Without the weight – cultural as well as literal – of the collected edition, it’s possible few would care about these surviving plays. Something similar happened to other playwrights of the period, whose work was not given the authority of a collection. - The Conversation
"Panahi, 62, is best known for films including The White Balloon, The Circle and Taxi Tehran – and for spending his career under close observation by Iran's government. His travel ban was first imposed in 2009." Rumors are that he has gone to France, possibly for the Cannes Festival. - The Guardian
There’s something irrevocably empirical about the fact that poems and novels and paintings and music and films stir cognitive-affective goings-on that have the bearings of sense. And there is something irrevocably empirical, too, in the pressure to admit these goings-on as ‘thoughts’ or ‘meaning’. - Aeon
"BuzzFeed News was 'a social media ecosystem company, and the ecosystem went away,' said a former BuzzFeed exec. 'HuffPost was a pre-social media company. And then got eclipsed by BuzzFeed in the social media age. And then as social media goes away, HuffPost is still there among the rocks.'" - Digiday
Something about this ordinary, negligible feeling seems to make it inaccessible to critical reflection. Perhaps because, when irritable, we tend to be at our least reflective – preoccupied with those diminutive miseries whose oversize effect we know would not stand up to criticism. - Aeon
He's found clips of the works in recent social media posts by the two companies — with his name removed. And, no surprise, they aren't paying him any royalties. The Mariinsky even had the chutzpah to ask him to reimburse the living expenses they paid for him. - The New York Times
While not every musical artist takes risks — in their repertory or their apparel choices, be they prét-à-porter or the hautest of haute — it’s great for audiences to take in a performance visually as well as aurally. - San Francisco Classical Voice
"Hana S. Sharif, artistic director of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and a former staffer with organizations in Hartford, Boston and Baltimore, takes over from Molly Smith, who is retiring after a quarter-century in the top job at one of the nation's cornerstone regional theaters." - MSN (The Washington Post)
"(Armorer Andrew) Wert built rifles from individual parts so they would look as real as possible but would not be able to fire under any circumstances. He drilled out parts where firing pins would go and modified the cylinders so that no ammunition could fit in them." - The New York Times
"At the age of 64, (my brain is) definitely shrinking, and memorising has become a very conscious, frustrating and time-consuming activity. But I stick at it because memory is a muscle that needs to be constantly used to stay in any sort of shape." - The Guardian
"The San Francisco Art Institute has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, a move that will force the 152-year-old institution to liquidate its assets" — most notably, a Diego Rivera mural valued at $50 million — "and abandon its legendary campus on the edge of Russian Hill." - San Francisco Chronicle
"(The) Gilder (Center) is spectacular: a poetic, joyful, theatrical work of public architecture and a highly sophisticated flight of sculptural fantasy. New Yorkers live to grouse about new buildings. This one seems destined to be an instant heartthrob and colossal attraction." - The New York Times
"The data looks like a sign that Americans are continuing to spend on entertainment services and flexing their wallets despite recession fears. But moviegoing is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment away from home. In the past, theaters have been where Americans went for entertainment when the economy shrank." - Quartz
"As of April 1, the average entry-level salary for publishing employees located in New York City at the Big Five trade publishers and Scholastic was $47,583, up from $38,583 before the Covid-19 pandemic. … That marks an increase of 23.3%, during a period when prices rose 12.4%." - Publishers Weekly
We might typically think of hope as a touchy-feely emotion that, almost by definition, is divorced from real-life experience. In fact, as more research is beginning to show, hope is an important scientific concept—something we can define, measure, analyze, and ultimately cultivate. - The Atlantic
