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☆ Opinion | Why Was This Treasure of Musical Theater All but Lost to the Ages?
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-09 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Purlie” and “The Wiz” — along with “Dreamgirls,” which landed just past the decade divider in 1981 — have been well attended since the 1970s. “The Wiz” was made into a film that many Black people regard as iconic, and a revival is playing on Broadway now. It ran for over two years, won the Tony for best musical and best actress (Virginia Capers) and Theatre World awards for three other leads. Musical theater historians tend to blow by it with a couple of respectful sentences. It’s had a regional revival or three, but compared with “Purlie,” “The Wiz” and “Dreamgirls,” it is a dead property.

Persons: Lorraine Hansberry’s, Blacker, Purlie, ”, —, “ Purlie ”, “, Hansberry’s, Robert Nemiroff, Charlotte Zaltzberg, Judd Woldin, Robert Brittan, Tony, Virginia Capers, It’s, “ Purlie Organizations: Sun, Broadway, Theatre

☆ Kendrick Lamar and Drake's beef explained, from its 2013 origins to their diss tracks "Push Ups" and "6:16 in LA" and latest responses
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-04 | by ( Ayomikun Adekaiyero | Eve Crosbie | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +26 min

Both rappers released diss tracks that took blistering personal shots on Friday night. "He doesn't have the heart for the lying, disrespect, and animosity it requires to make an effective diss track," Pierre wrote. Later in the track, Drake references Cole's diss track and apology. At the end of the track, Lamar samples a 1994 Tupac interview to simulate a conversation between the two rappers. "6:16 in LA" also parodies Drake's song titles, which often feature location names and timestamps.

Persons: Kendrick Lamar, Drake's, Drake, —, Lamar's fiancée Whitney Alford, Lamar, Aubrey Drake Graham —, Lamar dissed Drake, J, Cole, Rick Ross, Cole —, Taylor, Joseph Okpako, WireImage Lamar, Jermaine Cole, Big, Wale, Pusha, Meek Millz, Big Sean, Jay, Tyler, Mac Miller, Kunta, Lamar hasn't, Meek, Getty, Tim Mosenfelder, Aubrey, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jackson, Jackson, Prince, Mike Jack, Prince . Prince, “, rics, Organizations: Metro Boomin, Service, Future, Metro, HBO, Drake, Wireless, Lamar, Big, Rocky, Rap Locations: Drake's, Lamar, LA, Florida

☆ Survivor stories: Victims of Maui wildfires tell of watching Lahaina burn down
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Alaa Elassar | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

CNN“The smoke started getting thicker and blacker,” Kaleiopu recalled. An emergency alert soon reached him by phone, urging Lahaina residents to flee: The smoke had given way to flames. Not far away on the ocean, boat captain Christina Lovitt soon found herself on a skiff, also trying to help. Stymied from anchoring by 70- to 80-mph gusts, they drifted and eventually were pulled onto a 120-foot boat, Lovitt recalled. Aguiran watched his parents’ house burn down, one of five family homes destroyed, Tacderan said, and among more than 270 structures declared impacted so far by the fire in Lahaina.

Persons: Phena Davis, “, Dustin Kaleiopu, Hurricane, ”, ” Kaleiopu, Davis, Bryan Aguiran, ” Aguiran, Teri Lawrence, Lawrence, you’re, Christina Lovitt, ” Lovitt, Lovitt, who’d, Reza Danesh, ’ ”, Danesh, He’d, Tiffany Kidder Winn, Aguiran, Ella Sable Tacderan, Tacderan, ‘ You’ll, I’m, I’ve, grandpa, ” Davis, “ We’re Organizations: CNN, “, Coast Guard, Hawaii Army National Guard, Hawaii National Guard, Reuters, MODO Mobile Locations: Lahaina, Maui, Kaanapali, Hawaiian, That’s, “, ”, New York, Wailuku Maui, Huelo

☆ ‘The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart’ Review: Thorny Drama on the Australian Prairie
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Sigourney Weaver and Alyla Browne Photo: Amazon StudiosFirst impressions can mean everything. When Sigourney Weaver makes her inaugural appearance during “The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart ,” she’s dressed like Annie Oakley en route to a funeral: Her all-black western wear and even blacker mood set up her character, June Hart, as a Stetson-wearing, gun-toting avenger of the senior-discount variety. Which is exactly what she is.

Persons: Sigourney Weaver, Alyla Browne, Alice Hart, ” she’s, Annie Oakley, June Hart, Stetson Organizations: Amazon

☆ Streaming services like Hulu, Discovery+, and Disney+ have been ramping up the amount of ads in their shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

But in the past year, ad loads have crept up on almost all the top services, per MediaRadar. Now that streaming companies have fallen in love with ads, viewers can expect to see a lot more of them. Discovery+'s ad load grew 69%, to about 5 minutes per hour, while Hulu's jumped 38%, to 7.3 minutes per hour. MediaRadar shared numbers for standard commercial spots, which are the most common form of ads on streaming services. Disney+ Basic and Netflix's Basic with Ads are also increasing their ad loads — which is to be expected, as they're still ramping up.

☆ Opinion: The banned Russian landmine with a deceptively poetic name
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Opinion Sasha Dovzhyk | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

A great deal of eeriness is due to the highly explosive Russian “petals.” “Petal” — or, “lepestok,” in Russian — is the poetic name of an internationally banned Russian-made anti-personnel landmine. The Russian wish for Ukraine appears to be death: to render Ukrainian land uninhabitable, to maim and kill those who live on it. But as one learns from Kataev’s tale, the Russian petals travel far and know no borders. In November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that 200,000 hectares (almost 50,000 acres) of Ukrainian land were contaminated with unexploded mines and shells. The rusted remains of a tank in Sviatohirsk, Donetsk region, pictured during a PEN Ukraine trip in April 2023.

☆ Subway will sell 50% discounts for its footlong sandwiches to app users — and they could sell out within hours
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Subway is bringing back its Footlong Pass subscription program. Passes will be available on the chain's app, which has seen a surge in downloads lately, as well as online. And, they're about to surge even more as the chain plans to bring back its wildly popular $15 Footlong Pass deal. One million Subway app downloads in a monthAccording to app intelligence firm Apptopia, Subway's menu overhaul, and recent promotions are causing a surge in app downloads. McDonald's (3.2 million downloads) and Starbucks (1.3 million downloads) came in at No.

☆ See Bing's breakout week in charts as Microsoft taps new ChatGPT technology to go after Google's search lead
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft unveiled an updated Bing search engine on Tuesday, powered by the tech behind ChatGPT. On Tuesday, Microsoft unveiled an updated Bing search engine powered by the technology behind ChatGPT. Google app downloads, remained steady between 300,000 to 320,000 per day in the same period, Apptopia data shows. In the end, all this is about gaining a higher share of the highly lucrative search engine market. As of February 9, Google had 93.21% of the worldwide search engine market.

☆ Opinion | Something Remarkable Is Happening in African Football
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Sean Jacobs | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

African players are increasingly on the center stage of world football. Though African players have a long history in Europe, it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that they began to star in the top leagues there. And there is a kind of continental solidarity that emerges for many African fans during the World Cup. African teams, meanwhile, usually showed poor form and were quickly eliminated. In the years that followed, as African teams began to have more success, drawing on their diasporas in Europe, many of us began to cheer for teams from the continent instead.

☆ Chris Rock becomes first comedian to set live Netflix comedy special
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

Chris Rock will be the first comedian to air a live streaming special on Netflix, the company has announced. Rock previously collaborated with Netflix on the comedy special “Tamborine” in 2018. “Chris Rock is one of the most iconic and important comedic voices of our generation,” said Robbie Praw, Netflix’s vice president of stand-up and comedy formats. “We’re thrilled the entire world will be able to experience a live Chris Rock comedy event and be a part of Netflix history. This will be the first significant test of live streaming on Netflix, potentially opening the door for a number of its other programs to get the live treatment.

☆ Musk says Twitter usage is 'at an all-time high,' but a report shows that more than 1 million accounts have been deactivated or suspended since his takeover
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Twitter usage has hit an all-time high, Elon Musk tweeted on Monday. On Monday, Musk tweeted that usage of Twitter is "at an all-time high lol," adding that he hopes the servers do not melt. In the second quarter of 2022, Twitter reported 237.8 million monetizable daily users — a 16.6% on-year growth. Among the suspended and terminated accounts are actors and celebrities who changed their name to "Elon Musk" on Twitter. On Monday, Musk said that "any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying 'parody' will be permanently suspended."

☆ Twitter sees downloads surge in days after Elon Musk took over, hitting an all time high in daily users
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Over the weekend, Twitter saw its most daily active users ever, according to data from Apptopia. In the days since Musk officially took over the platform, average daily downloads of Twitter and daily average usage have increased considerably, according to Apptopia data provided to Insider. Already for November, daily downloads are up 28% compared to October. On Nov. 3, Twitter saw 636,770 daily downloads, the highest since May, and almost twice as many downloads of the app in June. A few days later on Nov 6, Twitter saw another 555,070 downloads, according to Apptopia.

Elon Musk set the tone for his first full day as head of Twitter with a response to @catturd2. “I will be digging in more today,” Musk tweeted in response Friday morning. As of Friday morning, Trump’s account was still suspended, and trending topics included everything from the news of the day (Paul Pelosi) to culture (#FridayFeeling, Rihanna). “Elon” was one of the top trending topics of the morning, and many conservative influencers who had been critical of Twitter’s moderation were already celebrating what they saw as a tectonic shift. Those downloads, however, are still less than 5,000 per day, while Twitter often still sees hundreds of thousands of downloads per day, according to Adam Blacker, vice president of insights at Apptopia.

☆ Apple kicked Russia's biggest social media platform off the App Store
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Isobel Asher Hamilton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Apple removed VK, Russia's biggest social media platform, from the App Store. Apple users can no longer download the VK app, although it will continue to work for users who'd already downloaded it. Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy PolicyApple has removed VK, Russia's biggest social media app, from its App Store, as first reported by The Verge. Major Western social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram were blocked by the Russian government at the onset of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It's not clear whether Google will bring in similar restrictions on VK in its own app store.

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