He was among the first Americans to study Balinese shadow theater and then perform it back home, which he did for his entire career. He expanded his practice to include collaborating in stagings of Shakespeare and Octavio Solis as well as producing his own elaborate myth- or history-based extravaganzas. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
During my own editing stint, I came to understand writers as prisoners of their own minds, pressed up against the bars of the words they have already committed to the page. Writers suffer from a cognitive impairment that limits their ability to see flaws in their prose. - The Atlantic
“There are plenty of self-serving, self-aggrandizing, morally objectionable reasons for why people participate in public shaming. Nevertheless, the concept of moral self-defence reminds us that our self-respect, our social identities, and our status in our communities are vital.” - Psyche
Rob Bonta’s cold water on the Paramount-WBD fireworks comes a week after the CA Department of Justice opened a probe into any deal to take over WB — be it Netflix or Ellison’s team. - Deadline
The prominence of movies featuring nonprofessionals is no surprise: directors may make movies what they are, but actors are what viewers see, and these movies, with their casting of nonprofessionals, offer flavors of performance that differ drastically from what can be achieved with a uniformly skilled cast of professionals. - The New Yorker
He was at the Portrait Gallery as an educator but also as co-founder of Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian, a group that last year spent thousands of hours documenting every corner of the Smithsonian, to track any changes made as Trump administration officials assert control over the content of the museums. - Washington Post
“(I wanted to) just start slow, with some Shakespeare that wasn’t the play,” said the Tony-winning actor, who’ll be starring in an all-male staging at the RSC this fall, “just to get my mouth around the language, the rhythm, and then sort of break out into exploring the role in the play.” - Deadline
Forget the petrified citizens – new 3D renderings show Pompeii as the thriving metropolis it was before Vesuvius crashed the party. Because apparently we needed CGI to remind us that ancient Romans actually lived there. — Aeon
Wearing a pink dress and cardigan, Kaley told the jury that she started watching YouTube videos at age 6 and made an Instagram account at age 9. She and her attorneys said she uploaded more than 200 YouTube videos before she turned 10—and had created 15 Instagram accounts before she turned 15. - Wall Street Journal
House Resolution 7661 transforms grassroots library battles into national policy, giving censors sweeping powers to purge school and public collections. Democracy's reading rooms become political battlegrounds as cultural wars scale up. — Literary Hub
“The night before we started filming, I was sleeping and, literally, the ghost of Ann Lee was over my bed with angels around and she said: ‘Go forth!’ Celia Rowlson-Hall laughs at herself for revealing this. “Was that my imagination allowing myself to go forth? Maybe, probably.” - The Guardian
Literary writers have other demands to satisfy. In general, readers come to their books seeking not an escape from reality but perspective on it. Romance novels can provide this, just as literary novels can have happy endings, but they’re still beholden to the fantasy that’s part of the genre. - The Atlantic
A speculative blog post about 2028's AI-choked economy just vaporized $200 billion in market value. When your dystopian fiction gets confused for a Goldman Sachs report, you've either written brilliantly or traders need better reading comprehension. — Literary Hub
Tricia Tuttle discovers that running a major film festival means navigating more landmines than a war correspondent. Her crime? Apparently failing to muzzle artists fast enough for Berlin's taste. Nothing says 'artistic freedom' quite like institutional panic. — Hyperallergic
Wesley Morris: “Why wouldn’t I have wanted this? A six-episode show that’s exemplary as romance, as physical intimacy, as banter, as athlete psychology, as conversation, confession and comedy, as just good television that involves a few of my favorite things: sex, sports, men, ... So why? Let’s start with wariness.” - The New York Times
