There is satisfaction in pressing a button or cranking a dial that no touchscreen will ever replicate. There is also certainty; if I reach for my car’s temperature control, I know it will be there, without taking my eyes off the road to click through six sub-menus. - The Guardian
“Shahrbanoo Sadat … wrote, directed and stars in the daring, genre-bending film No Good Men, about a budding love affair in a Kabul newsroom on the eve of the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 and the West’s chaotic withdrawal.” - The Guardian
It’s true that Chinese universities have made remarkable strides, and some of them host superb centers of research and education. However, they aren’t nearly as dominant as those rankings suggest. - The New York Times
The embarrassment comes in what can all too easily happen when classical music tries to get down with the kids with new formats. Visuals! Apps! Short excerpts instead of whole symphonies! All of which can patronisingly say: we’re just like the pop cultures you love: we’re groovy too! - The Guardian
Tina Rivers Ryan had stepped into the leadership role at Artforum after a tumultuous year. It had just fired David Velasco, at the time its editor in chief, after he had signed and published an open letter calling for Palestinian liberation. - The New York Times
Yes, of course the fact that the Motion Picture Academy has made a conscious effort to internationalize its membership is part of it. Yet the key factor (yes, for all categories) has been a change in the way nominations for Best International Film are made. - The Hollywood Reporter
Or, how France’s Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry (who’s actually Canadian) ended up paired at all, then became the gold medalists despite having been together only since March. - AP
With his ensembles Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, he undertook the first complete recording project of Bach’s cantatas and major choral works. As the period-instrument movement picked up steam through the 1980s, ‘90s and onward, Rilling was the last remaining Bach specialist to cling strictly to modern instruments. - Moto Perpetuo
“After announcing last week that Jersey City is facing a $255 million deficit, Mayor James Solomon removed any doubt about where he stood on Centre Pompidou’s proposed satellite location in New Jersey’s second-largest city. ‘We will not be doing Pompidou, to be clear. It is dead.’” - NJ.com
In a Tuesday memo obtained by The Associated Press, Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell told staff that ‘departments will obviously function on a much smaller scale with some units totally reduced or on hold until we begin preparations to reopen in 2028,’ promising ‘permanent or temporary adjustments for most everyone.’” - AP
He was discovered by director Robert Altman for the 1970 films M*A*S*H and Brewster McCloud; he subsequently featured in Heat (1995), Dogma (1999) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). Yet it was his co-starring role in alongside Ruth Gordon in Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude that would establish his place in cinema. - Deadline
The 81-year-old conductor has served the orchestra as “Music Advisor” for the past year, following the departure of Giancarlo Guerrero. (He did the same for three years between the death of longtime music director Kenneth Schermerhorn and Guerrero’s arrival.) Slatkin’s contract as music director runs for three years. - Nashville Scene
Antonio Najarro, former director of the Ballet Nacional de España and choreographer of several medal-winning routines in ice dancing: “It seemed very difficult to me. Flamenco is so rooted in the earth that doing it on ice felt almost crazy. But curiosity got the better of me.” - El País in English (Spain)
Depending on where you stand, the human face has become either a digital playground or digital battleground. Your Instagram feed can now produce a diaspora of thousands of faces that uncannily resemble but are not quite Kim Kardashian, a “cyborgian” look best achieved through plastic surgery and Facetune. - The Walrus
“I was studying this issue of conspiracy theories and what makes people susceptible to a conspiracy theory. There’s a real terror of (not conforming) in our culture, and we will gladly believe somebody else’s nonsense if it means we don’t stick out from the group.” - WBEZ (Chicago)
