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☆ 36 Authors Times ‘Fourteen Days’ Adds Up to a Mixed Literary Experiment
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-18 | by ( Alexandra Jacobs | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

FOURTEEN DAYS, edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas PrestonNew Yorkers generally don’t talk to their neighbors. This is to preserve psychological boundaries while living stacked on top of one another like ice cubes in trays. A new novellus about Lower East Side neighbors called “Fourteen Days” seeps creepy, in this fine tradition, through most of its 350-plus pages. “Novellus” is Latin for new, but the “us” sounds extra-right here because this is collaborative fiction, by 36 authors of various ages, ethnicities, genres and degrees of fame (John Grisham and Scott Turow are among the higher-flying contributors). Why would anyone organize such an experiment, with its air of an overbooked open-mic night with a few surprise guest stars and peanuts scattered on the sticky floors?

Persons: Margaret Atwood, Douglas Preston, —, Seinfeld, Ira Levin, “, John Grisham, Scott Turow Locations: Lower East

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Opera opens its 2024-25 season Sept. 21 with Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” reimagined in a film studio and said Saturday it will present the company premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s “Ainadamar" while reducing its offerings from six main-stage productions to five. Mario Gras's “Butterfly” staging, first seen at Madrid’s Teatro Real in 2017, stars Karah Son as Cio-Cio-San and Jonathan Tetelma as Pinkerton in their company debuts. The six main-stage productions in 2022-23 brought in $9.4 million; the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season resulted in just under $7 million from four stagings. “That’ll be our ninth main-stage opera in Spanish in the company’s 38-year history,” Koelsch said. Tomer Zvulun’s staging of Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” which premiered at the 2019 Houston Grand Opera, opens May 31, 2025, with Quinn Kelsey, Rosa Feola in her company debut and René Barbera.

Persons: Puccini’s, Osvaldo Golijov’s “, Mario Gras's, Karah, Jonathan Tetelma, Pinkerton, James Conlon, Martin, Christopher Koelsch, ” Koelsch, ”, Ana María Martínez, Daniela Mack, Deborah Colker, “, Ian Judge’s, Roméo, Juliette ”, Duke Kim, Amina Edris, Michael Cavanagh’s, Conlon, Erica Petrocelli, Tomer, Verdi’s, Quinn Kelsey, Rosa Feola, René Barbera Organizations: ANGELES, Los Angeles Opera, Teatro Real, Martin Gas, LA, Hollywood, ” Revenue, Scottish Opera, Detroit Opera, Welsh National Opera, Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera Locations: Japan, ”

☆ A Brief History of Bling
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( Daniel Levin Becker | Jessica Pettway | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

You can’t hear hip-hop jewelry, technically speaking, but that doesn’t mean you don’t know what it sounds like. The word bling, which entered common parlance at the turn of the century, conjures specific sights: small flotillas of twinkling diamonds, gold layered literally to the teeth, watches so gem-encrusted they barely tick. But it also suggests an expansive range of sounds, from the chimes in B.G.’s 1999 anthem “Bling Bling” to the reverberant pomp of Slick Rick, the otherworldly bounce of Missy Elliott, the diced-pineapple opulence of Rick Ross. One beguiling trick of hip-hop production, whether it’s expensive or ersatz, elegant or gaudy, is to convey musically what jewelry signifies visually. Rappers wear jewelry to floss and flex, to make a flamboyant spectacle of their disposable income, but also to commemorate and honor, to endorse and advertise.

Persons: Slick Rick, Missy Elliott, Rick Ross, Gucci Mane’s Bart Simpson, Stewie Griffin, Remy, “

☆ Read Your Way Through the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Luis Alberto Urrea | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

I was born in Tijuana and spent much of my boyhood in a neighborhood — “colonia,” in TJ-speak — called Independencia. The borderlands are the most interesting book in the world, being rewritten every day. A city so defamed, a city so generous.” I dare say most people don’t think of any border city, on either side of the wall, as generous. My favorite border pop song is by Nortec Collective (more on them below), and it’s called “Tijuana Makes Me Happy.” Yeah — the border makes me happy. But I do not believe that immigration stories are a subset of the literature of the borderlands: Though there is some cross-pollination, I believe immigration literature is a genre of its own, deserving of its own spotlight.

Persons: Gabriel García Márquez, narco, Jaime Cháidez Bonilla, ”, it’s Organizations: ersatz, Twitter, Nortec Locations: Tijuana, ”, TJ, Independencia, Mexican

☆ New Story Collections on Life’s Absurdities and Pains
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Jen Vafidis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Gender, relationships, family and the meaning of pop culture. But does “Almost Famous” have a scene when the sky opens to reveal giant chopsticks hovering over salmon roe as big as skyscrapers? A minor description from Theodore McCombs’s inquisitive fantasia URANIANS (Astra House, 210 pp., $25), his debut collection, illuminated the whole book for me. The main character in “Laguna Heights,” frustrated by memory gaps caused by his top-shelf neurotechnology, is called the “sort of man pleased to remember that old movies are still in the world.” He’s not pleased; he’s the kind of person who would be pleased. This detached phrasing, however tossed-off, tore me out of the moment, and confronted me with an iffy behavioral theory: Identity predetermines emotions and actions, and emotions and actions reinforce identity, in one smooth loop.

Persons: I’ve, Reiko, bender, you’ve, Theodore McCombs’s, fantasia, ”, He’s Organizations: Astra House Locations: Laguna Heights

The Musk video by reAlpha included “robust disclaimers” establishing it as satire, said Christie Currie, chief marketing officer. The first Musk video went live days after reAlpha launched a public offering under regulation A+ in 2021. But the ease of creating deepfakes means some celebrities could soon be deluged by ads featuring their unauthorized, but very convincing likenesses, Mr. Moss said. At the same time, the language in contracts written years before the technology existed may be vague enough to allow marketers to use existing footage to create new deepfake videos. Companies most often request celebrity deepfake videos to use internally for training, communications, parties or other purposes—but not for ads, said Daynen Biggs, owner of Slack Shack Films, which produced the Elon Musk videos.

☆ Meta’s headset makeover yields a $1,500 toy in search of a purpose
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

On Tuesday, Meta unveiled its latest effort in that mission, the Meta Quest Pro headset. But it costs $1,500 — nearly four times that of the company’s cheapest Quest 2 headset. Wages are up an estimated 5% this year in manufacturing — that’s not keeping up with inflation, but it is in line with the national average. “But by and large our manufacturing jobs today are high tech.”Bottom line: The labor story in America remains one where the narrative of recent history doesn’t quite hold. In most downturns, we’ve seen manufacturing decline, giving it a bad rap as a job that’s going extinct.

☆ Meta’s newest VR headset is impressive. Here’s why you probably won’t buy it
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Rachel Metz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN Business —Meta’s newest virtual-reality headset, the Meta Quest Pro, is a slick, powerful device. Buyers can pre-order the Quest Pro as of Tuesday, and it will ship out on October 25. Meta's latest VR headset, the Quest Pro, is aimed at business users and costs $1500. Updated hand controllersThe headset is also more of a mixed-reality headset than a VR headset, as it isn’t meant to block out all ambient light all the time. The Quest Pro headset has sensors that can track your eyes and facial expressions.

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