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Greek Island Declares Emergency Over Over-Tourism

For a broad range of Sifnians the island is rapidly approaching a state of crisis, as unregulated development and overtourism have kick-started a grim cycle of widespread water scarcity, unmanageable quantities of garbage and sewage, loss of agricultural land, and soil erosion. - The New Republic

Reviving Merce Cunningham’s “Beach Birds” On An Actual Beach

"The glittering scene seemed like a dream. Surveying the shoreline of Rockaway Beach on a recent morning, Patricia Lent, from the Merce Cunningham Trust, was elated. 'This is a dream come true,' she said, adding: 'It's someone else's dream — but it is a dream come true.'" - The New York Times

The Culture And Museums Lost In The Maui Fire

“We’ve lost four museums. If you’re into environmentalism, if you’re into surfing, if you’re into history, something was lost in all those ways.” - Artnet

A Bio-Musical About Hunter S. Thompson? Now That’s A Gonzo Idea.

And it's not called Fear and Loathing, either. In fact, its title is The Untitled, Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical, it's premiering next week at the La Jolla Playhouse with a Tony winner in the title role, and the intent is to bring it to Broadway. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

Scientists: A Link Between Being Creative And Aesthetic Choices

Neuroscientists currently agree that the creative process has two parts: coming up with ideas and then assessing them to choose the good ones. Led by scientists at the Paris Brain Institute in France, this study focused on that second stage, attempting to pin down characteristics that make people value creative ideas. - BBC

This Bespoke Video Message Service Is Helping Actors Earn A Bit Of Money During The SAG-AFTRA Strike

"Cameo, which allows celebrities to send personalized video messages to fans for a fee, … has seen a notable uptick of new talent onboarding or existing talent reactivating their accounts in the wake of the labor stoppage." - TheWrap

How To Value A Song? The Music Business Is In A Confused State Right Now

The discrepancy between the way digital download storefronts like iTunes and streaming platforms like Spotify value the worth of a song is going to be hard to reconcile in a satisfying way. - The New Inquiry

Behold The World’s Best New Public Library

"A Barcelona library specialising in Latin American literature has been named the best new public library in the world by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions at its congress in Rotterdam. The library, named after the Nobel-winning Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez, opened last year." - The Guardian

Schools Reverse ChatGPT Bans, Wrestle With How To Use AI With Students

As schools reopen for fall, educators and district leaders are wrestling with complex questions posed by the A.I. tools: What should writing assignments look like in an era when students can simply employ chatbots to generate prose for them? - The New York Times

This Ukrainian City Named Its Museum After A Still-Beloved Local Hero. But He Was Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Great-Uncle.

Yukhym Prigozhin was a mining engineer who helped make the city of Zhovti Vody prosperous. But his brother's grandson grew up to be the notoriously brutal boss of the Wagner Group, which has killed countless Ukrainians, so some in Zhovti Vody want to obliterate Yukhym's name. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

Arts Groups In Texas Are Confused And Worried About The State’s New It’s-Not-Just-Anti-Drag-Anymore Law

When specific reference to drag in the bill, known as SB 12, attracted national criticism, it was redrafted to cover "sexually-oriented performance" — defined vaguely enough that, for instance, the Dallas Theater Center doesn't know if it could be prosecuted for its upcoming staging of The Rocky Horror Show. - KERA (Dallas)

Edith Wharton’s Never-Produced Play Is Finally Having Its Premiere

She wrote The Shadow of a Doubt in 1901 and came close to seeing it staged briefly on Broadway, only for the project to fall apart for still-unclear reasons. The script lay undiscovered until 2016, and it's now onstage at the Shaw Festival in Ontario. - The New York Times

LACMA Finally Meets The Fundraising Goal For Its New Building That’s Already Half-Finished

"The Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced on Tuesday that it has exceeded the $750-million goal set for its fundraising campaign for a new building — the David Geffen Galleries, designed by architect Peter Zumthor. … Reaching its final goal has been a long road for LACMA." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

Woman Who Fatally Shoved Broadway Singing Coach Pleads Guilty To Manslaughter

Lauren Pazienza, 28, acknowledged throwing 87-year-old Barbara Maier Gustern, a beloved teacher and performer, onto a Manhattan sidewalk and then walking away in March of 2022. Pazienza will spend eight years in prison, minus the time she has served since her bail was revoked in May 2022. - AP

John Eliot Gardiner Punched A Singer In The Face Because He Walked Off The Stage Wrong

After conducting two acts of Berlioz's Les Troyens at a festival in France, Gardiner allegedly berated bass William Thomas, slapped and then punched him, all in front of the other musicians. Gardiner has withdrawn from the remaining dates of this touring project, including the BBC Proms. - MSN (The Telegraph, UK)

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