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Remember When The United States Senate Went After Prince And Madonna?

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)

The Mexican Painter Turning Machismo Upside Down

"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)

Artists Don’t Feel Better About Spotify Just Because Founder Daniel Ek Sort Of Stepped Down

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)

How Romance Became The Publishing Industry’s ‘Recession-Proof’ Category

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

What Happens When You Start Dancing In Your 60s

“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

The V&A Has A New Exhibition Area – Its Storage Space

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)

The Trump-Epstein Statue Is Back

“‘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

Yet Another Shortlist For Yet Another Literary Award, But This One Is The Cool Books

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)

Can The National Stonewall Museum Survive Trump?

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

Kiran Desai On The Dark Side Of Fame

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

Jenny Stein, The First Woman To Helm Britain’s Whitechapel Art Gallery, Has Died At 99

“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)

Good Riddance To ‘Best American Poetry,’ For Reasons

"If The Best American Poetry captures ‘the zeitgeist of the current attitudes in American poetry,’ we should be asking: Why are those attitudes so fucked up?” - The Defector (Archive Today)

Running The Million-Dollar Digital Sets For The New Met Opera Kavalier And Clay

“Two lighting technicians and a video operator bring the opera to its full pyrotechnic life. Hunched over banks of consoles, screens and keyboards, they execute a tight script as they manipulate videos, lights, scrims, screens, stage panels and dry ice.” - The New York Times

Shakespeare Experts Are Totally OK With Taylor Swift’s Bard Fandom

“‘I love Shakespeare,’ Swift said earnestly during the movie, and then made fun of herself for saying something so obvious. ‘It holds up! It’s actually not overhyped.’” - Washington Post (Yahoo)

A Local Right-Wing Government’s Attempt To Quash Reporters In England Runs Up Against The Law

“County council leader Mick Barton banned the Nottingham Post and its online arm, Nottinghamshire Live, from speaking to him and other councillors ‘with immediate effect’ on 28 August.” - BBC

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