"In roughly 20 interviews with the Globe, former museum employees and board members described a stressful workplace, characterizing (director Matthias) Waschek as an 'intimidating' and 'erratic' leader prone to 'lashing out' at others for perceived social slights and other offenses." - MSN (The Boston Globe)
"A union official said that it would seek continued intervention by a federal mediator and continue negotiations, but that a strike was possible. In all, the vote was 81-8 as members of Philadelphia Musician’s Union Local 77 voted against the contract." - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
"(He started) the nationally known alternative weekly newspaper with two partners" — editor Dan Wolf and writer Norman Mailer, who stormed off after a few months — "in 1955 and remained its publisher until new ownership dismissed him 19 years later." - The New York Times
Summer festivals now face a balancing act between creative imagination and fiscal conservatism in the wake of a Covid wipeout that dispelled the older audience. If festivals are to survive, they will need to invent a twenty-first century purpose. - The Critic
The new contract mandates a minimum weekly salary of $3,313 ($172,276 annually), rising by the end of the term to $3,450 ($179,400). - San Francisco Chronicle
Breaking into tears on the phone, Deborah Proctor said: "I have a moral decision to make here. What if one child hears this? When I stand before Jesus Christ on Judgement Day, what am I going to say?" - NPR
Now television’s boom cycle has gone bust and Peak TV is winding down, like prestige TV did before it. There are hints of what might come after. - Washington Post
One veteran TV producer predicted the number of scripted shows Hollywood produces could fall by one-third in the next three years. - The Wall Street Journal
This attitude toward reading — in which the only well-meaning response to a text is uncritical approbation, and anything else is tantamount to censorship — is not only disingenuous but ultimately, I think, also hostile to literature itself. If no book invites our disapprobation, what is the value of our esteem? - The New York Times
In his conducting studies, Cooper spent the most time with Dudamel and Nézet-Séguin. He visited Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, dressed and made up as Bernstein, for sessions with Dudamel. - The New York Times
"It has come to our attention that some schools have planned events next week October 1-7, to mark the American Library Association’s “Banned Book Week.” If this is the case, all principals are requested to cancel all events and messaging associated with this observance." - WFAE
"Asked why he had cut off his left ear, the artist replied that this was a misconception and he had in fact only cut off 'part of my earlobe.'" (The M d'O also has an immersive Van Gogh room in this show, proving that pop culture can influence even the French.) - The Guardian (UK)
The list includes "the usual suspects—Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Michel Houellebecq, Anne Carson (who won’t win the year after Annie Ernaux, come on, the literary cool girls can’t have everything), and Can Xue, who is pretty much always in the mix." - LitHub
Zelda Williams: "I’ve witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad. This isn’t theoretical, it is very very real." - Vulture
