In years past, what used to be called Off-Off-Broadway would take place on small, out-of-the-way stages in storefronts, schools or church basements. Post-pandemic, they're happening in people's living rooms or tiny backyards or on their rooftops. - Gothamist
At some point, we have to make a principled decision about what the category is and why that is the best way to think about it, because the world isn’t pre-divided into nice categories that we simply have to notice. - The Reader
Sometimes we ignore a book’s material presence: absorbed, ‘good’ reading is often figured as a forgetting of the material conditions of book, body, room and time, even though these conditions affect how we read. With certain other books it makes no sense to separate text from object. - London Review of Books
"Counterfeiting occurs when a party poses as a book’s real publisher to sell fake versions of books. … Sometimes these versions are obviously fake — bad scans of a book are not uncommon. Sometimes the fakes are actual EPUBs that the counterfeiter duplicated." There's a new way to help block these forgeries. - Publishers Weekly
Just as Joseph Stalin called artists the “engineers of the soul,” Gemini and other AI bots may function as the engineers of our mindscapes. Programmed by the hacker wizards of Silicon Valley, AI may become a vehicle for programming us—with profound implications for democratic citizenship. - The Atlantic
Although choreographers for the stage are represented by the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, the film/television/video industry had no equivalent of SAG-AFTRA or the Writers Guild for dancemakers — until 2022, when the Choreographers Guild was born. Here's a Q&A with a few of its founding leaders. - LA Dance Chronicle
"There is hardly a space in pop culture today that hasn’t been touched by Akira Toriyama’s art. … He brought manga and anime into the global mainstream and broke down the walls that had once sealed off Japanese storytelling." - The Washington Post (MSN)
Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and HNTB designed the planned 33,000-seat arena for the team currently known as the Oakland A's, which is moving to Nevada. Ingels himself describes the structure as a "spherical armadillo." The stadium will be on the Strip, on the current site of the Tropicana. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
"I mean, it’s not like we tried to make it look like an armadillo." On comparisons to the Sydney Opera House: "I’ll definitely take it as a compliment. I think it’s one of the most beautiful buildings on Earth. And I think, in all fairness, this is a very different building." - The Athletic
"The company, which was founded in 1988 by a group of Northwestern University graduates and achieved national fame for its original theatrical works, has been struggling financially since the COVID-19 crisis and has seen its theater production activities dwindle." - Chicago Tribune (MSN)
"Spanish police said they have shut down an alleged forgery ring selling fake Banksy artworks across the US and Europe for up to €1,500 ($1,642) a piece. Investigators seized nine artworks during a raid of an apartment in the city of Zaragoza." - CNN
The statewide network is eliminating 15 positions, some 8% of its workforce, mostly in audio and podcast production. (The newsroom is not affected.) The reason is the same as with other public radio outlets shedding staff: reduced revenue, especially from corporate advertising/sponsorships. - Inside Radio
"As a solo performer and with his wife, Eydie Gormé, (he) kept Tin Pan Alley alive during the rock era. … Steve & Eydie were known for their frequent appearances on talk shows, in night clubs and (in) Las Vegas, (singing) George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and other songwriters." - AP
The full company has toured the Far East before, but this June will be the first time for the orchestra as a concert ensemble. Music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and vocal soloists Elīna Garanča, Lisette Oropesa, and Christian Van Horn will perform in Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo and Hyogo, Japan. - The New York Times
The law essentially crowbars open what the EU calls the gatekeepers’ “core services.” In the past regulators have proposed containing corporate giants by taking them to pieces. EU lawmakers have adopted the motto “Don’t break up big tech companies, break them open.” - Wired
