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It’s Not Easy Being The One Charged With Creating New Stained Glass Windows For Notre Dame

Tabouret: “It’s not very French to change stuff, so I thought that interesting as well as brave and fresh. They specifically wanted figurative painting, which also isn’t very French.” But church authorities eventually gave her a lot of artistic freedom. - The Guardian (UK)

Wallace Shawn May Be The Only Playwright To Be Recognized And Shouted Out Across New York

Of course, that’s usually because of his acting career (especially his iconic role in The Princess Bride). - The New York Times

How The Town Of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Created The Sounds Of A Generation

Alabama had no professional recording studios before a man named Rick Hall created FAME. Then the town became songwriting and recording central. “They were like, well, we can work in the aluminum factory, or we can find a way to make a hit record. I know which is more fun.” - NPR

Directors Guild Anoints Paul Thomas Anderson

Other Directors Guild winners: Amanda Marsalis for an episode of The Pitt, and the guy who directed Game 7 of the World Series. - Los Angeles Times

How Bach Helped This Abuse Victim Stay Alive

“Every night, I would sit in my room listening to recordings of Bach, then Horowitz and Ashkenazy, pretending to play along. It was pure escape, pure fantasy. I could hide inside the music. ... The Chaconne specifically was like an ancient key that slid into my heart.” - The Guardian (UK)

The Bad Bunny Halftime Show Didn’t Say ‘ICE Out,’ But The Music, Full Of Joy, Apparently Angered A Certain President

“After Bad Bunny said ‘God bless America’ in English, he added in Spanish, ‘Be it Chile, Argentina … ' and the countries of Latin America, suggesting he meant America broadly, not only the United States. (He also said ‘United States’ and ‘Canada’ in English.)” - The New York Times

Author Elly Griffiths Says Magic And Mystery Novels Share A Big Similarity

The author of nearly 30 crime novels explains a few things about misdirection - and big reveals. - Irish Times (Archive Today)

The Wooster Group Actress Who Disappeared

Libby Howes, who was central to the group’s avant-garde breakthrough Rumstick Road, left the theatre during a psychotic breakdown. “For decades, Howes’s location has been a mystery; she has been an unquiet absence, one of the ghosts in the avant-garde’s machine.” - The New York Times

Director Jafar Panahi Calls Iran ‘A Failed State’ After The Arrest Of His Co-Writer

Panahi: "It is a failed state politically, ideologically, economically, culturally and environmentally. And it is not going to be able to last. The only reason it has survived is because of the amount of force it has used.” - NPR

The Year Young Black Comedians Stole The Super Bowl’s Thunder, And Thence Created The Modern Halftime Show

“The final ratings were the big headline. Altogether, 22 million people switched from CBS to Fox for the In Living Color alt-cast, outdrawing Winter Magic and cratering ratings for the second half. Washington dominating the game didn’t help. The NFL was shook.” - The Guardian (UK)

This Year’s Super Bowl Ads Were Bleak For The Future Of Creativity

This Super Bowl was “the first with A.I. taking center stage—a revealing gametime moment for the tech as it confronts investor anxiety, broader fatigue, and fears of impending economic crisis. ...The real twist is that consumers seem to loathe this marketing ploy.” - Slate

What Happens When Artists Lose Their Archives

“It was the loss of authorship, sequencing, and context. Works that were never meant to exist independently were broken apart and reintroduced to the world as aesthetic fragments. My archive had become modular in the most violent sense. Not by choice, but by necessity and market indifference.” - Hyperallergic

The Ice Dancers With Possibly The Olympics’ Biggest Challenge

“The most decorated ice dance pair in U.S. figure skating history wants more than a team medal in Milan — they want the ice dance gold medal. ... But while they did so much heavy lifting for their team, their competition got extra rest.” - USA Today

The Comic Artists Responding To The Moment With Art

One comic “states: ‘Someday you’ll know that there were so many people thinking and worrying about you even though you don’t know us.’ Other artworks include cartoons of Liam in the bunny hat himself — riding a dragon, or surrounded by a group of bunnies in the snow.” - Minnesota Public Radio

Maybe We’ve Been Getting Bosch All Wrong

“We are supposed to read triptychs from left to right: Adam and Eve → sexy fruit playground of jubilant behavior → decay and hell. ... But the middle panel, where the temptation is happening, is so fun and funny.” - Paris Review

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