Sak Tz'i' was an ancient but small city, caught between more powerful neighbors; scholars weren't aware it had existed until they found inscriptions describing its defeats. Nobody knew where Sak Tz'i' had been, until a Chiapas rancher showed a researcher a carved limestone slab he'd found. - The New York Times
"Oscar-winning Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar will not be making his English-language feature directorial debut with A Manual for Cleaning Women, which has Cate Blanchett set to star and produce under her Dirty Films." The director said, "Unfortunately, I no longer feel able to fully realize this film." - Deadline
"The medical report on the death of the 91-year-old director said he had chosen to end his life. He 'had recourse to legal assistance in Switzerland for a voluntary departure' because he was 'stricken with 'multiple incapacitating illnesses'.'" - The Guardian
... for the ones that will screen a free video feed of the ceremonies. Those will be smaller chains (e.g., Vue, Picturedrome, Reel); the big ones (Cineworld, Odeon, etc.) will simply close all day Monday. - Variety
We showed average Americans pairs of paintings side by side. Each of the pairs are similar in style, motif and period, but one work was by a male artist and the other by a female artist. Participants were in two groups. One group saw the artists’ names and the other didn’t. - The Conversation
The debate over Netrebko has been part of a broader discussion in arts, culture and sport over how much individual Russians should bear responsibility for the actions of their government. - The Guardian
In practice, physical diseases are treated by physicians working for medical services, and mental illnesses are treated by psychiatrists or psychologists working for separately organised mental health services. These professional tribes follow divergent training and career paths. - The Guardian
Most college students, according to a FIRE report published this week, do not believe that speakers who hold various conservative beliefs should be allowed on campus; I am grateful that these students do not (yet) run a whole country, as the ayatollahs do. - The Atlantic
“If you have a brain response to anything that is important, how does it differentiate whether it is good or bad? It’s a central problem in the field.” - Scientific American
If you are presenting art because you enjoy art and only because you enjoy art, you are not respecting your charter as a nonprofit. That’s vanity, not service. Vanity has weighed down this portion of the sector with 16 tons of irrelevance. - Medium
"During his brief six-week rehearsal periods, van Hove introduces sets, costumes, music and lighting as early in the process as possible. ... He wanted a set that felt cramped, dingy and claustrophobic, a house where multiple televisions play over each other and privacy is impossible." - T — The New York Times Style Magazine
This was one of the worst Emmys telecasts in recent memory. Not in the “claws are out” way that people tend to pounce on award shows for being out of touch. It’s the opposite. The awards of this awards show were beautiful. They were meaningful. - The Daily Beast
"Self-Portraits: Masterpieces from the Uffizi ... is the first to kick off a series of 10 exhibitions that the Florence-based museum will loan to (the Bund One in Shanghai) over the next five years. ... The partnership with the Bund Museum is generating some $6 million for the Uffizi." - Artnet
The arrival of widely available image synthesis models such as Midjourney and Stable Diffusion has provoked an intense online battle between artists who view AI-assisted artwork as a form of theft (more on that below) and artists who enthusiastically embrace the new creative tools. - Ars Technica
"Everything Diaghilev did was ad hoc, on a wing and a prayer or a plea and a handshake. He answered to nobody; there was no board, no governance beyond his say-so; accounts were scribbled into a little black notebook. State subsidy put an end to this modus operandi." - Prospect
