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Why Was The HQ Of Cape Cod’s Public Radio Station Sold Out From Under It?

Though the station, CAI, and its listeners raised the money to renovate the historic building, both real estate and broadcasting license are owned by Boston station GBH, which is facing serious money problems and staff layoffs. GBH sold CAI's building without telling anyone at CAI, and the community is furious. - Nieman Lab

Director Otto Schenk, Standardbearer For Traditional Opera Stagings, Is Dead At 94

He created 31 productions for the Vienna State Opera (some still in use) and 16 for the Met, attracting scorn from revisionists and admiration from traditionalists. "All the secrets of Wagner's Ring," he once said, "should be guessed by the audience or found by the audience." - AP

Ex-CEO Of MoviePass Pleads Guilty To Fraud

"Theodore Farnsworth, the former CEO of MoviePass parent Helios & Matheson Analytics, pleaded guilty to charges of defrauding and conspiring to defraud investors in two public companies, including lying about artificial intelligence capabilities that it didn’t have." - Deadline

Wanamaker Organ Is (Probably) Safe, Though The Macy’s Hosting It Is Closing

The department store chain has definitively decided to close its historic Philadelphia location, making the future of the world's largest fully-functioning musical instrument uncertain. But the store's Grand Court, including the organ, has protected landmark status. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

Britain To Put 30% Cap On Markup Of Event Tickets

"(The move) follows years of campaigning by politicians, musicians and the theatre industry to stop professional 'resellers' hoovering up tickets at the expense of fans and selling them on for huge mark-ups in alliance with platforms such as Viagogo and StubHub, which take a cut of the profits." - The Guardian

Anita Bryant, 84

"(She was) a beauty queen, singer and wholesome pitchwoman for Florida orange juice whose crusade against gay rights in the 1970s transformed her into one of the most polarizing figures in American public life." - The Washington Post (MSN)

The Hams That Saved A Historic French Organ

Hams produced by monks, no less. And the best of them are left to cure in the church's dry, windy bell tower. - Atlas Obscura

British Fiction Generated Record Sales In 2024

BookTok, Science Fiction & Fantasy, and the indomitable Richard Osman led Fiction, with the category accounting for the year’s top five titles, 16 of the top 20 and 32 of the top 50. - The Bookseller

New Discoveries At Luxor Could “Reconstruct” History

Artifacts found at the tombs included bronze coins with the image of Alexander the Great dating to the Time of Ptolemy I (367-283), children’s toys made of clay, cartonnage and funerary masks that covered mummies, winged scarabs, beads and funerary amulets. - APNews

Could (Should?) Cities Be Built Of Wood?

 I’ve been waiting years for the emergence of a bold timber architecture with designs that take advantage of the material’s expressive personality, its strength and malleability, its ability to support immense burdens or be worked in fine filigree, to form great blocks and stiff walls or else to bend like reeds. - New York Magazine (MSN)

Why Mexicans Are Not Happy About The International Success of “Emilia Pérez”

"Mexicans began observing that Emilia Pérez was a film about Mexico where just one main actor was Mexican, made by a French director who speaks no Spanish, shot in France, scripted with unnatural-sounding dialogue, and heavy with stereotypes. Comments online were by turns amused and annoyed, but also baffled." - The Guardian

Why Boulez Matters (On The 100th Anniversary Of His Birthday)

 The very precise way he used his hand helped communicate to players across the arena of an orchestra exactly where they were in the bar and exactly what he wanted. He had also a fantastic ear and the ability to hear things with great precision, which also affects enormously the way people play. - The Guardian

Zeppo, The Prodigal Marx Brother

It's not just that the baby of the family was the most reluctant to be a performer and the first to deliberately abandon the Marx Brothers act. "Zeppo was a ruthless gambler with deficiencies as a husband and father. Okay, he was a stinker, but a really interesting one." - The Arts Fuse (Boston)

Hollywood Presses Pause As Wildfires Engulf LA

Amid the ongoing wildfires in Southern California, a number of glitzy Hollywood events and red carpet premieres have also been cancelled. - CNN

How Boston’s Faneuil Hall Came To Embody The Complicated Idea Of America

Figures from every corner of politics have used the hall for events and rallies, amplifying the legend “that this is where the idea of American liberty is born.” Frederick Douglass argued here before packed houses of abolitionists in 1849 and 1858. That same year, Jefferson Davis, future leader of the Confederacy, gave a speech.” - Smithsonian

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