Michelle Obama’s Editor Launches New Publishing House With Unorthodox Marketing Strategy

“Rather than relying chiefly on bookstores, retailers, advertising and other traditional channels to promote authors,” Molly Stern plans to have her new venture, Zando, “team up with high-profile individuals, companies and brands, who will act as publishing partners and promote books to their fans and customers.” – The New York Times

Jazz Pianist Assaulted In Subway – He May Never Play Again

“I thought that this was how I was going to die,” he recalled two weeks later, describing the attack in a written note because it was still painful to talk about it. He did not know how many in the group had hit him. They fractured his right collarbone, injured his arm and bruised him all over. After surgery for the broken bones, he was not sure whether he will ever be able to play the piano again. He has been unable to use his right hand at all, and said he is learning to do everything with his left hand. – The New York Times

Some NY Theatres Lobby To Reopen Given Their Unconventional Spaces

A coalition of theaters are lobbying New York State for special permission to present ticketed performances to reduced capacity, socially distanced audiences. Because of their open spaces and flexible designs, these theaters argue that they can safely return to business now or soon, before standard theaters do. At present, though, only rehearsals, gallery exhibitions and film shoots are allowed. – The New York Times

Study: Our Brains Prefer Happy Endings To Happiness Earlier On

Participants prefer experiences with happy endings to experiences that became slightly less enjoyable towards the end. Thanks to their work with fMRI imaging, Martin Vestergaard and Wolfram Schultz are also able to suggest some of the mechanical underpinnings of this preference by showing that different parts of the brain preserve and process different pieces of information from the same experience. – Wired

Once Dance Was A Weapon In The Fight For Social Justice. Could It Be Again?

Gia Kourlas: “Back [in the 1930s], protests and social justice were part of the fabric of modern dance as it met the moment of the Great Depression and the rise of authoritarianism. ‘The Dance Is a Weapon.’ That was the title of the first recital of the New Dance Group, a socially minded collective formed in 1932. For me, that period of dance haunts the time we’re living in — the pandemic, the election, the uprisings against racial injustice — like a good, progressive ghost.” – The New York Times

Facing Closed Buildings And Budget Cuts, Schools Find Ways To Teach Kids Music Despite COVID

“For luckier, specialized schools, … planning for this unprecedented fall semester has boiled down to some common themes, including online vs. hybrid instruction, space constraints, and technological considerations. But for music education programs like the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and the Harmony Program, planning has hinged on a more urgent question: How can we continue to provide music education to kids whose schools can no longer afford it?” – WQXR (New York City)

Some Of Cinema’s Earliest Experiments, Preserved With The Simplest Of Technology, Are Now Restored

Moving picture clips by Georges Méliès and Alice Guy-Blaché from the 1890s, long thought lost, were discovered over the last decade in the form of flipbooks, originally produced for people who couldn’t get to or afford tickets for a picture show. Now researchers have gathered some of those books and restored their images to film. – The Guardian

Marge Champion, Dancer, Choreographer, And Live Model For Disney’s Snow White, Dead At 101

“Fame arrived in the late 1940s, when she and Gower Champion began a professional dance partnership that continued through the next decade. … In television appearances and a slew of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie musicals including Show Boat (1951), they produced a chemistry that recalled for many viewers … the earlier performances of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.” And yes, as a young woman she modeled movement for Walt Disney’s animators, not only as Snow White but also as Dopey the dwarf and the hippo in Fantasia. – The Washington Post