The fire "was first reported shortly after 11 p.m. involving 10 trees at the location of Highland Avenue and the Hollywood Freeway, near the storied outdoor concert venue." No injuries were reported, and the fire was quickly extinguished. - The Hollywood Reporter
No beloved arts Princess, no Prince Consort, no Queen: Who will take over? "Although a 2020 study found no proof that charities benefit financially from a royal patron, kudos is hard to evaluate. 'It is a competitive moment,' said one former museum head." - The Observer (UK)
"The People’s Joker is ... an extremely loose retelling of the Batman villain’s origin story, reinterpreting the Joker as a trans woman trying to break into the mob-like world of Gotham’s stand-up comedy scene." Of course, it was pulled from the TIFF line-up. - The Verge
"If it shocks us that the novelist was attacked after so long, it should also shock us that commentary looks much as it did thirty years ago. ... The effect is to obscure the central historical question: how, exactly, the publication of Rushdie's novel became a global geopolitical phenomenon." - Boston Review
Most college students, according to a FIRE report published this week, do not believe that speakers who hold various conservative beliefs should be allowed on campus; I am grateful that these students do not (yet) run a whole country, as the ayatollahs do. - The Atlantic
If you are presenting art because you enjoy art and only because you enjoy art, you are not respecting your charter as a nonprofit. That’s vanity, not service. Vanity has weighed down this portion of the sector with 16 tons of irrelevance. - Medium
“All the houses are trying to open up at the same time, and they all need the same people,” Terry Podgorski said, noting that they have great actors, but they’re lacking people in “the infrastructure, the management and the tech.” - Seattle Times
"On Monday, the University of Pennsylvania announced it will build a new 3,100 square-foot theater to adjoin the Annenberg Center, a glitzy venue with a glimmering glass facade, towering ceilings and walls that open up onto Annenberg Center plaza for both indoor and outdoor shows." - The Philadelphia Inquirer
Digital events can reduce geographic inequalities, and lessen the costs associated with attending a festival. Digital delivery of a festival also provides something of a ‘safe space’ for those who lack the confidence to engage with arts and culture. It also allows for the use of accessibility features such as closed captioning. - RTE
Webster University in St. Louis is renowned for attracting top-notch chess talent to its school, and now its School of Education is offering a minor degree focused on the game. Core courses range from chess in history to the psychology and strategy of the game. - The Globe & Mail (Canada)
The number of banned theater directors, filmmakers, playwrights and musicians had been growing by the day. “I look around and I cannot find anything left of my favorite free theater,” Kogut told The Daily Beast. “There is not a single acute play left in the repertoires of Moscow theaters." - The Daily Beast
Early in the pandemic, "the Internet Archive made a decision that pissed off a lot of writers—and embroiled it in a lawsuit that many netizens fear could weaken the archive, its finances, and its services long into the future." - Slate
The history of the rating is, one might say, fraught. But Netflix isn't a movie theatre; why does it have an NC-17 rating on its film? The answer: The streaming service is reaching for an Oscar. - Salon
Poitier was "a man who both aspired and inspired just as much as he frustrated and disappointed. We rarely ever really talk about that last part. Sidney implores us anyway." - HuffPost
Editors have been doxxed, threatened, and arrested. "Doronina of the Wikimedia Foundation’s board of trustees said that Russia’s state agencies could target one of those editors any day. 'You cannot predict who is going to attack. It’s not a bear, it’s a pack of bears,' she said." - Nieman Lab
