"Like the classic 19th-century ballets that display massed ranks of identically costumed, identically moving dancers, the rituals have shown us many military units from Britain and the Commonwealth moving with the kind of as-one-being synchronicity that is the dream of ballet directors the world over." - The New York Times
With the queen's death and the ascension of a new king (who won't have time for all the causes he supported as Prince of Wales), organizations are anxiously trying to line up new royal patrons. Here's an explainer about why this is felt to be so important. - The New York Times
The Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia printed an article this weekend quoting Allen saying that his next movie (his 50th) would be his last; on Monday, his representative denied it to Indie Wire. But Allen has definitely said that he does not find making movies for streaming fun. - The Hollywood Reporter
"Salman al-Nabahin unearthed the mosaic pavement, thought to date from the fifth to the seventh century AD, six months ago while working in his olive orchard in Bureij refugee camp, about half a mile from the border with Israel." - Reuters
The pianist-turned-conductor founded the RNO in 1990, as the USSR was collapsing. Now the orchestra has refused to renew Pletnev's contract, saying that "since the end of 2020," just as Pletnev moved to Switzerland, "there has been practically no creative contact between the orchestra and its artistic director." - OperaWire
The groups with blowhards were less neurally aligned than were those with mediators, the study found. Perhaps more surprising, the mediators drove consensus not by pushing their own interpretations, but by encouraging others to take the stage and then adjusting their own beliefs — and brain patterns. - The New York Times
“This is a concerted, organized, well-resourced push at censorship,” said Suzanne Nossel, the chief executive of PEN America. The effort, she said, “is ideologically motivated and politically expedient, and it needs to be understood as such in order to be confronted and addressed properly.” - The New York Times
His take on contemporary culture made him seem antique. “We are still living in the aftermath,” he wrote in 1982, “of the insidious assault on the mind that was one of the most repulsive features of the radical movement of the Sixties.” - City Journal
The show has earned $1.30 billion during its impressive Broadway run, according to the Broadway League, and has played an astonishing 13,733 performances with over 19 million tickets sold. But the show has "struggled to recover" since COVID and is losing some $1 million a month. - MSN
Any matches in the results mean that the image could have potentially been used to train AI image generators and might still be used to train tomorrow's image synthesis models. AI artists can also use the results to guide more accurate prompts. - ArsTechnica
The development means there is increased competition for photographers on what were traditionally called photography stock websites, but might be now better described as something else. - PetaPixel
“I do not look like what the CEO of orchestra is supposed to look like. Whenever people are a bit surprised, it just underscores for me the work that needs to be done. And in many ways, I am an example of that work. I want to be a champion for this music. It is for everyone.” - Toronto...
You want to be happy and well, but your messy circumstances bite and gnaw at you relentlessly, distracting you from the habits of thought and action that could help you find enjoyment and remember the meaning in your life. - The Atlantic
Across the board, attendance has not surpassed three-quarters of pre-pandemic levels in the past six months. Between February and July 2022, visitor numbers remained between 35% and 75% of those during that same period in 2019, with many hovering near 50% or 60% of pre-pandemic levels. - Crosscut
Sure, the service mostly died in 2019 - but it's being revived now, and a lot of hardcore users still have their MoviePass cards. "It was a badge that gave you permission to see the worst that Hollywood had to offer while creating a buffer," one says. - Wired
