While a melody can tether you to a song, however, it’s the lyrics that make you want to excavate it. The best songs pull you in beyond their hooky topline. - The Guardian
The rise of newspapers and magazines meant that tales of the bizarre and the outrageous could circulate widely and quickly, while the rapid increase in printed advertising made it easy to promote stunts and shams. - The Spectator
"With an acting career that began in the 1960s with a string of roles in Japanese martial arts films and TV shows and went on to include more than 100 films, Chiba became widely known in the west after being name-checked in True Romance" - and being featured in Kill Bill. - The Guardian (UK)
"'Five-thousand-year-old culture on my back; late-twentieth-century world in my face' is how Ms. Liu described her life-changing arrival in the United States from China in 1984, when she was 36 and already an accomplished painter." - The New York Times
The coronavirus strikes the show in DC again, for the second time in 18 months. "Museum officials pointed to international travel restrictions, the safety of the staff who would install the exhibit, and the potential that the pandemic could worsen." - Washington Post
It's not good: "A surge in construction by Azerbaijan, especially of roads, has led to either partial or full destruction of several cemeteries and cathedrals in the area of Shushi, a town with significant cultural importance to Armenians." - Hyperallergic
Artist Leon Kossoff died two years ago, still hoping he'd see the 14 paintings and six drawings stolen in 1972. The truck that left London disappeared from Rome and was later found 17 miles away with the locks smashed and Kossoff's works all gone. - The Observer (UK)
And now the media-created shtetl, possibly the most realistic one now in existence in the country, may become a sort of shtetl museum. - Times of Israel
"The Homecoming Concert felt like a stolen glimpse of that alternate reality : live music again, finally; exuberant crowds with few masks in sight. Fitting, then, that its abrupt, weird ending pulled the audience back into a chaotic, uncertain and disappointing world." - Washington Post
Upson, "one of the most significant artists to emerge from the vibrant Los Angeles art scene this century, won early attention for The Larry Project, an open-ended phantasmagoria," and she continued with resin sculptures that merged Americans' bodies with their houses and possessions. - The New York Times
"The threats of violence are such that most of the Afghan artists and cultural workers I contacted while reporting this story — both in and out of the country — declined to be interviewed on the grounds that it could endanger their own lives, or those of their families and friends." - Los Angeles Times
The update is a little rough: Both of the musical theatre-trained keeper's jobs depend on tourism, and Melbourne has very, very few tourists these days. - The Age (Australia)
Murphy, who dreamt up The Worst Witch series at age 18 (the first book was published when she was 24), refused to sell the rights to Disney because they wanted far too much control. - BBC
