At first, Thursday's festivities in Gaza seemed like just another sordid spectacle in a 16-month exhibition of debasement. In front of a raucous crowd, Hamas gunmen displayed coffins containing the remains of four Israelis: an octagenarian peace activist named Oded Lifshitz, child hostages Ariel and Kfir Bibas'ages 4 years and nine months, respectively, when kidnapped'and their mother, Shiri. A label affixed to the latter's coffin declared that she had been 'arrested' on October 7, presumably for the crime of existing while Jewish. All four corpses were handed over to the Red Cross for transfer to Israel as part of the ongoing cease-fire deal. Then Israeli coroners concluded that the two children had been murdered by their captors and that the woman's body wasn't their mother's after all. A moment of particularly acute horror briefly broke through the headlines that have been dominated by President Donald Trump's turn on Ukraine. 'I condemn the parading of bodies and displaying of the coffins of the deceased Israeli hostages by Hamas on Thursday,' declared United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, an otherwise relentless critic of Israel. 'Any handover of the remains of the deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.'...
During the end of every calendar year, a particular holiday performance pops up in African American communities and cultural centers across the nation. 'Black Nativity' is a cherished cultural tradition to some and completely unknown to others. One wonderful yet confounding thing about this show is that depending on where you see it, you will see significantly different productions ' from Intiman Theatre in Seattle to Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul or the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Boston. Hughes, a noted although still underappreciated writer, is often associated with the Harlem Renaissance just after World War I, which spurred the growth of jazz. This era ' when he penned some of his most famous poems, such as 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' ' was the first African American arts movement since Emancipation. But Hughes is one of a handful of artists whose work spanned both the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and '70s, which partnered with the modern Civil Rights Movement. In 1961, when Hughes created 'Black Nativity,' the Black Arts Movement was still in its infancy, but its early ethos was in the air....
During her time as an actor, designer, and technical crew member in student-driven theater at MIT, Oloko has overseen the chaos of 'tech week,' where design decisions and rehearsals come together on a pressure-cooker timeline. She calls theater a team sport: 'If you mess something up or you drop the ball, it doesn't just impact you. It impacts the entire production and the entire end product,' she recounts. But just like team sports, theater is, at its heart, a kind of play, whether under the limelight, backstage, or in the classroom. 'We're always laughing during rehearsals or technical meetings because you're always surrounded by a bunch of other creative people. And you're bouncing ideas off each other as you're all bonded together by a common goal,' says Oloko. In the theater world, a team of designers, makers, and actors often bring a writer's script to the stage with the help of a director. Traditionally, design responsibilities in theater are taken on by different people ' set, sound, lighting, and costume designers form the core of the design team. Just as in a sport, each team member is entrusted with bringing out their best while cooperating with the whole team....
Just like no one wants to hear a restaurant reviewer complain about eating at high-end restaurants with his friends every night, no one really wants to listen to a gadget reviewer who can't get a high-end home theater system to work. When I was assigned this piece, I could not imagine anything more amazing that having Sonos send me its complete Ultimate Immersive bundle ($2,596), which consists of the Arc Dolby Atmos soundbar, two Era 300s, and the Sonos sub. I also pilfered the Sonos Ace headphones from my coworker for silent after-hours listening. While the bundle gives you a bit of a discount, in total this is over $3,000 worth of high-end audio equipment. It was Christmas in May! My husband and I immediately unboxed it all and plugged it into our Roku Pro Series TV. My colleagues have all reviewed these products separately. Each has earned its own separate high score. My coworker Simon Lucas called the Sonos Era 300 stunning (9/10, WIRED Recommends). I'm listening to Par Avion while wearing the Sonos Ace and having the best time. But operating all these units together in one system has been a bit of a nightmare. At this point, I suspect that in lieu of software engineers, Sonos has secretly hired one lone tiny man, sitting behind a curtain, to write most of its code using an AI bot....
