The opening of a €600m super-museum in Berlin has been postponed to next year, raising sceptical eyebrows among locals wary of the German capital’s growing tendency to deliver large public building projects late and over budget. – The Guardian
Author: Douglas McLennan
How The Trump Era Has Changed Comedy
“When satire is doing a good job, it’s not just punching up. It’s reminding us of our complicity.” But there’s no double meaning in outrage: “Outrage tells you, ‘Here is the thing, here is the thing that’s bad, here is the thing that’s good. … It says exactly what it should conclude. You don’t have to draw conclusions.” – Politico
Genius From A Different Time: Elon Musk Is A Throwback Entrepreneur
“His personality isn’t so different from one of those determined entrepreneurs from the 1900s who wanted to stick a motor on a carriage and get people moving without having to hitch a horse. For grizzled industry veterans, Wall Streeters, and Musk critics, he can be tough to take. But he’s not usual, in the history of people who start car companies.” – Business Insider
Detective Mystery: Where Is The $450 Million Salvator Mundi?
The most common theory is that the 500-year-old artwork is sitting in storage in Switzerland — specifically in Geneva, where, according to The New York Times, more than a million works of art are kept in secretive tax-free warehouses by collectors and galleries. But last week, another theory emerged in an opinion piece by art dealer Kenny Schachter published on Artnet: that the last known privately-held Leonardo is on a luxury yacht owned by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman. – CNN
Too Many People Want To Go To Burning Man
Burning Man organizers had proposed raising the current 80,000 limit as high as 100,000 in coming years. But the Bureau of Land Management said in releasing the final environmental impact statement on Friday its preferred alternative for the proposed 10-year renewal of Burning Man’s special recreation would stick with the cap that’s been in place since 2017. – Washington Post
The Nine Movies And Operas That Defined Franco Zeffirelli’s Work
The critics sometimes found his work overstuffed, with more attention paid to décor than to human beings. But audiences ate it up for decades. – The New York Times
How Post-Modernism Has Shaped Our Culture (And Our Debates)
“In the era of Donald Trump — and YouTube — the most fevered version of the case against postmodernism has become increasingly visible. That is, the claim that a coalition of critical theorists, poststructuralists, multiculturalists, feminists, queer theorists, and African-American and other “studies” professors have successfully conspired to take over educational institutions, the media, and the U.S. government, and even to establish a new International World Order.” – Chronicle of Higher Education
Remembering Dr. John
Mac made every recording session, every gig, and every musical encounter better just by being there. He knew what to add. He knew what to subtract. He brought the best out of everyone in the room and did it with such casual grace and style that it seemed effortless. That same sense of ease pervaded his wardrobe. – Paris Review
Making Sense of The Complicated Havana Bienal
The Cuban government, which regularly arrests artists and journalists, also expected to welcome a record-breaking 5.1 million tourists this year. Cuba’s leaders are well aware that cultural capital is one of their nation’s major assets. Rage, pain, and dissent were not only openly on view in this Bienal but were featured and promoted with hashtags like #CubaEsCultura. – New York Review of Books
Northern Canadian Musicians Are Hot Right Now. But Remoteness Costs
In the past 10 years, northern and Indigenous music has been winning over bigger and bigger audiences, and some artists have leveraged that into international recognition. But the cost of making careers from the remote north are extraordinary. – CBC