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Why Is Theatre Dealing With (Or Not) Climate Change The Way It Is?

“Perhaps the way we respond to the crisis is part of the crisis,” observed Bayo Akomolafe. Producers can’t decide how climate change should be presented to theatergoers: they fear that scripts that come on too strong will scare off well-heeled audiences. - ArtsFuse

A Brief History Of “Y’all”

Some linguists suggest that the word comes from Scots-Irish; others think it originated among enslaved Igbo-speakers. In any case, the OED says "y'all" was first used in print in the 1850s southern US.  Yet one scholar has found a dozen appearances of the word in 17th-century London. - The Conversation

Why Is TikTok Obsessed With “Alvin And The Chipmunks” Music

The whole music culture, it seems, is now under the sway of a chipmunk aesthetic. This, to my way of thinking, is even more foreboding than all those people who want us to eat bugs and compost our deceased loved ones. - Ted Gioia

What Brendan Fraser’s Comeback Says About Hollywood, Him, And Us

"Everyone seems happy to have Brendan Fraser back.  Which prompts a question: Why?  He never actually went away.  The truth is that we've come back to him. But that's not the story we like to tell ourselves." - MSN (The Washington Post)

American Bookstores Are Offering More Spanish-Language Books

"Driven by language-immersion schools and bilingual families, many stores are now specializing in bilingual books for young readers. Others serve heritage-language customers who want to practice their Spanish, as well as language learners seeking cultural immersion." - Publishers Weekly

Funding Cuts To Two Small London Theatres Could Have Big Effects

Not only do the Donmar Warehouse and Hampstead Theatre regularly send productions out into the commercial theatre world (including the West End and Broadway), they bring major productions from abroad into London. Yet Arts Council England just zeroed out their government funding. - The New York Times

Director Todd Field Explains Some Of The Strange Things In “Tár”

"I hate explaining this stuff."  Yet explain he does — why the end credits are at the beginning, and what he was up to with that brutal master class scene. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

Piano Lessons Can Provide Real Benefits To People On The Autism Spectrum: Study

"While the authors noted the limits of their single study, they were unequivocal. Those who completed music training were the only group to show 'significant improvement' in audiovisual processing. That group also showed reduced levels of depression, stress, and anxiety." - Ludwig Van

The Guy Who Smashed Stuff At The Dallas Museum Of Art Called 911 On Himself

"'Hey, I'm in the Dallas Museum of Art,' he told a dispatcher nearly 15 minutes after police say he entered. 'Come get me.' The calls show the museum security force appeared to have no knowledge an intruder was inside the building (that) night." - MSN (The Dallas Morning News)

St. Mark’s In Venice Has New Glass Barriers To Protect It From Flooding

The big floodgates out in the lagoon aren't enough: the Piazza San Marco is the lowest point in the city.  What's more, the heavy floods of recent years have inflicted heavy water and salt damage on the church and its artworks. So far, the new barriers have worked. - Euronews

When Did Being “Clever” Become A Bad Thing?

Is there really something wrong with being clever? Even if it can get on our nerves sometimes, its associations remain overwhelmingly positive: Cleverness is seen as a source of not just amusement but insight. - Hedgehog Review

Alexa Now Helps Kids Create Stories

To create a new story, your child would begin by speaking, “Alexa, make a story,” and then following several prompts. The AI then generates an illustrated five-to-ten-line narrative — including animations, sound effects and music — built around their answers. - Engadget

A Prescription For Our Age: Long Poems?

Long poems really had been popular, with wide and diverse readerships, at various times in literary history. Is this a kind of reading that we should try to recover? There are signs that the long poem might be making a comeback. - Psyche

Berlin’s Massive New Museum Of The 20th Century Under Attack As “Climate Killer”

There has been growing criticism of its main construction material, concrete – one of the highest contributors to carbon dioxide emissions – and of its open and transparent internal structure, which will require a highly sophisticated ventilation system to maintain temperature and humidity levels. - The Guardian

Artwork Rescued Before The Bombing Of Kyiv Goes On Show In Spain

Titled “In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–1930s,” the show is branded as the most comprehensive survey of Ukraine’s avant-garde movement. - Artnet

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