๐ Discover this awesome post from The New Yorker ๐ ๐ Category: Magazine / Comment,News / The Lede ๐ Main takeaway: In a federal courtroom in New York City last year, the ringleader of Honduras' most notorious drug cartel took the stand to testify against Juan Orlando Hernandez, the country's former president. โThey had to try to get us,โ he said, referring to the Honduran government, which Hernandez led from 2014 to 2022. Instead, they "allied with us." The former president was found to be responsible for more than four hundred tons of cocaine that reached the United States. The…
๐ Explore this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian ๐ ๐ Category: Dave Stewart,Artificial intelligence (AI),Music,Pop and rock,Culture,UK news,Technology,Intellectual property,Music industry ๐ Hereโs what youโll learn: Dave Stewart, co-founder of Eurythmics, said AI is an โunstoppable force,โ and musicians and other artists should bow to the inevitable and license their music to generative AI platforms.These platforms use artificial intelligence to analyze existing songs and tracks, using that knowledge to create entirely new songs and tracks as requested by the user. For example, someone could ask an AI platform to create a song about a boozy night out in the…
โจ Read this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian ๐ ๐ Category: Theatre,Stage,Culture,Royal Shakespeare Company โ
Hereโs what youโll learn: toLong before Downton Abbey's upstairs/downstairs drama, there were the shenanigans of John Galsworthy, the ruling nouveau riche Forsyte family. Their love and disagreements are spread across nine books and set against more than four decades of British history.Unlike Downton, the story only has an upstairs plot. They have come a long way from their Dorset agrarian descendants, and are not the best kind of people: primarily money with a need to 'have things'. Adapted by Sean McKenna and Len…
๐ฅ Read this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian ๐ ๐ Category: Martin Parr,Art and design,Photography,UK news,Culture,World news ๐ก Key idea: MArtin Parr looked like a โbird watcher,โ according to his editor, Wendy Jones. His appearance is so unassuming that he told me during a recent public talk that while he was taking photos during a recent coastal excursion, some passers-by noticed that he "looked a bit like Martin Parr." Unfazed by the glitz and glamor, Parr deliberately pursued for more than five decades the most boring things he could findโhe made no apologies for the excitement he saw…
๐ Discover this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian ๐ ๐ Category: Opera,Classical music,Culture,Music,Barbican,Giacomo Puccini ๐ก Key idea: HeyPirates are often not performed the way their composers intended them to beโand this is especially true of La Rondine, Puccini's delicate opera about the Parisian courtesan Magda and her fleeting attempt to revive the romance and excitement of her youth. But the new edition made his final thoughts on his opera performable again, and Rara Opera and the BBC Symphony Orchestra were to make the big reveal.The standard version of La Rondine, which premiered in 1917, ends with Magdaโthe โmigratory…
๐ฅ Discover this trending post from Culture | The Guardian ๐ ๐ Category: Frank Gehry,California,Los Angeles,Architecture,West Coast,US news,Art and design,World news,Culture ๐ก Key idea: IIn Frank Gehry's world, no building was left untouched, exposed, or untouched by unconventional materials. The Canadian-American architect, who has died at his home in Los Angeles aged 96, designed his career around challenging what was expected and pulling out materials that were uncommon and therefore relatively inexpensive.Gehry collaborated with artists to transform giant telescopes into the entrance to a commercial campus, and paid tribute to the writer's past as a lifeguard by creating a livable…
๐ Check out this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian ๐ ๐ Category: Theatre,Shakespeare's Globe,Stage,Culture ๐ Key idea: 'FIt's fun!" bellows Pinocchio as he cries onto the stage, testing the limits of his newly mobile legs. It's a salutary edict for anyone adapting the many moral, horrific, and bizarre episodes in Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel. Charlie's new family musical takes Josephine and Jim Fortune to heart, darting outside the blocks to cover an impressive portion of Collodi's story while trading darkness and finger-wagging for heart-warming lessons and raucous humor.In a narrow-minded Italian town (the song "Mamma Mia" plays frantically…
๐ฅ Check out this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian ๐ ๐ Category: Theatre,Musicals,Stage,Culture,Royal Exchange โ
Main takeaway: RAz Shaw's exuberant production of "Singin' in the Rain" begins with nothing on stage but a coat and hat. They belong to leading man Don Lockwood (the charismatic Lewis Gaunt), who does a quick dance before ignoring them and transforming into his movie star persona. Immediately we arrive in Hollywood, a world obsessed with appearances.It's a fitting start to a musical that pokes fun at the gap between reputation and reality. There's Don, whose pre-Hollywood career conflicts with his public image,…
๐ Check out this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian ๐ ๐ Category: Martin Parr,Photography,Art and design,Culture ๐ Hereโs what youโll learn: Martin Parr, the British documentary photographer who captured the nation's idiosyncrasies with clarity and humor, has died at the age of 73. He was diagnosed with cancer in May 2021.A statement issued by the Martin Parr Foundation on Sunday said: โIt is with great sadness that we announce that Martin Parr passed away yesterday at his home in Bristol.โHe is survived by his wife Susie, daughter Elaine, sister Vivian and grandson George. The family requests privacy at…
๐ฅ Read this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian ๐ ๐ Category: Sydney Sweeney,Film,Culture,UK news,US news โ
Hereโs what youโll learn: Actress Sydney Sweeney said she should have addressed the controversy surrounding her ad for American Eagle jeans, which critics accused of flirting with eugenics, saying not doing so would "widen the gap" between people.Sweeney, who made her name on the HBO series Euphoria and has since become a leading star in Hollywood, told People magazine that she regretted remaining silent during the feud in which Donald Trump once intervened.The actress said she "realized that my silence on this…
