"(Dmitri Markov's) subjects were always the most vulnerable in society: orphans, alcoholics, addicts, homeless people, the very old and dying, conscripts and children. It was a side of Russia absent from bombastic official narratives under Putin, but one that was instantly recognisable to most Russians." - The Guardian
By the end of the long weekend, the eclectic crowd had created a radical system for describing and discovering online content that still directly powers web search today, and which paved the way for how all content is labelled and discovered on the open web. - Aeon
"The theater’s board announced the decision Friday, citing 'external forces during and after the pandemic,' including higher production costs, the loss of corporate and personal sponsorships, a decline in sales and a slow return of audiences to live venues." - The News & Observer (Raleigh) (MSN)
Whether Disney adults are embarrassing or enchanting is largely a matter of opinion. What is missing from endless comment sections is the fact that they are a creation of the Walt Disney Company – a character constructed just as carefully as Elsa or Donald Duck. - New Statesman
The film, set to begin shooting in Baltimore (of course) later this year, is an adaptation of Waters's 2022 novel Liarmouth (subtitled "A Feel-Bad Romance"). Aubrey Plaza will star as a compulsive liar and scammer named Marsha Sprinkle. - The Guardian
Prosecutors say the 70-year-old was chatting, first on an dating app and then directly on WhatApp, with someone he believed to be a 15-year-old but was in fact an undercover officer. He was arrested last month at the coffee shop where he had arranged for them to meet. - BBC
She began her initial term in 2022, and it was set to expire at the end of this year. With her contract ending in 2026 (at the earliest), she will get to see through the SSO's four-year project performing Wagner's Ring cycle in concert. - Limelight (Australia)
"Multiple reports published since last summer have shed long-awaited light on the fiscal health of the country’s dance sector. What those numbers say isn’t simple to summarize. … (For instance,) even when the changes in dollar amounts appear positive, adjustments for inflation erase most gains (and deepen losses)." - Dance Magazine
"(A) 53-year-old (set) decorator alleges that Depardieu grabbed her and kneaded her waist, stomach and breasts during filming for Les Volets verts, or The Green Shutters, lawyer Carine Durrieu Diebolt said Monday. Other people intervened to stop him, the lawyer added." - AP
House Bill 4654, now in the state senate, would "remove exemptions for criminal liability from schools, libraries, and museums, allowing them to be criminally charged for the distribution and display of 'obscene' matter to minors." (The bill does not define "obscene.") - Artnet
When notifying parents, school district leaders in the Fort Worth suburb of Keller gave no reason for cancelling the docudrama about the 1998 murder of gay student Matthew Shepard; a spokesman later said administrators wanted a play like previous productions of Mary Poppins and White Christmas. - The Dallas Morning News (MSN)
If no one industry rules the city, one group of people does: artists. Every year, a new generation of them arrive in New York hoping to make their name. Those of us who aren’t artists come here for them, too. - The New York Times
The laws, championed by right-leaning state lawmakers, are rooted in the idea that the tech platforms have had a bias against conservatives. They’ve long lambasted social media practices that limited the reach of certain accounts, while tech companies have denied that they are discriminating against certain types of political speech. - Deadline
Mary Poppins is being re-released in select UK cinemas next month to celebrate the film’s 60th anniversary, prompting BBFC to upgrade its classification for the first time since 1964. - Deadline
AI will entrap us in a matrix where none of us know what’s real. If an inventor lacks empathy and spirituality, perhaps that’s not the invention we need. Dystopia stories can also become a self-fulfilling prophecy. - Los Angeles Times
