"If it shocks us that the novelist was attacked after so long, it should also shock us that commentary looks much as it did thirty years ago. ... The effect is to obscure the central historical question: how, exactly, the publication of Rushdie's novel became a global geopolitical phenomenon." - Boston Review
Unlike search or social media, whose arrivals the general public encountered and discussed and had opinions about, artificial intelligence remains esoteric—every bit as important and transformative as the other great tech disruptions, but more obscure, tucked largely out of view. - The Atlantic
"What I'm really hoping for is we develop our own style. A hyper-musical, full-port-de-bras style layered with joy, with beautifully coordinated dancers ... who can do classical and contemporary work. A style that, when our dancers are seen elsewhere, people say 'Oh, you must be from Cincinnati Ballet.'" - Pointe Magazine
Anything, including revolution, can be repurposed as comfort right now. Nostalgia isn’t just for conservatives—we are in the time of the derriere-garde, experimental hygge, the avant-cozy. - The New Yorker
In a longread laid out like a choose-your-own-adventure tale, Leslie Jamison looks at why kids adore the books (agency!), their own origin story, how authors approach them, and the series's progeny (e.g., Neil Patrick Harris's Choose Your Own Autobiography or the choose-your-own-Macbeth-play Sleep No More). - The New Yorker
The paper, published last month in the peer-reviewed AI Magazine, is a fascinating one that tries to think through how artificial intelligence could pose an existential risk to humanity by looking at how reward systems might be artificially constructed. - Vice
"The prompter is invisible to the audience, and he may be only one person among the roughly 250-strong cast and crew, but he plays a major role in keeping everything from flying off the rails."Â Meet Matthew Piatt, San Francisco Opera's prompter for John Adams's Antony and Cleopatra. - NPR
"Preserving the rhythm, the sound, and the sensibility of the original musical while translating its dense libretto into a language characterized by multisyllabic compound nouns and sentences that often end with verbs, and all in a society that has minimal familiarity with the show's subject matter." - The New York Times
For instance, Alexander Hamilton in "The World Was Wide Enough" —
English: "America, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me."
German: "America, durch deine Brust pumpt Sklavenblut, Moral und Wut."
("America, through your breast is pounding the blood of slaves, morality and rage.")
- The New York Times
"If anyone could figure out how to synergize the creativity of a city dominated by film and television yet overflowing with theatrical ingenuity, ... it would be Shakman. But the demands of theater aren't easily contained, and an artistic director needs to be on hand." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
As "Reagan", one of the group's leaders, tells a carful of potential patrons, "We do want to dance. We love it in there. We're fighting for safer working conditions," pushing to unionize with Equity. Then she invited the guys to come dance with them on the picket line. - NPR
When the city commissioned a permanent version of Wesley Wofford's traveling Tubman statue, objectors demanded the commission go to a Philadelphia artist of color instead. But the city's new RFP calls for a statue of Tubman "or another African American's contribution to our nation's history." - The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Notwithstanding her many roles in a wide range of Hollywood, international and Greek films, including The Guns of Navarone (1961), Zorba the Greek (1964) and Z (1969), Papas always gave the impression that there was an Electra, Antigone or Clytemnestra bubbling beneath the surface." - The Guardian
Museums must be disentangled from national and corporate interests that guide narratives and reproduce dominant social norms. Structural transformation is needed which involves more diverse staff, especially in senior and executive positions. - The Conversation
It "was meant as reference, but also to be savoured. The 11th edition of Britannica (1929) featured Cecil B. DeMille on motion pictures and J.B. Priestley on English literature. It was ‘plausible, reasonable, unruffled, often reserved and completely authoritative’. And sometimes plain wrong. - The Spectator
