The physical preparation is truly its own full-time job. Red light therapy, vocal therapy, physical therapy, a trainer, two hours of warm-up, three people to set her wig and sew her into her first costume … and then Megan Hill is on. - The New York Times
“Operators aimed the dish at Voyager 1, the world’s most distant spacecraft more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away. Traveling at the speed of light, the music was expected to overtake Voyager 1 within 23 hours.” - Seattle Times (AP)
“Launching in London is a risk. When SXSW is in the Texas capital, it takes over the city’s downtown area – a feat that’s impossible in London. The UK’s capital is not Austin.” - The Guardian (UK)
The Naoshima New Museum of Art “is likely to provide more fuel for global art pilgrims — some six million of them since 2004 — who have flocked to the islands, most taking a couple of trains and a ferry to experience major artworks in unusual settings.” - The New York Times
Maybe - but no sarcasm, please. "We already have umpteen animated takedowns – Robot Chicken’s fever-dream dismemberments, Family Guy’s fart-laced remakes – and they’re fine, in their way.” But not from the franchise itself. - The Guardian (UK)
Weirdly, Netflix bought Nouvelle Vague “and is likely to make the film its big awards play — an ode to a golden age of moviemaking that will probably only play in movie theaters for two weeks.” - Washington Post (MSN)
At Tiny Desk, the lack of modulation made indie, rock, and folk popular. “But a 2014 concert with T-Pain, in which the famously autotune-heavy singer unveiled an impressive set of pipes, showed how artists from a broader array of genres could shine.” - NPR
“After working in the space industry, has come to believe that we have learned nothing from history, that humans may be doomed to repeat the mistakes we made on Earth in space.” - The Guardian (UK)
"Commissioned by Harvard professor Louis Agassiz and taken by Joseph T. Zealy in 1850, the daguerreotypes — an early form of photography exposed on copper plates — show Renty and Delia stripped to the waist.” Now, the images will go to one of their descendants. - Hyperallergic
“PBS filed a federal lawsuit Friday asking a court to block the May 1 executive order by the Trump White House to cut off funding to public media, calling the move a violation of the 1st Amendment.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
At Madrid’s Bernabéu Stadium, dozens of music gigs took place in 2024 - until September, when everything came to a (non-screeching) halt when the stadium’s neighbors sued over the noise. - BBC
The dismissal marks the first action Trump has taken against the Smithsonian Institution since an executive order he signed earlier this year that promised to eliminate “divisive narratives” and “anti-American ideology” from the museum and research body, which is partially funded by the federal government. - Washington Post
The Sacred Harp, the collection from which the traditional American practice of communal shape-note hymn-singing takes its name, was first published in 1844 and has been in continuous use ever since. The compendium is currently undergoing its first update in decades; publishers stress that it is a renewal, not just a reprint. - AP
