Category: today’s top story

“James McBride won the National Book Award on Wednesday night for The Good Lord Bird, an irreverent, sharp-eyed novel narrated by an escaped slave. … In nonfiction, George Packer won for The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America.”

“It’s official: the Louvre Abu Dhabi will be opening on UAE’s National Day, 2 December 2015. Aurélie Filippetti, the French minister of culture, made the announcement at the opening of Abu Dhabi Art on 19 November.”

Ford Nation, a one-hour news-talk show hosted by embattled Mayor Rob Ford and his brother, city councilman Doug Ford, has been cancelled by the conservative cable network Sun News less than 24 hours after the initial episode aired – despite the fact that it was the most-watched program in the network’s history.

“Bloomberg, the New York-based financial news giant, is shutting down its Muse brand of cultural journalism and has laid off its theater critic” as well as its books editor. “The shake-up was part of a company-wide reorganization that came down on Monday and resulted in layoffs around the newsroom.”

“He spoke to his paintings. They were his friends, the loyal companions that didn’t exist in his real life. He considered it is his life’s mission to protect his father’s treasure, and over the decades he lost touch with reality”

“Since much of the architecture from that era was pointedly tough or complicated or even openly ambivalent about its place in the culture, rallying support for it among the public can be tricky.”

“U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan accepted Google’s argument that its scanning of more than 20 million books, and making ‘snippets’ of text available online, constituted ‘fair use’ under U.S. copyright law.”

“Of course, all these collectors could have pooled their money and bought the Houston Astros franchise, which sold for $615 million in 2011. Makes sense, because most people who watched the 2013 Astros characterized their play as abstract art.”

Moving prestigious London-based institutions like the British Museum and Royal Opera House could “have a catalytic effect that will strengthen the position of those economies outside the south-east.”