Stories

US Publishers Charge Libraries Exorbitant Prices For E-Books. Some State Governments Want To Change That.

How exorbitant? A license for a digital copy of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 costs $51.99. Connecticut has already passed a law (not yet in effect) to rein in such pricing; New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Hawaii have similar legislation in the works. - The New York Times

The Complete Replica Of The Bayeux Tapestry Made In 1885

To call this enormous replica, on display at the Reading Museum, complete is not to call it completely accurate, mind you. The thread is worsted and colored with synthetic dyes, so the colors are brighter, and — it was the Victorian era, after all — the original’s more lewd images were bowdlerized. - The Guardian

NYTimes Removes Four Longtime Critics From Their Beats

The quartet of Times critics — television critic Margaret Lyons, music critic Jon Pareles, theater critic Jesse Green and classical music critic Zach Woolfe — will “be taking on new roles, and we will be conducting a search for critics on their beats in the weeks to come." - Variety

The Biggest Mystery In Chaucer Was, It Turns Out, Probably A Typo

Okay, there were no typewriters then; it was a scribal error — and it led to serious confusion about genre. The eureka moment by two researchers at Cambridge makes sense of that confusion. - Mental Floss

More Trouble For BBC: 300,000 More Households Have Stopped Paying Licence Fee

“As the broadcaster continues to battle the rise of YouTube and streaming services that have split audiences ..., its annual report revealed 23.8m licences were in force at the end of the year, down from 24.1m in 2023-24. The drop means a loss of about £50m in revenue for the corporation.” - The Guardian

UNESCO Names 32 New World Heritage Sites

The list includes four palaces built by Bavaria’s King Ludwig II; ancient rock art in Australia, Korea, and Russia’s Bashkir Republic; and three sites related to the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror in Cambodia. - Artnet

Williamstown Theater Festival Is Back From The Brink With A New Plan

“This summer, the ... latest leadership team has opted for a radically new and risky reboot: Instead of a summer-long season with two shows at a time, the company is leaning into the ‘festival’ part of its name, offering eight shows simultaneously, but only for three long weekends.” - The New York Times

The Most Talked-About Director In British Theatre

“Theatre is controversial again and it’s happened, surprisingly, in an Andrew Lloyd Webber revival” — the Evita in which Eva Perón sings to the crowd on the street — “at the London Palladium. ... And those buzzy shows that you heard about were probably directed by the same guy as this one: Jamie Lloyd.” - GQ

How Italian Towns Selling Houses For €1 Changes Culture

The campaigns seemed to me to have been largely successful – some towns had sold all their listed properties. By attracting international buyers to a house that “costs less than a cup of coffee”, as one piece put it, some of Italy’s most remote towns now had new life circulating through them. - The Guardian

The Latest Korean Pop Culture Phenomenon? Swing Dancing

“For a vintage American cultural practice to spread overseas and thrive there more robustly than at home is a story at least as old as jazz. Not in every case, though, does the transplanted form evolve into a local variant. That’s what has happened in Korea.” - The New York Times

Rethinking Origins Of The Blues

What is original, real, and distinctive about black Southern culture is still often distorted or dismissed as primitive. And that is true not only in the South but in the wider American culture. - Hedgehog Review

An Ancient City Off The Coast Of Italy Re-emerges From The Sea

For centuries, Aenaria had existed somewhere between history and myth. Today, its rediscovery is reshaping Ischia's story – and offering travellers the rare chance each summer to dive into a piece of history once thought lost to the sea. - BBC

Why Putting Tariffs On Foreign Films Is An Idiotic Idea

 The tariff idea arises from the worldview that treats international exchange as a threat — and cultural expression as just another import to tax. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)

Beetles Are Eating Their Way Through One Of Europe’s Oldest Libraries

At the Pannonhalma Archabbey, founded in 996, conservators are removing 100,000 books from the library shelves for disinfection from an infestation of bread beetles, which like to eat the gelatin and starch-based adhesives used in medieval books - AP

The Frustrations Of Advocating For The Arts

Advocacy emerges from discontent. In the arts, it’s often borne of witnessing creative practice undervalued, institutions destabilised and public funding eroded. These grievances are real and deeply felt. But passion alone, when untempered, can be self-defeating. - Arts Hub

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