“Although I never considered it at the time, it is impossible for me now not to frame the intensity of this devotion to music as a counterpart—a harmony—to my OCD. Every moment I was poring over tablature or trying to master a new chord was a moment not spent, say, touching a byzantine pattern of bricks on the fireplace wall. When I was playing, writing, recording music, I was safe.” – Paris Review
Pay Attention – The Dancer’s Dilemma
“I never wanted to look weak or incapable as a dancer, even if I was in a lot of pain. Even if I felt like I was going to pass out. I began feeling this way every day. From what I can remember, that was when I started blacking out while I was dancing.” – Dance Magazine
The Big Questions At The Heart Of “Peanuts”
Through “Peanuts,” Schulz wanted to tell hard truths about, as he said, “intelligent things.” But the main truth he tells is that there are no answers to the big questions. – The New Yorker
How Brexit Will Affect Music In The UK
At the most basic level, Brexit raises concerns about the ability of musicians to tour overseas. And unless you’re The Rolling Stones or Beyonce, touring teams don’t come much bigger or work more often than orchestras. Classical musicians agree no-deal could mean uncertainty over work permits, delays at European borders and complications with moving instruments across the continent. – BBC
Email Seems Efficient. Science Has Figured Out Why It Isn’t
As e-mail was taking over the modern office, researchers in the theory of distributed systems were also studying the trade-offs between synchrony and asynchrony. As it happens, the conclusion they reached was exactly the opposite of the prevailing consensus. They became convinced that synchrony was superior and that spreading communication out over time hindered work rather than enabling it. – The New Yorker
In Turkey, Erdoğan’s Gov’t Has Destroyed 300,000 Books In Past Three Years
“Since the attempted coup of 2016, according to Turkey’s ministry of education, … 301,878 books [have] been destroyed as the government cracks down on anything linked to Fethullah Gülen, the US-based Muslim cleric who is accused by Turkey of instigating [that] coup.” – The Guardian
Pew: Only 35% Of Public Trust Scientists (But Hey, It’s More Than It Used To Be)
The Pew data makes clear how this happens: some people are just uninformed, while others cling to opposing political values. People with a high degree of familiarity with what nutritional, medical, or environmental science researchers or practitioners are studying are nearly twice as likely to trust them. – Fast Company
How Can Arts Organizations Trying To Lead On Equity Issues Oppose Paying Overtime For Their Own Workers?
That’s what most of Seattle’s major arts organizations are doing, writing to protest Washington State proposals that would dramatically increase the number of workers eligible for overtime pay. “It’s illuminating that the argument Seattle’s arts organizations are making isn’t about whether paying overtime is fair, but whether it’s affordable.” – Post Alley Seattle
Facebook Finally Settles With Teacher It Banned For Posting Courbet’s ‘Origin Of The World’
“A French street art association is the unexpected beneficiary in the years-long legal battle brought by the French schoolteacher Frédéric Durand-Baïssas against Facebook over censorship claims. The Paris-based group Le MUR (The WALL), which works with artists including A1One and BK Foxx, is due to receive an undisclosed amount from the social media giant.” – The Art Newspaper
Why Haven’t Museums Embraced Street Art More?
“The exponential expansion of the culture sector rests entirely on a quite narrow demographic of white, middle class, educated staff and visitors who have signed a social contract on what and who constitutes value in the field of visual art. Until there’s radical change in the makeup of institutional bureaucracies and boards, that’s unlikely to change.” – Artnet
How, And Why, ‘What The Constitution Means To Me’ Works
“In the play’s first few moments — its preamble, really — [Heidi] Schreck lays out the elements for its perfect union of form and function: direct address, displayed enactment, meta-theatrical distancing, contemporary commentary, droll humor, and a disarmingly cheery demeanor that is both absolutely genuine and deployed for maximum comedic and critical effect.” Alisa Solomon examines each of those elements and how they fit together. – The Nation
‘Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark,’ Beloved By Two Generations Of Kids (And Hated By Their Parents)
Laura Miller: “For many kids, reading the Scary Stories books represented a first tentative step toward growing up and into independence. … Unlike, say, a Playboy magazine, they weren’t absolutely forbidden. But one glance at Gammell’s hollow-eyed ghouls, shrieking skeletal brides, and gibbering specters told any kid that here was something that danced right on the edge of taboo. … To claim your right to deliberately scare yourself (even if it gives you nightmares) is to make a bid for self-determination.” – Slate
What Psychopaths Can Teach Us About Ourselves
Psychopaths are sick, deranged, lacking in moral conscience. In other words, they’re nothing like you or me. But this is false. Rather than freakish outliers then, psychopaths reveal important truths about human morality. But are we ready to accept what they might teach us? – Aeon
Longtime Composer For ‘The Simpsons’ Files Wrongful Termination Lawsuit
“[Alf] Clausen joined The Simpsons during its second season and worked on the show for 27 years. When he was let go in 2017, he said he received a call from Simpsons producer Richard Sakai, who said the show was seeking ‘a different kind of music.’ In his new lawsuit, filed Monday, Clausen countered, saying, ‘This reason was pretextual and false. Instead, Plaintiff’s unlawful termination was due to perceived disability and age.'” – Rolling Stone
New York City Told Its Museums To Get More Diverse Or Lose Funding. Here Are What Museums Are Doing And How The City Will Enforce The Mandate.
“Directions on how institutions should incorporate these objectives were left intentionally vague. Rather than issuing blanket checklists, the city wanted individual institutions to formulate plans that made sense for their respective audiences and agendas.” Reporters Taylor Dafoe and Brian Boucher talk to leaders at the Brooklyn Museum, MoMA PS1, Queens Museum, and Brooklyn Children’s Museum about how they’re responding to the city’s directive. – Artnet
James Levine And Metropolitan Opera Settle Their Lawsuits Against Each Other
“The settlement brought the court battle to a close just as it threatened to air more dirty laundry about both Mr. Levine … and the Met” — which would be why settlement terms weren’t disclosed and neither side will comment. Even so, Michael Cooper’s story has a few eyebrow-raising details as well as a good summary of the progress of the ugly suit-countersuit. – The New York Times
Nine Unpublished Stories By Proust Will Finally See Print (And Why Weren’t They Published Before?)
“The pieces were originally composed by Proust in his early 20s for inclusion in his first book, Les Plaisirs et les jours (Pleasures and Days), a collection of poems and short stories first published in 1896. But for some reason, Proust decided to cut these nine works from the book.” (He may have decided that their subject matter was too scandalous.) – Smithsonian Magazine
Transamerica/n: celebrating the underrepresented history of trans art
“In a unique new exhibition, works from artists such as Andy Warhol and Nan Goldin, highlight the progression of transgender models and subjects.” – The Guardian
Toni Morrison, 88
“The first black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in literature, … Ms Morrison placed African Americans, particularly women, at the heart of her writing at a time when they were largely relegated to the margins both in literature and in life. With language celebrated for its lyricism, she was credited with conveying as powerfully, or more than perhaps any novelist before her, the nature of black life in America, from slavery to the inequality that went on more than a century after it ended.” – The Washington Post