Heavy rains brought by climate change have caused serious damage to the 14th-century rammed-earth monasteries and temples of Lo Manthang in far northern Nepal. With the help of Western art conservators, Lobas have relearned traditional crafts and restored wall paintings, statues and even roofs. - BBC
What did make Beethoven stand out from the crowd was his personification of the Romantic revolution, which coincided more or less with his lifetime. In the popular imagination, Beethoven was the quintessential romantic hero. - History Today
Evidence shows that even in the early post-pandemic days, music recovered more quickly nationally than other performing arts disciplines, and the losses during COVID weren’t as severe. - CultureOC
"In nine years, the show (Critical Role), hosted on Twitch and YouTube, has become the team’s full-time job, spawning a transmedia kingdom of novels, comic books, animated series and original games, as well as a new membership program for fans launched Thursday." - The Washington Post (MSN)
We have found that discussions of the apocalypse unite the ancient and modern, the religious and secular, and the revelatory and the rational. They show how a term with roots in classical Greece and early Christianity helps us articulate our deepest anxieties today. - The Conversation
"In the four years since making the seemingly counterintuitive decision to leave his native New York for Dallas — moving his DASH Ensemble dance company along with him — the former child actor, born risk-taker and master networker has become a go-to collaborator on the Dallas dance scene." - The Dallas Morning News (MSN)
Dogged by debt, over-optimistic financial forecasting, leadership turnover and overreliance on a small group of funders, the museum patched holes by creating new ones. - Seattle Times
"Over the past two decades, she has become one of Turkish literature’s most attacked authors. … Shafak’s case is part of a wider trend in President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s 'new Turkey,' which has been marked by the arrests of academics and a systematic clampdown on press freedom." - The Dial
"The plan would include auctioning off CBS, cable channels like MTV and the Paramount Plus streaming service, said (sources). Paramount Pictures … would be combined with Sony’s (movie studio) business," and the new owners would likely keep Paramount's library of films and TV programs. - The New York Times
The soon-to-be-renamed venue "will now boast significantly improved acoustics, state-of-the-art new audio, visual and lighting systems, new aisles and seats angled to face the stage — plus an array of other key new design elements — while retaining much of the hall's historic essence." - The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)
John McWhorter makes the case for Raisin — a 1973 adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun with book by her former husband, Robert Nemiroff (with Charlotte Zaltzberg), music by Judd Woldin and lyrics by Robert Brittan — and suggests a plausible explanation for why it was forgotten. - The New York Times
For years, the numbers of fully-employed faculty have fallen as universities use poorly-paid adjunct professors instead. Yet tuition prices keep soaring. Why? Because the number of paid administrators keeps soaring, too. Maybe students and faculty should be eliminated so universities can be run by and for their bureaucrats? - The Atlantic (MSN)
"(Eden Golan) was one of 10 acts who made it through Thursday’s semifinal, which was decided by votes from Eurovision viewers around the world. … Bookmakers say she is likely to finish in the top half of the final competition, decided by a mix of public votes and national music-industry juries." - AP
This time it's Southern California Public Radio, the entity that combines KPCC and the website LAist. All full- and part-time staffers in the newsroom who work at least 24 hours per week are eligible for the voluntary buyouts. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
At least among one audience, books are dying. Alarmingly, it’s the exact audience whose departure from reading might actually presage a catastrophe for the publishing industry—and for the entire concept of pleasure reading as a common pursuit. - Slate
