Is This Medieval Statue Of King David At The Met A Forgery?

Last week, the New York Post published news of a possible scandal: a 12th-century head of King David, said to be originally from the portal of Notre-Dame de Paris, may be a 20th-century fake. And, writes Noah Charney in his examination of the story, “there is a backstory that has even identified a potential forger, and it involves a former Monuments Man, James Rorimer, … [who had been] the curator for medieval art at the Met.”

The First Theatre Critic? 17th-Century Notebook On Shakespeare’s Plays Discovered On ‘Antiques Roadshow’

Appraiser Matthew Haley was visibly trembling as he examined the tiny manuscript, written in Latin in 17th-century script. “We don’t know who the person who wrote it is,” says Haley, “but obviously if it’s a 17th-century hand they were either going along to Shakespeare’s plays when they were being performed and taking notes, or they were reading one of the first four printed editions of Shakespeare, which is really amazing.”

Cultivating Art As A “Slow” Experience

“Slow reading” is not to be understood in opposition to “fast reading.” There is nothing per se problematic with speed- or skim-reading; there are occasions when speed is necessary. Slow reading is often characterized by its intensity: it involves a fine-tuned attention to detail and nuance. And openness: “Slow reading is important precisely because it provides us with the attentive quality necessary for openness to occur.”

Funny Or Die At 10: An Oral History

“‘The spirit of it was, ‘Let’s just screw around,” recalls Adam McKay, the onetime SNL head writer and Oscar-winning writer-director (The Big Short) who cofounded the site … ‘We thought we’d tell our friends about it, and maybe it would be a little comedy clubhouse’ … As the site enters the age of Trump, we asked its founders and fans to reveal the smashes, near crashes, and highfalutin fart jokes that helped it become one of the sharpest, funniest forces in pop culture.

A New Publisher Focuses On Native American Superheroes

Why? Because the superhero world has a huge hole at its center. “Comics creator Jon Proudstar remembers the first time he saw a Native American character in a comic. It was Thunderbird, in the X-Men, and he was quickly killed off. Proudstar was 8 years old and he was not happy. ‘And for years I just lamented about it and said one day I’ll bring him back,’ he says.”

What’s The Problem With Bingeing On S-Town, The New Show From The People Who Brought Us Serial?

With the full show getting released at the same time – like a Netflix dump – “it induces a sense of sudden, ephemeral ubiquity, at least within a certain cultural bubble. Conversations about the show will burn hot for a few weeks around its release, and if you don’t immediately start binge-listening, you’ll miss the social experience of it.”