Stories

Are Classical Music And Heavy Metal Really Brothers?

Metal and classical: deeply different, or close companions? As a musician straddling both genres, I feel they have much more in common than they differ. - San Francisco Classical Voice

Thousands Of Japanese Are Moving A Historic Castle — Hauling It By Hand

In 2015, the fortified tower of Hirosaki Castle was moved, in one piece, about 260 feet from its old site to allow repairs to the compound’s outer walls. Now a horde of volunteers, working 80 at a time pulling ropes, are pulling the tower back to its site, centimeter by centimeter. - AFP (Yahoo!)

California Passes Bill To Employ More Local Journalists

Assembly Bill 2222, known as the Community Newsroom Employment and Workforce Sustainability Act, creates refundable tax credits for the state’s news outlets based on the number of journalists they employ. - NiemanLab

She Who Controls The Logistics…

From the battlefields of Europe to middle-class households and sex trafficking, women’s logistics has one thing in common: performing organisational and supply work for men who have capital, status and control. - Psyche

The Son Of 1960s America’s Most Notorious Leftist Revolutionaries Ended Up A Playwright And Northwestern Professor

Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, leaders of the Weather Underground, raised their kids while blowing up buildings and fleeing the FBI. Their older son, Zayd Ayers Dohrn, is ambivalent about his upbringing but says there was plenty of love. So how did he become an academic and a playwright? - WBEZ (Chicago)

Consider The Lowly Bollard

The posts come in many forms — retractable, rigid, ordinary, ornate, thick, thin. There are other objects that serve a similar purpose, including “sugar cube” barriers and hulking planters. At Lincoln Center, stylish, warped concrete blocks guard the square. - The New York Times

Could More Movie-Theatre Versions Of Broadway Shows Fix The Bottom Line?

While filmed Broadway shows have long been the province of PBS’ Great Performances, cinematic releases of stage shows is a growing trend. - Playbill

Why Letting AI Do Our Writing Is A Bad Idea

The act of writing is an act of thinking, and to automate our paragraphs is to populate our screens with words without filling our minds with the ideas necessary to conceive of them. - Derek Thompson

Britain’s Working Class Is Getting Priced Out Of The Arts Entirely. Look Out For What Comes Next.

With the shrinking of arts instruction in schools and free higher education, it’s ever harder for non-rich artists to train. Then there’s the ever-rising cost of getting your work seen, even at open-access events like the Edinburgh Fringe. In response, Ivan Hewett writes, a “radical class-consciousness” is starting to appear. - The Telegraph (UK) (MSN)

Remembering A Master Music Critic

For 12 years he delivered what seems like an almost endless chain of exemplary reviews and essays, all framed in his distinctly personal, uncluttered prose, witty, now and then biting, but most often illuminating. - The New York Times

Philadelphia’s Academy Of Natural Sciences To Close After 200 Years

The Academy of Natural Sciences will close its Parkway museum at the end of the month, ending a nearly 200-year run as a destination for generations of visitors. The museum, founded in 1812 and opened to the public in 1828, has long been a fixture for families, students and educators. - 6 ABC

Kennedy Center Will Remove Major Outdoor Sculpture

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will remove a major outdoor sculpture from the center’s grounds on Wednesday. The work, installed in 2019, was targeted for elimination after President Trump’s takeover of the center, according to internal documents obtained by The New York Times. - The New York Times

Scotland To Launch A Nationally Funded Traditional Music Ensemble

The group, which has no name as yet, “will become Scotland’s sixth National Performing Company, joining the National Theatre of Scotland, Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.” - The Herald (Scotland)

Hong Kong’s Independent Bookstores Face Severe Pressure From Chinese Authorities

“(The shops), many of them tucked away ... inside buildings, have long offered a refuge and a window to a freer world for some mainland Chinese readers seeking ideas suppressed at home. But these spaces now are under threat following a wave of bookseller arrests over alleged sedition under a 2024 national security law.” - AP

California Legislature Passes Fix To Film/TV Tax Credit Measure

“(Lawmakers) imposed a $5 million annual cap on corporate tax credits in June. (Industry representatives) argued that the cap would undercut the state’s $750 million incentive. … In response, legislative leaders and the governor’s office agreed to let studios to redeem tax credits for cash in two years instead of five.” - Variety

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