"There may be an ideological component to publishing Pence and Conway, but it has nothing to do with ideas. It has to do with fetishizing ideological diversity, in which publishing garbage books from prominent Republicans is an end in and of itself. These deals only underline what’s been increasingly obvious for decades now: The commitment to free speech and...
When you listen to music, do you tend to analyze and think critically about what you are hearing (head)? Or is music listening pretty much an emotional experience for you—something that can tingle your spine or make you cry (heart)? - NightingaleSonata
South Dakota's tourist attractions featured heavily in parts of Best Picture winner Nomadland, and now the (iconic to some) Wall Drug and Reptile Gardens are seeing an uptick in tourism. - Rapid City Journal
Reactions such as choreographer Alexei Ratmansky's social media post that claimed "Cancel culture is killing" are deeply harmful - they place "a burden of guilt on victims who may have come forward during the investigations, at a time when the ballet world is finally reckoning with the way it has normalized abuse over time." - Dance Magazine
From there? Things have been falling apart. NBC's contingency plans if the group that runs the Golden Globes doesn't get it together by their self-imposed deadline of May 6. "Among the more drastic options that could be considered: putting the Globes on hiatus, keeping the show but jettisoning the HFPA, or scrapping the awards altogether." - Los Angeles Times
Just ask novelist Ali Smith, who finished the last of a four-book sprint during the first lockdown: "I felt the usual failure ... Knackered. Curious as to whether the book would hold water, and as for the series: no idea. Hope, despair. All these feelings passed in the 30 seconds it takes to toast something that’s done with...
Yes, LA MOCA is having trouble again. "MOCA’s current trials have come just as the museum was hoping to emerge from a tumultuous history that has included two short-term directors, a raid on its endowment to pay the bills and a proposed merger with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art." - The New York Times
Judy Baca's 2,700-foot mural Great Wall shows the history of the city, from pre-historic California through the 1950s. But the 1950s were a long time ago - and now a grant means the mural can stretch to a mile, bringing it up to the 2020s. - Hyperallergic
At Grove Press, Jordan and Barney Rosset led the charge to publish as they wished. "Grove’s lawyers were instrumental in overturning anti-pornography court rulings against D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer in 1959, William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch in the early 1960s and the Swedish erotic film I Am Curious (Yellow) in the late ’60s." -...
The planned demolition of the Derby Assembly Rooms, product of a 1970 architectural competition and former host to big acts from The Clash to Elton John, has the city divided and architecture preservation societies infuriated. - The Observer (UK)
A hoverboard burst into flames, harming the person who bought it from a third-party seller on Amazon Marketplace and leading to a court case in which a California appeals court said Amazon can't duck out on this one. "Bottom line: Amazon — and by extension other online retailers — isn’t just a bystander when someone purchases a third-party product....
And now there's a task force trying to get the authors of novels in the Indiana Jones, Buffy, and Star Wars universes the royalties for recent sales of their books. Disney, according to author Alan Dean Foster, told him that when they bought Lucasfilm and the rights to Foster's novelization of Star Wars: A New Hope, first published in...
After being stuck at home, without movie cinemas, for well over a year, it's time to break out the big bucks for all of the extras. "The expanding appetite for an enhanced theatrical experience has given the film and exhibition business a shot of confidence and a weapon against streamers amid devastation caused by the pandemic. Yet it also...
Prigoff was a the co-author, with Henry Chalfant, of Spraycan Art, "a foundational book in the street-art field that featured more than 200 photographs of colorful, intricate artworks in rail tunnels, on buildings and elsewhere — not only in New York, then considered by many to be the epicenter of graffiti art, but also in Chicago, Los Angeles, Barcelona,...
