What’s behind this phenomenon is generational thinking. It seems to be everywhere at the moment, providing the media with easy taglines, spreading cliches and unnecessarily sowing division. But its history goes back far beyond even the baby-boomers. - The Conversation

The problem is that he has chosen to be a farm stand that serves salty, fatty, sugary pseudo-thinking. His signature methodology is to convey relatively boilerplate, already well-known ideas, by rebranding the ideas and wrapping them in stories. And the lubricant of this engine is turning everything into little mysteries. - The New York Times

"Was it nihilism and defeatist anomie that the war ushered in? … Perhaps what the First World War released above all was a spirit of ephemerality. Perhaps it was the notion of artistic durability that then began its long, slow death." - History Today

The emotional and psychological ties people have with places contribute to their perception of authenticity. Just as much as the exposed bricks and wooden floors, it’s because of its community connections and personalised atmosphere that a centuries-old pub in London can feel more authentic than a commercialised pub in the United States. - Psyche

Scientists found that bilingual individuals have more efficient communication between brain regions, notably between the cerebellum and left frontal cortex. - Neuroscience News

Yes, AI is a problem, and so are human-generated fakes. “People do a pretty poor job at discerning a fake review from a real one. It’s essentially a coin flip – studies have shown that shoppers can correctly identify a fake review only half of the time.” - The Conversation

A report from the nonprofit Arts for LA says that, while many schools in California are taking full advantage of the funding offered, other schools are not — simply because they don't have the necessary infrastructure or can't find qualified teachers. - MyNewsLA.com

The marketing whizzes at Harvard Business School haven’t written a case study on the genius of the Nobel Foundation, but perhaps they should. The Nobel is one of the greatest branding exercises in history. - The Atlantic

“Evidence consistently demonstrates that regional artists predictably struggle for equal opportunities. 'Postcode matters,’ one regional artist with decades of experience tells ArtsHub.” - ArtsHub

"'The law applies to all Afghanistan … and it will be implemented gradually," (said) the spokesman for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, adding that officials would work to persuade people (and) "coercion has no place in the implementation of the law.'" - AFP (MSN)

Organizations remain very reliant on declining revenue sources. In 2022, 65% of expenses were covered by contributed revenue. However, the rate of contributed revenue growth has slowed. - SMU Data

Homes filled to the rafters with hoarded junk are common enough to have an ironic idiom: gomi-yashiki (trash-mansions). And in areas where space is limited, cluttered residences and shops will often erupt, disgorging things onto the street in a semi-controlled jumble so ubiquitous that urban planners have a name for it: afuré-dashi (spilling-outs). - Aeon

The ticketholder is attempting to launch a class-action suit claiming damages for concerts canceled when the Pops collapsed in 2022-23. The suit alleges that the cancellations were "due to a poorly planned conspiracy to force the Philly Pops out of business for the benefit of the Philadelphia Orchestra." - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

Typically, the festival sees a surge in ticket sales in June, but in 2024, a surge never arrived. With stalling sales and mounting bills — deposits for stages, bands, portable toilets and security — the outlook was grim. - SFGate

Dennis Moore, the morning host at Chicago-based WFMT, returned from a medical leave earlier this year and asked for schedule or other changes as an accommodation for a sleep-related issue. When station management declined and Moore rejected a buyout, he says, he was fired. - Chicago Sun-Times

The orchestra, which was known for improving access for students and low-income folks in the Minnesota, will play its swan song concert this weekend. Why? Conductor and AD Jay Fishman says to follow the (lack of) money. - MinnPost

"(Jeanine) Tesori knows that it takes more than a familiar name to entice audiences to a show, especially in a medium that is unfamiliar to them. So she has taken the time to clear up some misconceptions about opera, in the hopes that it will encourage theatre lovers to become opera lovers." - Playbill

Royce Vavrek, Brooklyn-based but Canadian by birth, has been appointed artistic director of Against the Grain Theatre, an experimental opera company in Toronto. - Ludwig Van

Smaller and midsize galleries are caught in a vicious cycle: they can’t afford to participate in top fairs, yet they can’t afford to miss them. Today, half of all gallery sales happen at fairs, double the rate of just ten years ago. Galleries now participate in an average of five fairs annually, not out...

The project looked pleasing on paper. Residents found it no better than a trailer park. Buildings leaked. Oriental Masonic Gardens closed a decade after it opened. - The New York Times

"The world’s second Sphere is planned to be built in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. … Under the deal, Abu Dhabi will pay a franchise fee to Sphere Entertainment to build the second location using its designs … as well as annual fees to Sphere Entertainment 'for creative and artistic content.'" -...

Oliver Wainwright: "The Lizzie line is a worthy winner, providing a dazzling demonstration that, for all chaos surrounding HS2, Britain is still capable of pulling off gargantuan transport infrastructure projects with style and panache." - The Guardian

"The Grand Egyptian Museum will open 12 halls with exhibits about ancient Egypt starting this week ahead of the still-unannounced official opening. … The museum, a mega-project near the Giza Pyramids which has cost well over $1 billion so far, will open the halls for 4,000 visitors per day starting Wednesday." - AP

"Egyptian and German experts have successfully restored the lost colors and glimmering metals that once enlivened ancient Egypt’s second largest, and perhaps best preserved, temple … the Temple of Edfu, which is devoted to the falcon god Horus and situated along the Nile’s west bank, just below the river’s midway point." - Artnet

What is the magic sales number an author needs to reach to prove their worth? 1,000? 2,000? The precise sales figure likely varies from agent to agent, publisher to publisher, but one thing is clear for nearly all debut novelists, no matter who publishes them. - The Millions

"Everett’s novel, which imagines Mark Twain’s classic from the perspective of the escaped enslaved man whom Huckleberry Finn befriends, is also a finalist for the National Book Award and the Booker Prize." Adam Higginbotham’s Challenger took the nonfiction prize and Kenneth M. Cadow's Gather won for young readers’ literature. - AP

"ByteDance, the Chinese technology giant that owns TikTok, made an initial move into publishing digital books last year. Now the company’s publishing imprint, 8th Note Press, is planning to significantly expand its retail footprint by publishing print editions and selling them in physical bookstores." - The New York Times

It’s an everything-old-is-new-again finding that also explains the continued success of some books, luxury magazines and literary journals. - CNN

"The rising young generations want texts that matter to them, that reflect their lives and experiences. So when we force-feed yet another vanilla canonical dust collector, and then complain that they aren’t playing along, it’s just not a good look for us." - CMSThomas

"It makes a weird kind of sense that the government worker who understands the value of providing online advice and information to far-flung Americans … is a woman whose hometown is a 32-hour drive from a reference desk in D.C." - The Washington Post

Networks have long complained that Nielsen isn't measuring audiences as well as it should during the transition from linear to streaming, although a Nielsen spokesperson stressed the company has the most accurate streaming data in the industry. - The Wrap

Producers and members of the crew and cast — among others, Danny DeVito, John Travolta, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, Rosanna Arquette, Christopher Walken and Kathy Griffin — talk about the movie's gestation and release as well as how it revived careers and changed American indie film. - Variety

Chicagoans of a certain age have a lot of affection for him. “The show represents a time when the city itself felt simpler and more local.” - WBEZ

Damien Navarro “sued Outfest in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging he was retaliated against after he raised discrimination and ethics concerns to the group’s leadership.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

"To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Pulp Fiction, Variety spoke with more than 20 members of the film’s cast and crew about their experiences, recollections and insights." - Variety

"The BBC plans to make a net reduction of 130 roles in its news and current affairs department, ending (flagship) interview programme Hardtalk, tech show Click and the Asian Network’s bespoke news service as part of a £24 million cost-cutting drive." - Press Gazette (UK)

"'They really flew,' he said of the years. 'I could think like a few days ago it was when I arrived, and a lot has changed since then. But I think that this year sort of represents the past, the present, and the future of who we are and where the company is heading.'"...

“Often in films, this type of dance can become commercial. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s a different type of beauty to the dancing in this film.” - The New York Times

"Neurosurgeons in Copenhagen said in a recent case study that the man had developed a tumor atop his head from years of head spinning, a common breakdancing move. Doctors removed the tumor, which was more than an inch wide and created a cone-shaped bump atop the patient’s head." - The Washington Post (MSN)

What he wanted to promote with his company was the idea that Black audiences—general Black audiences, like the folks Acocella probably saw applauding “Revelations”—should connect not only with their “ ’buked” and “scorned” selves onstage but with the feeling that performance can be a kind of balm, an embrace. - The New Yorker

No, not Manhattan. “On Governors Island, audience members gathered on the grass for Analphabetes, uncertain where to look for the performance or how to distinguish the performers from passers-by. Then four figures appeared on a hill in the distance, wearing retro windbreakers.” - The New York Times

“Like the swells of music or the climaxes of a musical theme, stories rise and fall as they move closer to a satisfying end. In the same way dancers dance ‘with' the music, or sometimes in counterpoint, characters in a novel rise and fall with the rhythm.” - LitHub

"Her work's distinctly international flavour and its heavy use of masks and puppetry inspired by Indonesian and Japanese traditions didn't necessarily scream family-friendly commercial juggernaut. Nonetheless, (Disney Theatricals chief) Thomas Schumacher had a hunch Taymor's highly visual style of theatre could be just the thing." - BBC

The text — 98 lines, of which only 20 were previously known, from the plays Ino and Polyidus — were written on a piece of parchment found in the ancient village of Philadelphia, 62 miles southwest of Cairo. - History Today

That’s because it’s the play Yellow Face, by David Henry Hwang, that "centers around a fictionalized playwright named DHH.” - Gothamist

"They must become expert drummers. They’ll also learn to spit paint onto a spinning canvas, catch a dozen rapid-fire marshmallows in their mouths and then be prepared for absolutely anything the audience might throw at them. Hundreds audition every year across the globe. Only a handful ultimately get hired." - WBEZ (Chicago)

"Now, this revival of that show is proving, with gusto, that American Idiot can be yet another thing: a near-scientific study of the innumerable ways to give somebody the finger." - The New York Times

The show has struggled to sell enough tickets to defray its running costs, and on Friday night the producers announced that it would close on Jan. 5. At the time of its closing, it will have had 24 previews and 301 regular performances. The show announced plans for a national tour in September 2025....

“She said that with the wars raging between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, with deaths being reported every day, she could not hold a celebratory press conference,” Seung-wo told Korean reporters. - LitHub

"Gates’s business dealings and art making are not at odds: Salvage from the buildings goes into his art installations; proceeds from his art sales fund his building renovations and community programs. … He hopes to demonstrate "an open model for what an artist can be.'" - T — The New York Times Style Magazine

"Fan Bingbing, once one of China’s most famous film stars, is returning to the screen after a more than five-year hiatus following her alleged involvement in a massive tax evasion scandal." - The Guardian

No writer who heard it would touch it. From bookstores to biographers to journalists, the literary world had everything to gain from an untarnished Alice Munro. Open secrets require closed doors. - The Walrus

"The attempted murder trial of (Hadi Matar,) the man charged with severely injuring author Salman Rushdie in a 2022 knife attack was put on hold Friday while judges consider a request to move it to another county. Jury selection had been scheduled to start on Tuesday." - AP

But he finally realized there was no avoiding it. "There is this moment of incredible tension and excitement before going on stage, you know, before appearing. And then when you're there, everything is amazing. Everything is just incredible. So I think I'm the best version of myself." - NPR