The EP-1320 comes “pre-loaded with a selection of playable musical instruments from the Middle Ages, from frame drums, battle toms, and coconut horse hooves to bagpipes, bowed harps, and, yes, hurdy-gurdies.” - Open Culture
“It’s like a ‘Seinfeld’ convention with a baseball game in the background,” says the man who organized Seinfeld Night for the first time, a decade ago. - The New York Times
“We may yearn for the freedom from all the extraneous stuff embedded in our smartphones — the distractions from the world around us — but liberty comes at the cost of becoming cut off from all the essentials, too.” - Washington Post
The list of winners seems innocuous, but it comes with a link to a report that details everything possible, along with a link to the full statistics. Why? Last year’s edition was rife with censorship, and this year had its own ballot-stuffing issues. - Glasgow Worldcon
Zainab Boldale is a journalist and TV presenter, who “has already hit several impressive career milestones in her 27 years, her first young adult novel will be published this month.” - Irish Times
She played in the orchestra, somehow survived, and later helped found the English Chamber Orchestra. And at nearly 100 years old, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch has forgotten nothing. - The New Yorker
“The writers’ branch of the TV Academy isn’t the general public, and it’s reasonable to wish they’d be more discerning in their choices. This year, the comedy writers actually did just that.” - Vulture
“This summer’s three biggest relatively high-brow, low-budget horror films — Maxxxine, Longlegs, and Cuckoo — represent a move toward big moods. … A horror movie doesn’t have to be smart to be enjoyable, but is it unfair to ask them to at least not be so dim?" - The Verge
Churchill was not one to enjoy being out of power, and perhaps abandoned the Conservative Party leadership behind the scenes. But his “love of painting, both as a hobby and a fan, remained a sustaining pleasure.” - The Observer (UK)
The law, which will be appealed again, “bans any titles that describe sexual acts from K-12 schools, with the exception of religious texts. The law also limits instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity before seventh grade.” - The New York Times
London police and security firms have no idea what to do with Banksy artworks (read about what happened to the sixth piece) - which may be why the seventh piece is piranhas on a police call box. - The Guardian (UK)
“Some observers view breaking’s evolution as most apparent in the development of its female athletes, a far cry from the early days when male gatekeepers sidelined women who wanted to throw down.” - The New York Times
“We seem to be torn between two approaches to the role of the arts in American life — whether we need a narrowly political approach at times of crisis, or whether we have faith in the chaotic, democratic possibilities of unrestrained speech and art.” - The New York Times
