"Sometimes we associate the word 'operatic' with big, extreme feelings. But I think mixed emotions — ambivalence — are what opera does best. It conveys the complexity of emotions that might be hard to hear in everyday speech. The book (Fellow Travelers) had a lot of that." - San Francisco Classical Voice
Works by white writers dropped from 88 percent to 75 percent in five years. It is by far the biggest such change in U.S. literary history. Although these findings point to significant gains, they also demand that we reckon with what appears now to be the beginning of their reversal. - The Atlantic
"Today, figures like Schomburg and … W.E.B. Du Bois are hailed as the founders of the 20th-century Black intellectual tradition. But increasingly, scholars are uncovering the important role of the women who often ran the libraries, where they built collections and — just as important — communities of readers." - The New York Times
The historically lamentable lack of government support for the arts in the U.S. is taking another turn for the worse. California and San Francisco are facing large deficits, and meager support for the arts here is certain to decline further. - San Francisco Classical Voice
"Audiences love big, stage-filling choreography with dramatic music and luscious dancing. But every once in a while, a short, spare dance packs a punch. And that’s what people remember when they walk out of the theater." Wendy Perron lists some of the greatest. - Dance Magazine
People who relish mental challenges are not necessarily more intelligent – although some research has found that, on average, they score higher on fluid intelligence, the ability to solve problems and think logically. - Psyche
The Musée du Fromage, opening this weekend on Île Saint-Louis in central Paris, will feature demonstrations of how several different varieties (out of hundreds in France) are made, how to "read" the milk, the importance of bacteria, and the big effects that small details can have. - The Guardian
Kazuko Shiraishi shot to fame when she was just 20 with her “Tamago no Furu Machi” (“The Town that Rains Eggs”). A pioneer of performance poetry, she was known for her Ginsberg-esque public readings (occasionally with Ginsberg himself), sometimes accompanied by jazz, and she created Japan's Beat poetry scene singlehandedly. - AP
Maria is a successful actor/singer/director in Britain, and Sonia is arguably London's leading producer. They've occasionally worked together before, but Merrily We Roll Along is their big passion project, which they did in England, Japan, and Boston before the New York production that just won four Tonys. - The New York Times
Earlier this year, ISIS's media arm created two YouTube channels, with corresponding Facebook and Twitter/X accounts, branded as Al Jazeera and CNN and matching those outlets' graphics and logos. ISIS created four videos each in Arabic and English, all reporting fake news, before getting kicked off YouTube. - Institute for Strategic Dialogue
The first of these "experiential entertainment venues" will open next year at the King of Prussia Mall outside Philadelphia and the Galleria in Dallas. Each outlet, called Netflix House, will feature "immersive" experiences (including shopping and eating, of course) based on major franchises like Bridgerton, Stranger Things and Squid Game. - TheWrap
The first of them — rectangular pillars over 10 feet tall, made of reflective sheet metal — materialized, seemingly out of nowhere, in Utah in late 2020. Over four months, similar pillars appeared, then disappeared, in various places on every continent. Now one has reappeared in the desert mountains north of Las Vegas. - AP
The London-based Team Phat — which has already been banned from Venice — was doing its thing in the seaside town of Matera, in the arch of the Italian boot, when they stood on a stone protruding from a historic building and it fell off. They videotaped the whole thing. - The Washington Post (Yahoo!)
We are in a feedback loop in which social media edifies and dictates taste. In a time of strained attention, where every next post in the feed threatens to be a succession plan for what came before it, content makers are looking to land on the grid and stick there. - Artnet
No aspect of the process of making a play has been left unturned. From the lighting (switching to LED bulbs) to reducing travel (rehearsals are longer but less frequent to cut down on journeys) “everything has come in for scrutiny,” says Marcel Klett, the managing director. - The Guardian
