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Are We At Some Kind Of Endpoint Of Media Consolidation?

If Skydance Paramount Warner Bros Discovery becomes real, “this is probably the last mega deal we will see. The cable network assets are the problem. ... What's left will be studios, streaming, broadcast in some combination of that. And that's the end of it.” - Wall Street Journal

Where Have All The Indie Hits Gone?

“The days when a buzzy fall movie could be a box-office bonanza are starting to look like a weirdly distant memory.” - Variety

How A Reader Evolves Into Being A Completionist

“I want to know: I want to watch writers grow from book to book, to follow the way their interests shift and their style adapts as they do more and more work. I want to be aware of the through-lines—sometimes overt, sometimes understated.” - Reactor

How Strangers Negotiate Sex, Onstage

"Without being clued in to the content of the play, connected with the show’s intimacy director … to go over the show’s simulated sexual choreography. They signed intimacy riders that detailed what they were agreeing to do onstage.” - The New York Times

You Know How, Every Once In A While, A Brutal Review Can Be A Real Pleasure?

Ouch, just ouch. “The writing suggests that ChatGPT was asked to emulate Fifty Shades’ E. L. James, and however cringeworthy and brand-name-peppered that sounds, I can promise you it’s so much worse.” - The Atlantic

The Oscar Race’s First Villain

“Superficially, at least, Hamnet fits better in the traditional mold of Oscars-friendly fare.” And that’s what scares fans of Sinners and One Battle After Another. - Vulture

One Museum That Won’t Whitewash History

“But museum officials and civic leaders in Atlanta said providing an unvarnished depiction of the movement required a renewed level of perseverance in the current climate.” - The New York Times

AI Translation Is Nowhere Near Good Enough For Travel

“Each of these devices requires time, patience, and ideally, a solid internet connection. You need to predownload language pairs to ensure offline capability. You have to have the wherewithal to gesture to a conversation partner what the device is.” - The Verge (Archive Today)

The Costume Designer For Frankenstein Looked To Prince And David Bowie For Inspiration

Of course, Kate Hawley also “looked at Lord Bryon. ‘He’s an artist finding his muse. He’s not a scientist in the way that we traditionally know it, this is art that he’s building. We looked at all those references with bohemian irreverence and the way he wears his clothes.’” - Variety

Gillian Tindall, Author Who Wrote About What Lies Beneath The Present, Has Died At 87

Tindall’s The Fields Beneath: The History of One London Village “(1977) was a wonderfully discursive portrait of a community that Mary Shelley had described as an 'odious swamp’” - and it has never been out of print. - The New York Times

Why One Bowdoin Professor’s Mantra Is Never Talk To The New York Times

“If you have enough money to get somebody, anybody, to produce a white paper for you, which you can then put on some think-tank stationery? Then, my friend, you are ready to enter into the rushing current of elite reportage ... no matter how unhinged the position you’ve take.” - LitHub

Archaeologists Uncover Site Where Benin Bronzes Were Made

“Rediscovered structural remains, pottery, and glass vessels illuminate daily life and craft practices in the centuries preceding colonial rule. The dig established a complete archaeological sequence from before the kingdom’s founding to after its ruin. As the repatriation of Benin bronzes remains at the forefront of art-world conversations, archaeologists also unearthed artifacts related to metalworking.” - Artnet

Seattle’s New $800M Park Transforms Its Waterfront

Waterfront Park is thus making its debut in a city eager for a win. When it began opening in stages over the last year, Seattleites swarmed the space, dodging construction fences and heavy equipment to check out the progress. Now much rides on its success. - Bloomberg

Russian Publishers And Bookstores Are Nervous As Kremlin Cracks Down On Books

“Publishers have faced a difficult dilemma: stop offering books that the Kremlin dislikes, clandestinely cut the risky parts or openly redact them to show readers that something was censored. … ‘Right now we’re all playing Minesweeper, (said one literary critic,) when you don’t understand what is forbidden and what is not.’” - The New York Times

Woeful Security At The Louvre (Including Its Passwords)

Since the heist, information has resurfaced showing that gaps in security appear to have been known for years – including a 2014 warning that alleged one of the museum’s key passwords was simply “LOUVRE.” - CNN

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