For a start, they’ve raised the starting age from 11 to 13. And they’ve done away with many of the rigid and arbitrary body standards for which ballet has been notorious — for instance, teen boy students won’t be tossed out for being too short, or girl students for being too buxom. - The Guardian
Given that the Tiffany Network has been home to the most-watched new series for the past nine TV seasons in a row, they've earned the benefit of the doubt to keep greenlighting new scripted projects. The CBS machine is working. - The Wrap (MSN)
Most observers knew that Saul Bellow was no saint, especially after reading his greatest novel, the quasi-autobiographical Herzog. Bellow’s portrait of his protagonist’s wife, a stand-in for his soon-to-be-ex, is very unflattering, but evidence now shows that Bellow himself was far more cruel and violent toward her in real life. - Slate (Yahoo!)
Social media has evolved from text to photo to video to streams of text, photo, and video, and finally, it seems to have reached a kind of settled end state, in which TikTok and Meta are trying to become the same thing: a screen showing hours and hours of video made by people we don’t know. - Derek Thompson
Among the discrepancies: the treatment of likenesses versus intellectual property. Tellingly, some execs were told an opt-in would be required for both. Others were told the opposite, or weren’t notified of the distinction. OpenAI’s messaging was haphazard to Hollywood. - The Hollywood Reporter
If philosophy formalized reasoning, literature explored its consequences. Stories about artificial beings reveal the hopes and terrors of living with intelligent doubles. Western traditions gave us the myth of Pygmalion, who fell in love with his statue, and Ovid’s tales of moving statues and enchanted beings. - 3 Quarks Daily
Philosophers and political theorists say it promotes selfish individualism and discourages collective action around issues that affect us all. And sociologists add that societies that prize choice too much tend to blame those with only poor or limited options for their own misfortunes. So much for choice as consistently synonymous with freedom. - Aeon
When Charlotte Symphony music director Kwamé Ryan saw the orchestra’s newly-redesigned logo, he thought the CSO should have a musical equivalent — like NBC’s three chimes, Netflix’s “ta-thump” drumstroke, or T-Mobile’s five-note ringtone. So he commissioned Bates, who had “never been so excited to write five seconds of music.” - The Charlotte Observer (Yahoo!)
The Royal Ballet has long offered headphones with audio descriptions so that visually impaired members of the audience can follow the action on stage. Now the entire audience will hear such descriptions, within a groundbreaking work that explores how blindness can redefine our responses to sensation, sound and storytelling. - The Guardian
The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner once said: “A bicycle shed is a building; Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture.” For much of their history, football stadiums used to be more bike shed than cathedral but their time has now spectacularly come. - The Guardian
Nowadays, we can unearth bones, extract DNA, even map ancient migrations, but only in myths can we glimpse the inner lives of our forebears—their fears and longings, their sense of wonder and dread. Linguists have reconstructed dead languages. Why not try to do the same for lost stories? - The New Yorker
Beane was in his hometown — Reading, Pennsylvania — scouting locations for his first feature film when he learned that the Genesius Theatre, where had his first stage experiences while growing up, had both money troubles and a leadership vacancy. Now he’s artistic director, with plans to stabilize the finances and revitalize programming. - Playbill
Theatre in itself is an elite cultural form. There are of course exceptions, many wonderful theatre companies that manage to put on affordable performances for everybody. But the great thing about the cinema is that everyone could – maybe not so much these days – but everyone could buy a ticket. - The Guardian
“Showing in real life that democracy is melting away before our very eyes, I think it’s a powerful symbol that helps express the feelings and the sadness and the horror of Americans." - Washington Post
“The only question is what genres it will take over next, and how quickly it will do so. From talk shows to scripted dramas to, yes, live sports,” — including the NFL — “there are signs that the platform’s ambitions will collide with the traditional TV business sooner rather than later.” - The Hollywood Reporter
