Best
In April, 223,000 jobs were created and the unemployment rate fell to 5.4% in the U.S., easing concerns that March’s poor jobs numbers were signs of deeper trouble. It turns out that a West Coast port strike and severe weather around the country were probably to blame for March’s numbers, and the economy is still on the rise, post-recession. Hooray! [Washington Post]
Source: Guelph Today
Worst
Keeping this category light today, metal band GWAR kicked out their first ever lady lead singer, Kim Dylla, via Facebook. Facebook, guys, that’s how she found out. They’ll continue on with Dylla’s Vulvatron character, but not with Dylla herself. Dylla posted her own message later, saying that she’s looking for a new metal band to play with, and her requirements are pretty simple: “Must not be threatened by strong women, no deep-seated drama.” [The Muse]
Weirdest
I was not aware of this, but apparently men across the country are buying gifts for not just their wives/the mothers of their children and, of course, their moms, but also for daughters, sisters, grandmothers, godmothers, and friends, and for their partners who are not yet mothers. On top of that, Mother’s Day is a $21 billion holiday, with participating men spending $215 and participating women spending $133 apiece. I mean, hot damn, people, what happened to breakfast in bed, flowers, and a clean house? [TIME]
Source: Mother’s Day
Coolest
The 56th Venice Biennale is going to be “morose, joyless, and ugly,” with the first-ever curator of African descent, Okwui Enwezor, focusing on art that pertains to global action and social change rather than “beauty, irony, or fun” (as whined by Benjamin Genocchio). Enwezor has curated a Biennale with a huge portion of the artists being new to the exhibition, and drawing especially from what Genocchio calls “the world’s periphery” (in other words, Africa). He’s also trying to address both diversity and systemic problems in the art world from an anti-capitalist perspective. All of which sounds great and very constructive to me, if not to oblivious critics who just want to have fun and look at pretty things while the rest of the world is burning; anyone want to buy me a ticket to Venice? [ArtNet]
Original by Rebecca Vipond Brink
