These corporations have erected a private state over us. They who have disrupted almost every economic and political balance in the Republic. They who have amassed the power to shape and determine how we speak to one another and share news and information. Even how we think, dream, and perceive our place in the world. - Harper's

We all suffer from delusions, and we all, like Oedipus, use tricks of self-deception to keep ourselves from acknowledging truths about our lives. Yet understanding, or even describing, this everyday experience can seem like a fool’s errand. - Harper's

What we hardly talk about is how we’ve reorganized not just industrial activity but any activity to be capturable by computer, a radical expansion of what can be mined. Friendship is ground zero for the metrics of the inner world, the first unquantifiable shorn into data points. - The Walrus

The researchers found that, in jackpot scenarios, the activity of neurons associated with motor preparation decreased. Motor preparation is the brain’s way of making calculations about how to complete a movement — similar to lining up an arrow on a target before unleashing it. - Nature

Today, it can be digitally simulated, biologically synthesised or made from entirely different materials to those that allowed our evolutionary ancestors to flourish. These and other possibilities are inviting researchers to ask more fundamental questions: if the materials for life can radically change – like the materials for computation – what stays the same? 

In 2010, a political-science paper came out that made people worry. It suggested fact-checks might actually make people dig in their heels. What if telling people they’re wrong makes them double down rather than change their minds? - The Atlantic

Five Black and Hispanic families sued the Sesame Place theme park in suburban Philadelphia, alleging that their children were ignored by costumed performers there due to racial bias. It took the jury less than three hours to reject the plaintiffs' claims. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

Could these increasingly messy call-outs and protests, personal attacks on social media and public decouplings result in an already woefully underfunded arts sector destroying itself? - The Stage

Vance has spent little effort in the Senate on the arts: his only notable action was introducing a Consequences for Climate Vandals Act, which would increase penalties for protesters damaging art at Smithsonian museums. Meanwhile, Walz is governor of Minnesota, number one in the US in arts funding per capita. - Hyperallergic

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a handful of artificial intelligence-related bills that would give actors more protection over their digital likenesses and fight against the spread of deep fakes in political ads, among other regulations aimed at the fast-rising technology. - Los Angeles Times

The report from the Fabian Society, founded in 1884 and one of the progenitors of today's Labour Party, calls for removing the "class ceiling" by issuing every Briton a "universal library card," ensuring every child can learn an artistic practice, and giving older children a "culture pass" to arts institutions. - The Guardian

The $336 million project, called ArtSide, is one of the largest real estate projects in Newark in decades. It will include roughly 350 apartments, 15 townhouses and ground-floor retail in a seven-story midrise building and a 25-story tower. Profits from the development will go to support NJPAC programming. - The New York Times

“I want a production to constantly unsettle the audience and ask for continuous renegotiations of their experience.” - The Wall Street Journal

The piece dates to the mid to late 1760s and consists of seven miniature movements for a string trio lasting about 12 minutes, the Leipzig municipal libraries said in a statement on Thursday. - The Guardian

"I continue to be struck by the fact that the current leadership of the San Francisco Symphony really has no defenders in any press: local, national, or international. They are getting hammered by all quarters, by all media. And if they were hoping to win over ABC7, that clearly didn’t go well." - Song...

The streaming boom that lifted the music industry’s fortunes in the mid-2010s after years of decline has leveled off, — with the recorded-music industry posting just 4% growth in the first half of 2024 after many years of double-digit increases — and all three major companies have been laying off staff. - Variety

"More than 150 musicians and patrons joined the Symphony Chorus, which formed a picket … in front of Davies Symphony Hall an hour and a half before the Verdi Requiem concert was scheduled to begin. Among the signs held by strikers, one read, 'No contract = No Chorus.'" - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

"The deal with Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians calls for raises of about 15% in 2024-25, and 7.5% each in 2025-26 and 2026-27. Base pay will rise to $205,000 by the deal’s final season." - AP

"The distinction between theme parks and urban venues is rapidly dissolving" - Dezeen

The incumbent, Ian Wardropper, announced last year that he would be retiring in 2025 as the museum returns to its now-renovated Manhattan mansion home. Succeeding him will be Axel Rüger, currently director of the Royal Academy of Arts in London and previously head of Amsterdam's van Gogh Museum. - Artnet

Before Haacke, museums were considered … 'genteel and politically marginal.' Robber barons might have donated to them to enhance their social clout, but such cultural largess was seldom questioned. Today, though, …, Haacke’s work is more than just relevant — it’s prophetic." - T — The New York Times Style Magazine

The objects in question were linked to several ongoing investigations, among them, a trafficking network that systemically looted the ancient city of Bubon in Turkey and trafficked the works to New York. - ARTnews

For museums questioning how to make a sustained and long-term impact, the key factor is access. How do we define the public we’re aiming to serve, and is the current definition sufficiently equitable and global? - The Art Newspaper

"I have put together a list of 14 criteria that convey financial value to a work of art. While the first point is emotional, all other points are actually rational." - Artnet

"The Chicago Manual of Style isn’t merely a guide; it’s a testament to the art of textual precision. … CMOS doesn’t skim the surface of grammatical and syntactical conventions but delves deeply into the labyrinthine complexities. The Manual functions as both a meticulous blueprint and a flexible instrument." - Literary Hub

Perhaps no bookstore in America’s heartland better exemplifies a commitment to the freedom to read than Loudmouth Books, in Indianapolis. - Publishers Weekly

The finance firm KKR bought the controlling interest in Axel Springer — which owns German news outlets Bild and Die Welt along with US online titles Politico and Business Insider — in 2019. Now Springer is hiving itself off with the media properties while KKR keeps the firm's classified ad businesses. - Axios

From the bizarre sense of humour apparent in their Christmas cards – depicting murderous frogs, mice riding lobsters, and even waltzing beetles – to the off-beat slang they used, the Victorians defy their stuffy reputation. There’s an absurdism in their language and witticisms that feels surprisingly modern. - The Conversation

"Half a century after its publication, (this) epic biography of urban planner and city-destroyer Robert Moses needs no revival. From the moment it was published, … (it) has never gone away. Its durability resembles that of Moses’s own prodigious creation, the redrawn arterial map of New York." - The New York Times Book Review

"A group of scientists and scholars … filed a class action lawsuit against Elsevier, Wolters Kluwer, John Wiley & Sons, Sage Publications, Taylor and Francis, and Springer Nature last week. The complaint outlines 'a scheme' that they say resulted in 'perverse market failures that ... slow dramatically the pace of scientific progress.'" -...

“Film and television not only entertain, but they also provide a way to highlight issues, start conversations about difficult topics, and give voice to those whose stories we may not have heard.”  - Los Angeles Times

Four years ago, Michaels, the series's founding producer, said that by the end of the 50th season, "I think I really deserve to wander off." Now that that landmark has arrived, he says that "as long as (the show is) important and I can be useful, I’ll stay." - The Hollywood Reporter

"Fans were soon drawing (the) hokey monster against rainbow backdrops. They were bending his rhyming schemes to echo contemporary gay lingo (“BABAYAAAAAAAAASS!!!” one illustration read). They were photoshopping his face onto vintage photos of 1970s muscled men in short shorts." - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

“There’s a choice ahead of us, whether we choose to be the last guardians of this chapter, or whether we choose to be the first pioneers of the next.” - The Hollywood Reporter

“I thought, ‘What if there were a show about our leaders where these people are as competent and committed as the doctors and nurses on a hospital show, the police officers on a cop show, the lawyers on a David Kelley show?’” - The New York Times

Despite differences over solutions, there is a consensus on the problem: California is simply not competitive with many other states and countries that offer more generous incentives to entice film crews. - Los Angeles Times

Today, fliers and social media posts use labels including “dissident tango” and “inclusive tango,” while a growing number of the nontraditional lessons and events use “queer tango” – increasingly accepted as the most all-are-welcome way of describing the fluid and open atmosphere of the events. - Christian Science Monitor

Researchers in Germany and France have analyzed the stylized movements of some female gibbons, and they've found that, defining dance as "an intentional movement that’s rhythmic and doesn’t serve a physical purpose" (as does, say, walking or scratching an itch), the gibbons' movements qualify. - The New York Times

Stanford Makishi, vice president and artistic director of dance at New York City Center: "We literally have companies written on Post-it notes on a giant whiteboard, and we’re constantly moving around Post-it notes. It is the most low-tech way of programming that you could possibly imagine.” - Pointe Magazine

Four Loves, a 30-minute ballet with a cast of more than 20, is inspired by C.S. Lewis's book The Four Loves, which examines storge (familial love), philia (friendship), eros (romantic love), and agape (spiritual love). Farley describes his piece as "like a cosmic daughter of (Balanchine's) Four Temperaments." - Dance Magazine

This is the first-ever Filmed for Imax ballet, and will be released exclusively in Imax locations globally on November 8. - Deadline

Branislav Henselmann, 49, most recently worked as the deputy general manager of arts, culture and community for the city of Vancouver, where he worked for seven years and previously led the city’s Cultural Services department. He also served as executive director of Ballet BC for nearly five years. - San Francisco Chronicle

This project started, as Hamilton did, as a concept album, which is being released next month. Miranda said that he won't proceed with creating and producing a stage show until he sees how the album is received. - Fast Company

Yet that's exactly what Scott Bakula will be doing when he assumes the title role in Herbert Mitgang’s 1979 solo play Mister Lincoln at the historic playhouse where the 16th President of the United States was assassinated. - The Washington Post (MSN)

At Ars Nova, Emily Shooltz fostered the work of dozens of early-career playwrights the organization commissioned and developed for production, and over 100 others through the organization’s Play Group and roster of artist residency programs. - Playbill

In comparison to the theater, live comedy has recovered from the pandemic in great commercial shape. But with success comes the danger of insularity, and while more new artists are entering the field than ever, the gulf in influence between celebrity comics and gifted young unknowns grows. - The New York Times

The production at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, which was to run from last week into early October, was a modern retelling of the Shakespeare fairy tale with a drum-and-bass score. It included a song with controversial references which theatre management requested be cut; the company refused. - The Guardian

Arifa Akbar: "My quotidian reality as chief theatre critic of The Guardian cannot compare: a supermarket sandwich wolfed down before the bell, a frantic filing of copy after the curtain goes down ..., or eating biscuits at my laptop into the small hours if it is a morning deadline." - The Guardian

She sang 748 performances in 56 roles at the Met between 1950 and 1991. Many of those performances were last-minute: for many years she was the company's preferred substitute when a leading soprano cancelled. Ultimately, that position held her back, and she sued the company for age discrimination. - The New York Times

"As a novelist, (he) was often compared with the American writer James A. Michener, who … attempted to capture epic swaths of history in an intimate narrative. But if his vision was Michenerian, his prose was Faulknerian, driven by interweaving, stream-of-conscious narratives." - The New York Times

"Nearly 60 years since his gallery debut, Pettibone remains best known for his works copying modern art superstars like Andy Warhol and Frank Stella. Pettibone’s unwitting final exhibition with Castelli Gallery in 2022 presented 15 new paintings, all interpreting flags by Jasper Johns through Pettibone’s signature reduced scale." - Artnet

At Columbia Records and RCA, Munves was responsible for such innovative hits as "Switched-On Bach" as well as composers' "Greatest Hits" compendia and, later, titles that made critics cringe but sold well, such as "Liszt for Lovers" and "Puccini and Pasta." - The New York Times

"Bates said the retirement buzz was 'kind of a misunderstanding' after she referred to Matlock as her 'last dance' in an interview with The New York Times last week. 'I was very flattered that everybody was upset,'" the award-winning actress said on the Emmy Awards red carpet. - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

“Jackson played guitar, sang and, of course, danced his way into homes worldwide as the Jackson 5 became an international sensation in the late ’60s and early ’70s, with a string of smashes hits that included four straight No. 1 hits.” He was touring as recently as last week. - Variety