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Now Bollywood Has A Rival For The Spotlight In India’s Enormous Movie Industry

Bollywood, based in Bombay/Mumbai and producing movies in Hindi, has always been the center of India’s cinematic universe. Yet there are centers of filmmaking in other Indian languages based in other state capitals. One of those centers — Tollywood, which produces Telugu-language movies in Hyderabad — has been enjoying a big run of successes. - AP

Countries Boycotting Eurovision Over Decision To Allow Israel To Compete

Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia will boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, after Israel was allowed to compete. - BBC

Ailey Company Launches Its First Season Under Director Alicia Graf Mack

Mack, who did two stints as a principal dancer with the company (and got a master’s degree in-between), says her vision is to balance between Alvin Ailey’s own “powerful, visceral” choreography and new pieces by Fredrick Earl Mosley, Matthew Neenan, Jamar Roberts, and Urban Bush Women founder Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. - NPR

Russia Blocks Facetime, Roblox

Both restrictions are part of an accelerating clampdown on foreign tech platforms: In the case of FaceTime, Russian authorities allege it is being used for criminal activity, while Roblox was accused of distributing extremist materials and "LGBT propaganda." - CBC

Is Appointment TV Making A Comeback?

As more shows switch to a weekly release schedule, it gives viewers a chance to watch the episodes as they become available and take part in the same cultural moment, but experts suggest what's happening is more of a happy middle ground between appointment viewing and binge watching. - CBC

Paramount Claims Bias In Warner Deal

“It has become increasingly clear, through media reporting and otherwise, that WBD appears to have abandoned the semblance and reality of a fair transaction process, thereby abdicating its duties to stockholders, and embarked on a myopic process with a predetermined outcome that favors a single bidder. - Deadline

“The Picasso Of India” Finally Has A Dedicated Museum — In Qatar

“More than a decade after his death, the Indian Modernist M.F. Husain is getting the monumental tribute he long imagined. Qatar” — where he lived in exile after repeated death threats from Hindu nationalists — “has unveiled a new museum dedicated entirely to the artist, … cementing his place in global art history.” - Artnet

The Importance Of Style In Science

Style, as I see it, is much more idiosyncratic and manifests in scientists who may practice in the same field and utilize similar methods, but who nonetheless differ in the way they conduct and produce their work. - Undark

Why We Shouldn’t Bring Back Gatekeepers

Put simply: Once established institutions lost the privilege to control the public conversation, they acquired an obligation to participate within it, which, so far, they have mostly failed to do. - Conspicuous Cognition

How The Amazing Sculptures In The Paris Catacombs Got There

An avid carver, Décure turned the Catacombs into his private workshop. Outside of working hours—during lunch breaks and before and after his shifts—he snuck off into a side-tunnel to chisel away at three small yet highly detailed sculptures. - Artnet

Filmmaker Jafar Panahi Says He’ll Go Home To Iran Despite Latest Prison Sentence

On Monday, while in New York to accept three Gotham Awards for his latest film, It Was Just an Accident, Panahi was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for “propaganda activity against the state.” Nevertheless, he said today, he’ll return to Iran after his current Oscar campaign wraps up next spring. - AP

What It Says About You When Your Accent Changes

Researchers studied Taylor Swift’s voice as a way of exploring a phenomenon called “second-dialect acquisition,” or the way people learn a new style of speaking. Moving from place to place is the most obvious circumstance that might cause someone’s accent to change, but people’s voices can also evolve when they enter into new relationships. - The Atlantic

Lufthansa Crew Refuses To Let Violinist Bring Instrument Case On Carrying 243-Year-Old Violin

A soloist was forced to carry her 1782 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin in her arms through the Helsinki airport security and onto a flight to Germany after Lufthansa refused to let her bring the case as hand luggage. - The Daily Beast

Lebrecht: 2025 Was A Year Of Meddling With Music

I cannot remember a time when there was so much political meddling in music and so little resistance. - The Critic

New York Times’s New Chief Theater Critic: Helen Shaw Of The New Yorker

“The (Times) has been publishing reviews by a number of writers since predecessor Jesse Green was reassigned earlier this year. That list notably did not include Shaw, who joins the Times after a stint as theatre critic for The New Yorker, and a tenure as chief theatre critic at New York magazine prior.” - Playbill

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