In an age of YouTube and Spotify, how do we know if one artist heard another artist’s song, especially if they are relatively unknown, or if they both had the same idea? - The Guardian
Freed of London, based in Hackney, has been making pointe shoes for almost a century. But while being one of the only producers of the shoes in the UK means that business is booming, the technique has been added to a red list of endangered crafts at risk of being lost. - BBC
The Ukrainian port city of Odesa sits atop a labyrinth of catacombs—technically, limestone quarries—which constitute perhaps the world’s largest network of urban tunnels, extending ten stories deep and tracing some fifteen hundred miles beneath the streets. - The New Yorker
What explains our love of throwback sounds right now? Are we comfort-listening through hard times? Or is the industry just finally able to see (and monetize) a type of listening we’ve always done? - The Atlantic
To create a space that is intentional in its gathering of materials meant to provide intellectual and literary stimulation, a space wholly devoted to books, be it a bookstore, a library, or a personal collection, is to understand the fulfillment provided by the activity of rumination and reflection. - Slate
The paintings and sculptures, valued at 42 million euros ($46 million), had been on loan from Russian museums to institutions in Italy and Japan. They were seized last weekend in Finland on suspicion of contravening European Union sanctions imposed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. - The New York Times
George E. Lewis, a professor of music at Columbia University known for his groundbreaking work in electronics, will take the helm as artistic director later this month. Lewis, 69, a trombonist and frequent collaborator with the ensemble, will be the first Black leader in its 21-year history. - The New York Times
"One way you can think about this neural network is transcendent beauty as a service,” says Ilya Sutskever, cofounder and chief scientist at OpenAI. “Every now and then it generates something that just makes me gasp." - MIT Review
“Film has Cannes. Video games have G.D.C.,” Marie Foulston, a London-based curator and producer of video-game and digital-art exhibitions, told me. “It has become a nexus, or focal point, for video-game culture.” - The New Yorker
Looking at the superyachts in the Grand Canal, that the Biennale is a prism of wealth inequality that we’re effectively sanctioning. We go anyway, get numb, tell ourselves it’s important to meet people and grasp the current narrative. But you can’t really grasp it on any kind of granular level. - ArtReview
Unlike many "real" book clubs and video game podcasts, they're less interested in new releases—focusing instead on detailed analysis of popular retro titles. - Wired
It's not just that you’re the product. You’re also the laborer, the factory, and the logistician. You’re also the resource. And your boss is crowdsourced. - Wired
It turns out the bookshelf bulk-buy is standard practice among the rich and famous – and increasingly so, since books have become established as an erudite backdrop for Zoom. - The Guardian
Hollywood-watchers say the academy is walking a tightrope: how can it take a stand now after failing to act against other members' misconduct for decades? - CBC
In a video on social media, he said there was now a culture "where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there's no basis for the claim". - BBC
