A Texas novelist discovers the hard way that authorial intent is no match for America's hunger for mythology. Sometimes the culture writes the ending, whether you like it or not. — The American Scholar

A Danish writer discovers what Instagram influencers fear most: that maybe there's no authentic self to brand after all. Thank goodness for Austrian modernists who made existential fragmentation fashionable. — Aeon

Largely ignored by academic philosophers, the “Dark Enlightenment” movement and Yarvin have curried favor and influence with tech executives in recent years. A software engineer by training, Yarvin has become a kind of official philosopher for tech leaders like PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel and Mosaic founder Marc Andreessen. — Time

Some of these online influencers are pretty easy to spot, but others are good enough that they’re duping people. And in some cases, it seems almost impossible to know for certain whether a specific influencer is real or not. - The Atlantic

Need to take an online math quiz? Write a biology-lab report? Create a PowerPoint presentation for history class? AI can do all of this and more. One high schooler recently told me that he struggles to think of a single assignment that AI wouldn’t be able to do for him. - The Atlantic

Entertainment and tech companies have gotten smarter about putting consumers into bastardized flow states that leaves people feeling drained and sad rather than challenged and enlarged as selves. - Derek Thompson

One person familiar with the cuts said much of the programming department’s work has been either terminated or redirected toward campus rentals, for which venue fees have to be paid up front. - Washington Post

Fixing education is never that simple. If states really want to replicate our success, they need to understand that what Mississippi did wasn’t a miracle at all. - The Atlantic

“As the country’s economic malaise deepens, officials are eager for the economic boost of increased tourism, even as local communities find themselves entirely unprepared for what a small army of foreign visitors means for their communities.” - AP

South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has announced a series of high-profile appointments across its leading arts institutions, led by the naming of conductor and cellist Chang Han-na as the new president and chief executive of the Seoul Arts Center. - Moto Perpetuo

“A federal court granted the administration’s request to withdraw its appeal of a federal judge’s earlier ruling that struck down Trump’s attempt last year to dismantle the agency” by executive order. However, the fiscal 2027 budget which the White House is submitting to Congress includes no funding for IMLS. - Publishers Weekly

From ACT in San Francisco to Berkeley Rep to Stanford Live, producers and presenters are moving starting times from 8:00 to 7:30, 7:00 or even 6:30. So far, there have been lots of favorable comments and very few complaints. - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)

Long before Apple claimed to revolutionize music consumption, scrappy Canadian start-ups were quietly building the streaming future. Turns out maple syrup wasn't the only sweet innovation flowing north of the border. — The Walrus

The heart of the case before the jury involves accusations that Live Nation has pressured artists to use the company’s promotions arm to play at its amphitheaters, and has also forced venues — sometimes with threats — to sign exclusive deals with Ticketmaster or risk losing access to Live Nation’s popular tours. - The...

He realised how powerful music could be in spreading his new doctrine, that it could “incite people to do good and to teach them”. He’s one of several figures to whom the phrase: “Why should the devil have all the best tunes?” has been credited. He almost certainly didn’t say it, but he should...

“The Dallas Symphony Orchestra is adding $50 million to its endowment fund, thanks to donors matching a $25 million challenge grant from the O'Donnell Foundation. … The DSO's O'Donnell match comes three months after the Dallas Opera completed its own $25 million challenge from the Dallas foundation.” - The Dallas Morning News (MSN)

While the company isn't back to the schedule it had before COVID, there will be six full productions plus one opera-in-concert, longer runs, a Haydn oratorio, and the return of the summer Broadway musical (this year, Guys and Dolls). Soprano Radvanovsky has signed on for a five-year term as artistic advisor. - Chicago Tribune

You can make a solid argument that, except for the particular music being sung (and, today, the inclusion of girls and women), the practice of cathedral choral music is largely unchanged from the days of Elizabeth I. But declining church attendance and financial support are taking a toll. - AP

The latest set of commissions will be realized by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Jeffrey Gibson, Rashid Johnson, Hugo McCloud, Martin Puryear, Lorna Simpson, and Norman Teague. - ARTnews

The Getty and Page Museum are getting Olympic-ready makeovers, because nothing says 'world-class cultural destination' like frantically renovating before the global spotlight hits. Strategic timing or happy coincidence? — Artnet

The art world's great pivot to regional collectors hits a Teutonic reality check. Turns out courting hometown buyers is neither easier nor more profitable than globe-trotting—just different complications. — Artnet

Expo Chicago's glittering circus rolls into town promising cultural cachet, but who's actually invited to the party? A reality check on whether the fair circuit lifts all boats or just the ones already floating. — Hyperallergic

As part of Donald Trump’s legacy-building quest during his second term in office, the so-called “Arc de Trump” would stand 250ft tall, feature a 60ft golden Lady Liberty, and include a viewing deck. - The Guardian

On September 11, 2023, the man dropped off a bright blue Ikea bag at Brand’s home. Inside, The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring (1884), which is worth millions, was covered in bubble wrap and tucked inside a blood-stained pillow—the result of a cut on the man’s hand. - Smithsonian

Literary ridicule used to sting politicians into shame. Now they don't read books, don't care about cultural criticism, and certainly don't lose sleep over clever wordplay. Writers are shadowboxing with ghosts. — New York Review of Books

As traditional literary criticism gasps its last, so goes reasoned public discourse. David Bell chronicles how digital age killed the gatekeepers—and maybe critical thinking itself. — Liberties Journal

Because the cells that make up the mind are material, they can degrade or die. When neurons degrade, starve, or die, the essential connections our minds make to our muscles start to sputter. - LA Review of Books

The Originality.ai reports on his draft, which he shared with The Times, showed that adding or deleting even just a few sentences produced wildly different results. “What if publishers or agents start running these A.I. tools on everybody?” Bricio said. “Everybody is going to walk on eggshells from now on.” - The New York...

Print continues to be the only book format used by a majority of Americans. Roughly two-thirds of adults say they have read a physical book in the past 12 months, according to our October survey. - Pew Center

“Operating under the products & experiences division, Paramount Global Publishing ‘will develop complementary publishing content inspired by its iconic portfolio of brands and franchises as well as generate new IP through the creation of original stories.’” - Publishers Weekly

Remember when online culture was its own weird planet? Those days are dead. Internet-speak has colonized everything from gallery walls to boardroom presentations, proving that resistance to algorithmic aesthetics was always temporary. - The New York Times

“We’re not a newspaper company and we haven’t been for quite some time.” While they once accounted for the majority of the AP’s revenue, big newspapers now only make up 10% of the organization’s income. - NiemanLab

Some local jobs, yes, but probably not enough for the amount of money states are spending, according to recent research. The exceptions appear to be the places where critical masses of industry workers already live: California and metro New York/New Jersey. - The Hollywood Reporter

Across the whole newsroom, The Times has gone from publishing more than 200 stories a day to about 150 – a 25% cut. - Press-Gazette

The studios will kick in $321 million — a record sum — to keep the writers’ health fund solvent. The health plan changes are the centerpiece of the four-year contract reached by the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers over the weekend. - Variety

While the layoffs are noteworthy, they are a fraction of the size of the cuts overseen by former CEO Bob Iger when he rejoined the company. From 2023 to 2025, multiple rounds eliminated some 8,000 workers, achieving cost savings of $7.5 billion. - Deadline

This season, the Martha Graham Dance Company celebrates 100 years, and for better and worse, her early works are back in fashion. - The New York Times

In Lowell, Mass., a center of America's Cambodian diaspora, the Angkor Dance Troupe has worked hard to preserve the dance traditions nearly wiped out by the Khmer Rouge. Yet the company also wants to expand the repertory and reach a wider community; adapting the Tchaikovsky classic seemed an ideal option. - WBUR (Boston)

“You’ll never say you didn’t hear them coming.” - AP

The company hadn’t produced its beloved staging of the Stravinsky ballet, with sets and costumes by Geoffrey Holder, since it went on hiatus in 2004 due to financial problems. DTH was resurrected in 2013, but until now it didn’t have enough dancers available to perform the piece. - The New York Times

“Nearly 50 years since that first performance in 1978, Meryl Tankard is getting the Kontakthof band back together. Now a choreographer, she has assembled nine of the dancers (including herself) and adapted the piece to synchronise with black-and-white footage of their younger selves projected onto a giant screen behind them.” - The Times (UK)

PSU’s “dance program had once been a cornerstone of Portland’s artistic community, even as it struggled against decades of intermittent support, administrative turnover, and shifting school priorities.” - Oregon ArtsWatch

Under their new leadership, Victory Gardens has hosted a writers’ workshop, a showcase of new works in collaboration with New Musical Chicago, and a staged reading of An Ocean Away, a documentary play by Belarusian playwright Andrei Kureichik about the effects of war on Ukrainians and diaspora communities. - American Theatre

“Roundabout Theater Company moved into the building in 1998 and kept its disco-era name. Now Roundabout has a $100 million plan for the first full-scale renovation of the building. The project would bring back a permanent stage, which the building hasn’t had since its disco days, and an orchestra pit.” - The New York...

“Scott Guggenheim, who with his wife Shannon Guggenheim owns 3Below Theaters, cited an ongoing landlord dispute as one major factor in what he called a ‘difficult’ decision. ... ‘There were … specific issues — particularly around construction, signage, and commitments — that were not fully realized,' he told the Chronicle.” - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)

“Evan Yionoulis, who has been dean and director of The Juilliard School’s drama division since 2018, will take over the post at Yale starting July 1. She succeeds James Bundy, who has been in the role for close to 25 years and announced his retirement last year.” - The Hollywood Reporter

For almost three decades, the ambitious, history-centered company had to make do with the second-floor of a 110-year-old church building in Lake View — along with dodgy electrical wiring, no elevator, toilets that didn’t always work and no central air conditioning. - WBEZ

The Justice Department has quietly resolved a yearslong investigation into possible anticompetitive practices by a major player in the lucrative touring market for Broadway shows, saying it decided not to prosecute the company. - The New York Times

Hilde Limondjian, who spent more than four decades bringing music to the auditorium — and the galleries — of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, died on Jan. 24. She was 89. - The New York Times

André Malraux went on to fight in the WWII resistance, write celebrated novels, get nominated repeatedly for the Nobel Prize, and serve as de Gaulle’s culture minister. In his 20s, however, he and his wife decided they could get rich quick by going to Cambodia and stealing ancient statuary. - Smithsonian Magazine

Bambaataa and the parties where he DJ'ed swelled in popularity throughout the decade and well into the 1980s, when he released a series of electro tracks that helped shaped the burgeoning hip-hop and electro-funk music movements. - NPR

“Combs’s lawyers repeated claims they made before the trial judge, including an assertion that Combs’ films of sexual encounters between his girlfriends and male sex workers amounted to ‘amateur pornography’ and (were) protected by the First Amendment.” - AP

“In those days, you might as well say: ‘And by the way, I love cock,’” he said about his 1996 interview to promote The Birdcage. “But I wasn’t ready; I wasn’t brave enough. I was a character actor. I wasn’t thinking I was going to become a leading man.” - The Guardian

“The rapper formerly known as Kanye West was barred Tuesday from entering the U.K., where he was scheduled to headline the Wireless Festival in July, after a backlash over Ye’s history of antisemitic remarks.” - AP