Stories

Reed Hastings Is Leaving Netflix, But Is It Because They Didn’t Get Warner Bros., Or Because They Ever Tried?

Bizarrely, Netflix would up in a much stronger place: “The company did not say how it plans to spend the $2.8-billion US termination fee it received after losing the Warner Bros. movie studio, including HBO, and lifted its earnings per share.” - CBC

It Takes Many Artisans To Create A Lady Gaga-Level, But Fake, Pop Star

The Mother Mary gang has been finding out over the past couple of years. - Variety

How Do You Secure A Museum From Heists Without Closing It Off Entirely?

“Transparency, porousness — all the buzzwords of architecture today are antithetical to security. It’s a paradox implicit to museum design today.” - The New York Times

We Are Weirdly Quick To Believe That Actors Simply Improvise In Movies

“Audiences clearly crave these stories – but why? Isn’t a movie more impressive if it’s so well rehearsed that it seems real? Isn’t it better that an actor’s pained scream sounds authentic because they’re an elite professional, not because they stubbed their toe?” - The Guardian (UK)

Is Pop Star Rosalia Leading A Surge In Affection For Opera As An Art Form?

Yes, and then there’s this: “Pinterest said ‘opera aesthetics' - a trend which it said encapsulated ‘dramatic, opulent and theatrical styles’ - was one of its fastest growing trends, with a 55% increase in interest in opera-themed dresses on its app over the past year.” - BBC

Children’s Author Jon Klassen Is The First Canadian To Win This Huge Children’s Literature Prize

“The Winnipeg-born children's book author and illustrator of I Want My Hat Back, has won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, which is worth nearly $750,00” (Canadian). - CBC

How A Few Simple TikToks Or A Viral Insta Reel Can Lead To A Poetry Contract

“A century ago, the democratization of poetry was only a dream. Today, everyone can be a poet thanks to social media.” - Los Angeles Times

The OnlyFans Approach To Spreading Climate Change Awareness

“Headline Newds, a new series of web videos, ... is made up of bite-size (segments) in which the climate emergency is broken down and raunchily explained to us by a variety of OnlyFans models.” Now, isn’t this better than throwing soup at paintings in art museums? - The Guardian

English National Opera Gets A New Chief Exec

At Rambert, Helen Shute has led partnerships with The Royal Ballet and Manchester International Festival expanding Rambert’s international reach and developing new initiatives, including Rambert2, a new ensemble for early career dancers. - Opera Now

What Counts As Evolving And What As Watering Down? Worries About The Future Of Cambodian Classical Dance

“Experts say the issue is awareness, not admiration. Performances are sometimes staged in unsuitable settings or paired with incorrect costumes — choices that, however unintentional, erode the dance’s sacred meaning.” - Cambodianess

Has The Anecdotal Lede Outlived Its Journalistic Utility?

For many years, this tactic served us well, and it’s deeply embedded in the toolkits of generations of writers and editors. But I wonder if its time is quickly passing. - Second Rough Draft

Study: The Antidote To Mindless Phone Rot — A Surprising Finding

The results after doing so were eye-opening even to them: among a totally random population, levels of creativity for the people watching the experimental films were immediately higher compared to those watching YouTube videos, which didn’t move much at all. So was openness to seeing the world in new ways. - The Hollywood Reporter

Yale Report: Universities Themselves Are To Blame For Lowered Trust Of Higher Ed

High costs, murky admissions practices, uneven academic standards and fears about free speech on campuses, the committee said, are among the reasons for widening discontent over higher education’s worthiness. - The New York Times

America’s Only Accredited Circus School Is Closing

Founded in 2017 in Philadelphia, the Circadium School of Contemporary Circus became the first and only accredited and licensed circus school in the U.S. With that accreditation, Circadium’s founder had hoped to become eligible for federal funding for student financial aid — a hope that finally died this year. - Billy Penn (Philadelphia)

Inside The Kennedy Center Dumpster Fire (OMG!)

Richard Grenell, told me to “get rid of everything” in the permanent collection because we needed all new art for the reopening. Although I had slow-walked this demand for several weeks by pretending I was waiting on another colleague for updates, I now had only two hours to tie up loose ends. - The Atlantic

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