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Ravinia Recreates Leonard Bernstein In An Immersive Experience

What sticks, at least on a first viewing, is the technology at play—the light, the sound, the figures that look real enough to embrace. - Chicago Reader

A Cultural History Of Color

The Optical Society of America lists 2,755 primary colours, while paint manufacturers now offer more than 40,000 dyes and pigments, so many, says Fox, that they have run out of sensible names for them. - Literary Review

The Five Native American Oklahoma Women Who Conquered Ballet

They became known collectively as The Five Moons, though they rarely appeared together: Maria and Marjorie Tallchief, Yvonne Chouteau, Rosella Hightower, and Moscelyne Larkin all came from Oklahoma reservations and, through the mid-20th century, had major careers in the US and Europe. - The New York Times

What The Cuttlefish Might Teach Us About The Ability To Remember

Most elderly people would have flunked a human version of the team’s experiments. But all of the cuttlefish passed, “an incredibly complex thing for an animal to do.” - The Atlantic

The Case Of The Dresden Jewel Heist And The Fearsome Berlin Crime Family

Joshua Hammer (author of The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu) does a deep-dive into the royal gems stolen from the famous Green Vault, the Remmo clan accused of being the perps, and the likely (and worrisome) fate of the treasure. - GQ

What’s In A Name? Why Parents Are No Longer Naming Their Kids Alexa

Seven years ago, Amazon released Alexa, its voice assistant, and as the number of devices answering to that name has skyrocketed, its popularity with American parents has plummeted. - The Atlantic

A Leader Of Afghan Music’s Revival On Whether 20 Years Of Progress Will Disappear

"I'm hopeful that the Taliban learned that music is part of the cultural identity of any nation. And I hope that the Taliban also learned that a community, a society, or a nation that does not respect their own culture — that nation cannot exist." - Van

The Rise And Fall (And Rise And Fall) Of Jackie Mason

How a bored young rabbi named Yacov Moshe Maza became a Borscht Belt comic, came to Hollywood and got famous, alienated Ed Sullivan and got eclipsed, then came back to become Broadway's most proficient stand-up comedian. (The article skips his right-wing phase.) - Vulture

There’s Nothing Benign About Even Subtle Design Changes In Social Media

Social-media and streaming apps constantly change aspects of their “user experience,” which includes digital-interface design, to push users toward new features. - The New Yorker

Using Social Media To Teach The Secret Language Of Enslaved African-Americans

"Videos teaching how to speak and write in Tut, and the history behind the language have flooded TikTok in recent months. … Now Tut speakers are teaching others through Google Classroom and Discord. Instagram pages have shared guides on writing and reading the Tut alphabet." - NBC News

Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Black Widow’ Lawsuit Could Be A Movie Industry Watershed

"At stake is the future of how Hollywood stars negotiate their salaries, and how much they can command. … But the way the drama has unfolded … also reflects the bare-knuckles business environment that has emerged as the industry battles the tiring effect of whipsaw revamping." - Variety

The Most Exciting, Original Streamed Theater Of The Pandemic Happened In A 2x4x8-Foot Closet

Jesse Green says that Joshua William Gelb's Theater in Quarantine "offered the best argument by far for the artistic promise of streaming theater. So I wanted to see how they were made, and especially where." - The New York Times

Why Joshua Wolf Shenk Was Forced Out Of ‘The Believer’ (It Wasn’t Just The Naked Zoom Meeting)

He was hired in 2015 to revivify the Black Mountain Institute at UNLV and make Las Vegas a literary destination. He seemed to be succeeding — until the camera incident in February. Yet, staffers say, that was just one of many cases of bad behavior. - Los Angeles Times

Tennessee Teacher Fired For Teaching Ta-Nehisi Coates Essay

Matt Hawn assigned his high schoolers in Blountville, in the state's northeast corner, Coates's "The First White President," which argues that Donald Trump was elected because of white grievance. He says he wanted the class to assess the essay critically; the school board wasn't having it. - The Atlantic

DC’s Arts Council Shifts $5.3 Million From Large To Small Institutions

"The D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities has dramatically reshaped the way it supports Washington's arts community by directing significant increases to the city's small and midsize arts organizations and making steep cuts to almost two dozen major institutions." - The Washington Post

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