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- The New Skydance-Paramount-Warner Bros. Behemoth Has An $80 Billion Debt Burden
“We’ve measured this incredibly carefully,’ Ellison said during a media event last month. ‘We absolutely have the ability to manage the debt and de-lever while investing for growth.’ But Skydance’s merger math doesn’t entirely check out for Wall Street.” – TheWrap (MSN)
- The Enduring Appeal Of Glass Art — New Again
The history, combined with the opportunity for hands-on experience, is fueling new exhibitions at museums across the United States that are exploring today’s complex scientific and social issues through the artistry’s lens. – The New York Times
- The Pied Piper Of Male Dance
When Adrian Mitchell returned to the school in 2022, this time to teach, there were four boys. But in a few short years Mitchell expanded those numbers tenfold, to 40. All four in the original group went on to top ballet schools, professional ballet companies — or both. – The New York Times
- Why Culture Seems So Generic Now
“What we see in front of us used to be culturally diverse. Now it is culturally generic. Most of what we see is the big chains we see everywhere,” she said. “It creates a sense of placelessness. We could be anywhere.” – The New York Times
- Russia’s Last Major Independent Newspaper Shuts Down
“’We have been killed,’ reads a statement from the editorial team behind the Russian independent news outlet Novaya Gazeta, as it announced on Friday that it would be ceasing operations. … ‘The newspaper no longer exists. The Russian authorities and the Russian security services have forced our editorial team to cease its operations.’” – Euronews
- Can Australia’s Biggest, Most Expensive Cultural Project In Decades Live Up To Expectations (And Its Price Tag)?
Paramatta Powerhouse, a new art and science museum in Sydney’s booming western suburbs, has cost roughly AU$915 million (US$639 million) and has been touted as western Sydney’s equivalent of the Opera House. Is that too much to expect, especially after the bumpy road to the museum’s completion? – The Guardian
- Prosecutors Reopen Investigation Into 1975 Murder Of Filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini
“The case has been reopened after a lawyer, Stefano Maccioni, filed a petition saying that recently discovered archive footage and other evidence shows that the rent boy who initially took the rap was not alone on the night of the murder.” – ANSA (Italy)
- Italy’s Favorite Modern Crime Novel Has Been Made Into An Opera (A Hit One, No Less)
Romanzo Criminale, written by Giancarlo De Cataldo and published in 2002, is so popular that its four protagonists are household names. It’s already been adapted into a successful feature film and a major TV series; now there’s an opera version, with score by Oscar-winning composer Nicola Piovani (Life Is Beautiful). – The New York Times
- US Embassy Warns Of Planned Terrorist Attack At Moscow Museum; Teenaged Suspect Arrested
On Saturday the US embassy in Moscow issued a security alert about a “credible threat of a mass casualty event” at the Tsaritsyno Museum Reserve, a popular palace and park complex. Russia’s FSB has arrested one suspect, a teenager who is a Russian citizen. – Al Jazeera
- Amazon Says Prime Video is Now Profitable In Its Own Right
CEO Andy Jassy says the division has a revenue run rate in the “tens of billions” of dollars. – TheWrap
- UK’s Collins Dictionary Chooses “Mogging” As Word Of The Year (What’s Mogging?)
“The copywriter Rachel Quin said the term describes making someone or something look inferior in terms of appearance, confidence or status. Believed to originate as a shortening of ‘AMOG’ (alpha male of the group), the word had first appeared in bodybuilding culture around 2016 before spreading through online communities.” – The Guardian
- Out Of The Kennedy Center, National Symphony Presses On
Good Morning,
Since the Kennedy Center closed on September 15, the National Symphony Orchestra has been playing in six venues around Washington. It will give about half its usual concerts, and ticket revenue is expected to fall by half and donations by a quarter (NPR).
The earliest spoken recordings of Louisiana Creole were made in 1935 by the linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner and found on aluminum discs labeled only “Louisiana.” They are the only extended audio of the New Orleans variety, which died out in the city by the 1950s (The New York Times).
Italy’s art crime squad used an AI system to flag an oil painting at an antiques fair as a Saint Agnes stolen from a church 20 years ago. Someone had painted over its lamb (ARTnews).
Voters in Independence, Oregon, decide Tuesday on a city fee that will determine what happens to the Heritage Museum’s 25,000 items, in storage since the city sold the building (Oregon ArtsWatch).
In Amsterdam, the Rembrandt House Museum is tattooing Rembrandt’s 1633 etching The Descent from the Cross across one winner’s back, with smaller tattoos on sale from €100 (The New York Times).
All of Today’s stories below.
- The Enduring Appeal Of Literary Locations
Hotels are particularly adaptable settings for fiction. They bring strangers together in temporary communities, creating opportunities for encounters, misunderstandings and suspicion. In detective fiction, they can also provide a ready-made sense of enclosure: a place where characters are brought together and escape becomes difficult. – The Conversation
- Italian Police Locate $200M Of Stolen Art Using AI
The Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, Italy’s art crime squad, has been using an AI algorithm to identify stolen artworks and artifacts since 2023. The platform they use is called SWOADS—or Stolen Works of Art Detection System—and was developed by Salvatore Rapicavoli, an IT engineer who joined the art crime team in 2023. – ARTnews
- Is Curiosity A Good Idea?
Our curiosity may be or could be one of the best things about us (though when we describe someone as a curious person we can sometimes mean that they are a bit odd, as though we admire curiosity but it makes us uneasy). – London Review of Books
- Oldest Recording Of Someone Speaking Creole Was Discovered
“The moment I heard these recordings, I knew that they would drastically change our understanding of this language,” Dr. Mayeux said. His research findings were published in the journal “Language Documentation and Description.” – The New York Times
- Kennedy Center Leaders Threatened Payroll Over Trump Naming, Lawmaker Alleges
Kennedy Center leaders jeopardized the institution’s operations by tying millions of dollarsin funding to keeping President Donald Trump’s name on its building, a Democratic congresswoman who serves on its board alleges in a court brief filed Friday. – Washington Post
- AI Has Thrown The Publishing World Into Chaos
Book publishing houses have also been inundated with AI writing, and the industry is scrambling to respond. “There is a high level of concern and I think maybe anxiety among editors,” Friedman said. “They’re not sure how to detect it.” – WNG
- Author Peter May, 74
Mr. May, a prolific and inventive author of nearly 30 thrillers, including “The Blackhouse,” which would become a global best seller and would lift the fortunes of his earlier work, died on Sept. 25 at his home in Gassin, a village in southeastern France, near Saint Tropez. He was 74. – The New York Times
- Anti-Trans Political Rhetoric Is Harming Nonbinary And Trans Actors Too
Even actors like Elliot Page and Asia Kate Dillon have said it’s harder to find work in a world where roles for them are, according to them, vanishing. – CBC
- The Site Where Modern British Ballet Was Born
The Georgian style Festival Theatre – now the Cambridge Buddhist Centre – had recently undergone some intense architectural changes when its owner invited future Royal Ballet founder Ninette de Valois to choreograph there. – BBC (Yahoo)
- How A Quick-Thinking Photographer Turned A Traffic Jam Into An Instantly Iconic Image
“As we’re all waiting for traffic to clear, I could feel the motion of the bridge, slightly pulsating up and down. Curiosity got to many people, who got out of their cars to see if they could see anything.” – San Francisco Chronicle
- Serial Fiction Is Having A Moment. Again.
“’Today’s newspapers have fallen out of the habit of rewarding their readers with chunks of fiction. … So it has fallen to us to pick up the slack.’ But it seems worth asking why ‘chunks’ of fiction are their own reward.” – LitHub
- Ireland Has Become One Of Hollywood’s Go-To Global Production Hotspots
“Ireland increasingly has become a destination for American movies, television series and the once-quintessentially L.A. creation: the game show.” – Los Angeles Times
- Producer And Director Michael Mann Accidentally Shoots Himself At A Gun Range
“A representative for Mann said in a statement on Sunday that the director’s weapon had ‘accidentally discharged while holstered.’ The incident, the representative said, resulted in a ‘superficial injury.’” – Los Angeles Times
- AI Isn’t Just Cooking Our Water Supply And Our Writing, But Also Our Food
“Most of those bowls and sandwiches available in the lunchtime hours are sold by fast-casual chains, the kind of establishments that give private equity investors wet dreams thanks to their sky-high margins, low labor costs, and simplistic, trend-driven menus.” – Ravenous
- For A Few Hundred Euros, You Can Get A Rembrandt Inked On Your Body
“It’s a highbrow-meets-lowbrow thing,” said the Dutch tattoo artist completing the requests. He’s done it before, but “this time, [he] had a greater ambition: to reproduce one of Rembrandt’s most famous etchings, The Descent From the Cross, from 1633, across a man’s back.” – The New York Times
- This Oregon Museum Had To Sell Its Museum
And Tuesday’s election will determine what happens with its collection – and if its local advocates have done enough to organize support. – Oregon ArtsWatch
- Since 2008, Local Newsrooms Have Been Hurting For Cash
What do they do with it, though, when they get it? Well: “keep the lights on, … pay bills, pay down debt, make payroll, or [use it] as a buffer when something went wrong.” – Nieman Lab
- The Rise And Fall Of The Triumphal Arch
“In 1941, Albert Speer presented plans to his Führer for a monumental arch that would tower nearly 400 feet over Berlin. Taller than the towers of the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge in New York, it would have been twice the height of the Arc de Triomphe.” – The New York Times
- This Is How A Publishing Season’s ‘Big’ Cookbooks Come To Life
For instance: “You wouldn’t know it, but some of these dishes were shot on the literal ground.” – Best Food Blog
- The Dark Underbelly Exposed When One Author Wrote Back To His AI Spammers
The scammer “gave me a physical address. Neither of us commented on how unusual it was for the founder of the Berlin Book Club to have a postal address in the Philippines.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Playwright And Director Martin McDonagh Wants His Art, A Lot Of It About Murder, To Change The World
Martin McDonagh: “Plays should be as exciting as the best films, and that meant you should be able to do anything onstage that you can do in a film, which led to a little violence now and then, but always with a moral dimension to it.” – The New York Times
- The National Symphony Orchestra Hangs In The Balance
“The 95-year-old National Symphony Orchestra has been performing in the Kennedy Center since it opened in 1971. Now, the musicians and their charismatic music director Gianandrea Noseda are musical nomads while the future of the arts complex, with its proposed renovations, remains uncertain.” – NPR
- Why Hasn’t MoMA Kicked A Disgraced Epstein Buddy Off Its Board?
“Leon Black’s board position at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is one of the starkest examples of institutional ignorance — a head-in-the-sand, look-the-other-way mentality that will inevitably give abuse of power a dark corner to grow and fester in.” – Hyperallergic