Atkins had been thinking for years about writing a memoir. "But it was only once the pandemic hit ... that she was able to get on with doing so. 'I’m ashamed to tell you that I had a wonderful lockdown,' she says. 'I absolutely loved the whole thing.'" - The Observer (UK)
Screenwriter Tommy Pico on what that adds to the show: "Humor is a tool — a marker of resilience, a willingness to heal and to be productive in that. It can be a way to take the air out of a situation, to make certain things more digestible. It’s also medicine." - them
As in, every single day. All the better to celebrate life, says the performance artist. "You have to think about what you’re going to leave society: as an artist you have that obligation. Because if you have a gift, you have to handle it carefully." - The Guardian (UK)
Consider the music of Final Fantasy at Royal Albert Hall: "The two worlds of gaming and classical music merged, and while some concertgoers wore suits and bow ties, others dressed in cosplay as their favorite characters from the game." - The New York Times
"I couldn’t help but think about how the approaching opening of the Academy Museum — a space that will celebrate the work of these below-the-line craftspeople — is set against the backdrop of Hollywood’s labor strife with the union that represents these same artisans." - Hyperallergic
"I'm really into thinking about the literary journal as a clandestine space for a community’s periodic meetings, a small public within a public whose concerns and milieu grow idiosyncratic through collective interaction over time." - LitHub
Olivo, an alum of In the Heights, left the Moulin Rouge production over issues including industry silence about Scott Rudin's alleged abuse. She says, "I realized I can actually help my industry in a different way, by caring about the people who are suffering in silence." - Los Angeles Times
Google and Apple opened offices in Russia. Then Putin pressured them to delete his opposition's Smart Voting app - and they caved. "This episode is a powerful reminder that old-fashioned force can decisively tighten a state’s grip on the web." - Wired
Re that Samson and Delilah purchase, National Gallery, er. "I was so shocked. ... We repeated the experiments to be really sure that we were not making a mistake and the result was always the same. Every patch, every single square, came out as fake, with more than 90% probability." - The Observer (UK)