"It's possible to see Balanchine as both a god and a bogeyman, responsible for everything that's wonderful or wrong about ballet. Of course, that's far too simplistic. … No one's calling for Balanchine to be cancelled, but we should carefully consider what has been passed on." - The Guardian
To show you what this process looks like, we trained six tiny language models starting from scratch. We’ve picked one trained on the complete works of Jane Austen, but you can choose a different path. - The New York Times
Chris Dumont, the company's fight director, is much more used to staging fencing than fist-fighting with gloves. So he turned to former professional WBO heavyweight champion Michael Bentt, who says, "I'm not an expert on opera. But I'm an expert on rhythm. And boxing is rhythm." - The New York Times
“Some people initially thought that I had planted the dolls myself, but that is definitely not the case. All I did was provide a mailbox. Somebody else decided to make it into a home for Mary and Shelley.” - Washington Post
When Adnan Kivan bought the Kyiv Post, he promised editorial independence; when the paper became too critical of the Ukrainian government for his taste, he sacked the staff. Within a month they launched the online, reader-funded Kyiv Independent, which now has 10,000 supporters. - Press Gazette (UK)
“You see politicians and officials enacting rules and laws which are incredibly onerous and designed to enforce a very narrow view of what students can see, read, learn or act on stage.” - Washington Post
"They have popped up like mushrooms after rain," says one visitor. Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian's chief culture writer, visits three of them. - The Guardian
The cancellation came after a parent told school board members that she was worried about her 5-year-old daughter’s upcoming field trip to see the play, in which male actors play female characters. - Washington Post
"Many people who first heard of an EGOT assume it originated on the hit NBC sitcom 30 Rock. ... It turns out the term dates back to 1984, when only three people had achieved EGOT-hood: the composer Richard Rodgers and the actresses Helen Hayes and Rita Moreno." - The New York Times
"The Guild (wants) a TV staffing minimum, which would range from six to 12 writers per show, based on the number of episodes, ... (and) a guaranteed minimum number of weeks of employment per season, ranging from 10 weeks to 52 weeks." The studios flatly reject both demands. - Variety
"Overseen by Spain's national heritage institution, Patrimonio Nacional, the gallery's aim is to share hundreds of items drawn from the 19 royal palaces and 10 monasteries under Patrimonio Nacional's stewardship." - The Guardian
Some Like It Hot garnered 10 nominations, while musicals & Juliet, Shucked, and New York, New York each landed nine. Leading the plays were A Doll's House, Leopoldstadt, and Ain't No Mo' with six nominations each. - Variety
"Born in 1869, (Rex) Brasher left an enormous body of paintings, almost 900 large-scale watercolors documenting American bird life and habitat, that became the source material for a monumental 12-volume compendium of hand-colored reproductions." (And he didn't defend slavery or shoot the birds before painting them.) - MSN (The Washington Post)
"Television and movie writers declared late Monday that they will launch a strike for the first time in 15 years, as Hollywood girded for a walkout with potentially widespread ramifications. ... The Writers Guild of America said that its 11,500 unionized screenwriters will head to the picket lines on Tuesday." - AP
