The retailer is in the process of opening 15 new outlets this year, which will keep the total number of outlets at over 220 spread across 32 states. - Publishers Weekly
The collapse of the institutions where young people learn to make and critique art stands to greatly benefit companies like OpenAI, which, in the absence of human artists and critics, can both make the stuff and tell us it’s good. - LA Review of Books
Merely nine months in, the Trump administration is poised to become the most consequential, effective arts presidency in American history—peerless in impact since at least Johnson, whose pillars this administration has toppled with surgical efficiency. - Artnet
The Boston Ballet’s Howard Merlin: “During the dress rehearsal, something looks really, really bad. … It’s my job to make sure it looks really, really good by the next day.” - Boston Globe (Archive Today)
“There’s an inherent theatricality to church, and a furtive spirituality to theater. In form, they’re similar: Everybody crowds into a room, usually sits facing the same direction, and focuses on a central action — at least for a while.” - The New York Times
“There are some things going on in the US that are not pleasing to me, but I keep my head up. I turn on a light, you know, I don’t dwell on it. If someone needs me out there, I’ll be out there.” - The Guardian (UK)
Bob Mondello says yes: "I love seeing movies in a theater, and if I can possibly avoid watching them at home, I do. ... is 55" which is, I guess, not bad for a television screen. But it doesn't compare to the tennis court-size screen.” - NPR
"A cousin to self-playing player pianos, photoplayers automatically play music read out of perforated piano rolls. During their slim heyday — from their invention around 1910 until about 1930, when the silent film era is thought to have ended — photoplayers delighted audiences.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
“Writing can terrify us, confuse us, devastate us. Good writing means that you’re engaging with practices that will force you to lean into things that make you uncomfortable. Work that’s doing its job is inevitably hard.” - LitHub
Rockstar Games fired a bunch of folks last week. “According to the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), all of the employees fired were part of a private trade union Discord chat and were either already union members or attempting to organize a union at Rockstar.” - The Verge
If you want to be yelled at for your art historical ignorance by an “aggressive” guide, get your kink on in Düsseldorf. "Asked to explain the tour’s popularity, Brandi said people ‘enjoy the emotional ride.’” - The Guardian (UK)
Not even counting the numerous Doctor Who locations (to be fair, many are in Wales), “England's historic buildings and landscapes ‘provide an essential ingredient in making the audience's flesh creep.’” - BBC
Microsoft really tried. “It had a bunch of interface design ideas that are still very present in our lives today. The universe in which the Zune was a smash isn’t so far away. … Maybe if it hadn’t been brown?” - The Verge
For instance: “Turkish author Sabahattin Ali’s 1943 novel Madonna in a Fur Coat, first published by Penguin in 2016, has rocketed this year, selling almost 30,000 copies in the UK and outstripping even Pride and Prejudice. It’s another anguished story of frustrated love.” - The Guardian (UK)
