Studios may be able to use AI to deepfake performances or write scripts, but given enough runway the tech could be used to cut studios out of the picture altogether. - Wired
"The path to God runs down the New Jersey Turnpike. About an hour from the Holland Tunnel, … a mirage appears: swirls of stone fluffed up into meringue peaks." Architecture critic Justin Davidson visits the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Robbinsville, just a few miles from Exit 8. - MSN (Curbed)
This article intervenes in this debate by assessing the use and value of the long tail of metadata associated with the UK’s rich cultural events landscape – theatre productions, music and comedy gigs, sporting fixtures, days out and more – as a data resource for academic research, policymakers and CCI organisations. - Taylor & Francis Online
"Some hairpieces are bobby-dazzlers: towers of Restoration foppery, ravishingly long Rapunzels. Others slink by unnoticed, disguised in realism. Who makes them? Who pins them on (the actors) night after night?" To find out, David Jays met a freelance maker in London and the head of wigs for the RSC. - The Guardian
Female acts make up seven of the eight nominees in the top three categories — with SZA leading the pack with nine overall nominations while Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Miley Cyrus and boygenius earned six nods a piece. - The Hollywood Reporter
Sadiq Fitrat Nashenas, one of the last living stars of a golden era for Afghan music, fled the Taliban in 1991, settled in London and performed for audiences throughout the diaspora for 12 years. Last month, he sang in public for the first time in two decades. - The New York Times
“This was not a financial decision for either one of us. I mean we’re two both very strong organizations financially. This is purely about being stronger together and better serving the Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts community.” -InsideRadio
Cinematographer Yaroslav Pilunskiy uses his skills to give the best possible sense of depth and scale to, say, trenches hidden in forests. Film editor Ivan Bannikov compares surveilling the enemy to planning the edit of a film scene: "It’s the same here, you are looking for the right angle." - The Guardian
"Janet Sobel experimented. She would squirt paint directly out of a tube, drip it with an eyedropper, even pull wet paint across the canvas using suction from a vacuum cleaner. … Sobel's first drip painting was called Milky Way and finished in 1945 — two years before Pollock 'invented' drip painting." - Literary Hub
"Over the past four decades, Andrew Wylie has reshaped publishing in profound and, some say, insalubrious ways. He has been a champion of highbrow books and unabashed commerce, making great writers famous and famous writers rich. In the process, he has helped to define the global literary canon." - The Guardian
"'If you want to see a diverse and vibrant cultural community come to fruition, you have to build it," said Guy Ben-Aharon, founder of The Jar, which gathers small, disparate groups of people invited by "conveners" to evenings centered on particular artists from different disciplines. - MSN (The Washington Post)
The actor was not found personally liable, but his Canal Productions was found liable for former staffer Graham Chase Robinson's "emotional distress and reputational harm." Jurors rejected Canal's $6 million countersuit against Robinson alleging embezzlement and financial malfeasance. - BBC
"Street fights erupted between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside Los Angeles’ Museum of Tolerance after a private screening of video showing the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants." - AP
"He joined NPR in 1980 and filed more than 3,000 stories. … During more than three decades as a reporter and an editor, his work spanned the world and made him an eyewitness to some of the most momentous events in modern history." - NPR
