"A Swiss teenager is the latest offender to start carving her name into the ancient amphitheatre. The 17-year-old was caught in the act, with a local tour guide managing to video her scratching the letter N into the wall of the famous landmark." - The Independent (UK)
So how do we avoid this catastrophe? Just as in other areas of recent American life where entire industries were imperiled — banks, the auto industry — this crisis requires federal intervention. - The New York Times
What worries me more than money at the moment is the spiritual pall hanging over the theater community – a simmering angry paralysis mirroring our city’s wandering at anchor over its mixture of astonishing wealth, desire for social justice, and more and more people living in tents. - Post Alley
The show’s opening last week raised further questions about its intended audience. On a hot weekday, the heavily trafficked library was closed to its constituents in preparation for a celebrity-studded evening event hosting the rapper and his VIP friends. - Hyperallergic
What feels different about ecocritical art is that the very topic it engages with proposes widespread ruin and demands that action be immediately taken to counteract such an apocalypse. - Art Review
Last year, a team of academics from Columbia University and NYU published a paper with the eye-catching title “Work From Home and the Office Real Estate Apocalypse.” In it, they estimated that New York office buildings had lost 39 percent of their long-term value. Now, It's 44 percent. - Curbed
Writer and actor strikes in the US show that selling out is not just a question of personal ethics, but an industry-wide concern. A director’s decision to align themselves with Goliaths of entertainment has consequences; money for the big guy in opposition to an industry where smaller films and creators have more opportunities. - The Guardian
What about literature’s latest trend: the celebrity novel? Do the rules that apply to the celebrity memoir remain the same when it comes to celebrity-authored fiction that has been ghostwritten? Isn’t there a difference between a ghostwritten memoir and a ghostwritten novel? - The Guardian
"The head of Opera Holland Park, James Clutton, … approached Jonathan Dove to compose the music and Alasdair Middleton to write the libretto. The result is (and you can trust me on this) astonishing. An opera that is a thriller is a rare beast." - The Guardian
The Cornwall Youth Noise Orchestra is the brainchild of Matt Ashdown and Liz Howell of Moogie Wonderland, which began as a club night and now bills itself as “a participatory arts organisation”. - The Guardian
"The idea and technology of a situation deepfake are the same as any other deepfake, but with a bolder ambition: to manipulate a real event or invent one from thin air. Examples include depictions of Donald Trump's perp walk and Trump hugging Anthony Fauci, neither of which happened." - The Conversation
Alex Mubert's vision is of an app that will allow people to easily experiment and create music on their own. Because of licensing complications — i.e. AI-generated music does not fall under conventional copyright rules — the music people create using Mubert cannot be released on Spotify or other streamers. - Ludwig Van
The Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet was founded in Carlisle, a college town in the south-central part of the state, in 1955. The school has produced so many good performers that people joke that there's something in the water. - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Moody’s debt analyst Neil Begley wrote in a July 17 report, “we believe this standstill could be a relatively long strike, with the stakes being larger than they have been in many years” and estimated the potential cost of the new contracts. - The Hollywood Reporter
"To combat the excess of party tourism, new rules (began) this February — among them, a law that window brothels, bars and pubs in the red light district must close two hours earlier. Several months ago, the city also launched a 'Stay away' campaign to deter rowdy visitors." - Deutsche Welle
