In Britain, that is: Glastonbury has a cabaret tent that seats 2,000. "The memories you make doing zany things is why you come to music festivals," says one comic. "Come for Lil Nas X, stay for a clown who drops their trousers in a tent at 2am." - The Guardian
‘Can art make me become a good person?’ is a more interesting question, because neither ‘Yes’ nor ‘No’ is an adequate answer; the only viable answer, really, is ‘It depends.’ Nevertheless, people will persist in saying simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. - Dublin Review of Books
"Such luminaries (as Godard and Truffaut) acknowledged him as a member in good standing in what amounted to one of cinema history's most exclusive clubs, collectively committed to reinventing the art form by upending conventional notions of what a movie could be." - The New York Times
Certain books (Psalms, Song of Songs, Lamentations) are generally understood as poetry, but the historical books, Gospels, and letters all include a great deal of verse. Scholar Michael Edwards argues that awareness of this poetry, more precise and self-conscious than prose, should affect how we understand Scripture. - The Paris Review
If the doubt over the actual inception of el Sistema, as it was conceptually communicated to the public, isn’t telling enough, the most damning measure of its current irrelevance is the indeterminacy over the date and time of death. Its passing was not noticed, nor was it mourned. - Jonathan Govias
A dialect of Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus, Syriac has been used for centuries for Bibles, church services, and literature as well as everyday speech. But with the war-torn country's Christian community shrinking rapidly due to emigration, many fear that Syriac could go the way of Latin. - Yahoo! (AFP)
"The Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative and the Met Museum have teamed up with the Army to help soldiers understand the role that art plays in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine … (and) how to document evidence of crimes." - The New York Times
"A Miami federal judge ruled this week in favor of the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, who, for a few weeks in 2019, was the talk of the art world after his work Comedian, a banana duct-taped to a wall, sold at Art Basel Miami Beach for $120,000." - ARTnews
"A report by Oxford University's Reuters Institute says 48% of people around the world are very or extremely interested in the news — down from 63% in 2017. … More than a third of people (36%) worldwide say they sometimes or often actively avoid the news." - BBC
"Van Cleef & Arpels, the French luxury jeweler, announced on Tuesday that it would sponsor a 16-day event partly aimed at bringing more international choreographers and ensembles to the city." The festival, called Dance Reflections, will run from Oct. 19 to Nov. 3. - The New York Times
"The Recording Academy has added three new categories for the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, it announced today: Best African Music Performance, Best Alternative Jazz Album, and Best Pop Dance Recording. Last year's new additions included songwriter of the year and song for social change." - Variety
"(His) lyrical and often brutally violent novels propelled him to the first ranks of American fiction, immersing readers in scenes of savagery, despair and occasional tenderness in the backwoods of Tennessee, the deserts of the Southwest and the ashen desolation of a postapocalyptic world." - Detroit News (The Washington Post)
"Today, for the first time in history, thanks to artificial intelligence, it is possible for anybody to make counterfeit people who can pass for real" Is that right? Anybody? - 3 Quarks Daily
The directive instructs the CRTC to ensure the regulations do not apply to social media users whose business model is their own content, even if they use commercial songs in their videos. - CBC
