"The Marinellis have been handcrafting bronze bells (in the mountains of southern Italy) since at least the 11th century, although archaeological findings at nearby Benedictine monasteries suggest the Marinellis' craft could date as far back as the 9th century." - Atlas Obscura
Journalism is trying to understand and harness GenAI’s power. There are countless experiments to computationally fabricate headlines, stories, images, videos, podcasts, broadcast personalities, and even interviews through easy-to-use off-the-shelf technologies that until recently were the stuff of industry prototypes and computer science labs. - NiemanLab
"As ambassadors of the country where breakdancing originated 50 years ago, members of Team USA have something to prove — and potentially to lose — when the hip-hop dance form makes its official debut at the Paris Games in 2024." - AP
As of 2023, more than three-quarters of U.S. adults report feeling stressed at work, almost 60% experience elements of burnout, and almost 20% feel they work in a “toxic” environment, according to the American Psychological Association. We often normalize these problems, turning them into topics for happy-hour venting sessions, but they are not trivial. - Time
Ivo van Hove is bringing his video-heavy style to Jesus Christ Superstar in Amsterdam. Jamie Lloyd (loves Pinter, hates scenery) is staging Sunset Boulevard in London. Sammi Cannold's feminist Evita played Boston and D.C. Bill Rauch and Zhailon Levingston are turning Cats into a queer drag ball. - The New York Times
"In the U.S., bringing a heritage language back into a family usually comes down to the efforts of individuals. The parents I spoke with who taught their children a heritage language that they themselves didn’t speak fluently had essentially organized their own lives around the effort." - MSN (The Atlantic)
We’ve always been an international industry, but the pandemic has really illuminated that fact in some ways, both in physical production, as well as in content distribution. And that’s a good thing. - Variety
"After Birmingham city council declared itself in effect bankrupt this month, there has been growing speculation about what assets could be sold to help balance its books, with concern for the Library of Birmingham and the city’s main museum and art gallery." - The Guardian
"The three-time Oscar-nominated Polish director is going ahead with her defamation suit against minister Zbigniew Ziobro after Ziobro refused to apologize for public comments in which he compared Holland’s new film, the refugee drama Green Border, to 'Nazi propaganda.'" - The Hollywood Reporter
"The decision to do the film the way I did (came from) working in a country that uses police, and its military forces to block freedom of expression and freedom of work for journalists and documentary makers. Fiction becomes the only way to show what’s going on." - The Hollywood Reporter
“They are taking my work and presenting it as theirs,” said Christos Tsirogiannis. “They are showing off with my academic work and not giving me the credit. It is an abuse of my intellectual property. But now, enough is enough.” - The Guardian
The change, which takes effect in fall 2024, "follows other acting programs that have stopped charging tuition, including the Yale School of Drama, which became tuition free for all students in the school starting in 2021 after a $150 million gift from David Geffen." - The Hollywood Reporter
"(His) extraordinary acting career took him from Laurence Olivier’s nascent National Theatre to screen roles in The Singing Detective and the Harry Potter films. … admired by generations of fellow actors, he excelled in plays by Pinter, Beckett and Ayckbourn." - The Guardian
— the man everyone presumed it would be. Christian Thielemann will become general music director of the Berlin State Opera, and chief conductor of its famed orchestra, the Berlin Staatskapelle, as of Sept 1, 2024. - AP
