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The Power Behind The ‘Thrones’

According to the showrunners, without one woman, Game of Thrones on HBO would never have gotten far at all. Bernadette Caulfield, the executive producer, was in charge of all of this: “With its sprawling tale unfolding in a wide variety of environments, it was almost certainly the most technically complicated series ever made, at times running five units (film crews) simultaneously, on multiple continents, to complete a given season on time.” – The New York Times

Making Dance Out Of T.S. Eliot’s Poetry (And We Don’t Mean ‘CATS’)

How to make sense of Eliot’s “Four Quartets”? The choreographer isn’t sure, even after years of work. Pam Tanowitz: “It’s massive, it’s hard, it’s abstract. I still don’t understand the poem. … I don’t think you would ever understand it. It’s the kind of thing where you pick it up in a different headspace, age, or whatever’s going on in your life, and you get different things from it.” – The Guardian (UK)

James Winn, Biographer Of Queen Anne And Dryden, And A Master Of The Flute, Has Died At 71

Winn didn’t like the way that the academic world tended to get itself twisted into silos, he said, which is why he wrote about cultural life during Queen Anne’s reign, the poetry of war, Bach and the Beatles. “Professor Winn himself was certainly not a silo-dweller; when he wasn’t teaching English or writing about the Restoration, he was performing with orchestras or small ensembles, or working on a recording.” – The New York Times

This Week, A Calmer Pizza Party And Potluck To ‘Decolonize’ The Whitney

The quickest way to the heart, and all that: “The activists offered pizza and veggie dumplings to protestors and members of the museum’s staff in an action far less boisterous than in previous weeks. In return, they were greeted with a milder security team and a relatively indifferent response from the Friday free pass museum visitors.” – Hyperallergic

With Brexit In The Background, Game Of Thrones Bids Farewell To Belfast

Like New Zealand and Lord of the Rings, Belfast became a major tourist attraction thanks to its starring role across eight seasons of Game of Thrones. One local artist who spent a year making sculptures for the farewell party: “The legacy will go on for many, many years. There’s a real pride in the whole country because of Game of Thrones.” – Los Angeles Times

Parents Lead Push To Remove Sackler Name From Harvard Building

Parents who lost children to the opioid epidemic are pushing Harvard to take the Sackler name off a building that used to host the Arthur Sackler Art Museum. One: “Harvard, we want the Sackler name to come down. … This is a wonderful institution. And to be associated with the Sackler family is wrong, on every level possible. No more blood money.” – The Washington Post (AP)