Stories

Games like The Sims can get boring, so content creators add virtual challenges to keep themselves, and others, engaged. - Wired

"Though Nepal banned the export of ancient statues of deities through the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act in 1956, these and other objects of cultural heritage have been looted frequently since the 1980s." - Hyperallergic

The producers apologized and said they had "hired a new dramaturgical team (which includes nonbinary, transgender and BIPOC representation), to revisit and deepen the script" before the musical reopens on Broadway. - The New York Times

It's a £5 video of Olivia Colman performing a translated lecture by Elena Ferrante, of course. - LitHub

Their sensibilities, plus a true story of a Liverpool bakery's travails, ended up as Home Baked: The Musical. - BBC

Atkins had been thinking for years about writing a memoir. "But it was only once the pandemic hit ... that she was able to get on with doing so. 'I’m ashamed to tell you that I had a wonderful lockdown,' she says. 'I absolutely loved the whole thing.'" - The Observer (UK)

Screenwriter Tommy Pico on what that adds to the show: "Humor is a tool — a marker of resilience, a willingness to heal and to be productive in that. It can be a way to take the air out of a situation, to make certain things more digestible. It’s also medicine." - them

As in, every single day. All the better to celebrate life, says the performance artist. "You have to think about what you’re going to leave society: as an artist you have that obligation. Because if you have a gift, you have to handle it carefully." - The Guardian (UK)

But his 1993 classic Sankofa is finally coming into its own. - Los Angeles Times

Consider the music of Final Fantasy at Royal Albert Hall: "The two worlds of gaming and classical music merged, and while some concertgoers wore suits and bow ties, others dressed in cosplay as their favorite characters from the game." - The New York Times

Ah, the (literally spilling over the hills, dales, glades, and coasts) humanity. - The Guardian (UK)

"I couldn’t help but think about how the approaching opening of the Academy Museum — a space that will celebrate the work of these below-the-line craftspeople — is set against the backdrop of Hollywood’s labor strife with the union that represents these same artisans." - Hyperallergic

The awards, as they happen. - The New York Times

"I'm really into thinking about the literary journal as a clandestine space for a community’s periodic meetings, a small public within a public whose concerns and milieu grow idiosyncratic through collective interaction over time." - LitHub

Clearly, it's not just visual art that is part of this market: "Virtually any asset could be sold for an astronomical amount." - El País (Spain)