From the get-go, Common People Dance Eisteddfod has predominantly attracted middle-aged women. (One year, a team did an interpretive dance on the theme of “the symptoms of perimenopause in a subtropical climate that’s going through climate change”.) - The Guardian
“Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel … The new measurement tool combines Nielsen’s existing panel with data from cable, satellite set-top boxes and smart TVs across 45 million households and 75 million devices through the company’s partnership with big data partners like Roku, Comcast, Dish, Vizio, and DirecTV.” - TheWrap (Yahoo!)
There is a yawning gap between Columbia’s marketing—“Let magician Terry Riley float you on his tangerine carousel into a sunshine universe you might have dreamed of once when everything was easy and colorful and innocent”—and the still-reverberant utopian spirit of the actual music, infused with the composer’s lived experience. - The New Yorker
I’ve never encountered a complete description of what the magazine wants its checkers to check. A managing editor took a stab in 1936: “Points which in the judgment of the head checker need verification.” New checkers, upon receiving their first assignment, are instructed to print out the galleys of the piece and underline all the facts. - The New Yorker
In the staff memo, Lonnie Bunch shared details of his formal response to the White House, indicating that the Smithsonian intends to undertake its own review, rather than be directed by the Trump administration. - Washington Post
“What are the 100 things that unequivocally define Swedish culture? Flat-packed furniture from IKEA? Of course. Pippi Longstocking? Indeed. The touchstone films of Ingmar Bergman? Absolutely. Abba and meatballs? Apparently not.” - The New York Times
It is a mammoth undertaking that involves about 3,500 artists; 1,000 staff members; 16 stages; and a budget of 75 million euros (about $88 million). This summer alone, there were six staged operas and four plays, featuring more than 1,500 costumes, including leopard-print hats and glittering Swarovski-covered masks. - The New York Times
Excellence is not a neutral concept. Its not a fixed standard hovering above culture, waiting to be discovered. It's a construct. When we pretend otherwise, when we speak of excellence as if it were objective and settled, we obscure the real question. - Emil Kang
Our rage for hormone therapies, supplements, beauty procedures, and longevity interventions suggest we’re all competing in the Enhanced Games now. - Daniel Kunitz
“The Onion has more than 53,000 subscribers paying as much as $9 a month. The publication has a new deal to sell its papers at Barnes & Noble, and is expecting about $6 million in revenue this year — up from less than $2 million in early 2024.” - The Wall Street Journal (MSN)
When he directed the Bolshoi Ballet (2004-08) and after, he had a grand plan to stage the entire canon of great Russian ballets and classical scores. But, though St. Petersburg-born, he grew up in Kyiv, and his parents still live there. Putin’s invasion has changed both his life and his career. - Financial Times
“Thomas Schumacher, who led Disney Theatrical Group for decades and helped it produce enduring musical theater hits like The Lion King and Aladdin, changing Times Square and Broadway itself, is leaving the company.” - AP
Her 1960s paintings about Hollywood actors, movie violence, and gender are now thought to be key to the Pop art movement, though she was widely recognized only in later life. She was also at various times an Obie-winning playwright, Emmy-winning screenwriter, actress, cabaret singer, and professional wrestler. - ARTnews
The painting, Portrait of a Lady by 18th-century artist Giuseppe Ghislandi, was spotted in a photo from a house in Mar del Plata owned by the daughter of an advisor to Hermann Goering, who extorted it from the Amsterdam art dealer Jacques Goudstikker before the latter fled Europe in 1940. - The Independent (UK)
“It’ll be paused for a couple of hours while the ministerial order is rewritten,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told reporters on Tuesday. “The direction will be to take books with pornographic images out of the libraries and to leave the classics alone. I think there was some misunderstanding of the order.” - The Guardian
