"The protests centered on vogue as resistance. The dance style, born out of the ballroom scene in Harlem in the 1980s as a source of joy and expression, became a response to a stabbing feared to be an attack on queerness and Blackness." - Los Angeles Times
Netrebko, fired by the opera house for her support of Vladimir Putin, "accuses the Met of discriminating against her because she is Russian; of issuing 'defamatory' statements about her in the press; and of breaching contracts." - The New York Times
Traffic was blocked and 1,700 desks set up by the Arc de Triomphe, for "a public dictée. Anyone who's studied French knows the importance of the ritual. A teacher reads out a passage, usually from French literature, and students have to write it out" - battling the complications of French. - NPR
In those quiet, terrifying times, lo these long three years ago, Chabon did what any nerd might do: He built a replica of the science fiction and fantasy section of his long-gone childhood bookstore. - LitHub
"Hollywood’s sudden hostility to hostility is even playing out in cinemas now. One of the few traits shared by both Barbie and Oppenheimer is the refusal to provide their tortured title characters with a serious antagonist." - The Guardian (UK)
"No clear economic reason for art criticism that is not glorified public relations to exist, so it barely does. While art is an extreme case in this regard, it’s also a leading indicator: as defender and judge of quality, the critic is an endangered species in many industries these days." - The Point
In a genre that has always valued volume as much as it loves liberation, the elders still compete over the story’s beats, much as they once battled over musical ones. It is a very hip-hop thing: a history written by the loudest. And loudness is one Herc contribution that no one disputes. - The Wall Street Journal
Netflix habitually pays more for its productions up front, but because it did away with the syndication model and keeps its viewership data to itself, it has also limited the upside for writers. - The Atlantic
Several locks confirmed as far more likely to be from the composer's head demonstrate his death was probably the result of a hepatitis B infection, exacerbated by his drinking and numerous risk factors for liver disease. - Science Alert
With a $2.7 million major investment from the City of Melbourne and a further $1.25 million from the Victorian Government, Now or Never is expected to attract over 200,000 people. Its ambitions are to not only cement itself in Melbourne’s highly saturated festival calendar, but to also become an international festival destination. - ArtsHub
"If Asinius Pollio was the one who 'first by founding a library made works of genius the property of the public', it was Augustus and his successors who instilled an ideology of the public ownership of knowledge. And it didn't matter if the masses couldn't read any of it." - Aeon
“Most of us enjoy that; that’s why we come back. We want to be in that very demanding, high-achieving environment, where most of us, 90 percent of the time, feel like we’re impostors. You’re surrounded by brilliant players, and then you talk to the other players, and they feel exactly the same.” - The New York Times
"Alongside longtime entertainment reporter Jackson McHenry … will be Sara Holdren, a theatre director who stepped into the job for a brief, blazing tenure from 2017 to 2019. … I spoke to McHenry and Holdren about their shared role, the responsibility of critics, and the challenges the field is facing." - American Theatre
Its services business continues to grow at a rapid pace, hitting $21.2 billion in the quarter, up from $19.6 billion last year. - The Hollywood Reporter
