Art & Culture

Nashville – September 12, 2026 -- Dolly Parton's SongTeller Hotel and Dolly's Life of Many Colors Museum will officially open together on September 29 in downtown Nashville.

The hotel offers 245 unique rooms and two live music venues

Created in partnership with Dolly Parton and Herschend, the hotel features 245 guest rooms and suites alongside two entertainment venues: Jolene's on the top floor and Parton's Live on the second floor. Jolene's hosts nightly performances from Nashville songwriters paired with cocktails and small plates, while Parton's Live offers writers' rounds and songwriter sessions.

Beckley, W.Va. – September 12, 2026 -- Wedding flowers do more than fill a bouquet, according to Steven Webb, a floral expert with Dias Floral Company, who says thoughtful bloom selection can shape the entire mood of a ceremony.

Venue and gown style dictate the right floral texture

Webb advises that rustic weddings pair well with garden-fresh bouquets and textured greenery, while sleek indoor ceremonies call for clean, hand-tied arrangements. The goal is to match flowers to both the gown and the setting, whether the atmosphere is natural and relaxed or modern and refined.

Personal keepsakes turn bouquets into family heirlooms

Couples often incorporate lace from a family wedding gown around a bouquet handle, add herbs or seasonal berries for fragrance, or tuck in heirloom jewelry. These details link a bridal bouquet's design to personal history rather than just aesthetics.

Oldenburg, Indiana – – September 12, 2026 -- Clinical psychologist Claire Hillenbrand Sherman has released "Discover Wholeness with Carl Jung and His Red Book," a guide that translates Carl Jung's analytical psychology into practical exercises for readers unfamiliar with his original texts. The book is available in softcover (ISBN 9781665780834) and electronic (ISBN 9781665780827) formats through Archway Publishing, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

New York – September 12, 2026 -- The Algonquin Hotel, Autograph Collection, has completed a full renovation of all 181 guestrooms, elevators, and corridors at its Midtown Manhattan property, unveiling a redesigned interior anchored by exclusive artwork from legendary caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. The multi-year, phased project was carried out while the hotel remained fully operational.

Brooklyn-based CRÈME led the design without altering the hotel's historic footprint

Interior design firm CRÈME / Jun Aizaki Architecture & Design worked with LUCID, the design arm of Highgate Hotels, to reshape the guestrooms around their original scale and proportions. Willis Loughhead, General Manager of The Algonquin for six years, said the team aimed to honor the hotel's past "without being beholden to it," building timeless rooms meant to spark creativity.

Miami – September 12, 2026 -- Real-money gaming app Betr has launched Betr 2.0, a rebrand that unifies five products -- Picks, Predictions, Social Sportsbook, Social Casino, and Arcade -- into a single platform, alongside a new ad campaign reuniting Entourage stars Jeremy Piven and Adrian Grenier.

Betr becomes the first consumer app to integrate Polymarket

The centerpiece of the relaunch is Predictions, a new prediction-markets product built through an integration with Polymarket. Betr says it is the first consumer app to launch this integration, with a phased rollout now underway to eligible users in select states. Initial markets will cover sports, with a full release planned later this football season and additional real-world event markets expected over time.

Los Angeles – September 11, 2026 -- Azuki Labs will release the first chapter of its original manga series AZUKI for free on Azuki.com starting September 17 at 9:00 AM PDT, with new chapters arriving on the third Thursday of every month at no cost to readers.

Former Overwatch art director creates the series

Arnold Tsang, who served as Character Art Director for Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch and helped shape the game's hero roster and lore, wrote and illustrated AZUKI. It marks his first original serialized manga and his first return to comics since working on Udon's Street Fighter series.

Story follows two sisters torn apart by mysterious Gates

The plot centers on Shao, who searches for her missing sister Rei after Rei disappears beyond a set of ancient Gates. The search draws Shao into a conflict threatening both worlds, forcing her to confront buried secrets and difficult choices tied to family and destiny.

Southlake – – September 11, 2026 -- Game Show Studio, an immersive entertainment experience that turns guests into contestants in a Hollywood-style game show, opens its newest location inside Red Door Escape Room at 280 Commerce St., Suite 285, in Southlake, Texas, on September 12.

The grand opening runs all weekend with discounts and giveaways

Starting Saturday, September 12 at 11:00 a.m., the public is invited to tour the venue, try mini-games and enter giveaways. Guests who book events during the celebration weekend get an exclusive discount of $25 per ticket.

Cologne – September 11, 2026 -- German broadcaster WDR has produced a second batch of 1,000 free "Maus" school-start packages for first-grade classrooms in North Rhine-Westphalia after the initial run sold out within days.

The free kits, tied to the long-running children's show Die Sendung mit der Maus, are designed to ease the transition into elementary school and introduce young children to responsible media use.

Demand exhausted two full print runs in days

The first 1,000 packages were claimed by teachers almost immediately after launch. WDR responded by printing 1,000 more, but those were also fully requested by educators shortly after.

WDR Director General Dr. Katrin Vernau said the response shows strong demand for reliable, child-friendly educational materials, and that the broadcaster plans to expand the program further in 2027.

Bristol, Tenn. – September 11, 2026 -- Brad Pitt will serve as Grand Marshal for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Saturday, Sept. 19 at Bristol Motor Speedway, appearing alongside Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris six days before Pitt's new film opens in theaters.

The Academy Award-winning actor and producer will take part in Bristol's pre-race ceremonies and help give the command to fire engines before the NASCAR Cup Series race begins under the lights at 7:30 p.m. ET. It marks the third race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase, a 500-lap event on Bristol's 0.533-mile concrete oval.

Monterey – September 11, 2026 -- Monterey Bay Aquarium opens a new bilingual exhibition, "Ocean in Motion / La Danza del Mar," to the public on Saturday, November 7. The exhibit is designed primarily for children ages 2 to 6, though it is open to visitors of all ages, and uses movement and role-play to build empathy for marine animals.

The exhibit features an expanded African penguin habitat as its centerpiece

Visitors can watch penguins dive, swim, preen, waddle, and rest on a rocky beach in the newly enlarged habitat. Nearby digital interactives project silhouettes of penguins in motion, inviting children to waddle, flap, and shake their tails. The Aquarium notes that African penguins are a critically endangered species affected by climate change and overfishing.