Julie Cohen and Betsy West spent years making the documentary RBG. Cohen learned a lot: “When you think of power and toughness, you expect that you’re talking about a big, loud, forceful man and Justice Ginsburg was none of those things. … She was tiny, she had a soft voice, she was an introvert. And yet there was just no question that she had power and that power came both from the wattage that was her brain but also from her level of determination.” – Los Angeles Times
Author: ArtsJournal2
A Treasure Trove Of Rare Stolen Books Has Been Found Under A House In Rural Romania
The $3.2 million cache came from a 2017 heist at a London warehouse, one of books so rare and with such niche interest that “one source, in Smithsonian, said that ‘a wealthy collector known as ‘The Astronomer’ may have hired the thieves to steal the books for him.'” Turns out it was an organized crime group in Romania. – LitHub
The Struggling Pacific Northwest College Of Art Gets A Merger Bailout
After a $34 million remodel of a new (to the college) building attracted no additional students, the Portland arts school was struggling. Luckily, PNCA had been in talks about a merger with Willamette University, based in Salem and about 50 miles away, for years. – The Oregonian
A Rare Edition Of Shakespeare’s Final Play Is Found In A Scottish College In Spain
It’s a 1634 volume that a researcher into Adam Smith found in the archives of the Real Colegio de Escoceses, which in the 17th century was a seminary and “an important source of English literature for Spanish intellectuals.” – BBC
The Carpenters Of Notre Dame’s Rebuild Display Some Expert Medieval Techniques
“With precision and boundless energy, a team of carpenters used medieval techniques to raise up — by hand — a three-ton oak truss Saturday in front of Notre Dame Cathedral, a replica of the wooden structures that were consumed in the landmark’s devastating April 2019 fire that also toppled its spire.” The feat was intended to show that officials made the correct decision to rebuild the cathedral using the same methods as builders did 800 years ago. – St. Louis Post-Dispatch (AP)
The Fading Upright Pre-WWI Pianos Of Australia
In Darwin, people are leaving them on the curb as they clean out their houses before “cyclone season,” but in Hobart, the older ones are more common, and perhaps slightly more tunable. A piano tuner says, “Unless it’s a Steinway it’s not worth fixing.” – ABC (Australia)
Doubt Is Horrifying, And It Also Leads To Clearer Thinking
At least, that’s what Kirkegaard believed. “In order to philosophize, you must have doubted everything.” – Aeon
Britain’s Kannah-Mason Family Wants To ‘Demystify’ Classical Music
The siblings, including the cellist who played at the wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle, just recorded an album “aimed squarely at children. It is all part of their mission to demystify classical music, especially for young people.” – BBC
Get Reading Because Here Are The National Book Award Nominees
If you need to make plans for staying inside, safely, this winter, there’s a lot to choose from here – and very little overlap with the Booker lists. – The New York Times
Let’s Talk About The True Subject Of ‘Cuties’
And it’s not, despite the hysteria of an orchestrated backlash, pedophilia. “What I found was a film about rage. That sudden, inchoate, unidentifiable female fury that rises in so many girls, often self-destructively, when they realize that certain rules are not about protecting them but controlling them.” – Los Angeles Times