"In a drabber parallel universe, Frida Kahlo might have been a doctor. As a high schooler she was on a pre-med track, studying biology, anatomy, and zoology at one of Mexico City’s best schools. … But then a trolley car collided with the bus she was taking home." - ARTnews
The special, tastefully titled “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead,” is one of the most unpleasant things ostensibly produced for entertainment purposes that I have ever sat through. - Los Angeles Times
Matthew Paluch argues that there's one major factor in the dance instruction industry that few on either the teacher or student side are willing to talk about openly. - Gramilano (Milan)
On the page, her fabulous erudition was melded to a frankness that was so unaffected as to seem effortless. Actually—a very Joan word—simplicity is hard work, and Joan worked hard. She wrote her drafts in longhand and sent page proofs by fax. - The New Yorker
Dr. L’Antoinette Stines: "What I have done is brought together what came off the ships when they did — and sometimes we forget that it is not just Africa that came off the ship, India came off the ship, China came off the ship. So my technique is a synabridge." - Essence
Anecdotally, the increasing costs of fair stands and their associated shipping, travel and entertainment budgets were already taking quite a toll pre-pandemic, but inflation has made it more acute. - The Art Newspaper
Arifa Akbar: "Some trimmed-down Shakespeares – such as Simon Godwin’s Romeo and Juliet – are as rich as the originals, and not every staging of Much Ado About Nothing has to have its protracted comic interludes with Dogberry and his gang." Especially if it means missing the last train home from Stratford-upon-Avon. - The Guardian
"An initiative to create a comprehensive record of the 2023 insurrection (at) the Brazilian congress" by supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro, who had lost his re-election bid, "has been launched as part of the development of the Museum of Democracy in Brasília." - The Art Newspaper
WTVP has been in crisis mode since at least September, when the finance director resigned, the CEO committed suicide, layoffs were made, and investigators discovered "questionable, improper, or unauthorized spending." Amid public pressure, 11 of 17 board members have stepped down. - WCBU (Peoria)
The complaint, filed by the Paris-based NGO Lumière sur le Patrimoine, alleges that the Metropolitan Museum, the Worcester Museum in Massachusetts, and the Glencairn Museum just outside Philadelphia have six window panels that were stolen from Rouen cathedral roughly a century ago. - ARTnews
"After a demanding (2½-year) program that included a gasp-inducing repair of the two cracking, 500-year-old limewood panels, Getty senior conservator Ulrich Birkmaier and his team stabilized the paintings, while bringing the images back to something close to what they likely were … in the 16th century." - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
Mindi Madison and Alicia Wilson, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, have been sentenced to three years' probation and ordered to pay $270,876 each in restitution. - Inside Radio
"A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit — viewed by many as the most conservative court in the nation — ... upheld a lower court decision to block key provisions of HB 900, Texas’s controversial book rating law, finding that the law likely violated First Amendment protections against compelled speech." - Publishers Weekly
The philosopher Peter Carruthers, who has written a fair amount, and variously, about inner speech, has argued that inner speech may have specifically arisen in evolution to enable the rehearsal and evaluation of overt speech actions. - 3 Quarks Daily
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre once had a live orchestra for all of its “Nutcracker” performances, but in an ugly move that still rankles local musicians, the company locked out the orchestra in 2005 due to financial difficulties and debt. The company has used recorded music ever since. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
