New York City’s intellectual landscape is increasingly split between two warring scenes, divided by geography, aesthetics and politics. Which of these prevails could affect whether America shifts right or remains where it is. - New Statesman
For much of its existence, Netflix has thought of itself as a tech company, moving fast and breaking things; now it’s seeking to emulate the dinosaurs it once thought it would effortlessly replace. - The New Republic
We in Canada are operatically underserved. Our so-called second largest company offers its patrons the grand total of three mainstage productions annually and this season, shockingly, so does our largest company. So where does this leave Verdi, Puccini and Wagner? Out in the Canadian cold. - Toronto Star
The cathedral’s crypt would be his burial place. And he’d be buried there because it was his cathedral. He’d designed it entirely in his head, without a single measurement or calculation on paper, without a record of any of the materials he’d used. And he had done it largely by himself. - The Guardian
The idea that a building was a means to solve problems and serve clients, to which postmodernism only added the idea that the results should be properly and effectively communicated and scaled to a diverse audience, was crumpled up and replaced with shards, fragments, and experiments. - Dezeen
I’ll stipulate that the people who make movies may skew progressive in their beliefs, commitments and voting patterns. The movies themselves tell another story. - The New York Times
James Blake’s new album, “Wind Down,” is created in collaboration with the A.I.-powered app Endel, which collects data on individual users from devices like the Apple Watch and generates personalized ambient music in real time. - The New Yorker
For the last year, we have conducted interviews with people who have given at least one gift to a member of the royal family to try to understand the motivation of these present-givers. - The Conversation
"For more than a century, filmmakers have been using the 'green screen' technique. ... So where did it come from? And why is it so popular? And most importantly: why is it green? It's time, for once, to let the green screen occupy the foreground instead of the background." - Quartz
If, in fact, book reviews are on the whole too positive, as some suggest, does this mean that the purpose of book reviewing is to sniff out what’s rotten? Or, if book reviews are too negative, does this mean that public-facing literary criticism’s purpose is to highlight what’s worth reading? - LA Review of Books
It's a "miracle," he says, that a ballet in 1900 was notated at all, let alone that the notation survives. As for teaching the movement to performers in 2022, he says, "I very much disagree with the idea that the technique of the dancers is so much better now. I think it's just different." - The Age (Melbourne)
Even a hardened civil liberties advocate would have to down a stiff drink and say a prayer or two before defending someone’s right to publically mock murder victims and their families. - The Critic
"This week, archaeologists from Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the recovery of more than 250 sarcophagi, 150 bronze statues and a variety of other antiquities from the site. The remarkably well-preserved objects in the necropolis are still in good — and sometimes colorful — condition." - Smithsonian Magazine
The growth of British literary festivals over the past few decades has been an exponential development. It has also changed the idea of what people expect from authors. - The Critic
"Weinstein had proved his skill at storytelling in the movie business. But trials are not movies, shot under controlled conditions and revised in the editing room." An excerpt from Ken Auletta's Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence. - The New Yorker
