Administrators opted to install another electronic (or 'digital') organ, a substitute for the real thing. This misguided decision, made hastily during the malaise of the Covid pandemic, was as baffling as it is unfortunate. The New York Philharmonic, a venerable, well-heeled institution, shouldn't present to the public a facsimile of a pipe organ. - BBC Music
"Local geography and lore are faithfully reported, including accurate references to the nearby village of Frogmore, the laundry place at Datchet Mead and Windsor Castle’s Great Park. This, we suggest, is for good reason. The author … is drawing from personal experience of having once lived in Windsor." - The Guardian
Generosity, commensurability, conversation—how calm, how dispassionate these words can seem. They do not, however, mean that the critic must be uncritical or mild-mannered. Far from it. - Yale Review
Running as an independent candidate, Eike Schmidt came in second place with 33% of the vote, far ahead of most candidates but ten percentage points behind Sara Furano of the center-left Democrat Party. Florence leans center-left politically, so Schmidt isn't favored to win in the final round. - Artnet
Making pop hits has always been a crapshoot. But today, with the world awash in content, TikTok rewriting labels’ playbooks and listeners burrowing deeper into their own personalized niches, even avid pop fans don’t recognize what’s in the Billboard top 10. - The Wall Street Journal
"The Prison Mirror (is) made by and for the people held at the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Stillwater. … Publications like this aren’t common, but in an era where many journalism outlets in the free world are struggling to thrive amid scores of layoffs, journalism behind bars is actually growing." - NPR
Prime Video’s large ad-supported subscriber base means it has a significant amount of ad inventory that is affecting the negotiations that Netflix, YouTube, TV networks and other streamers are having with advertisers as they commit to buying billions of dollars in commercial time for the coming TV season. - The Wall Street Journal
The average top-line ticket now costs £154.56 ($197.33), with Cabaret boasting the highest price: £303.95 ($380.05). For the first time, three different plays in the West End have top prices above £200 ($255). On the other hand, the cheapest seat now averages £24.58 ($31.38), down 3.4%. - The Guardian
"Its branches seem to be growing at different speeds with different textures. Some are thick and sturdy, while others are wispy, frizzled at the ends. It sometimes seems as if live performances are just extensions of TikTok." - The New York Times
"Especially in this dismal summer season, some box office watchers have questioned the need to pay attention to opening weekends at all. … (They say) negative headlines and unfairly judge the health of the movie theater business based on short-term fluctuations rather than trends over time." But that may not matter. - Variety
"The (justices) in a unanimous decision said (state) superintendent Ryan Walters and the Department of Education overstepped their authority in trying to force Edmond schools to ban two novels. Local school boards retain the discretion to decide which books are in a school’s library based on their community’s standards." - Oklahoma Watch
Overall paid attendance for this past season was 72%, only three points below the pre-pandemic level. There was a record number of new audience members, and the average age of single-ticket buyers is down to 44 from 50 pre-pandemic. Are contemporary operas selling well? Yes, some of them. - The New York Times
The Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Pérez Art Museum in Miami have called off their presentations of the traveling exhibition "Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence" scheduled for this summer and fall (Miami) and winter-spring 2025 (Minneapolis). A separate show by Omaha's Joslyn Art Museum has also been postponed. - ARTnews
The panel depicting the Just Judges disappeared in April 1934. There were months of delicately worded ransom negotiations, and then, that November, the thief made a deathbed confession. There was plenty of evidence to confirm his account, but to this day there has been no sign of the panel itself. - History Today
