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DANCE

    IDEAS

    • Trust Us, The Amphitheatre Is Ancient

      Good Morning,

      Some of the most trusted political voices in 18th-century Britain didn’t exist. Writers invented personas, and readers believed the invented bylines more than the real ones — a tradition The Conversation argues never died, it just migrated to the accounts we follow now. Authorship was always partly a performance, and the audience was always a little in on it.

      So the theme for today is fabrication. The city of Vicenza has spent generations admiring a Roman amphitheatre that turns out to be a 19th-century fabrication (Gramilano). Penguin Random House pulled a forthcoming book from sale after a plagiarism investigation (Washington Post). Prosecutors are pursuing Hermitage-linked archaeologists over digs in occupied Crimea (ARTnews) — excavation as a chain-of-custody crime. And thieves carried four Renaissance paintings out of a Messina museum while the city was at a festival (The New York Times), which at least has the candor of theft with the direct approach.

      The through-line isn’t fraud. It’s provenance — the growing sense that what a thing is matters less than whose hands it passed through and who’s willing to vouch for it.

      Meanwhile, a history of punctuation (The Wall Street Journal) notes that the exclamation point had to be invented in the 14th century. Someone decided enthusiasm needed notation, and we’ve been overusing it ever since. Emojis, anyone?

      All of our stories below.

    • A Whole Crop Of Pole-Dancing Shows At This Year’s Edinburgh Fringe

      “Pole dance is a big part of the festival this year, popping up in sweaty, dazzling shows right across the Fringe. Not only do these acts show off amazing physical feats, they also tell stories that range from one woman’s HIV diagnosis, to the relationship between a neurodivergent mother and son.” – The Guardian

    • Some Of The Sharpest Political Writers In 18th Century Britain Were Fictional

      British writers in the 18th century repeatedly invented fictional characters to intervene in the politics and culture of their day. – The Conversation

    • An Expressive History Of Punctuation

      The exclamation point arrived in the middle of the 14th century, bringing what many felt was “a welcome infusion of emotion onto the page,” and was joined, over the 15th century, by parentheses and the apostrophe. – The Wall Street Journal

    • The Case Of The Fake Ancient Roman Amphitheatre

      “Picture this: a hillside ‘archaeological site’ complete with what were marketed as Neolithic and Greco-Roman artefacts, impressive enough that visitors were charged a hefty 40-euro entrance fee. … Except it wasn’t ancient at all.” And the perpetrator had cleared a protected hillside forest to build it. – Gramilano

    ISSUES

    MEDIA

    MUSIC

    PEOPLE

    • Trust Us, The Amphitheatre Is Ancient

      Good Morning,

      Some of the most trusted political voices in 18th-century Britain didn’t exist. Writers invented personas, and readers believed the invented bylines more than the real ones — a tradition The Conversation argues never died, it just migrated to the accounts we follow now. Authorship was always partly a performance, and the audience was always a little in on it.

      So the theme for today is fabrication. The city of Vicenza has spent generations admiring a Roman amphitheatre that turns out to be a 19th-century fabrication (Gramilano). Penguin Random House pulled a forthcoming book from sale after a plagiarism investigation (Washington Post). Prosecutors are pursuing Hermitage-linked archaeologists over digs in occupied Crimea (ARTnews) — excavation as a chain-of-custody crime. And thieves carried four Renaissance paintings out of a Messina museum while the city was at a festival (The New York Times), which at least has the candor of theft with the direct approach.

      The through-line isn’t fraud. It’s provenance — the growing sense that what a thing is matters less than whose hands it passed through and who’s willing to vouch for it.

      Meanwhile, a history of punctuation (The Wall Street Journal) notes that the exclamation point had to be invented in the 14th century. Someone decided enthusiasm needed notation, and we’ve been overusing it ever since. Emojis, anyone?

      All of our stories below.

    • A Whole Crop Of Pole-Dancing Shows At This Year’s Edinburgh Fringe

      “Pole dance is a big part of the festival this year, popping up in sweaty, dazzling shows right across the Fringe. Not only do these acts show off amazing physical feats, they also tell stories that range from one woman’s HIV diagnosis, to the relationship between a neurodivergent mother and son.” – The Guardian

    • Some Of The Sharpest Political Writers In 18th Century Britain Were Fictional

      British writers in the 18th century repeatedly invented fictional characters to intervene in the politics and culture of their day. – The Conversation

    • An Expressive History Of Punctuation

      The exclamation point arrived in the middle of the 14th century, bringing what many felt was “a welcome infusion of emotion onto the page,” and was joined, over the 15th century, by parentheses and the apostrophe. – The Wall Street Journal

    • The Case Of The Fake Ancient Roman Amphitheatre

      “Picture this: a hillside ‘archaeological site’ complete with what were marketed as Neolithic and Greco-Roman artefacts, impressive enough that visitors were charged a hefty 40-euro entrance fee. … Except it wasn’t ancient at all.” And the perpetrator had cleared a protected hillside forest to build it. – Gramilano

    PEOPLE

    • Trust Us, The Amphitheatre Is Ancient

      Good Morning,

      Some of the most trusted political voices in 18th-century Britain didn’t exist. Writers invented personas, and readers believed the invented bylines more than the real ones — a tradition The Conversation argues never died, it just migrated to the accounts we follow now. Authorship was always partly a performance, and the audience was always a little in on it.

      So the theme for today is fabrication. The city of Vicenza has spent generations admiring a Roman amphitheatre that turns out to be a 19th-century fabrication (Gramilano). Penguin Random House pulled a forthcoming book from sale after a plagiarism investigation (Washington Post). Prosecutors are pursuing Hermitage-linked archaeologists over digs in occupied Crimea (ARTnews) — excavation as a chain-of-custody crime. And thieves carried four Renaissance paintings out of a Messina museum while the city was at a festival (The New York Times), which at least has the candor of theft with the direct approach.

      The through-line isn’t fraud. It’s provenance — the growing sense that what a thing is matters less than whose hands it passed through and who’s willing to vouch for it.

      Meanwhile, a history of punctuation (The Wall Street Journal) notes that the exclamation point had to be invented in the 14th century. Someone decided enthusiasm needed notation, and we’ve been overusing it ever since. Emojis, anyone?

      All of our stories below.

    • A Whole Crop Of Pole-Dancing Shows At This Year’s Edinburgh Fringe

      “Pole dance is a big part of the festival this year, popping up in sweaty, dazzling shows right across the Fringe. Not only do these acts show off amazing physical feats, they also tell stories that range from one woman’s HIV diagnosis, to the relationship between a neurodivergent mother and son.” – The Guardian

    • Some Of The Sharpest Political Writers In 18th Century Britain Were Fictional

      British writers in the 18th century repeatedly invented fictional characters to intervene in the politics and culture of their day. – The Conversation

    • An Expressive History Of Punctuation

      The exclamation point arrived in the middle of the 14th century, bringing what many felt was “a welcome infusion of emotion onto the page,” and was joined, over the 15th century, by parentheses and the apostrophe. – The Wall Street Journal

    • The Case Of The Fake Ancient Roman Amphitheatre

      “Picture this: a hillside ‘archaeological site’ complete with what were marketed as Neolithic and Greco-Roman artefacts, impressive enough that visitors were charged a hefty 40-euro entrance fee. … Except it wasn’t ancient at all.” And the perpetrator had cleared a protected hillside forest to build it. – Gramilano

    THEATRE

      VISUAL

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