By age 32, Tarses was the first woman to head a network entertainment division — and one of the youngest execs ever to lead a Big Three — in her role as ABC Entertainment president from 1996 to 1999. During her tenure, she oversaw popular series including Aaron Sorkin’s “Sports Night,” David E. Kelley’s “The Practice,” “Dharma & Greg”...
"Think of something... mundane: ‘How are you?’ Virtually no one expects to hear anything but: ‘Good, thanks. And you?’ Withholding information has become the norm. Even when there is no direct question to answer, our interactions are replete with curated comments. The truth can be so hard to come by that many of us believe that our workplaces, and...
A 68-year-old retiree in Seymour, Indiana was a regular visitor to his local branch library and had become friendly with some employees there. In November, he brought a political poem he had written to give to a staffer he thought might like it; the person wasn't in that day, so he left the poem at the circulation desk. He...
"What happened on Jan. 6 had nothing to do with fences or barriers or bad security infrastructure at the Capitol. It was a human failure, not an infrastructure failure. Investigations are ongoing, but it’s already clear this was a tragedy of incompetent leadership, failed intelligence and a giant mess of missed or crossed communications. And yet some of the...
"These aren't Hoarder spinoffs for viewers to gawk at other people's misery, nor are they aspirational home-organizing tutorials where influencers showcase impeccable walk-in closets. No, these are process videos grinding through some of the most mundane tasks we all do every week. And therein, apparently, lies the appeal. There's a dirty house. After 30 minutes, it's clean." - The...
Bijoya Das was a gymnast herself from age 6 until an injury in college led her to switch to dance; she's now a successful commercial dancer and choreographer in the popular music industry. She is also the one who creates the dances for the gymnasts at UCLA whose routines keep becoming hits on YouTube — and that's a job...
Applied to the cultural and creative industries, this involves asking tough questions on the current working conditions, financial stability and social recognition of artists, as well as extending sustained non-monetary support such as counselling for those who have had to weather a seemingly perpetual storm. Only then can the sector turn to long-term rebuilding strategies, which must include reinvestment...
"The explosive claim was made in an open letter to Hermitage boss Mikhail Piotrovsky by Andre Ruzhnikov, who has been buying and selling Fabergé for 40 years. In it, he accuses Piotrovsky of 'insulting the good name of Fabergé, betraying your visitors' trust, operating under false pretences, and destroying the authority of the museum you have been appointed to...
"The idea that the festivals can't go ahead and be socially-distanced is inaccurate," one festival director told the House of Commons Culture Select Committee, which is examining the live music sector. - BBC
When the staff at All Classical Portland was looking at how to add more diversity to its playlists, they found that the biggest limitation was how little recorded music by composers from historically marginalized communities is actually available. The station's "Recording Inclusivity Initiative" aims to start fixing that. - Current
Dan-el Padilla Peralta came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic at age 4 and grew up extremely poor; it was his childhood fascination with ancient Greece and Rome, combined with his academic talents, that got him school scholarships and pulled him out of poverty and into a professorship at Princeton. Today he argues that his discipline, as it...
Actress Seyi Omooba had been engaged to play Celie in the musical adaptation of Alice Walker's novel in Leicester, England in 2019 — but she was let go when a 2014 Facebook post of hers containing anti-gay comments became public. She's suing for breach of contract. But testimony before a tribunal revealed that Omooba had previously told her agents...
In fact, he recorded his new album of duets with Lady Gaga in sessions spanning 2018 to 2020, and he was first diagnosed with the condition in 2016. And though he is quiet most of the time these days and frequently disoriented, he still sings through his 90-minute set twice a week and was even performing right up until...
In a long career spanning stage, film, and television, he was known for roles ranging from John Adams to Abraham Lincoln to Deep Throat to Willy Loman to the Stage Manager in Our Town. But he was most famous for his one-man show portraying Mark Twain — a role he played for more than 60 years, considerably longer than...
