Just in case you were inclined to think they were, which … apparently, people are. And by “people,” we’re talking about scientists. But there’s an issue: “Changing ideas about accuracy relate to an even deeper problem with these supposedly scientific approaches: The researchers are unaware that both portraiture and the ideas portraits express have a history.” – Hyperallergic
Blog
Designing The Ideal Library
You know, for when we can be together in person again. – The New York Times
After A Suitable Boy Was In Development For 25 Years, Mira Nair Brings It To The Small Screen
The director says she didn’t direct it as a series, though: “I actually treated it as long-form cinema. It’s about rhythm for me. It’s about trying to find that thread that takes us through. And of course, music for me … is really the oxygen that drives my cinema.” – NPR
LA’s Museum Of Latin American Art Defends Its Big Deaccession Auction
The museum had 59 works from its permanent collection on the auction block, but it says that was in pursuit of a larger goal. The museum’s chief curator claimed “the sale was not a response to economic hardship but part of a long-term initiative to diversify the collection, making it stronger, more relevant and balanced.” – Los Angeles Times
Making The Most Of The Sounds Of Home
Bella Chen takes ambient sounds from around the world – the world where musicians can’t travel at the moment – and turns them into inspiration for improvised, online performances. – BBC
The Loss Of Print, The Rise Of Fan Culture, And What’s Happened To Reviews
This is, on the surface, about a game. But it’s about so much more, including “scores” in reviews, the authority of “major” sites, gatekeeping, industry PR, and loud voices screaming on YouTube. – Kotaku
Black Booksellers Question Tattered Cover’s Self-Anointing Media Coverage
Having a Black venture capitalist in your ownership group isn’t exactly the win Tattered Cover’s PR claimed. Danielle Mullen of Semicolon Bookstore in Chicago: “It’s hurtful to Black booksellers who have been doing the hard work—and then they take the same credit without real Black representation. It’s disappointing and almost unbelievable. Especially with the history they have around the BLM protests and why they lost so many customers. It’s ridiculous. … It’s like if Jeff Bezos partnered with a Black person and then said, ‘Amazon is the biggest Black-owned business in the world.'” – Publishers Weekly
While 2020 Fell Off A Cliff, TV Stayed Suspended In Midair
Or so says one of Slate‘s TV critics. Read the whole series of posts if you can – you can start here and work your way back – but there’s a serious discussion to be had about TV in 2020. “For so much of this year, watching TV felt like watching these weird remnants of another world. They would resonate or fail to connect just like TV always does, but they’d be reaching out to a completely other world than the one they originally intended to reach.” – Slate
Church As Theatre
Everything is locked down in Paris, except for Mass. “The ritualistic nature of the event, the dramatic buildup from scene to scene — even the slightly labored monologues — are all part and parcel of regular theater attendance.” – The New York Times
That Time Italian Futurists Declared War On Pasta
You see, pasta wasn’t “virile” enough for these guys, the poets and artists of Italian Futurism. That’s right, “a heavy, bloated stomach does not encourage physical enthusiasm for a woman, nor favour the possibility of possessing her at any time.” – Open Culture