“After five years, the streaming music service Spotify has established itself as a financial force in the music industry, with more than $500 million in revenue last year. Yet its losses have also grown as the company expands around the world and tries to attract paying customers.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Bernadette Lafont, 74, Actress Who Helped Launch French New Wave
She starred in Truffaut’s first professional film (the short The Mischief-Makers) and arguably the first Nouvelle Vague feature, Chabrol’s Le Beau Serge, and she went on to perform in numerous films by those directors and others. “[Her] fresh look and performance style crystallised the movement’s ideological and cinematic ambitions.”
McSweeney’s Archive Headed To Texas
“While informal archives of McSweeney’s, the eclectic literary magazine created by Dave Eggers, can be found in living rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms of apartments across New York, a more proper collection of the assets of this prestigious journal and its sibling publications is headed to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.”
Jack Kerouac In Florida (Yes, It Happened)
October 1957: “Yes, I’ve found peace in Florida.” November 1957: “Eating tangerines now, but I saved the one that fell on my head.” January 1958: “Ah, shit, I feel dreary, I’m telling you there are NO VIBRATIONS in Florida or anywhere in the south, the people are DEAD.”
Did Zeus Exist?
“The standard line of thought seems to be that we have no evidence at all for his existence and so have every right to deny it. … But back in the day (say, 500-400 B.C.), there would seem to have been considerable evidence, enough in any case to make his reality unquestioned among most members of a rapidly advancing Greek civilization” – even as that civilization developed philosophy and metaphysics.
So What Happens If You Actually Click On Those “One Weird Trick To …” Ads?
Alex Kaufman bravely clicks on them so we don’t have to.
TV For Dogs Is Now A Thing
DogTV’s “stated goal is to provide your four-legged friends with relaxation and stimulation – just like human TV! – for that portion of the day when owners aren’t around to take their dogs on car rides or bat-watching. … There’s only one problem: It won’t work.”
Britain’s Independent On Sunday Eliminates Its Arts Critics
“All arts critics at the Independent on Sunday are to be axed from this September as part of cuts to the newspaper’s workforce. It is thought that a total of seven journalists are affected, including theatre critic Kate Bassett and music critic Anna Picard.”
Pennsylvania Ballet Launches Five-Year Plan To Get Back To The Top Tier
“A decade of flat ticket revenues, chronic funding challenges, and a certain lack of artistic sparkle prompted the ballet to engage Kennedy Center president Michael Kaiser, … [whose] blueprint [calls] for new artistic projects, partnerships with local and national arts groups, an expanded school for aspiring professionals and others, a reinvigorated board, smarter marketing – and an additional $1.7 million in each of the next five years to pay for it all.”
Sarasota Orchestra And City At Odds Over Hall Renovations
“The orchestra wants to finish renovations before its season starts in September. The city manager wants Sarasota to have a reputation of being easy to work with. City attorneys want to protect Sarasota financially from unpaid work or incomplete projects. Those goals have landed the three at a standoff over changes to the Sarasota Orchestra’s Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center.”