Reading has always been a very personal thing. Now, however, I have a little percentage tracker on my home page, Goodreads friends applaud my progress each time I finish a book, and it feels … strangely comforting. - The Guardian
The problem is historic: because this area has been underdeveloped for years, the UK doesn’t have a strong path for shows to follow, and that leads to a lack of desire for risk-taking among audiences and investors alike. Hence the plethora of adaptations taking over West End stages. - The Guardian
The Symphony musicians formed the SA Phil almost immediately after their orchestra died, and their entire first season has been a rallying cry for the future of symphonic music in the state’s second-largest city. - Texas Monthly
Through Phantom, Lloyd Webber presented an argument for the destiny of musical theater itself. The operatic tradition had always been divided over the relationship between music and drama, and this debate had reemerged in Lloyd Webber’s day. - New York Magazine
The problem was the way that classical music is categorized. The structure of classical music is completely different from pop music’s, which makes it extremely difficult for it to function in the streaming era. - The Wall Street Journal
"Mathilde Caillard's energetic dance became a meme for young activists opposing the reform. The slogan chanted in the clip, "Retraites, climat: même combat! Pas de retraités sur une planète brûlée" ("Pensions and climate are the same fight! No pensioners on a scorched planet"), became a rallying cry." - Le Monde (in English)
Allowed to delve into the structure’s innards as never before during the ensuing reconstruction (which is set to finish in 2024), a team of French scientists has gleaned new insights into the cathedral’s original construction. - Big Think
On a 1971 visit to Malta, the playwright saw the painter's Beheading of St. John the Baptist, and the horrified face of an elderly female spectator at the execution was the key inspiration for Beckett's Not I, the 13-minute monologue for a disembodied mouth on a pitch-black stage. - The New European
After a brutal decline following the Great Recession, print-book sales are up 33 percent in the past 10 years. If the high costs and complexity of the ebook market for libraries pushes more readers to purchase print books (or ebooks), that is a feature, not a bug, for the publishers. - The Atlantic
"Last week, the Rembrandt House Museum reopened in Amsterdam after a four-month closure, offering 30 percent more Rembrandt in the building where the artist lived and worked — plus a forthcoming artist residency program that harkens back to the history of students studying there under the Dutch Golden Age master." - Artnet
“The J6 is beating Taylor Swift,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday, two days after the rally. “It’s Donald Trump and the J6 prisoners, and on iTunes, and on Amazon, and on Billboard, which is the big deal,” he said, adding, “now I feel like Elvis.” - The Daily Beast
"The airwaves floating across America are sliced up into chunks (some wide, some incredibly narrow) where different services and uses are permitted to broadcast and receive radio signals. It is an incredibly complex system; to explain the importance of managing this invisible resource, the NTIA publishes a wall chart." - Fast Company
In 1985, a couple walked into an art gallery on the campus of the University of Arizona and left 15 minutes later with a rolled-up Willem de Kooning shoved up the man’s jacket. In 2017, the painting was finally recovered – not by the FBI, but by a trio of house clearance guys in New Mexico. - The Guardian
"People say a lot of things about GB News: it's ridden with glitches, it's a hotbed of right-wing conspiracies, nobody watches. But nearly two years on from its launch, some people are definitely watching. … What's attracting people to watch? Has the outlet professionalised? How right-wing is it?" - Press Gazette (UK)
Most of his work is inspired by the natural environment, but in Vespers of the Blessed Earth, receiving its world premiere this week by the Philadelphia Orchestra and The Crossing, He's more direct than he's ever been about the damage caused by human activity. - The New York Times
