“‘The first place I started from was the perspective that emotions exist to try to get us to do what would provide for the species,’ [David Teie] says. ‘They are a way of getting humans and mammals to adjust behaviors toward behaviors that would be good for species.’ Then Teie put himself in the feline’s shoes, trying to imagine what cats in their cradles want to imagine.” (sound clips included, of course)

When the concert hall was approved in 2006, the projected cost was €173.1 million; the final cost as of 2015 was €534.7 million, an overrun of 208%, according to a report from the regional auditors’ office for Ile-de-France. (in French; Google Translate version here)

“Much remains uncertain about the future, with orchestras everywhere battling to stop declining attendance figures. In these rapidly evolving circumstances, the relatively short three-year extension to music director Osmo Vänskä’s contract, announced in May 2015, was probably the sensible option for management and conductor. It does, though, snap sharply into focus the real possibility that Vänskä could be gone by August 2019.”

“Even though an estimated half of venues have closed within the past decade, dance music industry figures insisted the scene is in rude health, with people instead choosing all-day events in parks, raves in pop-up spaces and festivals for their weekly freakout.”