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Why Director Todd Field Employed Mahler And Elgar To Give His Film Tar Meaning

Mahler's Fifth is "a wide-open work, ripe for individual interpretation and impeccably suiting a film that doesn’t provide easy answers." - The Guardian (UK)

An Author Sells A Bucket List Weekend, And Fans Absolutely Line Up For It

What draws hundreds of fans of writer Elin Hilderbrand to Nantucket in January? The chance to hang out in person with the author, of course, on the island she most often writes about. - The New York Times

LAPD Chief Apologizes For Officer Who Protected CBS Exec Les Moonves

The commander, Cory Palka, allegedly shared details of a sexual assault report with CBS and Moonves. - Los Angeles Times

Peru Closes Machu Picchu And Inca Trail Indefinitely

"Hundreds of people who were stuck for hours at the foot of the 15th Century Inca citadel have now been rescued. ... Rail services to Machu Picchu were suspended on Thursday after some train tracks were damaged, allegedly by protesters." - BBC

The Ambitious Second Novel Of Nigerian Author Ayobami Adebayo

Adébáyò's first novel, Stay With Me, "told a closely focused story about the impact of childlessness and sickle-cell disease on the life of a young couple ... but A Spell of Good Things deals with political corruption, social injustice and domestic violence." - The Guardian (UK)

Dick Polich, Whose Foundry Made Artists’ Visions Into Reality, Has Died At 90

"The notably petite Ms. Bourgeois did not herself forge her looming metallic arachnids. For that, she — along with many of the world’s renowned sculptors of the last 50 years — turned to a specialized foundry in the Hudson Valley and its visionary owner, Dick Polich." - The New York Times

How Did Anime Come To Be Everywhere In Culture?

It's all going to plan. But also, "Anime's fans are largely online, and the pandemic — when people were suddenly able to focus on at-home or online interests — helped fuel growth." - NPR

Elon Musk Is Ending Twitter’s Use To Publications

Basically, what referrals Twitter provided - and the percentage wasn't large for most publishers - has dropped to near nothing after Musk's recent decisions. "Only two publishers in the sample set — The New York Post and Fox News — saw their traffic increase." - Digiday

Sculptor Hank Willis Thomas On The ‘Strange’ Backlash To His MLK Sculpture

Thomas says he "focused on the Kings’ arms 'an embodiment of the ‘beloved community,’' a term the civil rights leader often used to describe a just society where everyone’s needs could be met." - The Guardian (UK)

Wikipedia’s Thoughtful Dealing With Cultural Hot Topics

"Wikipedia’s editors are no longer simply citing dated sources; instead, they are hashing out how someone would want to be understood. But even though these deliberations touch on some of the most controversial issues around ... they are shockingly civil and thoughtful." - The Atlantic

Why An Indian Action Spectacle Film Is Charming The West

Maybe the reason is that blockbusters churned out in the U.S. have been hit with a similarity stick, or with a cynicism audiences can sense - so "a film that's as sincere and well-crafted as RRR was bound to break in eventually." - BBC

If You Missed Broadway Musicals Last Year, Don’t Worry; Listen

Almost every show, even ones that closed relatively quickly, created a cast album. And "some improve on the shows they preserve merely by jettisoning most or mercifully all of the book. In other cases, you can actually hear what the authors had in mind." - The New York Times

British Artist Rachel Whiteread Says It’s Time To Hit Pause On Fourth Plinth Sculptures

Why would Whiteread say that? Well, the Trafalgar Square program has led to a lot of large-scale sculptures with no place to go. "Three-quarters of the former fourth plinth commissions are currently in storage, and only one is on display in the UK." - The Guardian (UK)

This Year’s Book Resolution Is To Stop Worrying About Books You’ll Never Read

That's one writer's resolution, anyway: "After a lifetime of climbing, I’m happy to stop and just enjoy the view. For so long, I, like others, have measured myself against what I had yet to achieve. It was a game no one could win." - The New York Times

Watch Out, New York Times, The Dictionary Just Bought Quordle

The Wordle knockoff - though perhaps harder, since it has four five-letter words to guess at once, with only nine guesses - "now redirects to its own space on the Merriam-Webster website." - TechCrunch

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