Imperiled Indie Bookstores Sometimes Get A Happy Ending

“[T]here are three AAA-rated independent bookstores left in our reading area: the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, the New England Mobile Book Fair in Newton, and Brookline Booksmith in Coolidge Corner. … The future of Brookline Booksmith is up in the air,” even though “Barnes & Noble finally abandoned its cynical attempt to put [its owner] out of business.”

Why Movie Stars Hate 3-D

“If there was ever a new technology that made movie stars feel even less indispensable and more outmoded than they already are, it would be 3-D. By definition, 3-D extravaganzas are genre films dominated by splashy computer-generated visual effects — in other words, exactly the kinds of movies that don’t need a movie star in the first place.”

As James Levine Ails, Met And BSO Reshuffle And Wait

The conductor’s “need for a timeout — for surgery and for recuperation — has put the Met and the Boston Symphony in a bind.” Both organizations “said on Monday that it was too soon to speculate about anything beyond the immediate future, though musicians in Boston said they had been aware all season that Mr. Levine was in considerable pain.”