In 1087, a group of three grain ships from Bari, the port on the heel of the Italian boot, decided to steal the relics of the patron saint of sailors and bring them back home. So off they went to the tomb in Myra in what's now Turkey. From there the story gets literally and figuratively messy (not to...
Unlike a record label, a tech company doesn’t care whether we’re hooked on the same hit on repeat or lost in a three-hour ambient loop, so long as we’re listening to something. - The New Yorker
The budget cut is a departure from Berlin’s previous plan to inject the city’s cultural spaces with new capital. In 2021, Germany approved a record €2.1 billion federal culture; a €155 million increase from 2020. - ARTnews
The sight of young people moving to K-pop’s electrifying beat has become part of the drama of this protest movement. Protest organisers are blasting out K-pop hits, and demonstrators are waving K-pop light sticks (portable devices associated with specific artists or groups), turning the protests into multicoloured musical rallies. - The Conversation
Nostalgia is a powerful lure, even when it comes to songs like "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" and movies like "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians." And retailers and radio stations and TV networks know it. - Tedium
When the librettist obtained a copy of the score, in early 1743, he didn’t like it. “His Messiah has disappointed me,” he wrote to a friend, “being set in great haste … . I shall put no more Sacred Words into his hands, to be thus abus’d.” - The Wall Street Journal
The corridor, designed by the Renaissance-era architect Giorgio Vasari, was commissioned in 1565 by Cosimo I de’ Medici, the second duke of Florence, and completed in just five months. - The Guardian
Sarah Bahr: "For me, watching fictional journalists scheme their way to scoops is akin to what I imagine it must feel like for doctors to watch Grey’s Anatomy. … So, let me share how some stage scenarios would most likely unfold in a real newsroom." - The New York Times
Monday’s fall economic statement included the proposed update to the copyright act, which will give Canadian visual artists a slice of the proceeds if their work is resold at galleries or auction houses. - The Globe & Mail
“There’s been a lot of conversation about a false doom narrative … surrounding our city’s art scene. I counter that assertion. I want to point out that our scene is, in fact, thriving.” - ARTnews
The venue is in the city's top conference center/shopping mall; the cast includes Asmik Grigorian and Brian Jagde; José Cura is conducting; top tickets cost nearly $700. But hours before curtain time, director Davide Livermore stormed away and producers reconfigured the hall to remove 2,800 seats. - The Korea Herald
As with so many innovations, the first Christmas card, sent out in 1843, was devised by a guy trying to avoid a big, tedious task. Reaction was mixed, and the temperance society was particularly upset. - BBC
Dozens of students from Nairobi's Kibera Ballet School, which provides free instruction to impoverished children and teens, donned Santa hats and sequined outfits to perform holiday choreography they had practiced for months. - AP
"CBS executives thought the 25-minute program was too slow, too serious and too different from the upbeat spectacles they imagined audiences wanted. A cartoon about a depressed kid seeking psychiatric advice? No laugh track? Humble, lo-fi animation? And was that a Bible verse?" - The Conversation
