"At the end of the day, the only people who care about your image in a movie is the marketing department." Hanks discusses finding his way into Col. Tom Parker (in the upcoming Elvis) and working with "a particular countenance that I carry into any movie." - The New York Times Magazine
Welcome to Long Beach. Here at Cal State University, Kleefelds in the Kleefeld at the Kleefeld are the new norm. Disturbingly so. It’s a train wreck, and a serious disservice is being done to students. - Los Angeles Times
The find, which includes bronze, jade, gold, and ivory pieces, many intact, is at the Sanxingdui Ruins in Sichuan province. The site was the center of an advanced Bronze Age culture that flourished over 4,000 years ago and disappeared around 1100 BCE, leaving no writing behind. - South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
"Going back to its earliest days, Pixar was always a place where some minds succeeded by solving intractable problems with vim and whimsy, and others by tackling existential issues with cold, hard code. And all these years later, it still is." - The Ringer
The hybrid of dance, costuming, satirical mimicry and other ingredients that has provided community to several generations of Black and Hispanic queer people is featured in a new HBO Max competition show, Legendary, that hopes to do for voguing what RuPaul's Drag Race did for drag. - The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Graham Bowen (dance captain and swing), Lewis Cleale ("all the old white guys"), and John Eric Parker (Mutumbo) "joined a reporter at the theater one afternoon last week to discuss the musical's staying power, and how it's changed with the times." - The New York Times
In a Q&A, Adrian Matejka, a multiple award-winner who holds an endowed chair at Indiana University and was the state's poet laureate from 2018-19, talks about his plans for the magazine and diversity and equity at its parent, the Poetry Foundation. - MSN (Chicago Tribune)
"This is a building that says 'No': after years of delays, here is a complex of enormous hard-edged boxes clad in dark gray slate with few windows and zero funky details. ... On a satellite view, it would look like Google obscured the building for security reasons." - Artnet
Oliver Mears: "Notwithstanding their subject matter, these operas are masterpieces. Instead of cancelling them we should find creative ways to live with them. ... Vigorously diversifying across the board, rather than ghettoising particular singers in particular totemic operas, feels like by far the best way forward for the art form." - The Guardian
"Benoit Fader Keita never intended to make electro music. But after a sell-out first show in Dakar last month, the singer believes the genre could be key to saving his beloved language from extinction." - The Guardian (UK)
Two big reasons: Interference - that is, the other books we've read get in the way; and passive engagement. That is, if you write a review of a book you're reading, you'll remember it better. But is it worth it? We have limited working memory, after all. - The Guardian (UK)
"Stone Mountain is a shining example of selective amnesia and Lost Cause propaganda. And the inventions of the Lost Cause bear a remarkable parallel to the campaigns of disinformation that have buttressed the belief of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists and those who support them." - Los Angeles Times
"In the New York theatre, ... the fact that these two major figures happened to be Jewish may seem inconsequential. But in the universe of post-war Britain which Pinter and Stoppard entered as young men and young writers, it was significant." - American Theatre
Siphe November, who's 23 and has risen through the ranks to become the youngest principal dancer in the National Ballet of Canada's history, "has incredible technique, ... passion he brings to each movement and a magnetic pull that draws you in while he’s onstage." - The Globe and Mail (Canada)
On The Adventures of Baron Munchausen set, "Blasts of debris exploded on the ground around me, accompanied by deafening booms that made me feel as if I myself had exploded. A log I was to run under was partially on fire. The gigantic blasts continued." - The Guardian (UK)
