Ian McKellen’s Epic “Hamlet” Production Loses Two Actors
The Mail on Sunday reported that the two actors had dropped out because of clashes that had taken place since rehearsals began. It said...
In British Columbia, Lack Of Child Care Is Harming Women Directors
And not just directors. "Most daycares operate on a traditional workday schedule that isn't suitable for the families of shift worker in industries like film and...
The American Booksellers Association Canceled Itself
The ABA took its Twitter private after promoting a scientifically inaccurate anti-trans book to indie bookstores, apologizing, and then deleting the apology. - LitHub
How TikTok Is Rewriting Harry Potter And Fandom
Users claim they can "reality shift" to any fictional world; just, they say, "switch your consciousness to the right parallel universe." - Washington Post
Toyko’s Olympics Architecture Is Not About A Wow Factor
Why? "Yoshiharu Tsukamoto of Atelier Bow-Wow, one of Japan’s livelier practices, has objected that 'we independent artists are banned and totally deleted from the list of...
Perhaps In A Reaction To Quarantines And Lockdowns, New Movies Are Super Horny
Hot vax summer is real. (On the silver screen, anyway.) - Slate
The Descendants Of Those The Madisons Enslaved Will Now Have Input In The Madison...
One descendant: "Everything that are and were essentially derived from their relationship to their community, and that's from their intellectual achievements to their...
History, And Democracy, On The Brink Of Erasure
"A nation’s archive ... is a living testament to the many facets of national identity and history." India's opaque plan for its national archives...
Why Won’t The Standing Ovations End At Cannes?
At the film festival, it's not just Americans standing, clapping, clapping, clapping, and clapping some more. - The Atlantic
The Authors And Magazines Shaping Africa’s Literary Culture
"Across Africa, literary journals managed by young writers and artists are emerging with the aim of publishing both new and established voices, collaborating across...
The Author Of Podcast-Length Poems Says Poetry Isn’t Seen As Masculine
Another wordsmith adds, "Satire, acting or any kind of putting yourself out there isn’t viewed as the most macho thing." - The Guardian (UK)
How One Broadway Dancer Survived The Loss Of All Of His Income
He danced on his rooftop - and, after losing his health insurance and all his gigs, opened a flower business. - BBC
The US Wants To Return A Statue Said To Have Been Stolen From Cambodia
U.S. prosecutors want to return "a 10th-century Khmer sandstone statue said to have been plundered more than 20 years ago from a temple." -...
Writing Songs Over Zoom For An Animated Series
Whew, this time has been weird. "It was a fun challenge, and also, it just hit differently because we were in lockdown living in...
This Year’s Cannes Festival, Giddy Journalists Say, Was Top-Notch
Why? Perhaps because it was concentrated: "With Cannes 2020 called off, Cannes 2021 reaped the benefits of not one but two years’ worth of...
Spike Lee Reveals Palme D’Or Winner Early
Oops at Cannes: "When the jury president, Spike Lee, was asked to announce the first prize of the night, he misunderstood and read off the...
In Britain, Tory Councillors Censor A Public Art Exhibit
The exhibit, which used plaques on benches and Cold War rosebushes to convey info about Britain's nuclear past, was threatened with a lawsuit. -...
Don’t Let Leisure Time Disappear
Alert, four-day work week advocates: "Leisure is doing things for their own sake, to pursue what one wants. We should fight the urge to...
What’s Getting People Back To The Cinema?
One Alamo Drafthouse audience member: "“I love movies and I have to be in the theater to see a movie. Like, to me, that’s...
Looking For Culture To Lead The Reopening Of New York
The arts are "a major industry that employed some 93,500 people before the pandemic and paid them $7.4 billion in wages" - and are...
The Ethics of Using AI To Fake Anthony Bourdain’s Voice In A Documentary
Another documentary filmmaker wonders, "Why borrow trouble, as my parents used to say, by re-creating Anthony Bourdain’s voice that way?" - Chicago Tribune
Why We All Need To Pay Attention To How Artificial Intelligence Works
Each link is a small expression of intelligence, and the algorithm, even without users being aware, extracts and accumulates that intelligence in the form...
Painting Restoration Takes The Smile Off
The restoration work not only reveals the rogue addition of an upturned smile, but also a jarring strip of dirty sky added to make...
Hong Kong Book Fair Slims Down With Self-Censorship
This year, far fewer politically sensitive books are on display. Vendors are curating their books carefully to avoid violating the national security law, which...
New Study Confirms 1972 MIT Study That Collapse Of Civilization Is Imminent
It concludes that the current business-as-usual trajectory of global civilization is heading toward the terminal decline of economic growth within the coming decade—and at...
