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Remember All Those Chromebooks School Kids Got Early In The Pandemic Lockdown?

Turns out they're low quality and not reparable, and, three years later, that's not turning out to be so great for the schools or their students. - The Verge

The Small British City Getting A Bunch Of Dali’s Surreal Sculptures

In Shrewsbury, a town of 40,000 a few miles east of the Welsh border, "the organisers of an ambitious arts trail in the Shropshire town are celebrating an unexpected coup. Three pieces made by Dalí are to play a starring role in this year’s trail." - The Observer (UK)

Imagine Being A 16-Year-Old Bookstore Owner Who Gets To Interview Judy Blume

Just, like, wow. That is extremely cool. And: "'It’s people like you who give us hope, because you’re the next generation and you’re who’s going to be most affected it,' Blume told the teenager." - Variety

A Blockbuster Show, Ripped In Half By War

The National Gallery in London and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow both have a new show up - "After Impressionism." Back in the halcyon days before Russia invaded Ukraine, this was supposed to be one bigger, traveling show. No longer.  - The New York Times

Tracking Down Retired Celebrities Is A Gross New Trend For Paparazzi

"The rush to track down people who used to be famous does seem to have picked up some speed lately. And, as far as I can tell, it seems to be rooted in a mixture of confusion and entitlement." - The Guardian (UK)

A City That’s Been Longing For A Bookstore Finally Gets Its Own

"Most of Buho's books are secondhand or donated, costing around $10 to keep them accessible. Literacy rates in the region are some of the lowest in the country, and Hernandez sees his store is something that can only help." - NPR

Poised For Change At The Dance Theater Of Harlem

The legacy: "I remember being at barre on the first day, in Studio 3 with the beautiful red brick, and not having ever experienced seeing a multitude of beautiful Black and brown skin, I was like, 'Oh, this is different.'" - The New York Times

Music Festivals Can Be Crowded, Hot, And Sometimes Seemingly Out Of Control

And yet, whether they're classical or pop or rock or whatever Coachella is, we fall for them. "As festivalgoers we untether, if only for a moment. Hypnotized by the performer, drifting through a music- (and, for many, drug-) induced haze." - NPR

The Woman Revolutionizing An Iranian Storytelling Tradition In Los Angeles

"For centuries, skilled Iranian storytellers known as Naqqals have transfixed audiences in traditional coffeehouses" - but it was always an art by men, and for men only. Gordafarid "is the first known female Naqqal to have learned the craft the traditional way." - Los Angeles Times

Author Celeste Ng On Book Hangovers And Getting Through The Last Few Years

"I had a crisis of faith in the early days of the pandemic. I thought: books don’t do anything, maybe I should go and become a nurse? And then I realised that I was turning to poetry." - The Guardian (UK)

Lynn Nottage And Her Daughter Are Creating Theatre, And Opera, Together

Ruby Aiyo Gerber to her mom: "For so long, I rebelled against wanting to be a writer, fearing that admiring any part of you was to be forever in your shadow. I had a lot of fear when starting the collaboration." - The New York Times

The Bloody Past And Blurry Future Of The So-Called Digital Revolution In News

"The time has come for us to stop using the term 'digital revolution' in such a catchphrase-cute way, with the inevitable emphasis on 'digital' and little thought for the meaning, and historical realities, of 'revolution.'" - Los Angeles Times

Pierre Lacotte, Choreographer And Self-Described Archaeologist Of Dance, 91

"A notation-based reconstruction movement took hold around the turn of the 21st century, but Lacotte — ahead of his time — had already been defending a freer style of revival, informed by historical sources yet unconstrained by them." - Financial Times

Perhaps Writers Don’t Actually Fetishize The Tools Of The Trade Enough

Tobias Wolff reflects on his unfilled notebooks and wonders, "At what point do the tools of writing go from functional objects in their own right to signifiers that give the trappings of being a writer without ever having to sit down and write?" - LitHub

The Film Industry Is Pretty Much Gone, Says Jim Jarmusch, Who’s Releasing A Rock Album Instead

The director of Ghost Dog and Coffee and Cigarettes says that "funnelling creative energy into making music has become a vital escape from some of the stresses and hurdles involved in getting films funded and made." - The Guardian (UK)

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