Going for the Archrival’s Jugular? Christie’s Assures Clients About Its “Continuity of Activity”  A message from Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti, which hit my inbox late Friday, included a boldfaced passage that struck me (and probably some of his firm’s clients) as an implied gibe at archrival Sotheby’s. – Lee Rosenbaum
Jürgen Ploog, R.I.P.  “Jay,” the name he went by among close friends, was widely regarded as one of Germany’s premiere second-generation Beat writers. But his narrative fiction — like that of William S. Burroughs, a mentor with whom he was associated — was more experimental and closer to Brion Gysin’s or J.G. Ballard’s than to Jack Kerouac’s or Allen Ginsberg’s. – Jan Herman
‘The Wake World’ comes from somewhere, but where?  Time and again while listening to the new recording of David Hertzberg’s opera, I asked myself, What zeitgeist did this arrive from? What cultural phenomenon contributed to why it was written now? And why have audiences responded to it so readily? Here are the pieces that don’t even begin to add up. – David Patrick Stearns
What Comes Next? IV  “It behooves us to spend some time considering how we might prepare not just for a new financial reality but for a new social one. It will be important to be and be seen as partners in making a better and more livable world – not just by being presenters of arts events but by being valuable community citizens.” – Doug Borwick
Why Did Shostakovich Join the Party?  One of the most controversial acts in the ever-controversial life of Dmitri Shostakovich was his tortured decision in 1960 to join the Communist Party. It is not mentioned in Testimony (1979) – the composer’s influential memoirs, collaboratively written with Solomon Volkov. But Volkov offered his own view, for the first time, in a Zoom chat the other day produced by PostClassical Ensemble. – Joseph Horowitz
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