"For every privileged kid too lazy to write an essay, there was a more complex story. To my surprise, of the hundreds of clients I worked with, many—maybe most—students were simply desperate for the help." - Slate
“An effort was made. Was it good enough? Was it the right effort? Was it an effort that was still within the blind spots that we have? Possibly." - Dallas Morning News
With pandemic limitations in mind, as of early July, the overall domestic box office has reached $1.05 billion in ticket sales, down 42.3% from 2020 and down 81.3% from 2019. - Variety
Netflix is the Kleenex of streaming, a brand so dominant it can stand for the whole of the market. (It’s not “Hulu and chill,” after all.) There are signs that this synecdochal power is waning, though. - Wired
"One is a former communist, the other a former mujahid. Both have witnessed and participated in Afghanistan's turbulent history over the past half century. They have seen the rise and fall of regimes and today sell books about the men who made and unmade them." - Newlines
Stage director Nicolas Kent and former Guardian security editor Richard Norton-Taylor have edited hundreds of hours of testimony, from early warnings to "bragging about fixing fire safety tests," into a verbatim theatre piece. - The Guardian
“When we were working on the story, it didn’t occur to us in our wildest dreams that not only would NBC pull the show, but Tom Cruise would return his Golden Globes.” - The Postscript
Alexandra Lange takes a look at the New York City congresswoman's "ability to get her message across visually, through graphic design, through fashion, and through social media." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
As superintendent, and with Kirill Petrenko as music director, Nikolaus Bachler made the Bavarian State Opera a beacon of "artistic excellence, destination programming and, during the pandemic, fearless advocacy." He's stepping down this summer, and Joshua Barone has the exit interview. - The New York Times
Kevin McKenzie has been with American Ballet Theatre since 1979. "If you do only the classics, you are a museum, so we tried to find choreographers who stretched the limits of the rules. The contemporary works needed to break all the rules." - Seven Days
"What he accomplished was remarkable — not just in terms of his personal achievement, but also what he accomplished for his instrument's profile. … He transformed the duduk from a purely folk instrument … into a force on the concert stage," recordings and film scores. - NPR
It's not enough that he sold his own NFT for $69 million. The graphic artist and some even richer tech and entertainment types have launched WENEW, which sells NFT images of "iconic" athletes, artists, and such. The platform's motto: "The Memory Palace of the Metaverse." - Artnet
" 'Can We Talk About This?' video initiative … is designed to acknowledge what may have been acceptable at one point in history is not now and perhaps never should have been. … This way, the networks don't lose programming, but rather get a chance to recontextualize it." - Variety
