These “secular bibles” (the Bible is not one of them) are “books for daily life that ostensibly taught readers one subject, all while subtly instructing them about their role in society and their responsibilities to family and to country.” - The New York Times
The hyperbole on book jackets—both the plot summaries and the lists of adulatory adjectives that go with them—have long frustrated authors, but no one would dispute that a good blurb has crucial functions. - Prospect
During the second half of the last century and the beginning of this one, Los Angeles County fell a million homes behind, relative to its population growth, after becoming a single-family mecca. - The New York Times
Andy Señor, Jr., a Cuban-American actor and director who played the role of Angel on Broadway and helmed productions of the musical around the U.S. and overseas, talks about directing the show's first-ever staging in Havana, which happened at a key point in American-Cuban relations. (audio) - Variety
"Over the past 20 years, I visited 193 museums in 42 different countries. Equipped with 1,500 Munsell colour chips – the world-standard samples for colour science – I examined 139,892 works of art, searching for violet." - Psyche
"His stories about Miss Mallard, an inquisitive duck who solves crimes around the world in plots that resemble Agatha Christie capers, were adapted into an animated television series in 2000. He also conceived of sleuthing critters like Sheriff Sally Gopher and Sherlock Chick, who starts his investigations immediately after hatching from an egg (he emerges holding a magnifying glass)....
You don’t look at a Cézanne, some ravishing late works excepted. You study it, registering how it’s done—in the drawings, with tangles of line and, often, patches of watercolor. - The New Yorker
A 64-year-old man spotted the artworks — a 1665 self-portrait by Pietro Bellotti and a painting of a youth by the 17th-century Dutch artist Samuel van Hoogstraten — in the garbage of a rest stop in Bavaria in mid-May. Authorities have not identified the owner of the canvases and have appealed to the public for information. - Artnet
Instead of designing buildings for specific purposes that may fade or disappear, architects and developers should create buildings that can accommodate a variety of uses, from offices to residential spaces to hotels to healthcare facilities. Towers should be designed to be neutral. - Fast Company
"Last year, EU countries agreed that 30% of offerings on streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime should be European-made. The concern among some EU capitals is that currently the UK makes up the vast majority of that 30%, despite Brexit. This month, EU diplomats were invited to discuss whether the 'privileges' the UK continues to enjoy were...
Not only did societies such as the Classic Maya and the Khmer empire of Cambodia flourish, but pre-colonial tropical cities were actually some of the most extensive urban landscapes anywhere in the pre-industrial world – far outstripping ancient Rome, Constantinople/Istanbul and the ancient cities of China. - The Guardian
"I want to say, of course literature is just as important , but this is something in the dead of night I kind of worry about. … I've been saying for years, if you take away reading, take away literature, you take away something very, very important in the way we human beings communicate with each other. … We've...
"The Atlanta-based TCM has long been the sanctuary of classic film on TV, presenting mostly pre-1980 movies commercial-free with a deep respect for moviemaking history going back to the silent film era. … TCM also appeals to an older audience that is more likely to hold onto its cable subscription than younger viewers who quickly adapted to streaming platforms....
"After a four-year, multimillion-dollar undertaking involving mechanical engineers, architects, art historians, fresco experts, art handlers and riggers from the United States and Mexico, the 30-ton, 74-foot-wide-by-22-foot mural" — titled Pan-American Unity, painted in 1940 and installed at City College of San Francisco in 1961 — "has been carefully extracted and moved across town to San Francisco Museum of Modern...
"I by no means want anyone to think we're abandoning Pennsylvania," said executive director Shelly Power. "but it's about our identity as one of the most important cities in America." - The Philadelphia Inquirer
