Leonardo da Vinci died in 1519, and in the last 500 years, no three-dimensional works of art by him have come to light. “The 20 inch-tall sculpture, made of red clay, depicts the Virgin Mary, with an enigmatic smile similar to that of Mona Lisa, looking down at a smiling baby Jesus on her lap.” – NPR
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The Music For ‘Captain Marvel’ Is Also Woman-Composed And Led
Pinar Toprak was the first woman to score a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, a brass ring that she won after an extraordinary effort: “I went and hired a 70-piece orchestra and did a big production of it so that they could see me in front of the orchestra conducting, and I did another video inside my studio where I talked about the character and the theme.” – Vulture
Jussie Smollett Is Indicted On 16 Counts For Allegedly Phony Claims Of Attack
The actor, who claimed that two men wearing Make America Great Again hats shouted homophobic and racist slurs attacked him in a Chicago restaurant, was indicted in what his lawyer called “nothing more than a desperate attempt to make headlines.” – Chicago Tribune
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Management Makes An Offer That Musicians Call ‘Snake Oil”
The musicians are not happy with management’s offer on retirement benefits. Time is running out: “The CSO musicians voted to go on strike Sunday if a new agreement is not reached by 3 p.m. The musicians’ current contract extension expires Sunday night at 11:59 p.m.” – Chicago Classical Review
The Fifty Best One-Star Reviews Of ‘Wuthering Heights’ On Amazon
First of all, the main theme of these reviews is not the novel itself, but Jane Eyre. Then things keep on getting worse, and more hilarious: “While everyone stands around choking down a ball of moldy, stinky cheese acting upscale and phony, I’ll be eating my Velveeta and not forcing myself to like something that is overrated.” – LitHub
Is Satire Possible In The Age Of Trump?
How can satire be heard in a climate like this? By becoming louder and crasser. Subtle jabs are increasingly replaced by sledgehammer blows, clever insinuations by clumsy insults. Couple that with the fact that the practitioners of satire, or what passes for it these days, have proliferated greatly. – The New York Times
New Orleans Mardi Gras Blackface Tradition Under Fire
Modern-day Zulu Club members defend their practice by saying they are honoring the original group who were poking fun at the white actors. And there is a lot to like with this defense if you are a member of the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club, or a preservationist-hawk for all New Orleans culture. However, if you are neither of those things and you happen to be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, then Zulu blackface may not be for you. But you will be subjected to it anyway, even if it offends you. – CityLab
A Firm Argument Against Meritocracy
Although widely held, the belief that merit rather than luck determines success or failure in the world is demonstrably false. This is not least because merit itself is, in large part, the result of luck. Talent and the capacity for determined effort, sometimes called ‘grit’, depend a great deal on one’s genetic endowments and upbringing. – Aeon
Study: Pop Song Lyrics Are More Violent Than Hip Hop
Their most striking finding: The best-selling pop songs almost uniformly contain violent imagery. Amazingly, 99.5 percent of the pop hits they analyzed (198 in total) referred to violent acts. That’s slightly higher than the 94.7 percent of hip-hop numbers to feature such language, and far greater than the percentage of any other genre. – Pacific Standard
In The UK Translated Fiction Outsells English Fiction. It’s All About Collaboration
Of course, translating isn’t only the business of people who get paid to do it. Around 300 languages are used daily in London, and New York may be home to as many as 800, according to the Endangered Language Alliance. Yet any talk of translating literature—rather than shopping lists or doctors’ orders—is oddly esoteric. – Prospect