Yearly Archives: 2023
My Books Were Used To Train AI. So What?
Perhaps chopping prose into tokens is not how I would like to be read. But then, who am I to say what my work...
At 88, Yvonne Rainer Is Touring Her Final Choreographic Work
"'I just don’t have any more choreographic ideas,' she said. She went on to describe dancing Trio A in her 80s, when getting up...
Frank Lloyd Wright Designed Only One Theatre. It’s Fallen Into Disrepair
The building represents Wright’s decades-long fascination with a concept he called the “New Theatre.” It involved eschewing the traditional setup, with a proscenium stage—in...
Some US Regional Theater Companies Are Bouncing Back Well From The Pandemic. Here’s Why.
How the Barter Theatre in rural southwestern Virginia, Signature Theatre in metro DC, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, Arkansas kept up contact...
New York Public Radio Will Lay Off 12% Of Its Staff
"LaFontaine Oliver, New York Public Radio's president and chief executive, said in a memo to employees that a 'free fall in the advertising market'...
One Of Ethiopia’s Most Sacred Objects, Looted 155 Years Ago, Is Returned
"A sacred tablet that was stolen by British troops during the 1868 Battle of Maqdala in Ethiopia was restituted in a service at a...
This Writer’s Books Were Used To Train Meta’s New AI Program. So He Asked...
Fred Kaplan, defense columnist for Slate: "When pressed with an even mildly confounding question, the machine just makes stuff up. Which makes me wonder:...
Here Are The 183,000 Books Which Authors Suing Meta Over (Is Yours One Of...
Alex Reisner has put together a searchable database of the volumes that Mark Zuckerberg's tech colossus used, without permission, to train LLaMA, its generative...
And What-All Is In This New Agreement Between The Studios And The Writers Guild?
The answer: not everything the writers wanted, but a lot more than anyone thought would be there six months ago — "a deal far...
The Hollywood Writers’ Strike Is Officially Over
"The governing boards of the eastern and western branches of the Writers Guild of America and their joint negotiating committee all voted to accept...
In Early America, Settlers Had To Make Up A Lot Of Words
Much of the landscape of North America was new to the English, so many early word inventions applied to the natural world. Often these...
State Of The Publishing Industry
In addition to rising costs, topics discussed at the daylong conference included the renewed postpandemic threat of work moving off-shore, sustainability concerns, the shift...
Portland’s Artist Repertory Theatre Pauses – Audiences Down 20-50 Percent
“So when people attend, they engage, they connect and then they give. So when the audience isn’t coming back, isn’t seeing the shows, then...
Group Files Suit To Stop Construction Of New Memphis Art Museum
That piece of land is referred to as "the promenade." According to the descendants of Memphis founders, who are referred to as the "heirs"...
Semyon Bychkov On Authenticity In Music
“I think the greatest challenge for us as interpreters today is to find authenticity of spirit in the music we interpret, and that's a...
Poof! Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Folds. But Why?
“Before the pandemic, we had 8,000 subscribers. As of today, we have 2,000 subscribers. That’s a huge difference.” - Waterloo Record
Pole Dancing Is Catching On Even in Egypt
"In many Western countries, pole dance classes achieved mainstream popularity years ago. Egypt's pole-dancing culture has been slower to grow — partly due to...
Survey: Australian Arts Participation Study Released
Many of the results show consistency with the last survey in 2019: 97% of Australians engage with the arts, 84% acknowledge positive impacts of...
This Baritone Was Singing The Role Of God. He Had A Heart Attack And...
At the Ambronay Festival in France, Alejandro Meerapfel, a 54-year-old Argentine, was performing in an oratorio called Il Dono della vita eterna (The Gift...
A Crisis At UK Universities
While U.S. universities charge ever higher tuition in an arms race for the best facilities and research, leading to a soaring student debt crisis, U.K. universities...
Writing Is At A Devastating Crossroads
Writers have to ask themselves if they're "willing to sell their creative souls for the convenience of a hand clap ... to take the...
A Plan To Reconstruct San Francisco’s Davies Hall
"A plan is being formulated to reconstruct Davies and some of its environment (such as the large outdoor parking lot on Franklin Street), including reducing...
Elect Us And We Will More Than Triple Arts Funding, Canada’s Liberal Party Tells...
"The Manitoba Arts Council would receive $20 million in funding annually — up from $6 million a year — if the Liberals are elected...
An AI Finished My Story. The Story Went Viral. It Was Really Good. Does...
When the essay, called “Ghosts,” came out in The Believer in the summer of 2021, it quickly went viral. I started hearing from others who had lost...
Libraries In Northern Ireland Are Now So Underfunded That They Can’t Buy Books
"Libraries will also operate with reduced opening hours. The service said the funding situation is presenting 'significant challenges', and that the board's decision to...
