When Demis Volpi was sacked following public complaints by the company’s dancers and a steady stream of resignations, some local observers complained that Volpi hadn’t been given enough time to establish himself after the long tenure of predecessor John Neumeier. In fact, Volpi’s problems were bigger than that. - Tanznetz (Germany) (in English)
Lake, the Arizona Republican known for her losing campaigns for Arizona governor and US Senator, was hired by Trump to dismantle Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. She cannot unilaterally fire top executives at those networks, so she's trying ugly tactics to drive them out. - The Washington Post (MSN)
The dance team of the New York Liberty is a shot of adrenaline, a burst of vitality. All insist on the power of movement as the foundation for a full life. What these dancers offer is bigger than dancing. But dance is their expression, and dance they do. - The New York Times
Wallis Annenberg, a deep-pocketed philanthropist who helped transform the city through massive donations to arts, education and animal welfare causes, died Monday morning at her home in Los Angeles from complications related to lung cancer, the family said. She was 86. - Los Angeles Times
No Leopold Stokowski could exist today, in the face of prying social media. Notwithstanding his glamorous marriage to Gloria Vanderbilt and an affair with Greta Garbo, he needed to be unknown. - The Wall Street Journal
Williams’s classical output includes a symphony, chamber music and concertos for a dozen instruments (including flute, violin, cello and bassoon). And yet, Williams said, he never wanted to write one for his “friend,” the piano, because “I just thought it was impossible.” - The New York Times
“It’s like this huge puzzle, a thousand-piece puzzle, and every time a release comes out, we’re adding another puzzle piece. That is giving us a much more accurate, well-rounded perception of who Woody was and what he wrote about.” - Washington Post
While younger generations, at least, have said in recent years that they want to see more platonic friendship and less sex on screen, reading appetites appear to be going in the other direction, with a huge boom in romance and “romantasy” – the romance-fantasy hybrid driven by TikTok. - The Guardian
THING NW Festival 2025 cancelled its Aug. 16 Latinx musical performance lineup. All other Saturday musical events are still scheduled to go on as planned in Carnation. - KING 5
Mr. Lehrer — an Ivy League mathematics teacher who spent his early academic career on the periphery of show business — created a repertoire of songs that subverted saccharine clichés about romance, patriotism and small-town life when they weren’t skewering the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts of America or the U.S. Army. - Washington Post (MSN)
Social mobility will become progressively locked as AI progresses. What is at risk is not simply job loss, but the very idea of income distribution. The concept of valuable skills is vanishing in real time. - The Critic
There is social capital to be gained by simply looking as if you are a cultured person who listens to music on vinyl and reads lots of books. And creating an aesthetically pleasing bookshelf is now easier than ever, thanks to an increase in booksellers who trade in “books by the metre”. - The Guardian
Many companies are taking our time and money by practising the dark art of manipulation. They hide crucial terms in fine print. They automatically enroll you in programmes that costs money but don't benefit you at all. They make it easy for you to subscribe to a service, but extremely hard for you to cancel. - The Guardian
If anyone thought Colbert's cancellation — which won't come until his contract ends in May 2026 — might tamp down political commentary in other areas of Paramount's media empire, they learned differently this past week. - NPR
