The World’s Biggest Arts Center Just Opened In Taiwan

By turns galumphing and graceful, the roughly £260m hulk contains an opera house, concert hall, theatre and recital hall, seating up to 7,000 people within its curvaceous shell. As Taiwan faces ever more pressure for assimilation from mainland China, whose cultural building boom has led to a new museum or concert hall open practically every week in recent years, the National Kaohsiung Centre for the Arts, AKA Weiwuying, is a monumental statement that this plucky nation means business on the international cultural stage.

This Is What Germans, Watching Brexit, Are Thinking About Great Britain

Whew: “If you act like you are the center of the world, you should actually be the center, or something close to it. As things currently stand, though, the British soon won’t even be within shouting distance of the center of Europe. The United Kingdom is currently demonstrating how a country can make a fool of itself before the eyes of the entire world.”

Cynthia Erivo, Getting Closer To That EGOT

The British actor who won the Emmy, Grammy and Tony as Celie in the Broadway revival of A Color Purple is about to be on the big screen in two different movies. “I am not aiming for [the Oscar]. … I’m aiming to do the work well, and if by chance that comes in my direction, I will be welcoming it with open arms.”

What Robert Glasper’s Monthlong Residency At The Blue Note Means For Jazz

Some candor, some mistakes, some crossover. “As he’s helped to wash away artificial divides between jazz and other contemporary black music, Mr. Glasper has spoken with a casual candor not typical of jazz musicians. ‘If you ever heard Miles Davis talk, I’m no different than Miles,’ Mr. Glasper said, sipping a cocktail in his Blue Note dressing room earlier this month. ‘His freedom in talking about where he is in the music and what he’s trying to do.'”

Wait, Is *That* Song In ‘A Star Is Born’ Supposed To Be Good – Or Terrible?

The journalist, before interviewing the song’s writer: “If the song is so paper-thin, why can’t I stop singing it under my breath? And why has the internet been moved to slap ‘Why Did You Do That?’ on top of videos of dancing robots and gyrating Pokemon? Is the song, with its xylophone intro and unpretentious pop charm, actually a stealth treasure?”