If You’re Too Stressed To Finish A Novel, Try Short Stories Or Essays Instead

Everyone’s concentration is shot right now, and for some, it’s just too hard to focus long enough, either physically or mentally, to read a novel. But “there’s something about reading a short form – a capsule of place, time or character – that appeals to me. I know that I can get through it in one sitting. It doesn’t ask too much.” – The Guardian (UK)

The Best Art Parodies Seem To Have Started In Russia, And Now They’re Everywhere

A Facebook group started in Moscow now has tens of thousands of members worldwide, making art of the mundanities of lockdown. “They have been posting their work at a clip of more than 1,000 items a day, each time attaching their own photo alongside an image of the original art. They have corralled family members, pets and household items to channel the iconic and, as the Munchs and Kahlos pile up, so do the obscure — a flexible air-conditioning duct; a collage of plastic forks; a ring of strung-together, almost-spent toilet paper rolls.” – The New York Times

How London’s National Theatre Is Surfing A Wave Of Viewers For Its Broadcasts

Basically, the National Theatre has better camerawork than most theatres trying to do broadcasts – and that creates intimacy, the kind of intimacy you might otherwise find only at a life performance. “Partly it’s that the productions are terrific, and wildly varied in style. And partly it’s that the intimate camerawork makes you feel like a collaborator in distinctly theatrical effects. When a callous aunt took the bundle of rags that stood for baby Jane Eyre and violently shook it out, revealing the dress that the actor playing Jane donned to assume her role, I gasped.” – The Atlantic