[NEWS] Fourteen links

• By at least one metric, New Brunswick now lags economically behind a more dynamic Prince Edward Island. CBC reports.
• NOW Toronto looks at toxic fandoms. (“Stanning” sounds really creepy to me.)
• This CityLab article looks at how the particular characteristics of Japan, including its high population density, helps keep alive there retail chains that have failed in the US.
• MacLean’s looks at Kent Monkman, enjoying a new level of success with his diptych Mistikôsiwak at the Met in NYC.
• Can there be something that can be said for the idea of an Internet more strongly pillarized? Wired argues.
• I reject utterly the idea of meaningful similarities between Drake and Leonard Cohen. CBC did it.
• Toronto Life looks at the life of a Hamilton woman hurt badly by the cancellation of the basic income pilot, here.
• Inspired by the death of Gord Downie, Ontario now has the office of poet-laureate. CBC reports.
• Is Canada at risk, like Ireland, of experiencing two-tier health care? CBC considers.
• A French immigrant couple has brought the art of artisanal vinegar to ile d’Orléans. CBC reports.
• Shore erosion is complicating the lives of people along Lake Erie. CBC reports.
• MacLean’s notes how Via Rail making it difficult for people without credit cards to buy anything on their trains, hurting many.
• Michelle Legro notes at Gen that the 2010s is the decade where conspiracy culture became mainstream.
• This essay by Robert Greene at his blog talking about what history, and historians, can do in our era is thought-provoking.

[PHOTO] Five photos of Fayum portraits at the Met (@metmuseum)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a fantastic display of Fayum mummy portraits, samples of Roman portraiture preserved by the dry climate of ancient Egypt. Here, the people of the past look at us.

[PHOTO] Twenty-three photos of the works of David Hockney at the Met (#hockney, @metmuseum)

The winter’s David Hockney exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, conveniently located next to the Michaelangelo show, covered everything there was to see, from his student art to his latest iPad art. I have to say that Hockney really only came into his own as an artist once he moved to North America in the mid-1960s, and came to enjoy the sunshine and the space of California (among others). Seeing notable works like A Bigger Splash, or his double portraits of couples, or some of his photo mosaics, was truly an experience to be appreciated. Michael Valinsky’s recent Them article does a great job outlining Hockney’s importance, not least as a queer artist out practically from the beginning of his career.

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[PHOTO] Twenty-nine photos from Michaelangelo (#metmichaelangelo) at the Met (#metmuseum)

After much too long, and having overcome computer issues among other things, I thought it was time for me to resume my NYC latergramming.

The Met’s exhibition of Michaelangelo–Michaelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer–is superb, tracing his direct influences through to his immediate successors with a remarkable survey of the entirety of his sketches. Thank you, Paul, for suggesting this, and thank you, Alexander, for waiting outside until I finished. (It was crowded, and deservedly so.) What can be said but that Michaelangelo was a master?

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[PHOTO] Double-sided tombstone, Fatimid Egypt (@metmuseum)

[PHOTO] Three sculptures by Rodin at the Met (@metmuseum)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of Rodin is superb.

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[PHOTO] Three photos of Adolf de Meyer from the Met (#metmuseum, #quicksilverbrilliance)

From the 4th of December, 2017, to the 8th of April, 2018, Gallery 852 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be hosting Quicksilver Brilliance, an exhibition of the photos of early 20th century Adolf de Meyer. (Some sources use “Adolph” instead, but Adolf seems to be most commonly used.). The delicate black-and-white photos de Meyer took of some of the celebrities of the New York City of this time–Josephine Baker, Count Étienne de Beaumont, Rita de Acosta Lydig–speak of a skill in composition and eye for colour on de Meyer’s part that I envy.

[PHOTO] Four photos of blue artifacts from the Middle East at the met (#metmuseum)

Blue is my favourite colour, and blue also happens to have been a popular colour in the art of the Middle East. I found myself homing in on artifacts tinted in this shade.

[PHOTO] Five photos of Islamic artifacts from the Met (@metmuseum)

The Met has plenty of gorgeous artifacts from throughout the Middle East: painted glass bottles, file tile mosaics, and more.

[PHOTO] Bedroom from the Sagredo Palace, Venice, circa 1718 (@metmuseum)