Not long ago, many online casino experiences were built around flashy graphics and simple luck-based mechanics. Today, game development has become a sophisticated data-informed process. - The Walrus

Generative AI will indeed make many tasks easier and quicker to perform, increasing efficiency and decreasing costs. But we think that one of the biggest promises of this technology lies elsewhere: in unlocking new forms of human creativity that can drive innovation and growth. - Harvard Business Review

And, more importantly, how can creative people destroy the very word? - Happy Dancing

But it wasn’t supposed to exist at all - and it’s only thanks to a “semi-rogue” group that we all know ROTFL, LOL, and so much more. - The Verge

How did it go? “The year-long celebration cost around £51m and generated audiences of three million people.” OK. Also, train traffic from London went way up. - BBC

Unity, cohesion, and a sense of epic narrative have been lost. Freedom, pluralism, sensitivity, and a respect for difference have been gained, and, overall, I am glad. - History Today

If someone has spent years of their life on a work, they deserve a serious, sustained response. Critics who write such reviews aren’t just offering something to the maker of a work but to the world. Look here, a critic says. Imagine what culture could be like. - Asterisk

The differences between Europe and the United States when it comes to AI regulation aren’t so easy to fix; they’re rooted in deep cultural differences that have informed how the tech industries have developed on both continents.  - Politico

Why? Because a comedian knew what was coming. “Morton isn’t in the game to sell off his domains. ... Instead, he buys them with the express purpose of turning them into seemingly legit websites that, upon closer inspection, often skewer their namesakes.” - Washington Post (Yahoo)

The history of Montréal’s night-time regulation reveals how managing nightlife expanded police power and budgets — and how burdensome effects of these changes fell disproportionately on sex workers, the queer community and hospitality industry workers. - The Conversation

“It was such a surprise to me when they said we’re going to rename it,” she recounted in a phone interview. “I said, ‘Oh my gosh,’ and pushed my button. But then I was muted.” - The New York Times

“The Japanese conglomerate has bought 41% of Peanuts Holdings, which owns the intellectual property Schulz created, from the Canadian children’s entertainment company WildBrain (for C$630 million/US$458 million). The deal raises Sony’s total stake, which it began building in 2018, to 80%. The Schulz family owns the remaining 20%.” - The Guardian

“Organ tuners make brief records of their visits and often jot down observations, including the temperature and humidity inside the building. Materials within organs are sensitive to climatic changes, which can knock the majestic instruments out of tune.” - The Guardian (UK)

“We didn’t have a lot of information before the show started, and the local authorities were telling our team that the best and safest course of action for everyone present was to proceed with the show and not have large crowds of people out on the streets.” - Boston Globe

"Death, collapsed relationships, the passing of youth and the inexorable passage of time: these are sombre themes that fit a quite spectacularly grim year. But in the broader context of what’s happening to music, these albums about loss are, oddly, cause for optimism.” - The Guardian (UK)

Does this have rizz? Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins has recorded a classical reinterpretation” of “Golden,” from K-Pop Demon Hunters. - BBC

Music has a variety of “jobs,” as the other arts do. It can calm, soothe, and delight. It can also provoke, disturb, bite. No one expects the other arts to be beautiful and soothing, only. (Think of theater!) But some people have that expectation of music. - Plough

The June event, formerly the 96-Hour Opera festival, is being expanded and rechristened as the NOW Festival (New Opera Works), with well-known librettist and director Tazewell Thompson as artistic advisor. - EarRelevant

As some political leaders double down on the old memorial language, they ask: What if we thought of our memorials as works in progress, to be improved, edited, reconfigured and even deleted? - Washington Post

“Funds apportioned for the Smithsonian Institution are only available for use in a manner consistent with Executive Order 14253 ‘Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History." - Washington Post

This year’s highlights include the remodeling of a Richard Seifert brutalist ‘corncob’ tower, a celebration of Japanese carpentry and a wearable hot-water bottle. - The Guardian

The Trump administration threatened “to withhold federal funds if it does not submit extensive documentation for a sweeping content review. … It was not immediately clear how much money the White House might try to withhold, from which parts of the Smithsonian or on what authority.” - Washington Post (MSN)

In short, they all want to make sure they’re guarding the perimeter. - The New York Times

“The museum holds more than 40,000 items from across Africa, many of which were traded, collected, looted or preserved during the era of the British empire. … The names of makers, the cultural significance of objects and the people to which they once belonged are largely unknown.” - The Guardian (UK)

Like the rest of the analog world, legacy dictionaries have had to adapt or perish. - The New Yorker

I can write a book for my own reasons, but I can sell the book only if readers like it more than what they can get from, say, a chatbot. If readers prefer A.I.-generated fiction, then authors won’t be able to stop it. - The New Yorker

David Walliams, “one of Britain’s most successful children’s authors, was reportedly the subject of complaints that he had ‘harassed’ junior female staff at HarperCollins UK, prompting the publisher to decide it would no longer release new titles by the author.” - The Guardian (UK)

“Here’s what I love about listening: I can do it all the time, not just while sitting still. I read … while making my bed, brushing my teeth, unloading the dishwasher, commuting to work, waiting in line, driving and occasionally while falling asleep.” - The New York Times

“It is possible, with your small candle, to make your way in the darkness. One delight, against all this. The world crumbles, and lipstick sales go up. And so, too, do sales of romantic fiction.” - The Guardian (UK)

Gross. "Every type of writing requires specific attention to detail. For people not to take that seriously (and to ask for your help in promoting their work when they don’t do anything to help boost other people’s work) is pretty shitty behavior.” - LitHub

In 2023, “Meyers had written a semi-autobiographical rom-com called Paris Paramount. She’d originally written it for Netflix, but they did not want to give her the budget she needed.” And that was all the news - until this weekend. - Vulture

Bari Weiss is said to have spiked the show a few hours before it was supposed to run. "The report … was to have featured correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi interviewing deportees who the Trump administration has sent to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison in El Salvador.” - Variety

Hell is other people in a cinema, sure, but Hell - especially for a movie that needs an audience - is also no other people. - Slate

You know the word - the f-word. “A single use of the F-word requires at least a PG-13, while additional uses will elevate it to an R.” - The New York Times

“I covered the 3-D boom from the start, and even early on one could see that the golden goose was cooked. It was clear that the marginal returns on 3-D screenings were rapidly diminishing.” - The Atlantic

Bad, really bad. "It’s a mistake to compare this stuff to other films. It is, indeed, a mistake to compare it to any other artistic enterprise. What we’re dealing with is closer to tinsel or snow in a can. Christmas movies are mere decoration.” - Irish Times (Archive Today)

In 2023, when he was ballet director at Germany's Hannover State Opera, Marco Goecke did this and was promptly fired. Now he’s been given another chance: he’s artistic director of Ballet Basel in Switzerland. Critics have set aside any grievances, but Goecke’s big mouth has nevertheless gotten him into trouble. - The New York...

Ballet West in Salt Lake City reported Monday a “dramatic spike” in people “arriving at performances with fake or invalid tickets purchased from third-party sellers.” - The Salt Lake Tribune

“Having worked with the Ballets Russes, most notably with Vaslav Nijinsky …, Marie Rambert became a pioneer in British ballet: setting up a ballet school, and then establishing her own company, the first in the UK, Ballet Rambert, which she led for 40 years after its founding in 1926.” - Bachtrack

“Average seat occupancy is 97 percent, among the highest in Europe. … Now with confidence in its survival skills” — and an adept, energetic director — “the ballet company is eager to raise its profile from a company of regional importance to one that can rank among Europe’s best.” - The New York Times

The magazine, called something else earlier, has been around since before the Great Depression. In the 1960s, though, "dance emerged as a potent form of political expression.” - Dance Magazine

“(LA)HORDE is a choreographic collective running the National Ballet of Marseille and rewriting the ballet rulebook for a new era. Their work blends classical techniques with surprising influences, from queer nightlife to the political history of social dance.” - BBC (video)

“It’s just so difficult for (producers) to get their money back. These shows are now upwards of $25 million. Ten years ago, you could have a musical on Broadway that was probably in the $13 million range." - CNN

Not ‘To be or not to be,’ but, obviously at this time of year, “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?” - NPR

This feels very, let’s say, sixth-grade. One actor: “‘Theater kid’ being the bullied party is a tale as old as time. … We’ve always been the outsiders, the weirdos. It’s a quick cultural shorthand to treat us as the underdog.” - The New York Times

The first club meetup included “an exclusive Theater Club post-show talkback with artists who worked on the show, and a drink ticket that can be used at the Chopin bar so folks can hang out after the talkback and chat theatre with likeminded folks.” - American Theatre

Jaime Castañeda, a freelance director who has worked extensively with the top regional companies in California and with New York’s Atlantic Theater Company, will assume his role next July. He succeeds interim artistic director and resident director Jonathan Norton as well as former artistic director Kevin Moriarty, now DTC’s executive director. - KERA (Dallas)

For a struggling industry, these two theaters — and a handful of others — are models of success: They are producing a healthy menu of shows, drawing large audiences, running budget surpluses and raising money for capital projects. But they are definitely in the minority. - The New York Times

In their own words: Roberta Flack, Diane Keaton, Robert Redford, Rob Reiner, Frank Gehry, and many more. - The New York Times

“Ransone was born in 1979 in Baltimore, an advantage in the early 2000s when The Wire, then a little-watched drama on HBO, was looking to cast actors from the city for the show’s second season.” - The New York Times

“His second feature, entitled It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives, premiered at the Berlin film festival in 1971 and has since been described as Germany’s 'Stonewall moment,’ radically breaking conventions in its portrayal of queer life.” - The Guardian (UK)

“(He) was the Netherlands’ best-known choreographer for over sixty years and regarded as one of the great masters of contemporary ballet. He was also one of the most productive, creating more than 150 works. … All bear his distinct signature – clarity in structure, refined simplicity and an aversion to unnecessary decorative frills.” -...

In the 1960s, he was producer and then host of flagship arts magazine Monitor before supervising all music and arts programming. He co-founded London Weekend Television, then hosted ITV’s first major arts program, Aquarius. In the mid-1970s, he returned to the BBC, presiding over a golden age of arts on television. - The Telegraph...

Now 32 and being held without bail as a suspect in the murder of his parents, Nick was 15 when he entered drug rehab for the first time. He see-sawed between attempts at recovery and relapses with heroin and cocaine ever since. - The New York Times