We ask for help from artificial customer service representatives. Some of us accept friend requests from bots and are, thereafter, influenced by the content they post. This is a momentous change to the nature of the public square. - 3 Quarks Daily

If Canada wants its cultural policy to survive the age of slop, it will have to insist that what claims to be human—and Canadian—be verified as such. Sovereignty, in this context, is not just about protecting domestic production from foreign influence. - The Walrus

It’s far worse: It does wrong by Shakespeare. "Hamnet changes many details and events in Shakespeare’s life to tell its story, but it is in its prestigeiness that it truly does Shakespeare dirty.” - Slate

“Even if tiny mics are a trend that’s crossed over from influencer culture, they’ve become yet another obnoxious staple of the film industry that favors a viewer’s pleasure over decorum. Not everything needs to be kitsch, dumbed down, or turned into a competitive status symbol.” - Salon

“The pamphlet changed the way Americans viewed government. Beginning with an origin story that echoed John Locke’s ‘Second Treatise of Government,’ Paine depicted people originally created free and equal in nature and subsequently forming representative governments to better secure their liberty and happiness.” - Salon

There is no longer a crisis in the humanities. Our field’s long-running narrative of continuous crisis is over. The bad news: The crisis of the humanities has been revealed by the events of the last year to be a crisis of civil society writ large. - Chronicle of Higher Education

“Disengagement” from institutions that uphold freedom of expression and artistic freedom “weakens the global protective frameworks on which artists and cultural workers depend.” - Artnet

The theme parks and cruise ships Vaughn’s team designs cost billions of dollars, dwarfing the budgets of movies that cost several hundred million dollars at most. When they succeed, they bring in revenue for decades and imprint Disney characters into children’s memories. - The Wall Street Journal

This phenomenon has been called “memorization,” and AI companies have long denied that it happens on a large scale.  - The Atlantic

Ticketmaster is urging a federal judge in Los Angeles to throw out the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's case accusing it of working with resellers to gouge fans, saying the law it is accused of violating applies only to resellers, not ticketing platforms. - Reuters

Digital tickets fixed physical ticket counterfeiting, sure. But "digital tickets didn’t eliminate fraud. They just changed the face of it—and in the process, blew the doors open for a new generation of scammers.” - Fast Company

A judge in New Mexico issued a warrant for his arrest. "Busfield was charged with two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse after two child actors said he had touched them inappropriately over a period of years.” - The New York Times

We have gone from clapping to drumming, and from using drum machines in recording studios to generating “new” sounds with AI. Yet now that I have completed these experiments, I realise that one thing remains the same. - The Conversation

Financially, it’s likely to be good for the Opera. “The news of the split could inspire a groundswell of support from longtime patrons who pumped the brakes on their operagoing in 2025 amid the Trump takeover. It may even serve to restore projects that were thought lost.” - Washington Post (Yahoo)

The director of indies and Meg 2: The Trench says, “Before it might have been playing games or doomscrolling. is a more productive and creative way of calming down.” - The Guardian (UK)

It’s a new lawsuit in a long, long battle, with opponents that are not exactly beloved. “X and the publishers have been in a legal battle for years, with the NMPA first suing the platform back in 2023 over allegations of mass copyright infringement.” - The Hollywood Reporter

“As my will to blindly obey crumbled, I began to secretly tune in to the American armed forces radio station that broadcast in Japan. … One day, ‘Losing My Religion’ came on, and I remember hearing it for the first time and freezing. I physically stopped walking.” - The Guardian (UK)

No doubt we should believe that leadership just as much as we’d believe any questionable partner. “Opera leaders had said that it was an amicable split, and made no mention of the political turmoil causing many artists to cancel their Kennedy Center engagements." - Variety

Thomas Doyle already had 11 convictions to his name for various swindles. His latest alleged fraud involves a London gallery owner and Bruce Springsteen’s manager. - The Wall Street Journal

The proposal by artist Gabrielle Goliath was a performance to mourn Gaza’s dead after Israel’s actions against the area. A spokesperson said that it wasn’t focused enough on South Africa: “We need to use our platforms to sell our country to the world.” - Hyperallergic

The caption for the previous photo read in part, “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials.” - Washington Post (Yahoo)

The design, by the Australian firms Cox Architecture and Hassell in collaboration with the Japanese practice Azusa Sekkei, is inspired by the wraparound verandas of traditional “Queenslander” houses. (Brisbane is the Queensland state capital.) - CNN

Across the US, artists report being called on to subsidise budgets for museum exhibitions, public commissions and even acquisitions. In some cases, opportunities evaporate entirely when the artist and organisation are unable to raise the money needed for production. - The Art Newspaper

“After starting out with ... mostly borrowed and donated items a century ago, the museum today boasts a collection of more than 39,000 items, including many Spanish Old Masters and significant numbers of French, Indian, Asian and American works. Annual attendance now tops 550,000, about five times (that of) 2010.” - The San Diego...

As Gen Z ditch books at record levels, students are arriving to classrooms unable to complete assigned reading on par with previous expectations. It’s leaving colleges no choice but to lower their expectations. - Fortune (MSN)

In case you need a list of dystopian novels to read instead of, hm, the news. - The Guardian (UK)

“The young Thomas was an enthusiastic contributor to Swansea Grammar School's magazine after joining as an 11-year-old in 1925, but Gallenzi found at least a dozen examples where Thomas had copied wholesale from work published in other magazines.” - BBC

Her publisher sure didn’t help, at least not at first. But then the community “was nurtured and deepened by the connections that Louise made through her own efforts, touring, doing events in the U.S. and Canada, meeting readers face to face, and then also building a social media presence.”  - CBC

“Nearly 50 authors, commentators, and academics have dropped out of this year’s Adelaide Festival in Australia after the Festival announced that they were canceling an appearance by Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah over ‘cultural sensitivity’ concerns.” - LitHub

It’s probably the busiest building downtown. But the area’s residents have voted down two library bonds. What’s next? - Oregon ArtsWatch

Here’s the thinking: A lack of cost savings could dissuade employers from using AI-generated performers instead of real actors like Emma Stone or Viola Davis. “In my opinion, if synthetics cost the same as a human, they’re going to choose a human every time." - The Hollywood Reporter

Welp, podcasts are in, music is out; sorry to "Alexandre Desplat for Frankenstein, Ludwig Goransson for Sinners, Jonny Greenwood for One Battle After Another, Kangding Ray for Sirat, Max Richter for Hamnet and Hans Zimmer for F1: The Movie.” - The New York Times

Kit Harington’s timing was perhaps challenging. Game of Thrones finished; he went into rehab; then the pandemic hit. "When things started up again after the lockdown, Harington told his agent he wanted a ‘no swords’ rule for vetting potential jobs.” - The New York Times

“This second Night Manager season arrives at a moment when spy dramas have moved on, and in a grubbier, more down-to-earth direction than the one the first season ushered in.” - Slate

That is to say, climate change makes fools of us all, including reality TV shows: "Filming for Love Island: All Stars has been postponed after the villa was evacuated due to wildfires." - BBC

“Chloé Zhao recovered from looking shellshocked to quote Paul Mescal, saying that making Hamnet made him realize that being an artist is about being vulnerable and being seen for who we are, not who we ought to be, and giving ourselves fully to the world.” - The New York Times

Supporters argue that performing at the center now risks aligning the Ballet with an institution they say has been politicized under Trump’s leadership. - San Francisco Chronicle

“The court conflict involves Dance Theatre of Harlem; its former archivist, Judy Tyrus; and ChromaDiverse, a nonprofit Tyrus founded to preserve the records of performing arts groups. Dance Theatre of Harlem has accused the heirs of their one-time photographer of illegally donating 16 boxes of archival materials to Tyrus’s organization.” - Gothamist

That lack of recognition has real consequences. Across Europe, most public heritage funding is absorbed by monuments, libraries and museums. Dance, which exists only in the moment of its performance, is rarely included. - Horizon

“A former Richmond Ballet student is suing the performance organization for $11.5 million, alleging sexual, emotional and psychological abuse at the hands of staff members during her eight years (there). The 85-page complaint … is the third lawsuit filed by a former student … in the past five years.” - WTVR (Richmond)

“Georgian dance is an art of outrageous virtuosity and athleticism, often meant to indicate prowess at war and in the hunt. The dances are characterized by fiery leaps, sudden drops to the knees, swordplay, spinning jumps and men dancing on the tips of their toes.” - The New York Times

One study found that people who danced frequently (more than once a week) had a 76 percent lower risk of dementia than those who did so rarely. - Washington Post

“'The shared laughter in a crowded theater, the eager debrief after a musical, the heavy silence that hangs over all of us in a drama — these are moments that every New Yorker deserves,’ Mamdani said.” - The New York Times

“There was what I would not call lying to my family but obfuscating about where I was and what I was doing, as if I were having an affair. (An affair would have been easier to explain.)” - The New York Times

In the movie Kokuho, a epic covering five decades in the life of a fictional kabuki actor, we see the traditional theater slowly fade from Japanese popular culture. In real life, interest in kabuki has fallen, especially since COVID. Now there’s hope that the film’s success could attract new fans to the genre. -...

Mind you, this script wasn’t just spit out by a bot after one prompt. The French AI collective Obvious spent two years developing the script with the Théâtre Molière Sorbonne: training the software on the playwright’s structure and themes, then producing new drafts after feedback from scholars and actors. - The New York Times

“In the re-envisioned Fantasticks, the central romantic pair – traditionally Matt and Luisa – are now Matt and Lewis, reinterpreting the story’s ‘allegory of love, longing, and reconciliation through a gay lens,’ according to producers. The show’s original pair of fathers, who secretly orchestrate the clandestine love affair between their children, are now mothers.” -...

“If I step back and think about what unites the shows, it’s probably they’re all trying to be joy-forward experiences and shows where the audience is acknowledged,” says Alex Timbers, now 47. - AP News

“His detour into literature began in 2000, when he was asked by Martin Blaser, the chairman of N.Y.U.’s department of medicine, to join him and Danielle Ofri, who had worked with Dr. Lowenstein when she was a resident at N.Y.U., to start the Bellevue Literary Review.” - The New York Times

“Susan Sontag once claimed she would be ‘glad to see’ Béla Tarr’s 1994 masterpiece Sátántangó ‘every year for the rest of my life.’ No small compliment given that the film is more than seven hours long.” - The Guardian (UK)

“After his breakout role as Pablo Escobar 10 years ago on Netflix’s Narcos, Moura frustrated his agents by turning down many of the high-profile, lucrative projects that came his way.” Then? The Secret Agent came along. - The New York Times

And she pays the book, at least, back with a reread every few years. - The New York Times

"Graham … died in 1991 at 96. Tensions between her company and Protas then simmered for a decade before boiling over in a court fight starting in 2001, after which performances by her dancers all but ended for two years. To (his) critics, … he was ‘the most reviled man in dance.’” - The New York...

Less than 24 hours after the horrifying shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, merchandise related to the slain U.S. citizen is already proliferating on e-commerce shopping sites, including on Amazon and Etsy. - Fast Company