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There’s nothing like standing in front of a piece of art, but how many will we ever have the chance to see in person? That’s why I appreciate Open Culture’s list of links to nearly two million pieces of art and more than 100,000 art books. All free, naturally.
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The U.S. Trends in Arts Attendance and Literary Reading: 2002-2017 report is generally positive, but I am stoked by the significant increase in poetry readers. The page includes an interactive data tool and links to the raw data used to write the report.
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New podcast! The Keepers — “stories of activist archivists, rogue librarians, curators, collectors and historians. Keepers of the culture and the cultures and collections they keep.” && Old podcast (and one of my favorites) returns! — Ear Hustle — “stories of life inside prison, shared and produced by those living it.” || See also: Podstand, where you can “browse people’s podcast subscriptions, and share your own.”
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A collaboration between Longreads and Oregon Public Broadcasting, Bundyville is a beautifully produced series about the infamous ranching family that combines longform articles and audio/podcasts.
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Of his hard-to-describe but endlessly-browsable site The Door of Perception, Ben Roth writes: “[it] is an ever-growing compilation of things that talk to me on a deep level. Passing on that feeling of resonance is a way of caring. I wanna take you with me on a path towards the light of consciousness.” An incredible collection of sometimes trippy, often mind-bending, usually enlightening stuff.
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“The US prison system is broken. It sucks up billions of dollars each year and destroys lives. Could a Thai princess and an accidental criminal justice reform activist in the Pacific Northwest have the answers?” → Stripped: The Search for Human Rights in US Women’s Prisons || See also: in The Conversation: quite a story of art behind bars—and survival—in an increasingly perverted penal system.
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In the (often maddening) Blind Spots, ” favorite artists” listen to famous albums they’ve never heard before. It would be be better if the sides were a bit less lopsided as far as accomplishments (so far) go, but still mostly fun.
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This week in radically different photography sites → Irenaeus Herok’s aerial shifting sands photos! && The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards are open for your votes (previously: CWPA galleries).
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Just for funsies → Smash Mouth’s “All Star” translated to Aramaic and back into English && Funny Pub Signs
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Today in 1620, the Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth, England, bound for the New World. The 102 passengers (including nearly forty “Separatists” who called themselves “Saints”) were intending to establish a settlement in what would come to be Virginia but instead landed near what is now Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Establishing a settlement named Plymouth, half the colonists would die of disease in the first year, but the colony survived thanks to help from most of the local Indian tribes. In thanks, the descendants of the settlers committed multiple acts of genocide against the Native Americans on their way to creating the country that would elect Donald J. Trump as its president.