Some claim that he has “revolutionized pop,” while others argue that he has, as the clickbait-y title of one video essay puts it, “RUINED pop.” Either way, the critical consensus is that over the past eight years, Jack Antonoff has reshaped pop music, or a significant portion of it, in his own image. - The Drift
Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 once again fueled the debate in different Eastern European countries, including in Latvia and Poland, where imposing Soviet monuments, such as the Victory Monument in Riga, were hastily dismantled. - DW
We’d all known the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has been broken for a while now, with prices running out of control. But it’s been difficult to focus on that in the past few years. With the pandemic lockdowns receding, though, the truth now feels obvious: there’s no help coming and nobody has any ideas. - The Stage
I have been experimenting with my literary automaton to see how well it accomplishes this task. Or, as Robot Kyle put it when I asked him to comment on the possibility of replacing me: “How could a machine generate the insights, observations, and unique perspectives that I provide as a human?” - The New Yorker
In a paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers used a series of sonic illusions to show that people perceive silences much as they hear sounds. - The New York Times
"Since its inception in the early 1980s, the Laura Quinkan Indigenous Dance Festival has brought together Indigenous communities from across Cape York, the Torres Strait and beyond. … Many non-Indigenous Australians and international tourists also (come) for the opportunity to engage with living Aboriginal culture." - The Guardian
The dream of the internet’s bipartisan “town square” is ending, transforming into many town squares tucked in alleys and behind buildings, because the actors in charge couldn’t stop seesawing in terms of who held the power, and because they always took that power too far. - The Intrinsic Perspective
"A word can be a perfect fit until something I try in the next clause introduces a clumsy repetition or infelicitous echo. Meaning, connotation and subtext all matter, but so does style. Below are two attempts to show the thought processes involved in the translation I do." - The New York Times
Two recent novels put romantic longing and steamy couplings alongside discussion of body politics, feminism and #MeToo in ballet. First Position, written by ex-American Ballet Theatre (ABT) dancer Melanie Hamrick and published by Mills & Boon, is being billed as Black Swan meets 50 Shades. - The Guardian
"A multidisciplinary team of archaeologists and computer scientists has developed an artificial intelligence that can translate Akkadian almost instantly and unlock the historic record preserved in these 5,000-year-old tablets," thousands of which remain untranslated. - Big Think
This particular struggle is over the tradition of comic bullfights, often before the main corrida, featuring performers with dwarfism. Traditionalists see it as Spanish culture worth preserving; many liberals consider it demeaning, backward, and, now, illegal; the performers want to keep their jobs. - The New York Times
Just a few weeks ago, it seemed that SAG-AFTRA was much closer to reaching a deal with Hollywood studios than the union’s counterpart, the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since the beginning of May. - Washington Post
"(It) was built in 1797 in Philadelphia to be the central hub of Hamilton's national banking system. The Independence National Historical Park (INHP) will soon begin a $50 million renovation to turn this building" — closed to the public since the 1970s — "into a museum of the American economy." - WHYY (Philadelphia)
"The orchestra is still receiving local support, along with national and international acclaim, but not all is well. More musicians (have been) leaving than arriving, and there is an unprecedented seven-month-long collective bargaining deadlock over a new contract." - San Francisco Classical Voice
