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Virgil Abloh, A Barrier-Breaking Designer Who Was Compared To Warhol And Koons, Has Died At 41

Abloh was a theorist with sometimes controversial opinions on fashion. "For him clothes were not garments but fungible totems of identity that sat at the nexus of art, music, politics and philosophy." - The New York Times

Recovering From A Rough Gig At SNL, Natasha Rothwell Hit It Big On Insecure

The showrunner for Insecure, where Rothwell, post-writing gig at Saturday Night Live, has written and played Kelli: "The idea that anybody would try to f— squash her talent or try to keep her brilliance under a lampshade — like, can you imagine?" - Los Angeles Times

Composer And Lyricist Stephen Sondheim, Master Of Musical Theatre, 91

Impossible to sum the central figure of American musical theatre up, but: "Sondheim not only bound music, lyrics and book inextricably together, but he explored in far greater depths the human condition in all its anxieties and moral complexities." - Washington Post

“Superstar” Actor Arrested In Connection With Jan. 6 Riot

James Beeks, who performs in Superstar under the stage name James T. Justis, is charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia with obstruction of Congress, a felony, as well as a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds. - Deadline

Magnus Carlsen Has Been World Chess Champion Since His Teens. The World Of Chess Has Changed Since Then

Computer-assisted preparation makes it ‘harder and harder’ to demonstrate the superiority of his intuition and strategic thinking in classical games. Players with good memories, decent calculation and solid technique can use the latest AI discoveries to boost their chances against him. - London Review of Books

He Was A Child Laborer, Then A Homeless Migrant. Now He’s A Prizewinning Filmmaker Who Could Get An Oscar.

P.S. Vinothraj worked in a flower market at age nine and a sweatshop at 14. At 19 he ran to the big city (Chennai) and slept on the streets. Now his first feature is a festival hit and India's official submission to the Oscars. - The Guardian

The Musicians, Dancers Killed In The Wisconsin Holiday Parade

Three of those killed were members of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies, a group of women whose pompom routines have been a staple of local holiday parades since the 1980s. - The New York Times

How A Lifetime Of Cross-Dressing Helped Aurore Dupin Dudevant Become George Sand

When she was a child, her officer father dressed her up as a mini-me in full uniform. As a young woman, she moved freely about Paris, observing everything, by dressing as a boy. (She claimed the idea was her mother's.) Taking a male pseudonym? Easy. - Aeon

Remembering Dave Hickey, The Renegade Critic

Like so many Texan artists before and after him, he had a tortured relationship with his home state and its mythology. He kept trying to get away from the cowboy thing. It kept sucking him back in. - Texas Monthly

Eddie Redmayne: Playing “Danish Girl” Trans Character Was A Mistake

“No, I wouldn’t take it on now. I made that film with the best intentions, but I think it was a mistake,” Redmayne told The Sunday Times. - Variety

Writer Robert Bly, 94

He "galvanized protests against the Vietnam War and started a controversial men’s movement with a best seller that called for a restoration of primal male audacity." - The New York Times

An Appreciation Of Dave Hickey, Prolific Art Critic

Christopher Knight: "Lots of smart people write smart things about art but nobody was a better writer than Dave. ... Hickey, a brilliant and cantankerous wit, wrote for the ear. His work needed reading, not scanning, and rewarded effort with pleasure." - Los Angeles Times

Bonnie Sherk Had A Performance-Based Take On Landscape Art

The artist, dead at 76, did this near an on-ramp: "A young woman was sitting on a bale of hay, surrounded by potted palm trees and 4,000 square feet of green turf, patting a Guernsey calf that was tied to a railing." - The New York Times

The Woman Who Was Half Of The Mystery-Writing Duo ‘Charles Todd’ Has Died

Caroline Todd (a pen name for Caroline Watjen) and her son Charles (er, David) wrote more than 40 mysteries set in rural England after WWI. "They were one of the better mystery writers," says historical mystery writer Rhys Bowen. - The New York Times

Patrick Reyntiens, Who Worked Miracles With Stained Glass In Britain’s Bombed-Out Cathedrals, Dead At 95

While he did a great deal of high-quality work, his most admired projects were in two modern monuments which replaced medieval landmarks destroyed in World War II: Coventry Cathedral (the baptistry) and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral (the lantern tower.) - The Guardian

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