The fully functional 18-carat commode, titled America, became world-famous while on exhibit at the Guggenheim. (The Trump White House wanted to borrow a van Gogh; the museum said no and offered this piece instead.) It was stolen two days after it went on display in England in 2019. - BBC
The Commission on Information Disorder is the latest (and most creepily named) addition to a new field of knowledge production that emerged during the Trump years at the juncture of media, academia, and policy research: Big Disinfo. - Harper's
Part of the third generation of Black opera singers to become international stars, she performed throughout Europe and the US, achieving wide fame in the title role of Scott Joplin's Treemonisha. Her second career was as a beloved voice teacher at the University of Maryland. - The Washington Post
"Honored worldwide as a playwright, Williams also wrote dozens of short stories. A rarely seen piece, 'The Summer Woman,' set in Italy, appears this week in the fall issue of the literary quarterly The Strand Magazine." - AP
Workers will stabilize cracks and holes in the stones of the 4,500-year-old monument and will replace concrete mortar used in the 1958 repairs with lime mortar, less rigid and more breathable. - The Guardian
In renegotiations for the final year (2021-22) of the current contract, management had proposed cutting salaries in half, down to $17,710 per year. Their latest offer, said to be final, is to cut the roster of full-time players from 71 to 42, with 26 part-timers. - San Antonio Current
" decision, which he said was not made under any kind of internal or outside pressure, brings the exit of Chicago theater's premier auteurist director, … known for the expansiveness of his ambition, the boldness of his risk-taking and the richness of his conceptual productions." - Chicago Tribune
" announced that he would leave his post at the end of the 2023-24 season, saying that the pandemic had made him rethink his life and priorities." He'll also step down from the Hong Kong Philharmonic that spring. - The New York Times
"Boris Johnson has appointed Nadine Dorries as culture secretary, giving a first Cabinet post to an outspoken MP who has previously accused the BBC of being biased and claimed comedy is being killed by 'leftwing snowflakes'." - The Guardian
Unless the Western world wakes up, and helps out the developing world with vaccines and treatments, we may be facing a situation in which millions, or even billions, of people will feel compelled either to embrace Chinese authoritarianism or to migrate. - spiked
New York City, the financial and business capital of the world, and until very recently a hub for tourists, may well be the canary in the coal mine that predicts a decline in the very idea of the megacity. - The Baffler
"I'm almost insulted by the reminder that the high-rise virus continues to spread. Waste of energy, waste of resources, almost impossible to protect indefinitely. A physical reflection of late-capitalist, winner-takes-all approach to economics. And all priapic phalluses to boot." - dezeen
Popular dogmas such as “judgments of artistic value are subjective” and “all judgments of artistic value are equal”, university literature departments have undercut aesthetic education, and given power to the market to decide what is good art. - PopMatters
She’s earned a following of more than 250,000 on Instagram and 460,000 on TikTok — as well as amassing 15.3 million likes on TikTok. - Lake Geneva News
