“There’s an inherent theatricality to church, and a furtive spirituality to theater. In form, they’re similar: Everybody crowds into a room, usually sits facing the same direction, and focuses on a central action — at least for a while.” - The New York Times
Bob Mondello says yes: "I love seeing movies in a theater, and if I can possibly avoid watching them at home, I do. ... is 55" which is, I guess, not bad for a television screen. But it doesn't compare to the tennis court-size screen.” - NPR
Microsoft really tried. “It had a bunch of interface design ideas that are still very present in our lives today. The universe in which the Zune was a smash isn’t so far away. … Maybe if it hadn’t been brown?” - The Verge
For instance: “Turkish author Sabahattin Ali’s 1943 novel Madonna in a Fur Coat, first published by Penguin in 2016, has rocketed this year, selling almost 30,000 copies in the UK and outstripping even Pride and Prejudice. It’s another anguished story of frustrated love.” - The Guardian (UK)
“In a city where the so-called Theater Row has more ‘For Lease’ signs than marquees, New Theater Hollywood feels improbable. Yet since opening in early 2024, it has already become something of a small cult phenomenon.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
Alassane Moustapha, a filmmaker from Niger, was “as much a multimedia artist as a cineaste, he took an idiosyncratic approach to folkloric storytelling.” He’s been left out of some film histories - but it's time for a reevaluation. - Current
While some in the literary world are snobs, one author says she considers the best of historical fiction “a lens forged from the experience of the past, through which we may view the concerns of the present with renewed clarity.” - Irish Times
As animation studios wither, one indie animator, whose fan-supported series has now been picked up by Amazon Prime: “I’ve been online since, like, late middle school. … So I have gone through every level of being cringe, being a dumb teenager, making mistakes, drawing really weird stuff.” - Slate
“Physicians will get prescriptions that they will give to patients. ... And we will give each patient that calls us two tickets for free,” said the orchestra’s CEO. Though Montreal’s concert-prescription program is still new, many doctors elsewhere in Canada have already expressed interest, as have orchestras in Toronto and Quebec City. - CBC
Wow, do streamers have a show (or 450, all produced quickly) for you. "Though vertical dramas are the length of a movie, they are spliced up into small chapters and produced quickly. A 100-page script might be shot in just one week." - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
If you love thinking about how horror reflects societal concerns, but you’d rather not hear the screaming or throw your popcorn all over your fellow cinemaphiles, do we have a deal for you: Horror documentaries. - Reactor
Not really, but there will be “acoustic and jazz” concerts, poetry readings, dance performances and more — including possible “historical reenactments of gladiatorial battles.” - AP
But small venues “should not be valued solely for their role in nurturing future superstars. Live music has an intrinsic value and venues can be part of a town’s identity. A scheme to put them into community ownership has had striking success, with five secured so far.” - The Guardian (UK)
“With his insistence on seeing only god’s will in the Catholic vs. Protestant religious wars of his Europe, Luther reminds me of nothing so much as the character Beverly Keane (played by Samantha Sloyan) in the 2021 Netflix horror series Midnight Mass.” - The Flytrap
Good question, one that 1948’s biopic about Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart - Words and Music, starring Mickey Rooney as a heterosexual Hart - got very wrong. But: “That the ’40s biopics are so bad on the facts as well as the spirit doesn’t render them entirely worthless.” - The New York Times
