Kate Levy says she loves "to tear into hypocritical institutions or political actors who rely on oppressive yet hokey, family-first, nice people, I’m-just-doing-my-job narratives. Calling out and satirizing corny, offensive propaganda is one of my greatest pleasures." - Hyperallergic
"I love Puccini’s auspicious score, its bustling crowd of little melodies that converge and mature into themes that seem to hold a whole life. I love its clutter of everyday sentimental stuff: Mimi’s lost key, Musetta’s pawned earrings, Colline’s surrendered coat, Marcello’s unfinished painting." - Washington Post
Sinking it. "The researchers estimated the weight of all of New York City’s buildings to be around 842 million tons," and there's some soil that cannot handle it. - The Verge
That's what Google's new chatbot can be, at least according to one author, who let it write some wedding-related emails. And it's really, really good at consumer complaints. - Wired
For one thing, "sports will lead the TV marketplace this year, especially if advertisers can’t get the audiences they want in a strike-hampered prime time." - Los Angeles Times
"Wanting to write ... made me unintelligible to my mother. I couldn’t explain how I would survive on a career in words, and she couldn’t fathom why I would squander the chance at prosperity my parents had contorted to give me." - The Atlantic
A former top lobbyist says that he thinks the future for cinemas is actually kind of bright. "I think the existential challenges — the pandemic, the streaming wars — are gone. I’m really the most optimistic I’ve been in 30 years about the future of the business." - The New York Times
Amis "was among the celebrated group of novelists including Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes, whose works defined the British literary scene in the 1980s." - The Guardian (UK)
This is the paradox of sad music: We generally don’t enjoy being sad in real life, but we do enjoy art that makes us feel that way. Countless scholars since Aristotle have tried to account for it. - The New York Times
What I find most fascinating about the lawsuit, though, is the glimpse it offers into how national and state-level political dynamics empower the most fanatical members of a community to impose their will on everyone else. - The New York Times
Many of the more recent changes in local arts organizations were sparked by the pandemic, which shone a spotlight on society’s inequities, as well as by the 2020 protests and the increased attention to diversity, equity and inclusion. - Seattle Times
Today, all serious historians and archaeologists acknowledge that the cross-fertilization of “Western” and “non‐Western” cultures happened throughout human history, and that the modern West owes much of its cultural DNA to a wide range of non‐European and non‐white forebears. - Smithsonian
The abrupt closure comes less than three weeks after the theater, known for adapting beloved books into short musicals and for devising dance parties and shows for toddlers and even infants, canceled one production and announced an emergency fundraising campaign with the goal of raising $750,000 by July 1. - San Francisco Chronicle
Michael Davies: "I want to build an elite pyramid of competition that plays a postseason every single year at the same time. … It doesn't mean that Monday-through-Friday Jeopardy! isn't as important. … But I do believe our very best players deserve to be in competition with each other." - MSN (Vulture)
