"When I was playing Hamlet, a guy took out his laptop – not his phone, his laptop – while I was in the middle of ‘To be or not to f***ing be’. I was pausing and (the stage team) were like, ‘Get on with it’ and I was like, ‘There’s no way’.” - The Guardian
The center’s latest report, titled Inclusion in the Director’s Chair, called the entertainment industry’s pledges to promote inclusion “performative acts” and “not real steps towards fostering change”. - The Guardian
Syriac, a 2,000-year-old tongue closely related to the Aramaic spoken by Jesus of Nazareth, is today the language of Iraq's Orthodox Christians, a community whose numbers have fallen from 1.5 million to 400,000 over the last twenty war-torn years. A new all-Syriac network is helping keep the language alive. - The World
Racism at work? Depends on what exactly one means by racism, and where — because the Metro Nashville Arts Commission reversed the new funding model, and the grants allocated under it a month previously, on the advice of its legal department. - The Tennessean (Nashville)
Customer defections across premium streaming services rose to 6.3% in November, from 5.1% a year earlier. About one-quarter of U.S. subscribers to major streaming services—a group that includes Apple TV+, Discovery+, Disney+, Hulu, Max, Netflix, Paramount+, Peacock and Starz—have canceled at least three of them over the past two years. - The Wall Street Journal
Just a year ago, Tanesha Payne created SumRset (adapted from her maiden name) to spread appreciation for contemporary dance in America's seventh-largest city, where it seems not to have caught on as strongly as in Houston or Dallas. - San Antonio Report
"I hope the 20th century ‘early music revival’ might be viewed as an important shift in outlook in the performance of music. Seeking to try to understand music from earlier times and being prepared to be influenced by historical sources, be they manuscripts, documents, instruments or iconography." - Continuo Connect
The Blu-ray and DVD releases of Oppenheimer, for example, sold out in a week or so. Some of this is the basic fan/collector impulse, but much of it is awareness that corporations can remove individual titles from streaming availability more-or-less at will, but they can't come and take your discs. - BBC
The goal of the program is, said Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, to use American music and musicians, across many genres, "to strengthen the ties that bind nations together." Naive? Futile? "Well, yes and no," writes Fred Kaplan, who surveys similar efforts during and since the Cold War. - Slate (Yahoo!)
Esteban Salas y Castro (1725-1803) grew up in Havana and worked as music director at an important parish church there and at the cathedral in Santiago de Cuba, where his music — well over 100 sacred works and villancicos — was later rediscovered, languishing in a cabinet. - Early Music America
Even more arguments about appropriation. Parasocial aesthetics. (Yes, there's a definition of that.) Art that's about trying to outfox or even break AI. And there's more … - Artnet
Particularly known for playing villainesses, Murguía enjoyed a nearly 70-year career that spanned over 100 roles on film, television and the stage. She won three Ariel awards (Mexico's Oscars) and garnered three further nominations for supporting actress and was nominated five times for best leading actress. - The Guardian
The trial judge ruled that defendant Hadi Matar and his attorney are entitled to a copy of the manuscript and related material as part of preparing their defense. They are to reply on Wednesday whether they want to postpone the trial until they can receive and read the book. - AP
The successor company to a merger between CBS Radio and Entercom, Audacy manages 235 radio stations in 48 US media markets. A decline in advertising revenue has reportedly left the company unable to service $2 billion in debt. - Inside Radio
