An Oscar-worthy short and Grammy noms/snubs

King Tut Comes Home

In Cairo, the newly unveiled Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) rises just steps from the Pyramids of Giza, celebrating nearly 5,000 years of one of humanity’s great civilizations. More than a museum, it is a carefully choreographed experience: the building’s triangular form aligns directly with the Khufu and Menkaure pyramids, the vast glass-and-stone atrium floats above ancient statuary, and for the first time, visitors can view the entire treasure trove of Tutankhamun. Over 5,000 artifacts, once scattered across storerooms and satellite displays, are now consolidated in two purpose-built halls.

But GEM isn’t just about spectacle: it stands as a statement of cultural reclamation and tourism ambition. More than two decades in the making, and costing upward of a billion dollars, the museum asserts Egypt’s ownership of its own narrative in the era of repatriation and global museum competition. With a modern conservation center on site, interactive galleries, and a daily visitor cap to protect its treasures, GEM seeks to blend cutting-edge museology with ancient legacy.

Rosalía’s New Era of Pop Opera

When Rosalía dropped the song “Berghain,” I had no idea the whole album would be just as operatic and beautiful as the single. Now that the album, Lux, is finally out, it is a masterpiece. The Spanish musician performs in 13 languages, including Arabic, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Portuguese, Sicilian, and Ukrainian — as well as her native Spanish and Catalan.

In an interview with Popcast, Rosalía says, “I belong to the world…I love traveling, I love learning from other humans. Why would I not try to learn another language and try to sing in another language and expand the way I can be a singer or a musician or an artist? The world is so connected.”

Lux is an album that transcends language. It is symphonic and bursting with universal feelings of love, heartbreak, disappointment, and resilience. The orchestral arrangements not only heighten those emotions, but they also add a spiritual element — something that’s intentional, as Rosalía says, “That spiritual feeling has always been there, it’s just that I haven’t rationalized it or intellectualized it.”

Even tracks that pull back on the grandeur of the London Symphony Orchestra hold their own. The song “La Perla” (featuring Mexican-American trio Yahritza y su Esencia) is a prime example of a slightly less layered track. Its instrumentals are guided mainly by strings and some percussion, but it’s Rosalía and Yahritza’s voices that carry the weight of the lyrics, which discuss an ex who is described as an “emotional terrorist.”

If you love music and want to refresh your palate with something that’s different from everything else out there at the moment, give Lux a listen.

• 🤝 The Netherlands has announced it will return a carved stone head to Egypt after concluding that the piece was looted and illegally exported. What makes this more than just a museum transfer is that it dovetailed with the grand opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, signaling a significant moment in global cultural-heritage politics: returning artifacts isn’t just about optics, it’s about shifting who gets to tell the story.

• 🛶 Norwegian studio Snøhetta will design the new Qiantang Bay Art Museum in the river-cut city of Hangzhou, China. It’s a bold piece of architecture whose undulating twin volumes are inspired by the river’s tidal bore and the fluid interplay of water, city, and landscape. For design lovers, it offers both sculptural drama and public-realm generosity.

• 🎥 From the halls of French animation school Piktura comes Au 8ème Jour, an 8-minute short film by a team of fifth-year students that has picked up more than 250 festival selections and roughly 60 awards. For anyone curious about the next wave of digital storytellers, this is a vivid example of where animation is headed.

• 📸 Here’s one for history lovers: a recent feature collected portraits of figures who lived long enough to be both painted and photographed. Seeing these dual forms of media allows us to compare how artists rendered their subjects versus what a camera captured, albeit many years later in most cases.

• 👩‍🎨 British-born and New York–based, Nigel Van Wieck turns the ordinary into something cinematic. His realist oil paintings operate like still frames from unseen narratives. Each slice-of-life moment leaves the viewer simultaneously recognizing the everyday scene and wanting to know more.

• 🖼️ A 19-year-old visitor to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art made headlines — and not for good reason — after throwing an unknown liquid on a 17th-century masterpiece by Peter Paul Rubens. The painting, The Rape of the Sabine Women, suffered minor surface damage before museum conservators intervened.

• 💘 This week, The New York Times Magazine published one of the most fascinating (and unsettling) long reads in recent memory: a deep dive into the rising trend of people forming “romantic partnerships” with AI companions. It’s a story that is equal parts tender and eerie, exploring how loneliness, technology, and emotional simulation intertwine in the 21st century.

@mariammikadzzel

Life-changing affirmations that actually work 👌🏻😆😆😆 original voice @Sanaea Bubber #cinematic

• 🏆 The Grammy Awards nominations have been announced, and Kendrick Lamar is leading the pack with 9 noms. Lady Gaga is close behind with 7 noms. Just like any other year, though, there are snubs and surprises.

• 🎬 We’re officially getting a KPop Demon Hunters sequel…but it won’t be coming out until 2029. We’ll just have to listen to the Grammy-nominated “Golden” on repeat until then.

• 🎧 Lily Allen’s newest album West End Girl has been a fan favorite on social media, inspiring listeners to post their hilarious reactions to the very revealing details of her and ex David Harbour’s marital woes. Interestingly, the album is getting more and more listens as time goes on. Spotify reports that “streams on the album doubled in the week since the album first came out on Oct. 24.”

• 🧸 Speaking of the West End, Paddington: The Musical had its world premiere on London’s West End and audiences are loving it. Footage of the life-size Paddington the bear on stage have absolutely enchanted people from all around the world. Time to book a flight to London!

• 👸 Miss Universe contestants walked out of an official event after Miss Universe Thailand director Nawat Itsaragrisil, berated one of the contestants, Fatima Bosch (Miss Mexico), in front of everyone, allegedly calling her a “dumbhead.” Itsaragrisil has since been restricted in participating in any of this year’s events. I wonder who the dumbhead is now…

• 🐷 Another “Miss” is headed for the silver screen — Miss Piggy! Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone are working on a Miss Piggy movie, and it’s being written by Cole Escola. Details are scarce, but we’re already excited about it. We deserve this win.

• 🎙️ Have you seen Ziwe’s interview with Eric Adams? She’s had some truly iconic guests in the past, but this one… this one is definitely the cringiest and creepiest. The soon-to-be-former NYC mayor brought his brand of “swagger” in full force. Would love to bottle his delusional confidence. As one YouTube commenter put it: “I aspire to be so corrupt I can’t be embarrassed.”