“Only in an era when everything gets politicized would a campaign come out aggressively against boisterous laughter. What next? Running against puppies and ice cream? Laughter transcends party politics.” - The New York Times
TV show memes lit up Instagram, texts, and group chats when President Biden stepped down. “One thing someone on text thread said is that Aaron Sorkin could never have thought this one up. … This is beyond what we were capable of imagining.” - Washington Post
These movies, made outside the the big studio systems, usually in languages other than Hindi, forgo Bollywood's song-dance-melodrama formula in favor of stories about ordinary people's lives. Since the pandemic, theaters avoid these films in favor of crowd-pleasers, while Modi's government has intimidated streaming services away from them. - The Washington Post (MSN)
For the fiscal year just ended, US visitors totaled 5.5 million, slightly above the (pre-pandemic) figure for 2019. What's more, just over half of those visitors were nonwhite, the highest level ever. The attendance totals for those from abroad, however, are still half of what they were before COVID. - Hyperallergic
Millennials and Gen Z are taking over now. "The KHive has ditched the bee and gone coconuts now that Joe Biden has dropped out of the 2024 election and endorsed Kamala Harris. What’s more, Harris’s laugh is getting remixed into songs by just about every pop diva.” - Vulture
One, “the Village Theatre, is expected to close only temporarily, thanks to a high-profile effort by director Jason Reitman and others to save the once stately 170-foot white Spanish Revival-Art Deco ‘wedding cake’ tower that has beckoned Westside moviegoers since 1931.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
Lesley Dumbrell "was shocked when the head of the painting department blithely told her that he was happy to have women in his class ‘because no doubt they’ll get married, and if they marry well they will become very good collectors of art.’” - The Guardian (UK)
"The new programme, called Refúgiate en la cultura (Take Shelter in Culture), offers free flamenco shows – in the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemisza museums, and the Royal Collections Gallery – as well as free comic monologues in libraries and discounted cinema tickets for screenings before 5pm." - The Guardian
"The global popularity of Turkish TV dramas — dizi in Turkish — has thrust Turkey into the position of a leading exporter of television, greatly bolstering the nation’s international image and drawing millions of viewers and tourists worldwide to its historical and cultural sites which are backdrops to many of the shows." - AP
Comedian John Tobin and business partner Norm Laviolette own and operate several comedy venues in Boston and New England, and they noticed that younger audience members were drinking far fewer beers and cocktails than their older counterparts did. So the pair launched SoBar Comedy. - WBUR (Boston)
"Not once did I catch a whiff that (Reese) Witherspoon, (Jenna Bush) Hager, (Oprah) Winfrey, or any of the other celebrities are not die-hard readers. … While I fully believe that celebrities aren’t playing some nefarious game of imprint chess to benefit themselves, the pieces are still visible on the board." - Esquire
“For decades, the sculpture gallery has had mostly blindingly white marble works, which were exclusively of white people. Now it does not. The intervention is part of a community-led project exploring the gallery’s links to slavery, colonialism and empire, of which there are many.” - The Guardian (UK)
Marketers are leaning in. Wicked and Gladiator II, both releasing November 22, don’t seem to have the same built-in opposition, but they do have the bare minimum: A musical adored by women and gay men, versus the Roman Empire. - San Francisco Chronicle
Cole Escola, Oh, Mary!’s creator and star, “has been a revered cult figure in the comedy and New York cabaret scenes for more than 15 years. But they’ve never come close to such exposure.” - Washington Post
