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India Bans BBC Documentary About Narendra Modi And Deadly 2002 Riots

The Modi Question examines the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat state in 2002 and the role in it played by Modi, who was then the state's premier and is now the nation's prime minister. After clips appeared on social media in India. Modi's government used emergency powers to block it. - Time

Everett Quinton, Who Kept The Ridiculous Theatrical Co. Alive, Is Dead At 71

A seminal presence in both Off-Off-Broadway and queer theater, Ridiculous was founded by playwright/director/actor Charles Ludlam in the late 1960s.  Quinton became Ludlam's partner and co-star in 1975; after Ludlam died of AIDS in 1987, Quinton took over all of Ludlam's roles and maintained the company for a decade. - TheaterMania

John Williams Is, Again, The Most Oscar-Nominated Person Alive

With the Academy's nod for his score for Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans,  the 90-year-old composer has tallied 53 nominations (and counting), trailing only Walt Disney (with 59) for the most individual Oscar nominations in history. - The Hollywood Reporter

Baltimore Museum Of Art Appoints Chief Curator Asma Naeem Director

"After its last leader departed to head the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art has named a new director: Asma Naeem, who had been the institution's interim co-director alongside Christine Dietze. Naeem will be the first person of color to lead the Baltimore Museum." - ARTnews

Hollywood Won’t Survive Without Actual Movie Theatres

"The solution ... is simple: Put new releases exclusively in theaters and give them a real chance to succeed with paying moviegoers. No more muddled hybrid releases, no slow and modest rollouts, and certainly nothing like Netflix’s baffling compromise with Glass Onion." - The Atlantic

Rereading Russian Classics In The Shadow Of The War In Ukraine

"The idea that great novels disclose universal human truths, or contain a purely literary meaning that transcends national politics, wasn’t evenly distributed across the world. I had seen no signs of it in Kyiv." - The New Yorker

Could Music Therapy Help Ease Long COVID?

"It seems ironic that music, one of the fields hardest hit by the global pandemic, may prove to be an effective treatment specifically for COVID-related inflammation, according to a study." - Ludwig Van

The Academic Career Is Broken

And half-assed reforms aren't going to fix it. "It’s not an economic crisis. It’s a crisis of faith. The question is not just whether our institutions pay faculty fairly, but whether any wage is worth the subservience and sacrifice that modern higher ed requires." - Chronicle of Higher Education

Little Free Library Expands Its Work Into Indian Country

"Little Free Library's ... latest initiative, the Indigenous Library Program, which launches this spring, will provide book-sharing boxes for installation on tribal lands, as well as in other Indigenous communities throughout the U.S. and in Canada." - Publishers Weekly

Why Are British MPs Declaring War On Opera?

Their reasoning: "Patronising claptrap. So, young people will only accept opera if it’s put on in a car park. The lower orders can make do with an aria in a pub. And the rich and middle-aged have their country-house operas. It is deeply depressing." - The Independent (UK)

Dick Polich, Fabricator To The Stars Of Modern American Sculpture, Is Dead At 90

"Louise Bourgeois, ... Nancy Graves, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein and Frank Stella all relied on Mr. Polich and his team of some 100 artisans to forge baubles as small as a hand's width and behemoths so large that even his cavernous facility could barely accommodate them." - The New York Times

The Nominations, Snubs, And Surprises For This Year’s Academy Awards

The fun, searing, rapidly movie Everything Everywhere All at Once led with nominations, but some actors, movies, and directors were - explicably or not - snubbed, and some surprises sneaked in at the last minute. - Los Angeles Times

One Of Edinburgh’s Leading Theatres Could Close After Money To Complete Renovation Runs Out

Funding for the King's Theatre rehab had been secured at the project's original budget of £25.7 million, but COVID-related delays, supply chain issues and inflation have increased the cost by £8.9 million — and management says necessary work can't start until the extra money has been raised. - The Scotsman

The Arts Collective Ousted In Vienna Speaks Out

At the heart of the conflict: What is Austria? "We were trying to look beyond the Western canon as the only idea of what art is and we were also thinking about whom to address. ... We wanted Kunsthalle Wien to address multiple Viennas, not just the old established one." - Hyperallergic

Who Was The Elise That Beethoven Wrote His Piano Piece Für?  She Didn’t Exist, Argues Norman Lebrecht

"In a forthcoming book, Why Beethoven, Norman Lebrecht presents evidence that the Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor has been known as Für Elise (For Elise) purely due to a misreading of the dedication on the now-lost 1810 manuscript." - The Observer (UK)

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