"According to the dancers’ union contract, the temperature must be just so to reduce injuries. The floor must have the correct level of springiness. Breaks are mandatory; the length of rehearsals is carefully capped. Certain ballets are still under copyright protection, meaning that (various conditions must be met)." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
An attorney for collector Uthman Khatib says that the paintings — including works attributed to Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, and Natalia Goncharova, and collectively worth more than €100 million — were stolen from a storage facility Khatib rented in Germany. - ARTnews
"In a career spanning (over) 40 years, he established himself as a hyperliterate jester and an anarchic clown. Regarding subject and theme, he pogoed from sex to metaphysics to serial killers to psychology; he had a way of collapsing high art and jokes that aimed much lower." - The New York Times
"The playfully erudite author, whose darkly comic and complicated novels revolved around the art of literature and launched countless debates over the art of fiction, … was part of a wave of writers in the 1960s who challenged standards of language and plot." - AP
"James Sheen, 39, pleaded guilty to burglary, converting or transferring criminal property and conspiracy to do the same. … The fully functioning toilet" — titled 'America' — "was installed at Blenheim Palace in 2019 as part of an exhibition by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan called 'Victory is Not an Option.'" - CNN
"Raffaele Cardone, the founder and long-time general and artistic director, … said the main reason for closing the company was, no surprise, money difficulties. … The upstart troupe provided idiomatic and often inspiring performances of Italian opera and provided a career springboard for talented local artists." - South Florida Classical Review
"The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society is demanding an overhaul of how culture funding is allocated in Scotland after a bid to secure £155,000 to help artists appearing at the event was rejected" by Creative Scotland, the funding agency. - The Scotsman (MSN)
Classical music has an image problem that feels like an existential threat. The pernicious idea of “elitism” — a word that was only coined in the 1980s — spread like Japanese knotweed through the pages of the press as the century neared its close. - The Critic
Protopias, on the other hand, are achievable. They present a realistic, better tomorrow. But even the protopian visions of more recent iterations of Star Trek, she notes, do not necessarily grapple with our most immediate crises. - NPR
A whopping 67 percent of educators told EdTA they are weighing potential controversies when they make show selections—and with good reason. - American Theatre
“I better warn you. I do talk a lot,” she said last Saturday night in Los Angeles. “I have 10 songs and the rest is chat.” In fact, Adele performed 16 songs that night, but she was true to her word. - The Wall Street Journal
In the contemporary world, the self is no longer a subject but a project. The self is something to be optimised, to be maximised, to be made efficient, cultivated for its capacity for productive output. The worry is that all life activities become viewed as lines on a résumé. - Psyche
"The Commission has received a petition asking it to deny (WBAI) a new license for allegedly violating rules that prohibit noncommercial stations from airing underwriting announcements that contain comparative and qualitative descriptions, price information, calls to action, and inducements to buy products or services provided by program guests." - Inside Radio
In some ways he seems the archetypal modern man, prone to anxieties and constantly on the move, pushed around by world-historical forces. - The Telegraph (UK)
