Under pressure to deliver to Wall Street, too many CEOs have lost the plot of their own movie. They are not running companies to profitably deliver a good product, such as a book or a cup of coffee or, in this case, a movie or TV show. They are running companies to deliver good profit. The quality of their...
The demolition of the 300-year-old minaret of a mosque in southern Iraq last week to make way for a road extension has drawn outrage from locals and heritage authorities. - The Art Newspaper
Go to any online sales site and you'll find dozens of ads for free pianos — mostly large wooden upright instruments that are around a hundred years old. Some people will even pay you to take their piano. - CBC
Every city changes. But the transformation of Nashville—which began a decade ago, and accelerated exponentially during the pandemic—has stunned the people who love the city most. - The New Yorker
After the sudden exits of top diversity and inclusion executives at Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Netflix and the Motion Picture Academy in the past month — all of them Black women — alarm bells have been raised for many who care about Hollywood’s commitment to gender and racial equity. - The Wrap
Director Aril Folman's 2013 film The Congress, starring Robin Wright, "foresaw problems including actors' loss of control over their images, the specific difficulties of contract negotiations over AI use, and the ripple effect of AI duplicating real people, … with astonishing clarity and detail." - BBC
By design, TikTok encourages different behaviors from those prompted by other social networks. “They say they check Facebook, and they check Instagram and they check Twitter. But they don’t check TikTok. They tell us they watch TikTok.” Like television, TikTok is something you watch. Its primary purpose is entertainment. - Hedgehog Review
"(She's) never played a live gig and is unknown to the music industry. But every day since 2017, Harriet Goldberg's jazzy instrumental, 'My Time to Fly,' has been served up to countless callers put on hold by the customer service lines of businesses large and small." - The New York Times
When it comes to the classics, one of the biggest hurdles to bringing new audience members to the ballet is that people are initially intimidated by the art form. They think they’re supposed to know what’s happening, but they come and witness an entirely foreign vocabulary where dancers use their bodies to express a story. - Playbill
"The poet Mary Oliver once described art as being like 'bread in the pockets of the hungry'. … (But) what does it mean when our pockets are empty of art? The result is a cultural climate in crisis, … (and) the squeezing out of affordable culture has profound knock-on effects." - The Guardian
The best thing to do is just start with any poem, because what matters about poetry is not what other people think of it or think of you reading these particular poems. What matters about poetry is which poems work for you. - The New York Times
Someone has dug out a 2005 interview on NPR's All Things Considered. Host: "We assume that you are who you say you are, but how can we be sure?" Banksy(?): "Oh, you have no guarantee of that at all — this could be a better prankster than I was." - CNN
“To deny tenure to such a gifted musician on the basis of some unsubstantial and, frankly, unconvincing reasons seems highly suspect. Any shortcomings in the ‘management and organization’ area would need to be really egregious to justify such a decision.” - The Pitch KC
The nuclear apocalypse comedy will be adapted by Armando Iannucci (Veep, The Death of Stalin) and will star, and be directed by, Sean Foley. Said Iannucci, "In these sad times, what better way to cheer the nation up than a stage show about the end of the world." - BBC
"As the North American tour of Funny Girl gets ready to hit the road beginning Sept. 9 following the Lea Michele-led musical's closing on Broadway, the tour has received backlash after casting newcomer Katerina McCrimmon in the lead role of real-life Jewish vaudeville star Fanny Brice." - The Messenger
