Tag: 06.25.21
Using Novels To Predict The Next War
The idea that novelists are modern-day Cassandras – “speaking always truths, never grasped as true” – may sound positively esoteric. - The Guardian
Louis Menand Takes On O. Henry
In New York, he began producing at an astonishing rate. He contracted to write a story a week for the Sunday World, and he...
Sudden Move: Oregon Ballet Theatre Ousts Artistic Director
“I was informed on Wednesday of this week that the board has decided to go a different direction in the AD role and that...
In Praise Of The Meritocracy
Meritocracy, for all its flaws, may well be, like the democracy it has sometimes served, better than the alternatives. At the very least, we...
Why Big Video Game Companies Keep Imploding
Dysfunction is baked into the video game production process, as it currently exists. The big-budget games industry is dominated by a few large companies,...
Brussels Museum Backpedals A Bit From Plan Called Both Sexist And Nepotistic
The board of Kanal-Centre-Pompidou had decided to name a woman artistic director - and then added a male co-director. Nearly 800 European art dignitaries...
Liverpool Is About To Be Stripped Of Its UNESCO Status
And Boris Johnson doesn't care at all. In fact, he's putting another monument - that's right, unbelievably, Stonehenge!? - at risk as well. -...
Every Piece Of Italian Music In The New Pixar Movie Luca, Explained
The plot calls for a lot of music: "Teenage Luca lives underwater with his fish-finned family, but when he steps out of the water...
Are You More A Movie Person Than A Sports Person?
Movies about the Olympics can scratch an every-few-years cultural itch without your having to watch the actual competition. - Today
Writer Brandon Taylor On His Summer Reading Goals
This year, it's all Freud. Why? The author of Real Life and Filthy Animals: "At the start of the year I read a lot...
The Orwell Prizes Go To Up-To-The-Moment Political Books
Ali Smith won for her Summer, the concluding novel in her seasonal quartet - and one that encompasses Brexit, Australian wildfires, COVID-19, and the...
France’s New Privately Funded Arts Complex
Arles is famous for Van Gogh and for its Roman ruins. Now there's a new show in town: Luma. "The center doesn’t fit neatly...
The Pandemic Silenced These Instruments
And the virus killed two of the three "marimba healers" of Los Angeles, men who restored the old, cracked, broken marimbas of the area's...
The Choreographers And Dancers Of TikTok Go On Strike
At least, the Black choreographers and dancers do - following the lead of dancer Erick Lewis, who posted a massively viral video saying, "This...
The French Impressionists Had No Idea They Were Painting Masterpieces-To-Be
Of course they didn't, even if some of them believed their work deserved that rating. "It’s easy to forget that for most of them...
Richard Altuna, Who Designed Upwardly Mobile Shopping Experiences, And Starbucks, 70
The world of brick-and-mortar stores would look very different without Altuna, who "designed the prototypes for a certain kind of store, one that infused...
Summer Is A Scam
But there are a few ways to fix it. - The New York Times
No Mass Outbreaks From The UK’s Test Events
Great, 58,000 people and only 28 positives - but at the time of the test events, "virus levels were low and testing before and...
The Longstanding, Fascist Focused, Whitewashing Of Rome
Rome was hardly white, whether in architecture or demographics. But historically, Europeans and white Americans - and especially Mussolini and his followers - have...
Alone In Rome, Before The Tourists Return
Italy was the first to lock down, and one of the hardest lockdowns. "Now most of Italy is in a 'white zone,' and museums...
By The Bay, Bhangra Meets Bollywood And Struts It On YouTube
"Today, artists like Toor, 31, are changing the way that bhangra and other Indian dance genres are seen, creating dances meant to be consumed...
John Cage, Harry Hay And LA’s Pioneering Place In Gay Rights
Gay Angelenos like to remind their counterparts to the north and east that L.A. played a crucial, perhaps decisive, role in gay-rights history. Five...
Can Writers Make Money From NFTs, Too? Some Are Trying
"It's hard to make sense of what the NFT creative landscape might mean for otherwise underpaid writers. At once, it's a place for writers...
Pompidou Centre Plucks Head Of Picasso Museum As Its Next Leader
Laurent Le Bon, 52, faces a challenging term. The Paris museum is scheduled to close from 2023 to 2027 for renovations to deal with...