“I am constantly begging my mom to put her phone down, every time I see her she is just mindlessly scrolling. I swear her attention span is GONE,” one person wrote. - The Atlantic

Technology may blur boundaries, but it also reveals who holds the power. When male creators use AI to simulate female voices and personas, are they expanding artistic possibilities or perpetuating a new form of gender appropriation, ventriloquism and misogyny? - The Conversation

When we sit down for a meal, all of our senses come to the table, and some of them have unexpected effects. Heavier cutlery, for example, makes a meal more pleasurable, he has found, and flavors in space are often duller. Foods that sound better taste better, too. - Nautilus

When all time is flattened into the present, narrative form begins to erode. Instant communication collapses tenses into an interminable “now,” and live streams keep us there. Finally, storytelling demands leisure, or at least a relaxed mind, since immersion requires the mental margin to forget ourselves and linger in the unfolding. - LA Review of Books

Much of the sculptural, breathtaking artistry of haute couture finds a way to dramatize the friction between the composed selves we offer the world and the fragmented, chaotic sensation of being alive. We only look coherent; inside, it’s chaos. - The New Yorker

Not long ago, many online casino experiences were built around flashy graphics and simple luck-based mechanics. Today, game development has become a sophisticated data-informed process. - The Walrus

“The state attorney general has spent nearly two months lobbying Pensacola officials to cancel the show, to no avail. Instead, the 1,600-capacity tour stop is sold out.” - The Guardian

The traditional birthplace of Jesus is in the West Bank, and the livelihoods of thousands of people in the Palestinian town depend on visiting tourists and pilgrims. The war in Gaza brought activity in Bethlehem to a halt, and with a ceasefire signed, those pilgrims and tourists are gradually returning. - AP

“The United States Senate voted to confirm Mary Anne Carter as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. It will be Carter's second time leading the agency, after serving ... during President Donald Trump’s first term. Carter succeeds Maria Rosario Jackson, a Biden appointee who resigned from the post on January 20.” - Publishers Weekly

Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-OH), one of the Congressional representatives on the Center’s board, argues in her court filing that Trump and the trustees who voted to add his name to the place are “willfully flouting the law to satisfy defendant Trump’s vanity.” - Bloomberg (MSN)

If someone has spent years of their life on a work, they deserve a serious, sustained response. Critics who write such reviews aren’t just offering something to the maker of a work but to the world. Look here, a critic says. Imagine what culture could be like. - Asterisk

The differences between Europe and the United States when it comes to AI regulation aren’t so easy to fix; they’re rooted in deep cultural differences that have informed how the tech industries have developed on both continents.  - Politico

The Lausanne-born maestro will take up the position in August 2028 for two seasons; the short contract term aligns him with that of the house’s superintendent, Mathias Schulz. Viotti will succeed Gianandrea Noseda, who will remain at the company through the 2027-28 season. - Moto Perpetuo

While the technology quietly reshapes the industry, the first-order effect of AI’s ease of use is simply the existence of more music—a lot more. Suno users generate 7 million new tracks a day, which every two weeks nets out to about as many songs as exist on Spotify.  - The Atlantic

The world’s largest music streaming service has been scraped by a pirate activist group. According to a blog post from Anna’s Archive, it says it gained access to over 250 million pieces of metadata and millions of audio files from the streamer. - PC Magazine

“Newcomers to opera (many are self-described theater enthusiasts), … they share with their followers their delight and surprise at what they have found: the lack of a dress code; the English-language translations on the backs of seats; the Hollywood-worthy projections and videos; and, yes, the existence of cheap seats.” - The New York Times

“Organ tuners make brief records of their visits and often jot down observations, including the temperature and humidity inside the building. Materials within organs are sensitive to climatic changes, which can knock the majestic instruments out of tune.” - The Guardian (UK)

“We didn’t have a lot of information before the show started, and the local authorities were telling our team that the best and safest course of action for everyone present was to proceed with the show and not have large crowds of people out on the streets.” - Boston Globe

Overall, when it came to galleries, the dominant vibe was one of endings more than beginnings—and it continued a building drumbeat. Those who closed or significantly downsized in 2025, after all, joined others that have expired in previous years. - ARTnews

“Nyuserra’s sun temple, which is located in Abu Ghurab about 10 miles south of Cairo, was composed of two parts: the previously excavated upper temple and the valley temple (alongside the Nile), which Massimiliano Nuzzolo began work on in 2024.” - Artnet

“Arbitration clauses are interpreted literally, but not foolishly,” the new filing argues. It asks the court to enter an order compelling Suda to submit to arbitration, and to stay legal proceedings until the matter is resolved in arbitration. - Philadelphia Inquirer

Long-term loans are not restitution. They do not acknowledge historical wrongdoing, nor do they restore agency to source communities. Instead, they reinforce a museum’s claim of ownership over objects it has no moral (and often legal) right to possess. - Hyperallergic

The main takeaway, for me, is that museums have a vulnerability—a technical, physical vulnerability—that is mirrored by the vulnerability of the public’s reaction, the idea that you can be culturally wounded in a profound collective manner. - The New Yorker

It felt like visiting your childhood home stripped of its furniture — intimately familiar yet deeply disorienting. How would Paris get through five years without this place? - The New York Times

Federal funding, the freedom to read, perpetual or temporary access to print and digital collections, and AI innovations saw new and unpredictable developments on a weekly basis. - Publishers Weekly

The group of authors, which includes two-time Pulitzer Prize winner John Carreyrou, are among those who opted out of the proposed $1.5 billion settlement of the lawsuit against Anthropic, announced in September. - Publishers Weekly

“The decision made this winter by ReaderLink to stop distributing mass market paperback books at the end of 2025 was the latest blow to a format that has seen its popularity decline for years.” - Publishers Weekly

Paul Frommer’s initial parameters were that the language had to sound “nice” (director James Cameron’s word), since they are a relatively peaceful race, and that it had to be feasibly easy for actors to learn to pronounce. Beyond those, almost everything — phonetics, grammar, vocabulary — was up to Frommer. - Deutsche Welle

Like many audiobook devotees, I’m sheepish about my conversion, which seems blasphemous for a writer at the Book Review. I wonder whether listening “counts” as reading.  - The New York Times

Like the rest of the analog world, legacy dictionaries have had to adapt or perish. - The New Yorker

Disney is the first and only studio to cross $6B this year, the next best major is Warner Bros with $4.3B. 2025 repped Disney’s biggest year at the B.O. since 2019 when it earned an all-time $13.1B ($11.1B from Disney titles alone, the rest being 20th Century Studios and Searchlight). - Deadline

Central Casting — now so eponymous that its name has become a cultural phrase — celebrated its 100th anniversary earlier this month. Remember the long lines for casting calls? No more. - Los Angeles Times

The series is called Finding Mr. Christmas. “What is fascinating about the premise is that it’s television for women about men making television for women. It’s the hosts and judges evaluating, week by week, what makes a man appealing to a likely female Hallmark viewer.” - The Washington Post (Yahoo!)

“Connecticut — the location for at least 22 holiday films by Hallmark, Lifetime and others — is promoting tours of the quaint Christmas-card cities and towns featured in this booming movie (genre).” You even get to watch the matching films while on the bus between stops. - AP

“On Monday, Skydance-owned Paramount announced that Larry Ellison — the founder of Oracle and father of Paramount CEO David Ellison — had personally agreed to be responsible for $40.4 billion of equity financing for the company’s offer (to buy Warner Bros. Discovery), as well as any damage claims.” - AP

In 2023, “Meyers had written a semi-autobiographical rom-com called Paris Paramount. She’d originally written it for Netflix, but they did not want to give her the budget she needed.” And that was all the news - until this weekend. - Vulture

It’s been a commonplace for decades that troupes depend on the income from Nutcracker ticket sales to support the rest of their seasons. For just one prominent example, New York City Ballet’s roughly 50 performances of Balanchine’s classic version of the work bring in 45% of the company’s ticket revenue for the year. -...

The key is hiring — in particular, hiring dancers proficient in both classical and contemporary techniques, since Nedvigin wants to present top-tier renditions of both classical and new repertoire with a relatively small roster of performers. - ArtsATL

In 2023, when he was ballet director at Germany's Hannover State Opera, Marco Goecke did this and was promptly fired. Now he’s been given another chance: he’s artistic director of Ballet Basel in Switzerland. Critics have set aside any grievances, but Goecke’s big mouth has nevertheless gotten him into trouble. - The New York...

Ballet West in Salt Lake City reported Monday a “dramatic spike” in people “arriving at performances with fake or invalid tickets purchased from third-party sellers.” - The Salt Lake Tribune

“Having worked with the Ballets Russes, most notably with Vaslav Nijinsky …, Marie Rambert became a pioneer in British ballet: setting up a ballet school, and then establishing her own company, the first in the UK, Ballet Rambert, which she led for 40 years after its founding in 1926.” - Bachtrack

“Average seat occupancy is 97 percent, among the highest in Europe. … Now with confidence in its survival skills” — and an adept, energetic director — “the ballet company is eager to raise its profile from a company of regional importance to one that can rank among Europe’s best.” - The New York Times

The 17,000 costume pieces are the least extravagant feature of The Gift of Christmas, the annual spectacular presented by Prestonwood Baptist Church near Dallas. On the 300-foot stage are LED screens, lasers, fireworks, trapezing elves, flying angels, and 21 animals. (And yes, shepherds, three kings, and the Holy Family. And Santa.) - Texas Monthly

“The Queen of Versailles, the biggest-budget production to open on Broadway this fall and the only large-scale new musical, aspired to be a cautionary tale about consumption and greed. Instead, it wound up as a cautionary tale about Broadway.” - The New York Times

This is not a “best of” list. What we asked hundreds of theatre folks to do was send us 10 titles they felt had been the most influential on the theatre in the past 25 years. - American Theatre

The theater festival involves collegiate theater students from across the United States, and includes eight regional competitions that have long culminated in a week-long national festival, including the awarding of scholarships and other honors, at the Kennedy Center. - Deadline

In the Abbey’s century-long history as a public institution lies a persuasive story about what a national theater could have done—or still might do—for the United States. Through the decades, the Abbey’s output has regularly showed how effectively theater can process national trauma at times when the public desperately needs an outlet. - The...

“A decade after Hamilton opened on Broadway and the Public Theater began reaping roughly $100 million for helping to develop the blockbuster musical, the legendary downtown nonprofit company is undergoing its third round of layoffs in four years.” - Broadway Journal

“As an independent filmmaker, photographer, teacher and activist, he explored issues of justice, identity, memory and racism. He was a founder of Visual Communications, the oldest community-based organization of Asian-American and Pacific Islander filmmakers and media artists in the United States.” - The New York Times

“While Sotto's best-known masterworks are overseas, (such as) the creation of Main Street, U.S.A., for Disneyland Paris …, he had a reputation for fighting tirelessly to enhance the theme park experience, pushing for improvements to everything including ride vehicles and the food on guests' plates.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

In their own words: Roberta Flack, Diane Keaton, Robert Redford, Rob Reiner, Frank Gehry, and many more. - The New York Times

“Ransone was born in 1979 in Baltimore, an advantage in the early 2000s when The Wire, then a little-watched drama on HBO, was looking to cast actors from the city for the show’s second season.” - The New York Times

“His second feature, entitled It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives, premiered at the Berlin film festival in 1971 and has since been described as Germany’s 'Stonewall moment,’ radically breaking conventions in its portrayal of queer life.” - The Guardian (UK)

“(He) was the Netherlands’ best-known choreographer for over sixty years and regarded as one of the great masters of contemporary ballet. He was also one of the most productive, creating more than 150 works. … All bear his distinct signature – clarity in structure, refined simplicity and an aversion to unnecessary decorative frills.” -...