Australian tenor Stuart Skelton on Wagner: "Singers are like athletes doing long-distance competitions. You get to the point where you’ve reached your physical limits. You hit the wall. Then it’s a mental game of trying to dig deep into your technical resources to keep going." - The Observer (UK)
You might call the headlines "brutally honest," if you were being kind. "Novel or Nightmare?" one asks. "Two Pathetic Books," one proclaims. - The New York Times
"Comics artist Ilan Manouach and AI engineer Ioannis Siglidis developed the Neural Yorker, an artificial intelligence (AI) engine that posts computer-generated cartoons on Twitter." The results can be hilarious - or deeply unsettling. - Hyperallergic
Asner won played Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show; his career continued into the 2000s, including Up and Elf, and even the 2019 Dead to Me. He also worked hard for unions (including the Screen Actors Guild), animal rights, and farmworkers. - The New York Times
Rooney found immense success with her first two books - so much success that it became a challenge to writing. How did she get back to work? - The New York Times
Hilma Wolitzer - yes, the mother of Meg - has been publishing books for nearly 50 years. After losing her husband to COVID, she developed a new book. - Los Angeles Times
Anna Härmälä: "I knew I needed to tell a story about this, but also I needed to survive. So the story has been bubbling inside for six years, and now it’s coming out." - The Guardian (UK)
It's like a mini-sociology course, reading comedian memoirs. Take Tina Fey's Bossypants (which "has a truly jaw-dropping number of racist jokes") or books by Amy Poehler or Amy Schumer and compare them to memoirs by Mindy Kaling, Issa Rae, or Tiffany Haddish. - LitHub
And they don't want day and date releases, either. When movies get released on streaming, the speed of piracy is, well, it's immediate. If the U.S. gets the delta variant under control, will distributors return to theatrical windows? Perhaps. - Los Angeles Times
What's it like to hover in the consciousness of a nation? Actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II on the joys and the costs: "I’ve been learning bills and debt and burying family members — life and death, heartbreak, location, relocation. ... I’m also missing the birth of babies and weddings." - The New York Times
Oates wrote highly praised biographies, especially one of Abraham Lincoln, before other scholars accused him of plagiarism, and the American Historical Association conducted a year-long review of his work. - Washington Post
Graphic novels by Black, Indigenous and other people of color in the 2020s are moving beyond realistic stories and memoir to fantasy and tales shaped by family and society folklore. Says one store owner and publisher, "We've hit these boom and bust cycles. ... My hope for the industry is that this continues. There's room enough for everybody's stories."...
John C. Calhoun's words about the Postal Service are, after complaints about the former VP's odious beliefs and a museum redesign, gone from the wall. All of the Smithsonian museums are doing a review, and "part of the review is looking at objects and wall labels, especially those that have been in place for many years." - Washington Post
