"Hey, Amazon, free delivery is your job, not ours." "Give up just ONE yacht." "Without writers, Succession is just The Apprentice (and look how THAT turned out)." - NPR
In Missouri and Texas, state lawmakers have been considering laws that would remove funding from libraries that host drag queen story hours or don't block access to certain books; individual counties in some other states have gone through with such cuts. Many librarians fear things will get worse. - NPR
"Illinois lawmakers greenlighted a bill Wednesday that says libraries in the state must adopt an anti-book banning policy to receive state funding, in a vote that fissured along party lines. … Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he looks forward to signing it." - AP
"Throughout his life, King Charles III has involved himself in British cultural life, not only a maker of art but as an avid spectator and patron. … (His) fascination with the arts and entertainment echoes the concerns of several much earlier holders of the throne." - The New York Times
Until the past year’s insipid Musk-related shenanigans, the platform functioned as an efficient information delivery system that made it unique among its social media rivals — and unique, for that matter, among the media organs that depended on it for readers and ideas. - N+1
In her 1991 book The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf argued that the standards of western female beauty were used as a weapon to stagnate the progress of women. But in medieval culture, such pressures were doubly weighted, since beauty was closely aligned with morality: beauty was associated with goodness and ugliness with evil. - The Conversation
The number of foreign, mostly Hollywood, feature films that shot in Canada jumped from 141 in 2021 to 171 pictures last year, with total budget expenditures rising from CAN$1.38 billion to CAN$1.66 billion (US$1.2 billion) in 2022. - The Hollywood Reporter
A mega-attraction devoted to the natural world may seem an odd fit for Manhattan, one of the most human-manipulated landscapes on earth. But in another sense, these urban oases of physical spectacle make more sense than ever in our digital era, when forests and deserts are often viewed largely through windshields or computer screens. - Bloomberg
The buildings stand free of any mortar or metal, which makes them more capable of shifting and flexing along with torques in the ground. This brilliance of mobility even continues underground. - Nautilus
"Audiences have been slow to return. National conversations about race put the internal practices of local theaters under a microscope. Many theater artists moved away or left the industry entirely. The government money's gone." Here's a look at how some Massachusetts theaters are handling it all. - WBUR (Boston)
In just over two years, the school acquired Opus 3 Artists, Pentatone Records, and the major London agency Askonas Holt. SFCM president David Stull explains to Jeffrey Arlo Brown what the school's up to, and Brown considers for whom all this is, and is not, a good deal. - Van
The dramatically changed landscape that inspired the walkout — an industry that’s focus-shifted to streaming content — is also going to make it tougher for viewers to even notice their protest, hardship and sacrifice. At least in the near term. - The Hollywood Reporter
As inflation persists, the country is roiled by protests against President Macron's pension reforms, and Fitch downgrades French bonds, Bruno Le Maire has drawn fury for spending his time writing sex fantasy — and hoots of ridicule for one sex scene in particular. - The Guardian
Over the past decade, our understanding of memory’s role in creativity has only grown. Researchers have linked false memories and forgetting to creative performance. And earlier this year, Schachter and colleagues published a paper that suggests that memory plays an extensive part in every stage of the creative process. - Nautilus
