"A cousin to self-playing player pianos, photoplayers automatically play music read out of perforated piano rolls. During their slim heyday — from their invention around 1910 until about 1930, when the silent film era is thought to have ended — photoplayers delighted audiences.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
The actor, who is also a talented and award-winning screenwriter, told Stephen Colbert, “I end up just going, ‘I don’t need you to fucking rewrite what I’ve just written! Will you fuck off? Just fuck off! I’m so annoyed.’” - The Guardian (UK)
The $1 billion, 5 million square-foot complex. for which planning first began in 1992, includes 12 main galleries holding over 50,000 items, a conference center, a children’s museum, and a large conservation center. Among much else, the GEM will bring the entire contents of King Tutankhamun’s tomb together for the first time. - The Guardian
“Nearly nine months after Trump became chair of the center and more than a month into its main season, ticket sales for the Kennedy Center’s three largest performance venues are the worst they’ve been in years. … Tens of thousands of seats have been left empty.” - The Washington Post (Yahoo!)
A private collector brought a page from a mid-9th-century liturgical book to document dealer Nathan Raab, who, after research, identified some previously overlooked markings over the word “Alleluia” as notating the rising and falling pitches of a melody. - The Guardian
American director and writer Ted Huffman, who will assume the position at New Year’s 2026, replaces Pierre Audi, who passed away suddenly this past May. Huffman, who has directed several productions at Aix, is known in particular for his collaborations with composer Philip Venables such as 4.48 Psychosis and Denis & Katya. - Opera Now
Turns out GoFundMe created “realistic-looking but unauthorized fundraising pages without permission that included logos and other identifying information from the nonprofits, but suggesting an optional 14% 'tipping fee’ in addition to the normal nonprofit 2.2% fee plus 30 cents for each credit card transaction.” - Oregon ArtsWatch
Not really, but there will be “acoustic and jazz” concerts, poetry readings, dance performances and more — including possible “historical reenactments of gladiatorial battles.” - AP
Museums are not ready. “Censorship corrodes trust in complex ways. … Solidarity is mostly lacking in the museum world, where the strategy so far seems to be heads down and hope for the best.” (This is, let’s be clear, not a winning strategy.) - Washington Post (MSN)
“The plaintiff, Taína Lyons, an Afro-Latina dancer, … alleges that (Morris) told her that her hair was ‘too big’ and a ‘distraction.’ ... Ms. Lyons, who started at the company in 2022 and was terminated in 2024, claimed that she had faced discrimination based both on race and on disability.” - The New York Times
AFM Local 802 announced that a deal with the Broadway League at 4:30 Thursday morning, saying in a statement that “this three-year agreement provides meaningful wage and health benefit increases.” - The Hollywood Reporter
“The Palestinian-Israeli collective behind the film rejected a deal from Mubi, the company behind hits such as The Substance, after controversy over ties to an investment firm linked to the Israeli military.” - The Guardian (UK)
Tensions still exist between London and Manchester, and not everyone is pleased. The ENO's artistic director says, "“The way this happened was not something that anyone involved would want, and we were then forced to build the road as we drove the car.” - Manchester Evening News (UK)
There’s no First Amendment right if you don’t own your own printing press, as student journalists at Indiana University learned last week when administrators fired their adviser and canceled their print edition. Purdue student journalists weren’t having it. - Bloomington Herald-Times (MSN)
That is, focused on the music - and out of the hands of predators. Not that she’s rewarded for it, aside from helping other people get some forms of justice. - Washington Post (Yahoo)
“Today, more and more critics pay their own bills, build their own followings, and invent their own rules. ... For better and for worse, the adage “Everyone’s a critic” no longer seems like an exaggeration.” - The Atlantic (MSN)
“If you deliberately and regularly go without checking your phone, or indeed exposing yourself to any other source of electronic stimulation, you’ll build ‘the skill of boredom,’ which will enable you not only to confront life’s grand questions, but also to be less bored with ordinary life.” - Open Culture
