Now, when so many of our needs are unified and algorithm-prompted by online retail, independent bookstores offer person-to-person customization. Something, it turns out, that we are craving despite the ease of online shopping. - The Globe & Mail
As more video-production studios embrace advanced audio formats for at-home content, not every device can keep up. Plenty of viewers can’t keep up, either. - The Wall Street Journal
The confrontation is intriguing and raises many issues of which the most basic is the simple question: why has the story of Atlantis – compared with other ancient myths – maintained its popularity for so long? What is the essential attraction of the tale? - The Observer
The company says it plans to invest $1 billion a year in movies to be released in theatres - that's 12-15 theatrical releases a year, far outstripping Netflix's plans for cinemas. - Seattle Times (Bloomberg)
"It might be easy to assume that anyone still paying to receive DVDs through the mail is a technophobe. ... But subscribers say they stick with the service so they can rent movies that are otherwise difficult to find on streaming services." - St. Louis Post-Dispatch (AP)
Poet tatiana de la tierra produced one-of-a-kind chapbooks scrounged from cardboard and recycled paper, and her "writing itself was just as singular — unassimilated and unafraid even by today’s standards." - Los Angeles Times
Theatre history dreams: "The Broadway timeline itself is two floors filled with pictures and artifacts –costumes, props, documents – illustrating the history of New York theater from minstrelsy and vaudeville up to the present day." - NPR
There was reason to think the gold coins weren't Roman: "A fraudster in Vienna frequently duped collectors in the 18th century, when the coins were found in Transylvania, or modern-day Romania, the researchers said." - The New York Times
As the museum prepares to move, the City of London would really like to demolish the old building. But "this is a test case for the argument that old buildings should be kept for the sake of the carbon embodied in their fabric." - The Observer (UK)
"Frustrated by the lack of airtime for reggae music in the UK, Lepke setup a mast in his back garden and began to broadcast to a small area of West London every Sunday afternoon. DBC soon expanded to cover all styles of black music." - BBC
In a word, sales. "Some much-heralded device innovations, like the ability to place Amazon orders via Alexa, have failed to win over a dedicated audience. In other words, Alexa does not appear to be driving incremental retail sales in any meaningful way." - Fast Company
"When we go in search of new Austens or Brontës, we’re imagining we’ll find novels that remind us positively of theirs. We claim we’re searching for something new, and equally original, but in effect we’re seeking out literary echoes, not wholly distinct virtuoso performances." - Washington Post
No, say Arcade Fire fans, or former fans as frontman Win Butler faces at least five accusations. "The ticket retailers, tour promoters, and even Arcade Fire itself aren't offering refunds to the wider public." - CBC
"Parks was on set as the writer for a TV show that had to go on hiatus when COVID hit. So she just started writing a short play a day – plays that would eventually become Plays for the Plague Year." - NPR
Gmail keeps asking for money, and you start deleting ... everything. "I felt a sudden sense of mourning that I still have not gotten over. And yet, to my surprise, I felt something else alongside it: a conflicting sense of relief and even levity." - The Atlantic
"While the country's attention was focused on the midterm elections, Judge Florence Pan unsealed her full opinion. In it, she sided with the federal government's persuasive and creative legal thinking, which focused on harms to an unusual victim: highly paid authors." - Salon
