Employees at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams have begun a walkout (97% voted in favor) as contract negotiations (which began in October) have stalled. Low wages are the main issue. - The Berkshire Eagle
"More than half of the tickets will cost £30 or less, with £10 tickets on offer for every performance, while 2,000 free tickets will be distributed to young people. A half-price ticket offer will be extended to under-18s, those with disabilities or hearing impairments and to neurodivergent festival-goers." - The Guardian
"The verdict against movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed assigned new blame in the October 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins after an assistant director last year pleaded no contest to negligent handling of a firearm." She was acquitted of a charge of evidence-tampering. - AP
The new permanent rate covering theatres, museums and galleries - 45% for touring productions and 40% for non-touring shows - is below the current rates of 50%/45%, but well above the pre-pandemic rates of 25%/20%, which had been due to come back in over the next two years. - BBC
Film composers have taken up serialism as an important technique, employing this to yield a high degree of dissonance and ethereal sounds. - The Conversation
As we entered the new millennium, three daring TV series remade the television landscape, and they all featured a new breed of outsider: lawless, desperate, violent characters once unimaginable on the small screens in our living rooms. - LitHub
What does it mean to credit the written word with such capacious potencies, to charge it with such real-world responsibilities? And how is literature, poetry, language to operate as a force for good and still maintain its duties to itself, to its self-delighting, essentially purposeless imperative to live as lively language? - Public Books
“We don’t need air conditioning, which is an incredible energy saving." Temperatures in this region of the world remain at about 40C (104F) during the hottest season. - The Guardian
"On the surface, there is much reason to cheer. No country on the continent has benefited as much from the disruption of global streaming platforms as South Africa, where competition between Netflix and homegrown rival Showmax has fueled a surge in production." - Variety
Like Banksy, the British street artist he is sometimes likened to, Invader is elusive, fiercely protective of his anonymity and operating on the margins of illegality. - AP
Hussein Smko learned his first hip-hop at age 9, from an American soldier in Erbil, and founded a street dance troupe there when he was 13. From there it's been a long journey, with some very good luck, to his debut this week at the Joyce Theater. - The New York Times
In a 65-plus-year career, he sought to create buildings that were, as he often put it, “grounded in the earth yet soaring toward the sky.” - Architectural Record
"Some have framed South Korea’s cultural advance as a government-led mission. The Korean state has been instrumental in turning cultural identity into an exportable commodity since ... the late '90s — a thread that has run through successive administrations. ... But others see it as more of a fruitful public-private effort." - The Guardian
“Want to do something different this Saturday? Come see an orchestra play,” reads the ad. It was apparently created by someone who has never seen an orchestra play, and imagines it as rows of violinists seated in the audience, many playing with three hands or one hand or no hands at all. - The Guardian
