It’s been suggested that she was the artist’s daughter, a servant girl, or even a sibyl from Greek mythology. Scholar Andrew Graham-Dixon writes that he now believes she was the daughter of Vermeer’s most important patrons and was dressed as Mary Magdalene. - The Times (UK)
Kimberly Mark, a veteran Broadway dresser, joined the Hamilton crew a decade ago. Her suit alleges that, after four operations and weeks of chemotherapy and radiation, she was told by producers that “the job has become too physically demanding” and later fired. - The Independent (UK)
The open-air concert venue in Fairmount Park has been given a “substantial” grant from the Pennsylvania insurance company Highmark to support a renovation project to be completed by next spring. The new name: Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
In 1972, as host of All Things Considered, she became the first female anchor of a nightly national newscast. She co-hosted the show for 14 years before becoming the founding host of Weekend Edition Sunday. And she inflicted her mother-in-law’s horrifying cranberry relish recipe on countless victims. - The Washington Post (MSN)
For a start, they’ve raised the starting age from 11 to 13. And they’ve done away with many of the rigid and arbitrary body standards for which ballet has been notorious — for instance, teen boy students won’t be tossed out for being too short, or girl students for being too buxom. - The Guardian
Given that the Tiffany Network has been home to the most-watched new series for the past nine TV seasons in a row, they've earned the benefit of the doubt to keep greenlighting new scripted projects. The CBS machine is working. - The Wrap (MSN)
Most observers knew that Saul Bellow was no saint, especially after reading his greatest novel, the quasi-autobiographical Herzog. Bellow’s portrait of his protagonist’s wife, a stand-in for his soon-to-be-ex, is very unflattering, but evidence now shows that Bellow himself was far more cruel and violent toward her in real life. - Slate (Yahoo!)
Social media has evolved from text to photo to video to streams of text, photo, and video, and finally, it seems to have reached a kind of settled end state, in which TikTok and Meta are trying to become the same thing: a screen showing hours and hours of video made by people we don’t know. - Derek Thompson
Among the discrepancies: the treatment of likenesses versus intellectual property. Tellingly, some execs were told an opt-in would be required for both. Others were told the opposite, or weren’t notified of the distinction. OpenAI’s messaging was haphazard to Hollywood. - The Hollywood Reporter
If philosophy formalized reasoning, literature explored its consequences. Stories about artificial beings reveal the hopes and terrors of living with intelligent doubles. Western traditions gave us the myth of Pygmalion, who fell in love with his statue, and Ovid’s tales of moving statues and enchanted beings. - 3 Quarks Daily
Philosophers and political theorists say it promotes selfish individualism and discourages collective action around issues that affect us all. And sociologists add that societies that prize choice too much tend to blame those with only poor or limited options for their own misfortunes. So much for choice as consistently synonymous with freedom. - Aeon
When Charlotte Symphony music director Kwamé Ryan saw the orchestra’s newly-redesigned logo, he thought the CSO should have a musical equivalent — like NBC’s three chimes, Netflix’s “ta-thump” drumstroke, or T-Mobile’s five-note ringtone. So he commissioned Bates, who had “never been so excited to write five seconds of music.” - The Charlotte Observer (Yahoo!)
The Royal Ballet has long offered headphones with audio descriptions so that visually impaired members of the audience can follow the action on stage. Now the entire audience will hear such descriptions, within a groundbreaking work that explores how blindness can redefine our responses to sensation, sound and storytelling. - The Guardian
The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner once said: “A bicycle shed is a building; Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture.” For much of their history, football stadiums used to be more bike shed than cathedral but their time has now spectacularly come. - The Guardian
Nowadays, we can unearth bones, extract DNA, even map ancient migrations, but only in myths can we glimpse the inner lives of our forebears—their fears and longings, their sense of wonder and dread. Linguists have reconstructed dead languages. Why not try to do the same for lost stories? - The New Yorker
