“Look at any piece of city marketing material, from promo videos to airline magazine ad inserts. It’s amazing how so many of them rely on the same basic ingredients: hipster coffee shops, microbreweries, bike lanes, creative-class members, startups, intimations of a fashion scene, farm-to-table restaurants, new downtown streetcars, etc. These are all good things, mind you: things cities should be happy to have. Some of them may even be modern necessities. But you can’t help but notice how few unique things about these cities manage to come through.” – CityLab
How This Year’s Oscar Nominees Got To Be Oscar Nominees
Only so many movies are chosen, and the road isn’t straight. Here is a movie-by-movie account of how each got to be a best picture nominee. – Deadline
What Makes Us Human: Laughter?
Something that sets us apart from these ancestors and primate relatives, and should be of special interest to anthropology, is our unique propensity to laugh. Laughter is a paradox. We all know it’s good for us; we experience it as one of life’s pleasures and a form of emotional release. Yet to be able to laugh, we must somehow cut ourselves off from feelings of love, hate, fear or any other powerful emotion. – Aeon
New Conservation Center & Stellar Van Gogh Show: David Bomford’s Last Hurrahs at MFA, Houston
Gary Tinterow, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has a knack for attracting distinguished staff. After Gary’s homecoming to Houston (where he grew up), to assume the MFAH’s directorship in 2012, one of his first and best hires was David Bomford, who became chairman of conservation and curator of European art. — Lee Rosenbaum
Propwatch: the strap-on in ‘When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other’
There is stuff you expect to find in a garage. A car. Metal shelving, peg board. Strip lighting that tints everything stark and queasy. A toolbox. Gaffer tape. An Amazon delivery box (there’s always a swoosh-marked Amazon box). They’re all here in Vicki Mortimer’s design. There’s also a strap-on. — David Jays
British Critic Alun Morgan Is Gone
Morgan’s critiques, reviews and album notes were among the most widely read of those by any contemporary jazz critic. — Doug Ramsey
New Concert Hall Designed By Frank Gehry Proposed For Wimbledon
Former Hollywood film director Anthony Wilkinson – now director of Wimbledon International Music Festival – is looking to raise around £100 million for the concert hall. Wilkinson told the AJ the facility could host ‘the finest music of all genres featuring significant musicians from around the world’. – Architects’ Journal
English Arts Orgs Are Becoming A Bit More Diverse, But Too Slowly: Report
“An annual statistical report, published on Tuesday by Arts Council England (ACE), showed slow progress in representation of people from a black and minority ethnic (BME) background, and barely any progress in the area of disabled employees.” – The Guardian