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The Messy, Sordid Controversy Underlying The Olympic Ice Dancing Competition

Or, how France’s Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry (who’s actually Canadian) ended up paired at all, then became the gold medalists despite having been together only since March. - AP

Conductor Helmuth Rilling, Last Of The Old-School Bach Specialists, Has Died At 92

With his ensembles Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, he undertook the first complete recording project of Bach’s cantatas and major choral works. As the period-instrument movement picked up steam through the 1980s, ‘90s and onward, Rilling was the last remaining Bach specialist to cling strictly to modern instruments. - Moto Perpetuo

Proposed Jersey City Branch Of Pompidou Center Is Officially “Dead”

“After announcing last week that Jersey City is facing a $255 million deficit, Mayor James Solomon removed any doubt about where he stood on Centre Pompidou’s proposed satellite location in New Jersey’s second-largest city. ‘We will not be doing Pompidou, to be clear. It is dead.’” - NJ.com

Kennedy Center Boss Warns Of Job Cuts During Shutdown

In a Tuesday memo obtained by The Associated Press, Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell told staff that ‘departments will obviously function on a much smaller scale with some units totally reduced or on hold until we begin preparations to reopen in 2028,’ promising ‘permanent or temporary adjustments for most everyone.’” - AP

Bud Cort, Star Of “Harold And Maude” And “Brewster Mccloud,” Is Dead At 77

He was discovered by director Robert Altman for the 1970 films M*A*S*H and Brewster McCloud; he subsequently featured in Heat (1995), Dogma (1999) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). Yet it was his co-starring role in alongside Ruth Gordon in Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude that would establish his place in cinema. - Deadline

Leonard Slatkin Named Music Director Of Nashville Symphony

The 81-year-old conductor has served the orchestra as “Music Advisor” for the past year, following the departure of Giancarlo Guerrero. (He did the same for three years between the death of longtime music director Kenneth Schermerhorn and Guerrero’s arrival.) Slatkin’s contract as music director runs for three years. - Nashville Scene

A Choreographer Adapts Flamenco For Ice Dancing

Antonio Najarro, former director of the Ballet Nacional de España and choreographer of several medal-winning routines in ice dancing: “It seemed very difficult to me. Flamenco is so rooted in the earth that doing it on ice felt almost crazy. But curiosity got the better of me.” - El País in English (Spain)

Permission To Star(e)

Depending on where you stand, the human face has become either a digital ­playground or digital battleground. Your Instagram feed can now produce a diaspora of thousands of faces that uncannily resemble but are not quite Kim Kardashian, a “cyborgian” look best achieved through plastic surgery and Facetune. - The Walrus

Playwright Tracy Letts On Why He Wrote “Bug” (And Why Now’s A Good Time For Reviving It)

“I was studying this issue of conspiracy theories and what makes people susceptible to a conspiracy theory. There’s a real terror of (not conforming) in our culture, and we will gladly believe somebody else’s nonsense if it means we don’t stick out from the group.” - WBEZ (Chicago)

Study: Using AI Doesn’t Reduce Work, It Intensifies It

In an eight-month study of how generative AI changed work habits at a U.S.-based technology company with about 200 employees, we found that employees worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day, often without being asked to do so. - Harvard Business Review

France’s “Inalienable” Problem In Repatriating Museum Art

The principle is currently set out in two French legal codes, including the Heritage Code, which applies to public museum collections. Under the principle, nothing can be permanently removed from these collections without a special law passed by the French parliament in each case, a cumbersome and time-consuming process. - The Art Newspaper

How Sundance’s Move To Boulder Could Reinvent The Festival

Sundance’s move to Boulder is coinciding with a fortuitous moment in the specialty film space, with an uptick in post-pandemic interest from younger moviegoers. - The Hollywood Reporter

You’re About To Release A Novel, And Suddenly A News Event Comes Too Close To Your Plot For Comfort. What Do You Do?

That’s the dilemma that faced Simon & Schuster last fall, when right-wing media star Charlie Kirk was assassinated not long before the scheduled publication of Rebecca Novack’s satirical novel Murder Bimbo. - The New York Times

Paramount Sweetens Its Offer To Buy Warner

On Tuesday, the Skydance-owned company said it would pay Warner shareholders an added “ticking fee” if its deal doesn’t go through by the end of the year — amounting to 25 cents per share, or a total of $650 million, for every quarter after Dec. 31. - AP News

Report: Trump “Obsessed” With Kennedy Center Makeover

Overhauling the Kennedy Center has become a fixation for Trump—and no detail is too small for the real-estate-developer-turned-president. - The Wall Street Journal

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