"Morale and trust within the (Central Florida Tourism Oversight District) has deteriorated since allies of (the Florida governor) took it over earlier this year, according to many employees who have departed in recent months saying the governing district has been politicized and cronyism now permeates the organization." - AP
One didn’t read Brustein to determine which Broadway shows to buy tickets to. One read Brustein to understand a play or musical in its larger historical context and to be reminded of the artistic values that guided his judgments. - Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Branagh's King Lear in the West End is getting panned, but sometimes (as with Paul Mescal and Daniel Radcliffe) they're terrific. But half the audience comes just to see the celebrity in person, and sometimes producers blow the budget on the star while everything else looks cheap. - The Guardian
The State Department ran a major cultural diplomacy program during the mid-20th century, sending some of America's most prominent performers on overseas tours. Best remembered today are visits to Communist Eastern Europe, but the program was active in Latin America as well — with Copland as its leading light. - San Francisco Classical Voice
It's not just the common expressions — "wild goose chase," "cruel to be kind," "in a pickle," "fair play," and lots of others. Shakespeare coined hundred of basic words we use today: "eyeball," "bedroom," "puppy dog," "bedazzled," "jaded," and on and on. - BBC
"The creator fund was originally introduced in 2020, with the company promising to pay out $1 billion over the course of three years to people making the app’s viral content. … TikTok didn’t respond to questions about whether it had paid out all of the $1 billion." - The Verge
"In 2013, Spike Jonze's Her imagined a world where humans form deep emotional connections with AI. … Ten years later, thanks to ChatGPT's recently added voice features, people are playing out a small slice of Her in reality, having hours-long discussions with the AI assistant on the go." - Ars Technica
Jessica McCann of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre suffered hip pain for years, but by last year's Nutcracker, she reached the breaking point. Doctors said she had the right hip of a 90-year-old and needed a replacement. She was back onstage last month. Here's the story of her surgery and recovery. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Mocking of Christ, by the 13th-century Italian painter Cimabue, was sold at auction, reportedly to collectors in Delaware, for €24.2 million. The French government promptly declared the painting a "national treasure," barring export for 30 months, giving the Louvre time to raise funds to match the bid. - Artnet
"The gunman gained entry into the home-based radio station of provincial news broadcaster Juan Jumalon by pretending to be a listener. He then shot him twice during a live morning broadcast in Calamba town in Misamis Occidental province (on the island of Mindanao), police said." - AP
While Canadian audiences are undoubtedly harmed by the blocking of journalism, for independent local news business, which the Bill aimed to protect, this new media ecosystem can be a death sentence. - Reuters Institute
Among other things, the scandal of the 1987 National Book Award emphasizes just how little we, as readers, know about how literary distinction is doled out, and by whom. - Public Books
The director of the Museum Langmatt in Switzerland described the upcoming auction at Christie's of three Cézanne paintings as an "emergency measure," saying that the sales will finance an endowment and compensate the heirs of a Jewish dealer forced to sell the artworks during the Nazi era. - The New York Times
“Most of the airlines do not have a policy for musical instruments,” he said. “And when there is a policy sometimes it is not applied consistently.” - ClassicFM
