To Expect When … series of informational books. - Publishers Weekly

New Zealand Goes Into Full Lockdown

After months with no restrictions and no locally transmitted cases of COVID, the appearance of one new patient has prompted Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to close all performances, museums, film and TV production, and most businesses for three days (seven in Auckland). - AP

How Napoleon Systematically Plundered Europe’s Art

These were not smash-and-grab operations. He sought out experts to advise him on which cultural treasures to ship back to Paris. Napoleon wanted to expand the art collection in the Louvre palace. - Christian Science Monitor

Where Dancers Go To Rehab As Performances Resume

Dr. David Weiss, an orthopedic physician with the NYU Langone facility in Kips Bay, compared the runup to Broadway’s comeback to a training camp where professional athletes get back into game shape. - New York Daily News

Social Media Has Redefined Gen Z Elite Athletes

Through social media, they have opened up conversations about performance, mental health and the impact of the media. Sports stars are making their voices heard across a range of different sporting arenas. - The Conversation

Why Intellectuals Have Such Lowly Public Status

The general public in the United States sees intellectuals as disconnected from their everyday struggles and concerns. From this perspective, intellectuals don’t actually work like the laborers amongst us, but are engaged in a kind of elitist moralizing. - 3 Quarks Daily

All The Reasons Book Reviewing Is Lacking

If there is a problem with book reviewing the problem is that those of us who are good at it aren’t good enough, there aren’t enough of us, and we aren’t doing a good enough job of expanding the scope of literary discourse. - Gawker

The Case Against Beach Reading

Reading is not a beachy activity. Reading is for armchairs and bay windows and loverless beds. Bring a book to the beach and you’re agreeing to ruin the book. - The Atlantic

Marc Ribot: Why I Have To Play My Music Super-Loud

Audiologists say this could make one’s ears howl, create an uncomfortable sensation of density in one’s head, and eventually make it impossible to hear human conversation. Yet I persist . . . Why? - LitHub

In Praise of The Lowly Lullaby

Individuals who heard them as babies relied on them, decades later, as parents and grandparents. Not even the symphony or fugue or sonata can boast such endurance or efficacy. - Ted Gioia

How Universities Get To Define The Universe

Universities, more than any other institution, shape our conception of what constitutes worthwhile knowledge. Therefore, if we want philosophy to thrive in the contemporary university, we will need to clearly articulate a very different vision of what a university is for. - The Point

Behold The Manifesto!

This is a form that asks readers to suspend their disbelief, and so like any piece of theater, it trades on its own vulnerability, invites our complicity, as if only the quality of our attention protects it from reality’s brutal puncture. - BookForum

Riccardo Muti at 80: Tired Of Life

"I’m tired of life, because this is a world that I no longer recognise and since I can’t expect the world to adapt to me, it would be better if I got out of the way." - Gramilano

What The Pandemic Did For Arts Organizations

Yes, it was devastating - and it also opened up the arts to many who couldn't access them before. How do we keep shows relevant and accessible to all? - FastCompany

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