Yearly Archives: 2023
Jonathan Raban, Who Rejected The Label Of Travel Writer, Is Dead At 80
"He agreed with his fellow writer Bruce Chatwin, who famously turned down the Thomas Cook Award, that the term was too limiting. … When...
Hamline University’s Weird Defense Of Its Art History Controversy
The instinct to treat Muslims like toddlers, incapable of dealing with unwelcome developments, and therefore in need of protection at all times, is powerful...
The Only New Broadway Shows That Seem To Be Selling Well Are The Ones...
Six productions — including A Strange Loop, Topdog/Underdog, and Death of a Salesman — closed last weekend, having struggled at the box office despite...
What Happens When AI Bots Run Out Of Good Writing To Ingest?
A team of researchers led by Pablo Villalobos at Epoch AI recently predicted that programs such as the eerily impressive ChatGPT will run out of high-quality reading material...
What Do You Get When You Cross An Opera With A TV Series?
While most US opera companies have returned to performing live and pulled back from the streaming video they offered at the height of COVID,...
US Senate To Hold Hearings On TicketMaster
The hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee will take place Jan. 24, the panel announced late Tuesday, and address concerns that Ticketmaster’s market control over the...
Existing Podcasts May Be Doing Okay, But Development And Release Of New Ones Is...
"The number of new shows created dropped by nearly 80 percent between 2020 and 2022. Some of that can be attributed to the pandemic...
Meta’s Advisory Board Says Facebook And Instagram Should Stop Banning Breasts
"More than a decade after breastfeeding mothers first held a 'nurse-in' at Facebook's headquarters to protest against its ban on breasts, Meta's oversight board...
Dalia Stasevka Combines A Growing Career As Conductor With Ukraine Activism
In addition to speaking out regularly in the media, the 38-year-old native of Kyiv devotes time to raising money for relief efforts and gathering...
Three Defendants Confess To Dresden Jewel Heist
Rabieh Remmo, one of six men — all from a notorious crime family — on trial for the multimillion-dollar theft from Dresden's "Green Vault"...
Professor Fired For Showing Medieval Image Of Muhammad Sues Hamline University
"In her lawsuit, Erika López Prater alleges that Hamline University — a small, private school in St. Paul — subjected her to religious discrimination...
Hamline University Tries To Walk Back Its Criticism Of Professor Who Showed Image Of...
"Ellen Watters, the board chair, and the school’s president, Fayneese S. Miller, said Hamline’s initial stance on the incident was a 'misstep.' The usage...
Meet Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s New Artistic Director
"Adam McKinney, a Milwaukee native who has danced with numerous companies around the country, succeeds Susan Jaffee, who departed in December to become artistic...
Are Secret Talks To Return Parthenon Marbles Making Progress?
Even as those disclosures have flowered into optimism that real progress will soon be made, both sides have made it clear that no deal...
Why No One Will Win In The HarperCollins Strike
Some smaller independent publishers—mostly outside of New York City—are concerned that the public nature of the strike, with wage demands made public, is raising...
AI Can Help Preserve Dying Languages. But What’s The Cost?
StoryWeaver can bring more languages into conversation with one another—but the tech is still new, and it depends on data that only speakers of...
After 32 Years, Cabrillo Festival Director To Step Down
The festival’s powerful streak of commissioning new music — a roster of more than 50 pieces both large and small since 2006 — is...
Saving Indigenous Languages In Montana
The job is not easy. Depending on how you count, there are about a dozen Indigenous languages in our state, and every one of...
MTT And Barenboim: Twilight Of The Old Guard
The recent struggles and remarkable late-career concerts of these two men will always mark for me the passing from the scene of their generation...
Sweden Proposes To Do Away With Permits To Dance
The proposal made Thursday means that venues no longer would need a license to organize dances. Instead, as a general rule, they would only...
A Most Unusual AM Talk Radio Station
"A talk outlet owned by a billionaire businessman for whom radio is a hobby. ... A station that airs an improbable patch-quilt of block...
Study: Scientific Breakthroughs Are Slowing Down. Why?
The new finding of Mr. Park and his colleagues suggests that investments in science are caught in a spiral of diminishing returns and that...
An Old Military Air Base Becomes A New, And Affordable, Hub For Creative Arts...
"Old Jet sits inside a former fighter-jet operations building. Like most rural hubs, it houses a unique mixture of people who live locally and...
I’m An Author. My Book Is Being Published At HarperCollins. I’m Deeply Conflicted
I’ve loved my publishing experience with HarperCollins. Everyone I’ve worked with has been a smart adviser and a fierce advocate for a slightly weird...
Dutch Old Master Judith Leyster, And Why She Matters
She was a rarity, a professional female painter, in the Dutch Golden Age; her work has been admired ever since — although, for centuries,...
