ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

Today's Stories

Johnny Cash Estate Sues Coca Cola Under New “Elvis Act” For Using His Artistic Personna Without Permission

The case has been filed under the Elvis Act of Tennessee, made effective last year, which protects a person’s voice from exploitation without consent. - The Guardian

Tennessee Libraries Shut Down For Republicans’ Book Purge

Public libraries in Tennessee have begun to shut down as they carry out an order from state officials to remove children’s books containing LGBTQ+ themes or characters. - Common Dreams

Detroit Institute Of Arts Reimagines “Museum As Instrument Of Cultural Education”

The DIA has achieved a rare feat with its presentations: making art history feel unexpected, and so, truer to life. What immediate change it chooses for its closest community—that’s a story Detroit won’t forget. - ARTnews

John Oliver’s Benefit Auction For Public Broadcasting Sets Million-Dollar Record For Bob Ross Painting

On Monday, Ross’ Cabin at Sunset, painted for a 1986 episode of PBS’ iconic “The Joy of Painting”, sold for roughly $1,044,000. - ARTnews

LA Phil Grants Its YOLA Youth Orchestra Program A Reprieve After Pushback

After recently announcing major cuts to its youth orchestra, the L.A. Phil has secured additional donor funding to ensure the East L.A. branch of the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) program will continue at full capacity until the end of the school year. - Los Angeles Times

The NFL Is A Ratings Juggernaut. While Other Sports Viewership Declines, NFL Keeps Growing

To date, the most-watched game this regular season has been the Week 2 Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl rematch, which averaged 33.8 million viewers, marking one of the most-watched early season games ever. - Deadline

Survey: Writers Report Income Slipping Because Of AI

39% of novelists reported that their income has already been negatively affected by GenAI. They cited a range of reasons, including competition from AI-generated books, sabotage of sales due to rip-off AI-generated imitations of books, and supplementary streams of income such as copywriting becoming scarce due to increased use of GenAI. - The Conversation

Did We Make A Mistake When We Separated The Notion of Consciousness From Physical Things?

Ever since Descartes, who split mind from matter and linked thinking and being, we’ve drifted from the very thing that makes us human. We’ve separated ourselves from the natural world, physically and mentally. The mental separation enabled the physical one. We came to see ourselves inhabiting a world of things, ourselves the only conscious element within it. - Harper's

What Possesses People To Want To Own More Books Than They Can Possible Read?

Bibliomania, the only hobby which is also a mental health affliction. The person with piles of titles on their nightstand, in their closet, in the trunk of their car. Books in front of books on their bookshelf. “With thought, patience, and discrimination, book passion becomes the signature of a person’s character.”  - LitHub

Hollywood Reporter’s List Of America’s Top Music Schools

Conservatories made a comeback this year, with several returning to THR‘s annual list of the world’s best music schools. - The Hollywood Reporter

Why Pop Culture Got Dull

Culprit number one is lucre. For pop stars, Mr Marx argues, the idea of “selling out” has died out. The ultimate measure of value is financial success; distinct musical genres have been squished into “glossy, marketable pop”. - The Economist

Survey: State Of The Arts In Denver

Artists and cultural workers interviewed ahead of Colorado Creates said they worry about gentrification, burnout, lack of collaboration, the need to bring the younger generations into conversations and the cost of living in Denver. - Westword

Report: Museums Are Dramatically Underspending On Marketing

Museums have been resistant to spending on marketing at the same levels as other cultural organizations, says the report, which posits that the thinking may go that museums and art might even be demeaned by treating them like any other product. - ARTnews

What It’s Like To Wrangle A Giant Balloon In The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Katie Shepherd had wanted to be a balloon handler in the parade since grade school — since, believe it or not, she watched on TV the mess of 1997, when gale-force gusts wrought havoc on the balloons. In 2021 (and in calmer weather), Shepherd finally got her chance. - Slate (MSN)

Mamdani Names Culture Transition Team

The 28-member group includes curators, art dealers, journalists, and arts and nonprofit administrators. It ranges from Elizabeth Alexander, the president of the Mellon Foundation, which sits on an endowment of $7.7 billion, to Hannah Traore, who launched a 3,000-square-foot gallery on the Lower East Side not four years ago. - ARTnews

Making Sense Of Sylvia Plath’s Suicide

Carl Rollyson: “After writing three biographies of Sylvia Plath, what more could I possibly say about her suicide? Yet … in Plath’s case, (there are) very different circumstances that separate her suicide attempt in 1953 from her second, fatal one nearly a decade later.” - The Hedgehog Review

An Orchestra’s Orchestra: What An Orchestra Ought To Be

It’s no secret, too, that the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is the orchestras’ orchestra; the ensemble that makes hardened pros go wobbly at the knees, and sends critics spiralling towards Pseud’s Corner.  - The Spectator

AI-Written Children’s Books Are Flooding The Marketplace. Is This Bad?

How big a threat is AI to quality children’s publishing, and does it also threaten children’s learning? In a sense, my questions—not all of which are answerable—boil down to this: What makes a good children’s book, and how much does it matter if a children’s book is good? - Mother Jones

Study: Constant Checking Of Your Phone Feeds Cognitive Decline

A study by the Singapore Management University found that frequent interruptions to check our devices lead to more attention and memory lapses. Unlike total screen time, the frequency of smartphone checks is a much stronger predictor of daily cognitive failures. - Washington Post

How Choreographers Are Using AI As A Subject

“As AI technologies proliferate and become an increasingly inescapable fact of modern life, choreographers are not only experimenting with AI tools, but they’re also creating works that grapple with the potential repercussions of artificial intelligence and the existential questions it raises.” - Dance Magazine

By Topic

Did We Make A Mistake When We Separated The Notion of Consciousness From Physical Things?

Ever since Descartes, who split mind from matter and linked thinking and being, we’ve drifted from the very thing that makes us human. We’ve separated ourselves from the natural world, physically and mentally. The mental separation enabled the physical one. We came to see ourselves inhabiting a world of things, ourselves the only conscious element within it. - Harper's

Study: Constant Checking Of Your Phone Feeds Cognitive Decline

A study by the Singapore Management University found that frequent interruptions to check our devices lead to more attention and memory lapses. Unlike total screen time, the frequency of smartphone checks is a much stronger predictor of daily cognitive failures. - Washington Post

Scientist: AI Creativity Is Mathematically Limited To Amateur Status

The study provides evidence that large language models, such as ChatGPT, are mathematically constrained to a level of creativity comparable to an amateur human. - Psypost

Study: Our Brains Have Five Major Eras In Our Lifetimes

The study mapped neural connections and how they evolve during our lives. This revealed five broad phases, split up by four pivotal “turning points” in which brain organisation moves on to a different trajectory, at around the ages of nine, 32, 66 and 83 years. - The Guardian

Those Eureka Moments And Why They’re So Remarkable

You never feel as if you’re getting warmer; rather, you go from cold to hot, seemingly in an instant. Or, as the neuropsychologist Donald Hebb, known for his work building neurobiological models of learning, wrote in the 1940s, sometimes “learning occurs as a single jump, an all-or-none affair.” - Quanta

If Machines Do Most Of Our Writing, What Will Happen To Human Writing?

If you’re more likely to read something written by AI than by a human on the internet, is it only a matter of time before human writing becomes obsolete? Or is this simply another technological development that humans will adapt to? - The Conversation

Johnny Cash Estate Sues Coca Cola Under New “Elvis Act” For Using His Artistic Personna Without Permission

The case has been filed under the Elvis Act of Tennessee, made effective last year, which protects a person’s voice from exploitation without consent. - The Guardian

Why Pop Culture Got Dull

Culprit number one is lucre. For pop stars, Mr Marx argues, the idea of “selling out” has died out. The ultimate measure of value is financial success; distinct musical genres have been squished into “glossy, marketable pop”. - The Economist

Survey: State Of The Arts In Denver

Artists and cultural workers interviewed ahead of Colorado Creates said they worry about gentrification, burnout, lack of collaboration, the need to bring the younger generations into conversations and the cost of living in Denver. - Westword

What It’s Like To Wrangle A Giant Balloon In The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Katie Shepherd had wanted to be a balloon handler in the parade since grade school — since, believe it or not, she watched on TV the mess of 1997, when gale-force gusts wrought havoc on the balloons. In 2021 (and in calmer weather), Shepherd finally got her chance. - Slate (MSN)

Mamdani Names Culture Transition Team

The 28-member group includes curators, art dealers, journalists, and arts and nonprofit administrators. It ranges from Elizabeth Alexander, the president of the Mellon Foundation, which sits on an endowment of $7.7 billion, to Hannah Traore, who launched a 3,000-square-foot gallery on the Lower East Side not four years ago. - ARTnews

Texas State Leaders Are Literally Rewriting The History Of The Alamo

“Months before top Republicans forced out the widely respected leader of the Alamo’s $500 million redevelopment for being too ‘woke,’ a close political aide to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick undertook a literal rewrite of the heritage site’s three-hundred-year history.” - Texas Monthly

LA Phil Grants Its YOLA Youth Orchestra Program A Reprieve After Pushback

After recently announcing major cuts to its youth orchestra, the L.A. Phil has secured additional donor funding to ensure the East L.A. branch of the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) program will continue at full capacity until the end of the school year. - Los Angeles Times

Hollywood Reporter’s List Of America’s Top Music Schools

Conservatories made a comeback this year, with several returning to THR‘s annual list of the world’s best music schools. - The Hollywood Reporter

An Orchestra’s Orchestra: What An Orchestra Ought To Be

It’s no secret, too, that the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is the orchestras’ orchestra; the ensemble that makes hardened pros go wobbly at the knees, and sends critics spiralling towards Pseud’s Corner.  - The Spectator

A “Mass-Piano” Event

A group of more than 130 musicians played in unison at Sherwood Phoenix piano shop in Mansfield on Saturday. Organisers believe the performance surpassed a previous UK record for the most pianos played at once, but said there was no "official" attempt made to verify their musical effort. - BBC

Warner Music Makes Landmark AI Deal With Suno, Settling Copyright Claims

Artists and songwriters, according to the companies, “will have full control over whether and how their names, images, likenesses, voices, and compositions are used in new AI-generated music”. - Music Business Worldwide

“El Mesías” — Translating Handel’s Oratorio Into Spanish

“That has become our key bit of outreach,” says Ruben Valenzuela, director of the Bach Collegium San Diego. And with no complete Spanish version available, Valenzuela and Tijuana-based choral conductor Mario Montenegro translated the libretto themselves. - Early Music America

Detroit Institute Of Arts Reimagines “Museum As Instrument Of Cultural Education”

The DIA has achieved a rare feat with its presentations: making art history feel unexpected, and so, truer to life. What immediate change it chooses for its closest community—that’s a story Detroit won’t forget. - ARTnews

John Oliver’s Benefit Auction For Public Broadcasting Sets Million-Dollar Record For Bob Ross Painting

On Monday, Ross’ Cabin at Sunset, painted for a 1986 episode of PBS’ iconic “The Joy of Painting”, sold for roughly $1,044,000. - ARTnews

Report: Museums Are Dramatically Underspending On Marketing

Museums have been resistant to spending on marketing at the same levels as other cultural organizations, says the report, which posits that the thinking may go that museums and art might even be demeaned by treating them like any other product. - ARTnews

The Art Market Is Designed To Inflate Markets. But Here’s What Artists Need To Know

The structure itself is tilted toward collectors, dealers, and institutions. It is not designed to support artists. But artists who understand the language of the market can sometimes turn that knowledge into a form of protection.  - Hyperallergic

Exactly What Is This Odd New Group That Just Picked America’s Venice Biennale Artist?

If no one has heard of the Tampa-based AAC, this is because it was founded only in July of this year. The press release is so poorly edited that it repeats the same quote by executive director Jenni Parido twice. - Artnet

Philadelphia Art Museum’s Ex-Director Of HR And DEI Indicted For Theft

“Latasha Harling, 43, was arrested in July and charged with theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, and related crimes about six months after she quietly resigned from her job as the chief people and diversity officer for the museum.” - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

Tennessee Libraries Shut Down For Republicans’ Book Purge

Public libraries in Tennessee have begun to shut down as they carry out an order from state officials to remove children’s books containing LGBTQ+ themes or characters. - Common Dreams

Survey: Writers Report Income Slipping Because Of AI

39% of novelists reported that their income has already been negatively affected by GenAI. They cited a range of reasons, including competition from AI-generated books, sabotage of sales due to rip-off AI-generated imitations of books, and supplementary streams of income such as copywriting becoming scarce due to increased use of GenAI. - The Conversation

What Possesses People To Want To Own More Books Than They Can Possible Read?

Bibliomania, the only hobby which is also a mental health affliction. The person with piles of titles on their nightstand, in their closet, in the trunk of their car. Books in front of books on their bookshelf. “With thought, patience, and discrimination, book passion becomes the signature of a person’s character.”  - LitHub

AI-Written Children’s Books Are Flooding The Marketplace. Is This Bad?

How big a threat is AI to quality children’s publishing, and does it also threaten children’s learning? In a sense, my questions—not all of which are answerable—boil down to this: What makes a good children’s book, and how much does it matter if a children’s book is good? - Mother Jones

Writers At The New Yorker Are Furious Over The Firing Of A Fact-Checker

“The abrupt firing earlier this month of a senior fact-checker and New Yorker union member, Jasper Lo, has set off a swell of outrage among magazine staffers and contributors, including some of the most famous writers in America.” - The Washington Post (MSN)

How Does Winning A Booker Prize Affect An Author’s Career Long-Term?

Yes, of course a Booker leads to soaring sales of the book that wins, but what about an author’s subsequent works? - The Bookseller (UK)

The NFL Is A Ratings Juggernaut. While Other Sports Viewership Declines, NFL Keeps Growing

To date, the most-watched game this regular season has been the Week 2 Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl rematch, which averaged 33.8 million viewers, marking one of the most-watched early season games ever. - Deadline

Suddenly, The People Who Precipitated The Crisis At The BBC Can’t Say What The Problem Is

When they were called to Parliament and questioned by the House of Commons Media Culture and Sport Committee on Monday, they minimized the allegations of bias at the network which they had spent the past few weeks trumpeting. - Prospect (UK)

Inside The Collapse Of Dr. Phil’s Media Network

“The unraveling of McGraw’s (Merit Street Media) was a gut punch for the celebrity therapist who has assiduously built a reputation" — and riches — "as one of the most trusted voices on television. But his fortunes faded amid a dying market for syndicated TV and clashes with a distributor and partner.” - Los...

This Public Radio Station In Rural Alaska Genuinely Saves Lives

KYUK, which broadcasts in English and indigenous language Yugtun to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta on Alaska’s west coast, transmitted crucial evacuation and rescue information when the remnants of a typhoon hit the area last month. The station lost 70% of its budget when Congress defunded public radio this past summer. - Reveal

Wicked Part 2 Sets Opening Weekend Box Office Records

Not only is it the biggest opening ever for a Broadway musical adaptation, unseating the record set by the first film’s $112 million launch, it’s also the second biggest debut of the year behind “A Minecraft Movie’s” $162 million. - APNews

A Terrific Explainer (With Examples) Of How Movie Special Effects Are Made

When was the last time you saw incredible CGI or other visual effects? Probably a tougher question to answer. That’s because VFX, like any other filmmaking tool, is invisible when done well. - Washington Post

How Choreographers Are Using AI As A Subject

“As AI technologies proliferate and become an increasingly inescapable fact of modern life, choreographers are not only experimenting with AI tools, but they’re also creating works that grapple with the potential repercussions of artificial intelligence and the existential questions it raises.” - Dance Magazine

Thieves Steal Touring Ballet’s “Nutcracker” Sets

Toronto-based Ballet Jörgen had just begun its annual December tour of Ontario with the holiday favorite when the rental truck containing its sets and backdrops was stolen around 3:30 am Monday morning. - CBC

Biosensors Could Transform Medical Care For Dancers

“Biosensors are devices designed to measure real-time processes and responses within the body, like a person’s heart rate, blood oxygen level, and sleep quality. … Here are a few ways biosensors have been used to expand research in dance medicine.” - Dance Magazine

At The Intersection Of Physical Dance And Virtual Reality

As VR becomes more widespread, a growing number of dance artists and companies are exploring—and, in some cases, redefining—what this technology can do. - Dance Magazine

How New Motion-Capture Technology Might Affect Dancers And Choreographers

An exec at the firm Move AI insists that the combination of motion-capture and AI software isn’t to replace dance artists but to streamline the repetitive, tedious process of animation. (The dance artists are still nervous.) Meanwhile, other AI programs stand to make the work of dance historians and archivists easier. - Dance Magazine

Nico Muhly On The Physical Translation Of Music Into Dancers’ Bodies

Watching a dance rehearsal as a score-addicted musician is surreal. You can have 30 people in the room, and only two of them will have the score. What is fascinating is that the choreographer has imposed an entirely different, invisible form of notation on the form of their counting. - The Guardian

“Sharp Decline” In Stagings Of New Plays In UK Post-COVID

“The British Theatre Consortium report, titled ‘British Theatre Before & After Covid’, examines 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, and 2023, the first full year after theatres reopened. It draws on anonymised data from 139 theatres across the UK.” - WhatsOnStage (UK)

Broadway’s “Queen Of Versailles” To Close After Only A Few Weeks

The musical, based on a 2012 documentary about a Florida couple seeking to build a palatial home but stymied by an economic downturn, is yet another high-profile financial failure for Broadway: The show cost up to $22.5 million to capitalize. - The New York Times

“The Queen Of Versailles” To End Its Broadway Run Early

The musical, starring Kristin Chenoweth (in her return to Broadway after ten years) and featuring Stephen Schwartz’s first Broadway score since Wicked, began previews in October and officially opened two weeks ago. The production was expected to run into next spring but, after negative reviews, will close on Jan. 4. - Entertainment Weekly

San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre Chief To Step Down

Pam MacKinnon will step down as artistic director of San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) at the close of the 2025-2026 season, ending an eight-year tenure with the company. MacKinnon was the theatre's fourth leader, joining in 2018. - Playbill

One Performer Killed, Another Gravely Injured At Live Circus Stunt In Italy

“Fatal accidents inside the Globe of Death — a popular circus stunt in which multiple motorcyclists ride around inside a globe-shaped metal cage in tight formations — are rare, despite the stunt’s death-defying appearance.” - The New York Times

Protesters Interrupt Performance Of Carmen At The Met

“While it was not immediately clear what they were protesting, eyewitnesses said one of them had denounced David H. Koch, the billionaire industrialist, a polarizing figure who poured much of his fortune into right-wing causes and a campaign to discredit the idea of climate change.” - The New York Times

Making Sense Of Sylvia Plath’s Suicide

Carl Rollyson: “After writing three biographies of Sylvia Plath, what more could I possibly say about her suicide? Yet … in Plath’s case, (there are) very different circumstances that separate her suicide attempt in 1953 from her second, fatal one nearly a decade later.” - The Hedgehog Review

One Of Canada’s Leading Authors Of Indigenous Stories Just Found Out He Has No Indigenous Ancestry

“Thomas King, … the writer of books including 2003's The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative and 2012's The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America, says he is reeling from recent news that he has no Cherokee ancestry.” - CBC

Dorothy Vogel, A New York Librarian With A Vast Art Collection In Her One-Room Apartment, Has Died At 90

Vogel and her husband, a postal clerk, "bought thousands of works from future art stars like Sol LeWitt and Donald Judd, stashing them in their cramped one-bedroom New York apartment and eventually handing over the entire collection to the National Gallery of Art.” - The New York Times

Donald McIntyre, Great Wagnerian Bass-Baritone, Is Dead At 91

His powerful voice, authoritative presence and incisive musicianship led him to a major international career including the Met, Covent Garden, and La Scala. He had a 23-year relationship with the Bayreuth Festival, where he took the role of Wotan/the Wanderer in the landmark 1976 Chéreau/Boulez production of the Ring cycle. - Moto Perpetuo

Ex-Employees Accuse Smoky Robinson Of Sexual Assault

“Two more former employees of the soul music star Smokey Robinson, both male and female, have alleged he sexually assaulted them, which he denies. Robinson is already facing similar allegations from four other former employees, who filed a ($50 million) joint lawsuit in May.” - The Guardian

Wagnerian Tenor Gary Lakes Has Died At 75

A veteran who performed at the Metropolitan Opera 106 times and at many other companies, he was known for such challenging roles as Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Tristan, Parsifal, and Siegmund and Siegfried (at various times) in the Ring cycle, as well as Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio and Aeneas in Berlioz’s Les Troyens. - OperaWire

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Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra seeks Vice President, Human Resources

The next Vice President, Human Resources will lead the FWSO’s design and implementation of HR strategy to strength communication and collaboration across the organization.

Managing Director- The Old Globe working with Management Consultants for the...

The Old Globe is seeking a Managing Director to co-lead the company as it looks ahead to the landmark celebration of its 100th anniversary

Boch Center, VP Marketing & Communications | In Partnership with DHR...

The Boch Center seeks a Vice President of Marketing & Communications

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra seeks Chief Philanthropy Officer

The next Chief Philanthropy Officer will sustain and build on a culture of philanthropy to advance the SLSO in delivering on its mission.

Improv In Real Life Podcast

This podcast is about the art of improv can help us navigate the speed of life: skills, philosophy and the research that supports it.

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Director of Programming, Hult Center, Eugene, OR

Application Deadline: Monday, December 1, 2025, at 5 p.m. P.T. Accepting Online Applications Only Via the City of Eugene’s Website: Director of Programming | Job

New York University, Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions, Performing Arts Administration-Non-Tenure Track Position

New York University, Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions, Performing Arts Administration-Non-Tenure Track Position

The Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts California State University, Northridge seeks Executive and Artistic Director

The Executive and Artistic Director will provide leadership and have overall responsibility for programming, fundraising, external relations, mission fulfillment, and the financial performance of The Soraya.

Apply Now: Canada’s National Arts Centre Mentorship Program

A paid side-by-side opportunity in Ottawa, Canada for emerging and early-career orchestral musicians, conductors and administrators. International applicants welcome.

New York’s Newest ‘Experiential Cinema’ Is Pricey, And Private

“Pick a film from either current releases or a curated archive, select a drink package for an extra $50 each, choose a 12-13 course gourmet meal off a seasonal menu for another $100 a head, and you have a ritzy night at the movies.” - The Guardian (UK)

The Met Says There Was A ‘Security Lapse’ That Let Protestors Disrupt Carmen The Other Night

A security guard (now suspended from his job) was not at his post. “That allowed the two protesters to walk on a narrow ledge along the wall of the left side of the orchestra pit and make their way on to the stage.” - The New York Times

More Than Half Of The Novelists In Britain Think That Software, AKA AI, Will Replace Them

“Many participants reported that their work had already been used without their permission to train large language models, and more than a third (39%) said their income had fallen as a result of generative AI. A large majority also expected their earnings to decline further.” - The Guardian (UK)

Kennedy Center Special Deals For Trump Allies Investigated By Senate Democrats

“Senate Democrats are investigating the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts over its spending practices and booking deals involving political allies, accusing its leadership, installed by President Donald Trump, of ‘self-dealing, favoritism, and waste’ amid programming shifts and plummeting ticket sales.’” - The Washington Post (MSN)

Gustav Klimt Portrait Is Now Second-Most Expensive Artwork Ever Auctioned

The six-foot-tall painting, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914-16), shows a young heiress and daughter of Klimt’s patrons draped in a Chinese robe. Its sale price of $236.4 million is exceeded only by the notorious Salvator Mundi attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which sold for $450 million in 2017. - The Guardian

How Theatre Artists Survive Dictatorships

“If you press your ear to the plays of the 20th century, they’ll tell you secrets of human acts gone by and strategies to keep on. Among bloody slings and arrows of inhumane humanity are extraordinary scenes, real and imagined, of survival.” - American Theatre

Software Is Good At Pattern Recognition And Spitting Those Patterns Back Out, But Is That ‘Writing’ Music?

“As with most things in life, when expertise is devalued, it’s easier to pass trash off as treasure. AutoTune and AI are enabling people who lack musical talent to game the system — like audio catfish.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)

Disney May Be Turning To AI To Help Create ‘User-Generated Content’ On Its Main Streamer

Bob Iger knows it’s, uh, interesting to be suing some AI companies while courting others. “'It's obviously imperative for us to protect our IP with this new technology,’ Iger said.” - NPR

The Return Of A Night At The Natural History Museum

“Children ran, some of them in stocking feet, through the displays, with abandon. (Running had been discouraged in the safety lecture, but this did not dissuade a young boy who shouted ‘I have to look for the animals that will hunt us in the night.’)” - The New York Times

The Palm Springs Art Museum Trustee Revolt: Just What The Heck Is Happening Here?

Basically, “without consideration of multiple outside candidates, the search committee had in effect become simply a hiring committee for an in-house nominee.” That in-house nominee might be great - but that doesn’t fix the hiring process. - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Inside The National Endowment For The Humanities, In The Iron Grip Of The Current Administration

“Many of its nearly 50 grant programs have been paused or ended. … About two thirds of the staff has been laid off and, last month, most members of the scholarly council that must review a majority of grants were abruptly fired by the White House.” - The New York Times

World Cup Draw Will Take Over Kennedy Center For Three Weeks At No Charge: Report

The Dec. 5 draw, the World Cup’s highest-profile pre-tournament event, was expected to be held in Las Vegas. Trump reportedly swooped in at the 11th hour to offer use of Kennedy Center performance spaces and other facilities, for free, for almost three weeks, requiring cancellation or postponement of scheduled events. - The Washington Post...

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