This is one novel frustration of the AI age, yet millions of users searching for the “right prompt” are engaging in an old literary practice: turning mental images, vague desires and atmospheric intuitions into precise language. - The Conversation

Anyway, the reason I’m writing all of this is not to brag, but to complain. Over the last two years, I’ve felt like my job has become a bit less important than it used to be, for three reasons. - Noahpinion

Zhuangzi insists that even in idealised situations where values can be straightforward, the idea that hierarchies and institutions can reflect that moral map is a profound misunderstanding of how power actually works. - Aeon

That must have been revelatory at a time when most people seemed to believe that science was infallible. But expertise has been downgraded—and more people are getting their information from podcasters and influencers. Who could help us understand this shift? - The Atlantic

“The purpose of the device is to provide an unbiased account of the events that lead to the demise of the planet, hold accountability for future generations, and inspire urgent action,” the Earth’s Black Box website states. “How the story ends is completely up to us.” - Gizmodo

“There is something thrilling about a document dump, and picking through boxes and boxes of government files. We have often associated these habits with conspiracy theorists, ... but in the modern era of digitized records, anyone can jump down a rabbit hole anywhere, anytime, even on their phone." - The Atlantic

“Fifty-five cultural institutions and 28 schools will benefit from grants ranging from $60,000 to $2 million,” with much of the money designated for buildings or infrastructure. “In previous years, the discretionary budget has been divided into small grants ... across sectors like the arts, public housing, social services and parks.” - The New York...

From the start of the second Trump administration, the entire Smithsonian had been a target of those on the MAGA right who are preoccupied with expunging what they understand to be “wokeness” from prominent institutions.  - The Atlantic

“Bunch has been cast by many of his admirers as something of a resistance figure — one of the only high-profile leaders standing up to Trump by single-handedly preventing the president from rewriting American history itself.” - The Atlantic

“The Court’s order did not affirmatively require the Board to reschedule programming that had previously been cancelled or to seek new programming,” the lawyers wrote in the filing. - AP News

"The scale of this quiet coup is staggering. … In practical terms, Roku controls the television home screen.” - Salon

When the Trump administration removed from the site panels telling the history of the enslaved people who lived with the Washingtons there, the city of Philadelphia sued. A lower-court federal judge ordered the panels restored; a three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed that order. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

A US federal judge has dismissed a proposed class action that accused Spotify of allowing billions of bot-generated fake streams to inflate the play counts of Drake and other artists. - MusicBusinessWorldwide

The average audience at Heinz Hall for the flagship classical series is roughly 1,450, just over half of the venue’s capacity and up 14% (!) from the previous season. Attendance at pops concerts continues to fall, but it’s rising at educational events and live-film-score concerts. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The 55-year-old German composer-conductor has only been there for two seasons (he started in fall 2024), but the orchestra likes him well enough to extend his current contract for five additional years, keeping him through 2033-34. - Pizzicato

Antony Hermus, a 53-year-old Dutchman who is just finishing his tenure as chief conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra, will succeed Ryan Wigglesworth at the Glasgow-based BBC SSO as of the 2027-28 season. - The Scotsman

Japan has created a music right that will, for the first time, require performers and record companies to be paid when their recordings are played in public spaces such as cafes, shops, hotels, and gyms. - Music Business Worldwide

Here you go: “The works were played publicly for the first time on Sunday at the National Library of France.” - The New York Times

The warning comes less than three years after the British Museum revealed that about 2,000 objects had been stolen, damaged or gone missing from its collections over a period of years, in a scandal that led to the resignation of its director, Hartwig Fischer. - The Guardian

Connie Choi is currently curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem, where she has worked for nearly a decade. At the Studio Museum, she worked closely with Thelma Golden, its director and chief curator, to map out the museum’s curatorial vision, including its recent reopening last fall. - ARTnews

In 2023 Jerry Saltz said Refik Anadol’s Unsupervised at MoMA was just a fancy lava lamp. He took that criticism and turned it into Dataland, which is so immersive, so expansive and incredible, (it) feels like an official ushering into our new contemporary art world. - Artnet

"When I see people taking refuge for an hour in a supermarket, I say to myself: 'Why shouldn't the museum be a place of respite, rather than cafés or shops?' - Le Monde

Over chicken and gravy, Trump asked Bunch his opinion on four chandelier samples for the Oval Office; discussed the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which Trump has proposed painting white; and talked about Republican calls to relocate the space shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum annex to Houston. - ARTnews

“The Cartoon Art Museum has parted ways with Andrew Farago, the longtime curator and public face of the San Francisco institution who was arrested this month after Berkeley police said he secretly recorded guests using a bathroom during a party at his home.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

“Talk to authors, talk to prize judges, talk to critics and to editors and you hear versions of the same story. ... What might have been excellent books are marred by shoddy copy editing, flat-out errors, cursory proofreading — and, in some cases, an obvious lack of revision.” - The Guardian

Samir Pail argues that the publishing industry is fundamentally flawed insofar as publishers and authors generate consumer demand, then hand buyers off to companies like Amazon, which takes a significant cut and then owns the customer relationship. - Publishers Weekly

The collection is the latest donation to the Library Company of Philadelphia, founded by Franklin in 1731, by Charles Rosenberg, a now-retired historian of science at Harvard University. He described this collection, including volumes dating to the late 1600s, as largely “how-to-run-your-sex-life books.” - The New York Times

“The Porter Square Review of Books launched this month. The (Cambridge, Mass.) store’s booksellers and writers-in-residence have begun publishing weekly(ish) book reviews on its website, on Thursdays; at about 500 words, these are deeper looks at books than the couple of sentences you’ll find describing ‘staff picks’ in-store.” - Nieman Lab

Do we have a great poet who captures the American spirit, the American story, the American identity? We asked a posse of authors and poets to send us their votes. - Plough

“For the sake of our own editorial integrity, the Granta Trust board has now taken the decision that we will no longer engage in external publishing partnerships.” - The Guardian

Basically, if Alex Jones can play dirty, then The Onion can play dirty, too. - Law and Chaos

Brady Corbet, who made The Brutalist, earned, he says “zero dollars” for his work on the movie. The five directors who agreed to be interviewed for this article talk about the day jobs they keep even after their films have been well-received and how they keep it all going. - Vulture

While production incentives are available in 39 U.S. states, the only federal aid that American productions can take advantage of is Section 181, a Bush-era incentive that allows studios to take a tax deduction on up to the first $15 million in production spending, or $20 million for shoots in low-income areas. - The...

Well, it's a mixed picture. ISPA recently convened a panel to examine the evidence. Watch the video here. - ISPA (Video)

Gates: “If ... we found out that, let’s say, your daddy wasn’t your daddy but your daddy didn’t know, I have an ethics protocol; we would reach out to your publicist and say, ‘We’ve learned something in our research we need to discuss directly.’ And everybody knows it’s not good news.“ - The Hollywood...

Independent theaters continue to be a vital asset to their communities, with a 9% increase in business in 2025, an encouraging sign for the sector, according to a recent survey. - Variety

“To get a new major approved, facult­y must demonstrate that there’s a genuine hunger for more dance on campus. They must lay out the benefits not only for future students, but also for the institution as a whole — its reputation and its bottom line.” Here’s how these four colleges did it. - Dance Magazine

She is creating a final solo work for herself — her first time onstage in 13 years — as a farewell, and she officially departs as artistic director of Lucy Guerin Inc at the end of this year. The company, based in Melbourne, has toured widely, from Paris to New York to Shanghai. -...

When Executive Director Josh Neckels received notification from the bank that the company had received a deposit, he nearly dismissed it as spam, but decided to call the bank to check. - Oregon Arts Watch

“O’Connor was 56 when she died and still making music – she had almost completed a new album. To be a middle-aged woman in the music industry is a rarity, but dance isn’t so different.” - The Guardian (UK)

A week after artistic director Tariq O’Meally was abruptly dismissed, an unsigned statement was released: “Dance Place has restructured its staffing model and is reimagining its approach to presentation programming in response to a dramatically contracting public funding environment and its commitment to operating with both efficiency and deeper community ownership.” - Dance Magazine

Choreographic researcher and artist Nazira Yerbolkyzy is among a new generation of practitioners working to reframe this relationship by exploring how traditional movement philosophies can be reinterpreted through contemporary choreography and movement analysis. - BroadwayWorld

A next-generation orchestral software from the German company KeyComp threatens to inflict the deepest cuts yet on what has traditionally been a steady gig for professional musicians. - The Guardian

“How did the new musical — long Broadway’s fundamental building block — become so scarce that the New York Drama Critics’ Circle opted to forgo an award this year for best musical, and two of the five Tony nominations for best score went to music composed for plays?” Well, several reasons. - The New...

The show is Warriors, an adaptation of the 2024 concept album by Miranda and Elsa Davis. The source material is Sol Yurick’s 1965 novel The Warriors, which was adapted into the now-classic 1979 film. The Miranda-Davis musical, which makes the titular gang female, will start previews next March and open in April. - AP

“Orchestral software from the German company KeyComp threatens to inflict the deepest cuts yet on what has traditionally been a steady gig for professional musicians. … Thanks to successful union campaigning, the software is banned in New York, Washington DC and in Hamburg, where the software company is based.” - The Guardian

“Pulitzer-winning playwright Paula Vogel has teamed up with former Huntington Theatre Managing Director Michael Maso and philanthropist Grace Nordhoff on a new center for playwrights and theatrical composers that will open in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, in 2028. Bards on the Bay will be housed in The Nancy Nordhoff Theatre Center.” - Playbill

“Most plays about prejudice comfort the audience with clarity. They reassure us that we would have recognized it immediately. Giant offers no such reassurance.” - Observer

The daughter of the founders of Houston’s Menil Collection, Christophe herself had a glittering social life filled with the arts and artists, and she funded career-establishing work by Robert Wilson, Twyla Tharp, Trisha Brown, and others. Her family life, on the other hand, was … well, fraught. - New York Magazine (MSN)

“I knew nothing about music,” he once said, looking back at his entry into the record business. Yet his instincts made him one of the surest spotters and nurturers of talent in pop history, with a long — and varied — line of success stories. - Los Angeles Times

The multimedia artist will receive the ¥100 million prize — given annually by the Inamori Foundation in three fields: advanced technology, basic science, and arts and philosophy — at a ceremony in Japan on November 10. - Nonesuch Records

One of the few nonperformers in music to become a household name, Mr. Davis maintained a visible role as a starmaker for half a century. In the late 1960s he propelled a reluctant Columbia headlong into the rock era with acts like Janis Joplin and Blood, Sweat & Tears.  - The New York Times

"In the last few years, she has become that rare figure in Hollywood, a famous woman who has only grown more powerful with age, a champion of younger performers and something of a truth-teller in an industry full of people encouraged by flattery to talk absolute rubbish.” - The Guardian (UK)

“One day she was asked, What would it look like if Tinker Bell landed on a mirror and saw herself? Ms. Kerry thought perhaps she would never have seen her reflection, so she began a preening once-over.” - The New York Times