Stories

International Booker Prize Doubles Its Award Money And Changes Its Name

“The prize, which honors translated fiction and this year celebrates its 10th anniversary, will be renamed the Bukhman International Booker Prize,” with the top award raised from £50,000 to £100,000 (roughly $66,000 to $132,000), split equally between the winning author and translator. - Publishers Weekly

Paris Opera’s Musicians Form Self-Governing Concert Orchestra

The independent ensemble, called Philopéra, will be a collective run by the members, along the lines of the Vienna Philharmonic (all members of the Vienna State Opera orchestra) and the Filarmonica della Scala. Philopéra’s first concert will be at the Palais Garnier on September 6, with Daniel Harding conducting. - Moto Perpetuo

Nine-Hour Online Queues For Bayeux Tapestry Tickets At British Museum

“When tickets went on sale for the first time on Wednesday morning, … there were reports of 40,000 people queueing by mid-morning, with that figure ballooning to almost 80,000 by mid-afternoon.” - The Guardian

Former Facebook Exec Sues Meta For Trying To Suppress Her Memoir

Sarah Wynn-Williams, who was director of global public policy at Facebook from 2011 until her firing in 2017, argues in her suit that the non-disparagement clause in her severance agreement and the arbitration order barring her from promoting her book, Careless People, are invalid. - AP

Philadelphia Orchestra Appoints New Assistant Conductor: Sara Aldana

A native of Colombia and a student of Marin Alsop, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s principal guest conductor, Aldana was most recently cover conductor at the Detroit Symphony. - Moto Perpetuo

David Sedaris Confesses His Duolingo Addiction

“My problem arose when I discovered Duolingo’s competitive aspect, when I learned that it is essentially a game. ... This means forgoing any real learning, and earning easy points by simply reading sentences out loud.” An excerpt from his latest book, The Land and Its People. - The Guardian

What Makes A Rhythm Propulsive

What makes a rhythm distinctive or catchy? The answer lies in the pattern that underlies the structure. Much of human creativity beyond rhythm and music is also shaped by the math underneath the patterns. - The Conversation

Ballet Costumes Are Shockingly Labor-Intensive

“Beading and sequins, silk bodices and boning, plus 10 layers of pleated net, all painstakingly cut and dyed by hand before being sewn together. ... ‘If you break it down to five days a week, 40 hours, it’s usually about two weeks. To make one tutu.’” - The i Paper

It’s Expensive To Enter Australia’s Art Prize Competitions. But Hard To Give Them Up

In today’s landscape, prizes are no longer a nice little extra, or a back pat that arrives at the end of a long and successful career. They’re a serious part of the machinery. - ArtsHub

Do We Have A Facts Problem Or An Interpretation-Of-Facts Problem?

Citizens can agree on verifiable facts and still inhabit different worlds, because facts do not interpret themselves. To see why, we need to look beyond narrow factual disagreements to the competing systems of interpretation through which people select, categorize, frame, connect, explain, and narrate facts. - Persuasion

DePaul Museum Just Closed. But Its Collection Will Stay On Campus

The DePaul Art Museum announcement came two months after the university laid off 114 full-time and part-time staff. Administrators referenced financial troubles due to a significant drop in international graduate student enrollment, increased demand for financial aid and the rising costs of benefits. - WBEZ

Zelenskyy Suggests A Replacement For The Long-Toppled Lenin Monument In Kyiv

The statue of the father of the USSR was pulled down by demonstrators during the Euromaidan demonstrations in 2013; the pedestal has stood empty ever since. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has officially proposed that a bust of Ivan Mazepa, who led the Cossack state from 1687 to 1709, should go in that spot. - ARTnews

Stratford Festival Artistic Director Retires After 40 Years

Antoni Cimolino, whose gentle stewardship of this juggernaut of a theater, especially during that existential COVID crisis, was as sure as it was self-effacing, leaves a great deal more. - Chicago Tribune (Yahoo)

Arena-Sized Aida Canceled

Said a spokesperson for TEG (Ticketek Entertainment Group): “Unfortunately, the ongoing conflict and instability in the Middle East has resulted in massive increases in international freight and airfares, making it impossible to bring the large scale production to Adelaide.” - Limelight

The Think Tank Leading Trump’s War On Education

The think tank has crafted model legislation to remake colleges and universities as race-blind institutions, fueled the campaign to oust Claudine Gay as president of Harvard, and turned City Journal, its quarterly magazine, into a platform for attacking diversity programs, grade inflation, and university presidents’ capitulation to the demands of left-leaning students and faculty. - Chronicle of Higher Education

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