Sudden, massive fame may seem grand – but it’s not so easy to live through. “My life exploded and I’m still trying to put it back together. I jumped on the rollercoaster, it’s been really chaotic for the last seven years.” – The Guardian (UK)
Blog
Yet Another Experiment With New York Street Design
Some streets are pedestrian-only now, zoned for restaurants to spread into the middle of the street where cars once crowded. Though this design is new and pandemic-related, research shows “the city has a long history of considering audacious designs to tame urban chaos.” – Fast Company
A Bittersweet Moment For Black Bookstore Owners
They’re busier than ever, but “as Black bookstore owners race to meet their demands, many are dealing with complicated, sometimes painful feelings about what the new business means,” and why people are suddenly interested in books on anti-racist work. – NPR
Conductors On Hold
There’s truly no way to perform the craft of being an orchestra conductor right now. So they, like most of us, are doing other things: “For conductors with steady work before the pandemic — globe-trotting and rarely home — the aftermath of cancellations has amounted to a surprise sabbatical. They have learned new languages, picked up old instruments, and composed. And they have begun to reimagine performances for the coming year.” – The New York Times
Leslie Odom Jr. And Money For All Of Hamilton’s Actors
The actor who played Burr in the original off-Broadway and Broadway casts on negotiating better pay for the soon-to-be-out movie: “You want to be an ally? You make sure that Black people and people of color and women are getting paid, that they’ll be able to take money home to their families. It’s not about revenge, it’s about equality.” – Los Angeles Times
Consequential Writing About Race
Appreciating social movements in hindsight is a complicated endeavor. Leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Harriet Tubman are often whitewashed to appease modern sensibilities. Some, like Bayard Rustin, are almost forgotten entirely. – The New York Times
Teen Who Threw Child Off Tate Modern Sentenced To 15 Years
The Old Bailey heard how Bravery spent more than 15 minutes stalking possible targets at the art gallery viewing platform before fixing on a young visitor who had briefly left his parents’ side. The teenager, who is from Ealing, was said to have “scooped (the victim) up and, without any hesitation, carried him straight to the railings and threw him over”. – Local Guardian (UK)
Louvre To Reopen With A Fraction Of Its Usual Visitors
When the museum reopens, 70 percent will be accessible, including the large galleries of French and Italian paintings, the sculpture courtyards and the Egyptian antiquities section. But with France’s borders still closed to travelers from outside the European Union, visitor numbers will be a fraction of what they usually are in the peak summer season. – New York Times
American Nursing Homes Have Been Exposed As A Design Catastrophe
Even when there is no pandemic to worry about, most of these places have pared existence for the long-lived back to its grim essentials. These are places nobody would choose to die. More important, they are places nobody would choose to live. “People ask me, ‘After COVID, is anyone going to want to go into a nursing home ever again?’ The answer is: Nobody ever wanted to go to one.” – New York Magazine
COVID-As-Opportunity: Enough With Utopias, We Need Practical Ideas
“Maybe I’ve missed the more nuanced views, but if feels like the only people out there – in my echo chambered world at any rate – who admit that they can’t be sure are those with the most wisdom to express some degree of certainty – our epidemiologists and other medical scientists. Too many other people are using this crisis to justify their own existing view of the world’s dystopia, and already-formed hopes for a future utopia.” – Cultural Learning Alliance