Portland is very clearly not “hell,” and just as clearly not a war zone. But also: "Although the number of events and the amount of ticket sales have not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels, they have increased significantly ... and are now getting close to pre-2020 levels.” - Oregon ArtsWatch
“The idea of priesthood, to devote yourself to others, really, that’s what it’s about. I realized I don’t belong there. … And I tried to stay, but they got my father in there, and they told him, ‘Get him out of here.’ Because I behaved badly.” - Variety
Andrea Bartz “was furious that the writing she had labored over for years got vacuumed up and fed into an algorithm, without her permission.” Then she (and others) did something about it. - The New York Times
Sure, McCarthyism mostly ended (until, well, now) in the late 1950s, but in the 1980s, Madonna and Prince scared some adults so much that they got funding from Coors Beer and the Beach Boys, and went after popular musicians. - The Guardian (UK)
"By adjusting the focus just a little, adding suggestions of both humor and tension, and pumping up the characters’ sensuality, Segovia turns these recognizable dudes into something more vulnerable, not quite feminine, but sexualized and apart from the hypermasculine, movie-world standard.” - Seattle Times (NYT)
One artist who removed his music: “Spotify is going to have to make Herculean efforts to roll back tons of damaging choices they’ve introduced to their platform over the years. I don’t see that happening.” - The Verge (Archive Today)
Romancelandia is big, and “the rest of the industry wants to emulate this success, but as many editors know, chasing a trend can be a futile endeavor.” Imagine “HistoryLandia” or “BookerNomineeLandia.” - The Atlantic
“By now I’ve spent upward of 5,000 hours in ballet classes, and roughly 1,600 hours more in other, non-ballet dance classes. … I dance as if it were my job.” - Slate
At the V&A East Storehouse, “visitors have the option to choose up to five via the ‘order an object’ service and have them delivered to a study room for a private viewing.” - The Guardian (UK)
“‘Just like a toppled confederate general forced back onto a public square, the Donald Trump Jeffrey Epstein statue has risen from the rubble to stand gloriously on the National Mall once again,’ The Secret Handshake member wrote in an email to NPR.” - NPR
Of course all, or at least many, books are cool. But the Goldsmiths Prize is for fiction that “breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form.” - The Guardian (UK)
Things aren’t going well right now, and the Florida-located museum and archives may need to find a new home. Corporate “contacts no longer return calls or texts; they no longer sponsor events. They have backed off joining the board.” - The New York Times
Becoming the (at the time) youngest person to win the Booker Prize wasn’t all fun and games for the novelist, and it took her nearly 20 years to produce another novel. - Irish Times
“Despite financial pressures, Jenny continued the gallery’s tradition of innovation, exhibiting trade union banners and showcasing new and radical artists such as Joseph Beuys.” - The Guardian (UK)
