The gold standard and the pop-up worth getting on line early to score tickets for is probably “Saved by the Max.” After its launch last year, Eater Los Angeles described it as a “near-complete recreation of the ’90s Saturday morning staple Saved by the Bell‘s diner.” It feels like it has items from every episode and Easter eggs to inside jokes for both die-hard and casual fans lurking in there somewhere. A $40 ticket gave Chicago and West Hollywood fans an appetizer, an entree, and all the fandom they could handle. – Fast Company
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Walt Whitman Had Troubling Views. So Why Is He Still Venerated?
“The question goes beyond whether or not Whitman should be banished from the literary forum, if such a thing were even possible. If America can be said to have a national poet, if “O Captain! My Captain!” is still memorized by schoolchildren, then the fact of Whitman is burned into America’s signature.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
Why Civility Is So Difficult In A Democracy
“To regard one’s opposition as being on the wrong side of an important political dispute is to regard them as being on the side of injustice. Thus, heated tones, raised voices, and spicy language – not to mention a measure of frustration, impatience, and resentment – are precisely what should be expected in many democratic disagreements.” – 3 Quarks Daily
Our Most Favorite Story Lines? The Sympathetic Protagonist
Orphaned protagonists are so common that an online encyclopaedia of narrative tropes has more than 25 pages on orphan-related themes, including ‘Street Urchin’ (Oliver Twist), ‘Disappeared Dad’ (Forrest Gump) and ‘Doorstop Baby’ (Harry Potter). – Aeon
How Nietzche’s Ideas Still Permeate Our Thinking
The adventures of “super” and “über” are a case study in the inescapability of Nietzsche’s philosophy, which has affected everyday discourse and modern political reality like no body of thought before it. – The New Yorker
Where Are Artists Priced Out Of Gentrifying Berlin Neighborhoods Going? Here
They’ve been moving into abandoned East German factories along the Spree River. “Although the area’s landscape may look post-apocalyptic, with its giant weeds and empty power plants, strangely, the future here can seem positively Arcadian: Real estate is still cheap enough that artists are able to buy, rather than rent, their spaces. Here, four artists discuss how their work is shaped by the Spree.” – T — The New York Times Style Magazine
Mr. Armstrong, meet Mr. Shaw
A friend of mine sent me this color photograph the other day, remarking that he suspected it was the only time that Louis Armstrong and George Bernard Shaw appeared in the same painting. – Terry Teachout
Theatre Ontario To Close After 48 Years
The organization works with theatre companies and professionals at all levels, including amateur, professional, and educational, with advocacy, education, and training, and has run many programs to that end, including the Talent Bank, and Summer Theatre Intensive. – Ludwig Van
The Problem With Critics Who Worry That The New ‘Joker’ Movie Will Goad Crazy Incels Into Shooting People
Dan Brooks: “Ostensibly too sophisticated for superhero stories, our critics have accepted the Joker’s power to corrupt the masses in real life, on a more literal level than the most addled comic-book fan ever would. That’s a failure to maintain critical distance, but it’s being projected onto an audience that critics imagine to be more suggestible than themselves — insanely more suggestible, almost comically so.” – The New York Times Magazine
Research: Arts, Sports Might Help Cut Homelessness
“Meaningful activity might be an essential component of youth homelessness prevention. This includes resources that encourage social inclusion (e.g., community and recreation centres) and natural supports. For example, neighbours may be able to help facilitate housing retention once a young person leaves the streets.” The Conversation