“Writing can terrify us, confuse us, devastate us. Good writing means that you’re engaging with practices that will force you to lean into things that make you uncomfortable. Work that’s doing its job is inevitably hard.” - LitHub
Rockstar Games fired a bunch of folks last week. “According to the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), all of the employees fired were part of a private trade union Discord chat and were either already union members or attempting to organize a union at Rockstar.” - The Verge
If you want to be yelled at for your art historical ignorance by an “aggressive” guide, get your kink on in Düsseldorf. "Asked to explain the tour’s popularity, Brandi said people ‘enjoy the emotional ride.’” - The Guardian (UK)
Not even counting the numerous Doctor Who locations (to be fair, many are in Wales), “England's historic buildings and landscapes ‘provide an essential ingredient in making the audience's flesh creep.’” - BBC
Microsoft really tried. “It had a bunch of interface design ideas that are still very present in our lives today. The universe in which the Zune was a smash isn’t so far away. … Maybe if it hadn’t been brown?” - The Verge
For instance: “Turkish author Sabahattin Ali’s 1943 novel Madonna in a Fur Coat, first published by Penguin in 2016, has rocketed this year, selling almost 30,000 copies in the UK and outstripping even Pride and Prejudice. It’s another anguished story of frustrated love.” - The Guardian (UK)
“In a city where the so-called Theater Row has more ‘For Lease’ signs than marquees, New Theater Hollywood feels improbable. Yet since opening in early 2024, it has already become something of a small cult phenomenon.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
“While physical beauty is often conflated with a character’s moral goodness, villains have historically been associated with disability or disfigurement: facial scarring, wheelchair use, limb difference.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Joking that she had probably watched Robert Altman’s Gosford Park too many times, DaCosta said that she set the action in 1950s England because of her interest in the postwar era.” - The New York Times
The three solo artists who make up Huntr/x recorded their now-platinum album alone. Then they went on The Tonight Show and got asked to sing, live. “It was literally our first time singing together,” but “it was very organic and easy.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
Alassane Moustapha, a filmmaker from Niger, was “as much a multimedia artist as a cineaste, he took an idiosyncratic approach to folkloric storytelling.” He’s been left out of some film histories - but it's time for a reevaluation. - Current
While some in the literary world are snobs, one author says she considers the best of historical fiction “a lens forged from the experience of the past, through which we may view the concerns of the present with renewed clarity.” - Irish Times
Wicomb, who was born just after apartheid was formalized, said, “I was transported from the vulgarity of apartheid by books — books opened up different worlds, and brought freedom from an oppressive social order.” - The New York Times
