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“The Woman King” Is A Massive Hit At Benin’s Only Movie Theater

The film, headlined by Viola Davis, about the female warriors of the old kingdom of Dahomey (in present-day Benin), has been running at the Canal Olympia in Cotonou (the nation's largest city) for a month — and it's still sold out. - The Guardian

How Gael Greene Invented The Modern Restaurant Critic

She was famous for a kind of glamorous hauteur, which the bedraggled dining critics of today, with their furtive TikTok feeds and constantly buzzing phones, can only imagine. She was famous for her taste, which was considerable, and her work in the restaurant community. - New York Magazine

Arguments About Backstage Racism Are Getting Out-Of-Hand: John McWhorter

"But here and now: non-Black people of color mad that they weren't consulted about Black American slavery? ... Calling it an affront to mental health to have white bigots use the N-word in a play about the Freedom Riders? Folks, this is less antiracism than performance." - The New York Times

Why Aesthetics Trump Moral Value

It is a well-worn cliché that the practical person scorns aesthetic value. But there’s reason to think that it is the only way in which we can draw final positive value from the entire world. Thus, to the extent that we care whether or not we live in a good world, we must be aesthetically sensitive. - Aeon

It’s Word-Of-The-Year Season Again, And The First Winner Is Perfect For 2022

That word, chosen by Collins English Dictionary in the UK is "permacrisis."  Among the other top choices are "vibe shift," "Partygate," "quiet quitting," and "splooting." - CBS News

The Latino Vanguard Transforming Los Angeles Culture

This is a survey of the rising writers, actors, directors, architects, thinkers, musicians and other artists who are shaping the culture you are living in now and certainly the culture you’ll be living in tomorrow. - Los Angeles Times

Ian Jack, Journalist, Essayist, And Ex-Editor Of Granta, Dead At 77

He wrote for the Glasgow Herald, the Sunday Times of London, "the Observer and Vanity Fair before joining the team that created the Independent on Sunday, which he edited from 1991 to 1995. From there he moved to the editor's chair at literary magazine Granta, where he remained until 2007." - The Observer (UK)

Nico Muhly’s New, Most Unusual Setting Of Christ’s Passion

"In The Street, a new evening-length cycle for harp, narrator, and singer(s), composer Nico Muhly and librettist Alice Goodman treat the 14 stations with the immediacy of a witness — at one moment a passive, descriptive onlooker, at the next a malicious actor who intentionally trips Jesus." - San Francisco Classical Voice

The Resurrection Of Cinecittà, Rome’s Legendary Film Studio

"Over the past few years, Cinecittà has grown enormously. The increase in demand for new series and movies — driven by global streamers — has put a premium on studio space.  'We've gone from a precarious situation, with 40-50 percent occupancy, to about 15 productions per day,' says Cinecittà's CEO." - The Hollywood Reporter

A John Steinbeck Essay About American Democracy Is Published In English For The First Time

"The piece, titled 'How About McCarthyism?' was originally published in 1954 in French in Le Figaro littéraire, although Steinbeck wrote it in English. The piece is being published in English in The Strand magazine." - The Guardian

What Exactly Is In Prop 28, California’s Arts Education Ballot Measure?

"Right now, about 40% of the state's general fund goes towards education. This measure will allocate an extra 1% from the general fund toward arts education, but will not raise taxes." - KCBX (San Luis Obispo, Cal.)

Legendary Restaurant Critic Gael Greene, 88

"(She was) an influential New York magazine food writer who shook up restaurant reviews with a cutting wit, vibrant passions and descriptions of dining as a feast of the senses." - MSN (The Washington Post)

Two Of The World’s Great Museums Are Fighting Over Whether “Girl With A Flute” Is A Real Vermeer

The National Gallery of Art in DC, which owns the painting and is lending it out for this year's Vermeer blockbuster, says that its high-tech examinations show that the painting is not authentic.  The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which is presenting the big exhibition, insists otherwise. - The Guardian

An AI Brain-Powered Opera

There were three singers — “ambassadors” to the sun, space and life — as well as a percussionist, a violinist and a flute player. Thake, sitting silently to one side of the stage with a simple, inexpensive EEG monitor on her head, was the “brainist,” feeding brain waves into Anadol’s A.I. algorithm. - The New York Times

The Collected Jerry Saltz

Although Saltz blasts the usual targets — speculative collectors, unscrupulous auction houses, gender bias at museums — the tenor is overwhelmingly positive. This might come as a surprise to Saltz readers who know him as an irascible, post-first-think-later firebrand on social media. - The New York Times

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