The claim: "Combining the same kind of vocal-erasing processors used by those bespoke karaoke creators and Apple’s prodigious lyrics database, Sing can instantly engineer a karaoke video out of any song in the Apple Music library, no matter how obscure." - Slate
"There are worse ways of groping through the opening murk of another miserable year. ... if you are going to take on a New Year Reading Project it is as well to get the rules straight." - Irish Times
What was the point of all that applause in the House? And what's often the point at plays, for that matter? "Which beaming retinue can clap harder for its standard-bearer? It’s an endeavor as empty as that of coercing people into cheering for a dull comedy." - Washington Post
In the run-up to the Oscars, and the film Tár, its lead actor Cate Blanchett, and Everything Everywhere All at Once's Ke Huy Quan have swept film critic awards in L.A., N.Y., and now at the National Film Critics Circle. - Variety
"Many experts feel they are in a race against time. A 2018 study published in the Climate Risk Management journal assessed 1,232 archival repositories in the United States and found that nearly 99 percent were 'likely to be affected by at least one climate risk factor."' - The New York Times
The novelist and screenwriter (My Beautiful Laundrette) fell in Rome the day after Christmas. He wrote in a series of tweets that he can't move his arms or legs after the fall and a surgery on his spine. - The Guardian (UK)
"Pianos do kind of take on the character of 100 years of playing, you know?” says Tim Vincent-Smith, co-founder of Pianodrome - a project that saves old pianos from ending up in landfill. - BBC
Ghostwriters channel someone else’s voice and construct with it a book that has shape and texture, narrative arc and memorable characters, all without leaving fingerprints. Doing it well requires a tremendous amount of technical skill and an ego that is, at a minimum, flexible. - The New York Times
Half a dozen of the main works are deliberately in dialogue with literary classics and ephemera, from sources as diverse as Mark Twain’s satirical monologues, James Joyce’s erotic letters, the Epic of Gilgamesh and “Antigone.” - The New York Times
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Continued experiments and observations only served to confirm that at scales both large and small, we appeared to live in an empty world. - Nautilus
Paris, Texas was founded in the 1840s, and quickly became a hub for business and culture in Northeast Texas. Unfortunately, in 1916, a massive fire destroyed much of the downtown, forcing the town's residents to rebuild. - KERA
In 2018, the school hired Alicia Graf Mack to head up its dance division, making her the youngest person, and the first woman of color, to lead the dance department in the institution’s 70-year history. Now in her fifth year, Mack’s tweaks, additions, and overhauls are beginning to spring to life. - Jezebel
