The flagging was part of a routine procedure before Smithsonian events. The institution insists that the festival was called off because the organizers were too far behind schedule on logistical planning, but some participants and observers are skeptical. - The Washington Post
Concerts in early March in Los Angeles, Orange County, Santa Barbara, and Palm Desert were found "no longer financially viable" due to "significant increases in cargo and travel costs." April concerts in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Ann Arbor are unaffected. - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
“Barbie” ended up with $162 million in its first weekend of release, above Sunday’s already record-breaking estimate of $155 million. "Oppenheimer,” too, beat expectations with $82.4 million, slightly higher than Sunday’s huge $80.5 million projection. - Variety
One reason books haven’t been particularly disruptable might be that many of the people looking to “fix” things couldn’t actually articulate what was broken—whether through their failure to see the real problems facing the industry (namely, Amazon’s stranglehold), or their insistence that books are not particularly enjoyable as a medium. - Wired
This was the second time that the vast, sand-yellow Transfiguration Cathedral, which sits in the heart of Odesa’s Unesco-listed historic centre, had been attacked: in the 1930s, it was torn down during Joseph Stalin’s atheism drive. On Sunday morning, the rebuilt version was hit during a Russian airstrike on the city. - The Guardian
After a half century Ms. Ono has moved out of New York City to the sprawling Catskills farm she bought with Mr. Lennon in 1978. For many, it signals that yet another link to old New York — the one filled with grit and glamour, run by artists and musicians — is missing. - The New York Times
The Think Local Festival, which promised attendees the chance to “discover the roots and taste of tradition,” was due to be held on Wednesday and Thursday near Mullingar, Ireland, this week, with tickets selling for €150 (£130) for the two-day programme. - Vice
Traditionally, the model for dealers has been to bet on raw talents, and support these artists until work by some of them sells well enough to cover the bets made on all the others. Under the mega-gallery model that Gagosian pioneered, the top dealers don’t even bother with nascent artists. - The New Yorker
On screen we want our romantic leads flawless, our sitcom families lower middle-class but quirky, and our presidents capable of single-handedly killing terrorists and jumping out of crashing jumbo jets. - Vox
But, some whispered, was it better? At least for regular cosplayers? "All the excitement that we’re not getting from the panels and stuff, we’re putting it towards each other. ... It’s not that there’s nobody here to talk to and see. It’s really the fans."- Los Angeles Times
A new piece was "built using a paste of mycelium and sawdust that’s pumped inside a fabric formwork. ... hardened into a moderately strong experimental pavilion that looks like a mix between a gazebo and a moldy piece of bread." - Fast Company
Which IKEA? Well, that depends on where the residency applicants live. In Burbank, one artist "pulled out a tub of IKEA’s MÅLA modeling dough and pressed it into the hole, then carefully removed the cast and stored it safely in a cardboard box like an archaeological specimen." - Hyperallergic
"'It’s impossible not to be distraught about the state of the field,' said Christopher Moses, an artistic director of the Alliance Theater in Atlanta. 'It’s clear this is the hardest time to be producing nonprofit theater, maybe in the history of the nonprofit movement.'" - The New York Times
Maria Schneider says that "the pressures in your life, good and bad, just affect music so much. ... When you look back, it's almost like a diving rod, it's telling me more about my life than I knew at the time." - Slate
