But “his publicist, Erica Bolton, announced that his life and work would be celebrated in a series of memorial services to be held in places he has lived around the world, including London and Yorkshire.” – The Guardian (UK)

Also, can one simply voice one Minion? No: French animator Pierre Coffin has co-written and co-directed most of the movies with the small mumbling crew, and he also “voices every last one of the yellow creatures himself.” – Variety

Hayley Kiyoko was “resolute that a film version should hit on ‘all the classic tropes’ that she had watched in straight coming-of-age stories and also reflect her own experiences as a closeted teenager.” The film world was slow, so she simply wrote a book. – The New York Times

Ouf. “For the sake of our own editorial integrity, the Granta Trust board has now taken the decision that we will no longer engage in external publishing partnerships. We … wish our former partner, the Commonwealth Foundation, all the best in its work.” – The Guardian (UK)

“Asta Norregaard was a sought-after portrait painter among the rich and famous in Norway at the turn of the 20th century, but when she exhibited her work in the country’s capital, critics were quick to dismiss her pictures as decorative and frivolous.” – The New York Times

“Particularly curious is Irene Choi, who isn’t on the ballot for her performance as med student Joy Kwon, even though her character was essentially on a parallel track to Iverson as med student James Ogilvie.” What gives? – Vulture

“O’Connor was 56 when she died and still making music – she had almost completed a new album. To be a middle-aged woman in the music industry is a rarity, but dance isn’t so different.” – The Guardian (UK)

“What children know of ghosts, and at what age they know it, is murky territory. … And if you show even a very young child a picture of a ghost, in my experience they can often tell you that it is, indeed, a ghost.” – The New York Times

“Companies often claim to use only content that is freely available online, but the datasets reveal the quantity of downloadable music that developers can access even though it is not supposed to be free.” – The Atlantic

“The art director of Obsession disclosed her paycheck for about three weeks of work: $6,741.36, after taxes.” The movie has now made $300 million on a budget of $750,000. – The New York Times

“The first film I was able to get into after that meeting was an anniversary screening of The Shining (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1980). I’d seen the film before, but this time I realized that it was about an alcoholic who tries to dry out.” – Paris Review

“Queenie is not polished, nor noble or aspirational. She makes bad choices repeatedly, has terrible sex, and sends regrettable messages. She is self-sabotaging and self-involved. Readers either adore her or cannot stand her.” – The Guardian (UK)

The week’s most encouraging data is people rebuilding discovery of culture by hand. Bookstores are booming even as literacy declines (Lit Hub), summer box office has surged (Deadline), and the Book of the Month Club is somehow cool again (Publishers Weekly).

Against that, the machinery of choosing is consolidating fast. Penske Media swallowed what was left of Vox to become the world’s largest digital publisher (TheWrap), Fox spent $22 billion on Roku (Hollywood Reporter), and the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger approval drags on (MSN). Consolidation everywhere.

In Washington, a federal court ordered the Kennedy Center to produce a plan just to stay open (The New York Times). Then the Center board created an endowment named for Trump (CBS News). A House committee moved to axe the Education Department’s only arts grant program (Hyperallergic).

All this week’s stories below, organized by topic.

Corie Benton, President-Elect of the American String Teachers Association, shares the critical role of diverse voices in music training.

A supertall skyscraper, no less, topping out at 360 meters/1180 feet. The great Barcelona architect did a speculative design of a hotel complex in 1908 for a pair of Manhattan businessmen. AI artist Thierry Lechanteur has used Gaudi’s surviving drawings to create renderings of the project. – Dezeen

“The way we consume such content, by swiping idly on a glass screen, stands in stark contrast with the content of the content, the skillful manipulation of resolutely tangible material. It’s ironic, and a bit dystopian, this disjuncture, but I’m entranced by the videos anyway.” – The New Yorker

“When we recognized that people want to go out, that they want to be treated with good service in a good theater with good product, when we recognized that and gave them that, they just came back in hordes more than any other generation.” – Deadline

Architectural history and Antoni Gaudí just weren’t headed in the same direction. – Dezeen

There is no question about its monumentality. It is at once colossal, haughty and ultimately inscrutable—as a great monument should be. The question is whether it should have been a monument in the first place. – The Wall Street Journal

Is this a trend? Are all these pictures related? Common sense, our trusted friend, tells us that life is random and arbitrary and that we’re mostly making it up as we go along. But the conspiracy theory is like a seductive interloper, sidling up to assure us that, actually, that’s not true at all. – The Guardian

“Pulitzer-winning playwright Paula Vogel has teamed up with former Huntington Theatre Managing Director Michael Maso and philanthropist Grace Nordhoff on a new center for playwrights and theatrical composers that will open in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, in 2028. Bards on the Bay will be housed in The Nancy Nordhoff Theatre Center.” – Playbill

City records describe it as a 410-seat performing arts and film theater and the last remaining Chinese theater in any Chinatown in the United States. The theater at 636 Jackson St. opened in 1925 as the Great China Theater for Chinese opera. Over the decades, it also became a movie house and community gathering place. – San Francisco Chronicle

Audiences see journalism as a profession that requires specialized training and ethical integrity, making AI seem to some like a “cop out.” One said about the use of AI: “You can do that as an 11-year-old. You don’t need the training for that if you’re going to use AI to generate your entire article.” – NiemanLab