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A Window Into A New Opera Festival

What the Prototype festival brings to audiences: Anything from Biblical translations to "a kind of nostalgic reminder of the loud, messy, nudity-filled, often self-serious, generally baffling shows that were once fixtures of downtown New York." - The New York Times

Bill O’Reilly Apoplectic At His Own Books Being On A Removal List In Florida Schools

The former FOX News host who hard-core supported this very book censorship legislation wrote on X/Twitter, "Things are getting crazy with book banning in #Florida." - Yahoo News (Salon)

Queen Camilla Chooses A Rather Interesting Book For Her Book Club

The author of a book about King Charles and other members of the Royal Family being held hostage says, "the move showed the Queen had 'a fantastic sense of humour.'" - BBC

The Portland Opera Is Selling Its Building To Relieve Debt

The company "will be vacating the entire bundle: administrative offices, costume shop, rehearsal space, parking lot and all." Where will it go? That's not yet clear. - Oregon ArtsWatch

AI Is Making Mincemeat Out Of Art, And Intellectual Property As Well

"Tech companies scrape the work of artists and writers to their benefit without consent or compensation, turning anyone who has ever had the audacity to post anything to the internet — including a 6-year-old — into grist for their mill." - Los Angeles Times

What The World Of Bestselling Celebrity Books Does To Regular Writers

It isn't pretty: "Publishing is competing with other forms of entertainment in an increasingly fragmented media landscape, and an author with existing name recognition is a tempting prospect." - The Guardian (UK)

The Rise And Spectacular Collapse Of Substack

The issues: "The company wanted to have it both ways: to exert the cultural influence of a major media company without shouldering any more responsibility (or economic burden) than is expected of a mere service provider, such as Gmail.-" The Atlantic

A Fire In Seattle’s Pioneer Square Damages Work By Rembrandt, Picasso

"The artworks by local and international artists, both contemporary and historical, span a time frame from the 1400s to today and are valued anywhere from $85 to more than $28,000. At least two etchings by Picasso and Rembrandt were among the damaged, perhaps destroyed, artworks." - Seattle Times

Can The Bloomsbury Group Please Get Its Art Back?

At Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant's Charleston, the house and many furnishings have been preserved, but a foundation would very much like the creators' art back. - The Guardian (UK)

How Writer Octavia Butler Foretold The Future

This is a skill many science fiction writers would like to possess - but it wasn't uncomplicated. "Through the noise of late-20th-century America, Butler heard a clear signal: The future would not be like the present; it would, instead, be a techno-juiced doppelgänger of the past." - The Atlantic

The Hotel That Launched A Million Books

Without a real-life murder mystery at an Indian hotel, Agatha Christie may never have launched Hercule Poirot. - BBC

How Actors Speak In Early Awards Shows Can Determine Whether They Earn An Oscar

While voting is still happening, "Many an Oscar has been won or lost on the basis of a good or bad performance on a podium a few weeks before." - The Guardian (UK)

Indiana University Cancels An 87-Year-Old Artist’s Retrospective

Why cancel Yale School of Art professor Samia Halaby's show? Well, she's Palestinian, and she's vocal in her support of the Gazans under attack from Israel. If that isn't the reason, she wonders, "Why did they not speak up during the three long years of preparation?" - Hyperallergic

Willem Dafoe Wants People To Stop Taking Sex So Seriously

At least the sex in Poor Things, his new movie. - Washington Post

In Chicago, Comedy Teachers Settle With Management To Avert A Second City Strike

When unions post "Strikes work" on social media, this is what they mean: "Negotiations had dragged on for almost two years before the union announced a strike date last week." - Chicago Sun-Times

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