These different notions of truth shape everyday discourse as well as philosophical debate. They might help explain why some arguments feel pointless, why political debates circle endlessly, and why certain disagreements never quite meet on common ground. - Psyche

Once you start looking, you realize that short video clips—not tweets, or posts, or static photos—have become the atomic unit of online content. Short-form video, of course, isn’t new, but the prevalence of the clips is. - The Atlantic

Across social media, an influx of A.I.-generated avatars is reshaping what it means to be an influencer. A Facebook group called Baddies in AI, geared toward women who are using A.I. to either augment their own social-media presence or create entirely new figures from scratch, has more than three hundred thousand members. - The New Yorker

That, basically, is what’s at stake in the low-grade shots fired (culturally speaking) across the internet about Michael. - Wired

“There was something very intentional to Girls, something that spoke to me. I could’ve connected with it. Instead, I rejected it dramatically. I wasn’t the only one.” - Slate

“Familiar things require less from us; they deliver the emotional payoff we expect. But repetition is also a way of revisiting earlier versions of ourselves.” - The Atlantic

“The defunding of arts and humanities programming across the state has left leaders skeptical as to whether government funding can be a reliable source in the future.” - Crain’s Chicago Business

“Ó Ceallacháin says many artists with disabilities feel as though they need to “]exist between ‘professional enough’ to be a ‘real’ artist for the Department of Culture and ‘disabled enough’ to receive support from the Department of Social Protection.” - Irish Times

And ‘unease’ is too kind a way to put it: “Everything left unsaid still lingers between the lines, sandwiched between the formidable melodies of his greatest hits, like toxic ooze leaking out from the middle of two slices of Wonderbread.” - Salon

Talk about the baby and the bathwater: "History needs stewards. The people of the Internet Archive do an outstanding job of preserving irreplaceable work and making it available to journalists and researchers.” - Nieman Lab

“At its core, Artists Count consists of a $1.3 million fund, available to active artists in both San Diego and Tijuana. In addition, a companion study will focus on communities with the least access to resources, examining ‘the realities, challenges, and economic impact of working artists’ on both sides of the border.” - SanDiegoRed

He complained that the 2,030-foor by 167-foot pool, which was built in 1922 between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, “never looked great” because the stone on the bottom of the pool was “not really meant to be a stone that's underwater for that much of a period of time.” - The Independent

After months of protests from musicians and others over the slender qualifications of conductor Beatrice Venezi, the board of La Fenice confirmed her appointment and it looked like she was all set. Then she trash-talked the opera house and its audience to an Argentine newspaper. - The Guardian

In his new position, Rumanes said, he raised “serious and legitimate alarm” over the company’s business practices. As a result, he says, he was “unlawfully terminated,” according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. - Los Angeles Times

But not everybody is a Broadway star, wandering down San Francisco’s Pier 39 and singing to the assembled sea lions. - San Francisco Chronicle

"As a librettist, I’m always aware that I’m serving the music. It’s a humbling experience. Coming from the world of theater is a good thing, because theater is all about collaboration and interpretation—you place the work in the hands of others, and it begins to transform.” - Paris Review

“Nothing will halt the American addiction to handing out hunks of gilt. For all the supposed independent spirit of the republic, its citizens seem to secretly yearn for the honours system they abandoned in 1776.” - Irish Times

That is to say, “classical” music, and they’re not just for noobs - “There’s plenty for experts to enjoy, too, including detailed structural analyses of specific symphonies and the historical context behind them.” - The New York Times

“Dataland, the world’s first A.I. art museum, is set to open on June 20 after more than two-and-a-half-years of planning and construction. … The museum will be housed inside the Grand L.A., a Frank Gehry-designed complex comprised of high-end apartments, entertainment facilities, and a luxury hotel.” - Artnet

What’s worth more—a Picasso or a painting by a street artist no one has heard of? According to the AI model we built, the answer is the latter. - ARTnews

Carolina Miranda: "In some ways, this freeway-like building could not be more LA: messy, sprawling, too big to take in from a single vantage point. In others — its embrace of the road and its relentless horizontal-ness — it seems stuck in a vision of the past." - Bloomberg

Trump originally envisioned the pool being topped with turquoise so that it would look like the Bahamas, but was convinced by the contractor to choose “American flag blue” instead. - Artnet

The largest survey dedicated to the Renaissance master in the U.S. includes 33 of his paintings and 142 works on paper. About 60 public institutions from 11 countries sent their treasures by the man born Raphael Sanzio da Urbino (1483–1520). Private loans include his two most expensive works at auction. - Artnet

But the museum was expecting - even welcoming - the commentary. - Boston Globe

Adelaide writers’ week was sacrificed to save the 2026 Adelaide festival, an event that ploughs more than $60m into South Australia’s economy each year, documents show. - The Guardian

“A new report from the Book Manufacturers’ Institute on the state of the book industry predicts that printing is on the cusp of potential major changes.” - Publishers Weekly

Or was it Kit Marlowe, getting some long-delayed revenge on conservatives in government? - The Atlantic

Haruki Murakami has a new novel coming out, and the narrator is … what? A woman?! - LitHub

A fiction author gets a phone call from the government: “Jügler was asked to explain what historical source material he had consulted for Mayfly Season and which period he was planning to tackle in his next book.” - The Guardian (UK)

It’s rough in these reading streets. “Librarians across the country are fighting to maintain students’ access to books and to keep their jobs amid cuts to library programs and persistent efforts to restrict reading materials.” - Salon

“The Onion always makes fun of the big thing in the cultural zeitgeist. We have not made fun of gut-microbiology influencers for far too long, and now they’re running the Department of Health and Human Services; we have to parody these people.” - The Hollywood Reporter

The venue that created a new type of live entertainment has become the highest-grossing arena in the world, with $379 million on 1.7 million tickets sold last year, according to Pollstar. When it opened three years ago, it had all the signs of an impending disaster. - The Wall Street Journal

But for practical knowledge? Your kids and grandkids know: It’s YouTube. - Slate

“The initial backlash to Cotoye v. Acme being shelved was clearly getting to WBD by November of 2023 when the studio began offering other production houses like Netflix, Amazon, and Paramount (more on this in a bit) the chance to buy the movie’s distribution rights.” - The Verge

No matter how much money it makes, Michael won’t be one of the good ones. - The Guardian (UK)

“Heated Rivalry became a bona fide great TV show, as worthy of Emmy consideration as shows about emergency medicine and international diplomacy and AI. But we’re not having that conversation for the dumbest of all possible reasons: the rules.” - Vulture

Graham saw herself primarily as a dancer—she made dances, she said, so that she would have something to dance. It could be said that she invented a people and a place. - The New Yorker

Sure, they’re relatively young, but that doesn’t avoid the energy and kinetic demands of high-energy dance and music performances. The stars “must train to develop stamina and prevent injuries while also maintaining the specific physique that their industry demands.” - The New York Times

To allow for genuinely open, honest exchange, the rules at the Creators in Dance Summit, which hosted 75 choreographers across numerous genres, were simple but strict: “You cannot name individuals or institutions, and you can use what you received at the summit, but you cannot name who said it.” - Dance Magazine

“Sara Mearns was missing her cues. She couldn’t hear what her dance partner was saying from across the studio. She was late for her entrances because the music sounded too soft. … Now, ‘I feel like it’s a whole new chapter of my life,’ Mearns, 40, said in an interview.” - AP

“The main studio of the École des Sables (in) Senegal defies every convention of what a professional dance space should be. It has no sprung floor, no mirrored walls, ... no walls at all. The dancers work outdoors, under a large, tented canopy. … The floor is unusually treacherous: It’s sand.” - The New...

Ballet BC is an impressive troupe, but it has long specialized in contemporary work; it’s been more than a decade since there was a resident company focused on classical and neoclassical style. That’s why choreographer Joshua Beamish founded Ballet Vancouver, which debuts this week. - The Georgia Straight (Vancouver)

“This most recent outing allowed Hwang, 68, to address some flaws in the original and even in his own (2001) remake. … He also added a scene that drives home the fact that coming to America as a poor immigrant isn’t all flower drums and show tunes.” - The New York Times

“The reason? Minimum pay and terms settlement negotiations between Equity and the Society of London Theatre (SOLT) have hit a snag after ‘constructive’ beginnings, with Equity saying that there were still question marks over ‘expectations on pay, holiday, rehearsal working time, injury, and stage management differentials.’” - WhatsOnStage (UK)

It’s the sound. - American Theatre

Well, says the first Director’s Resident of Washington, D.C.’s huge Folger Shakespeare Library, you might need to look a little deeper. - NPR

“The Stage understands the Bridge Theatre, which opened in October 2017 and was founded by former National Theatre director Nicholas Hytner and executive director Nick Starr, could be sold as part of a process that began with an investment opportunity being launched.” - The Stage

“One of the questions I always have is whether Willy is having flashbacks, or if he has some kind of dementia. … Miller said very clearly that they’re not flashbacks — Willie is not revisiting his past, but the past and the present absolutely exist simultaneously. He called them concurrences.” - TheaterMania

“From reimagined Greek and Roman classics to the exploration of identity and morality in the suburbs and landscapes of Australia, David Malouf successfully merged his passion for literature, language and imagination with his connection to home to become one of Australia’s most celebrated writers.” - The Guardian

The famous Torch Song Trilogy writer and performer: “I try something new every day, and you can try something new every day. … And some of it’s going to be great and some of it’s going to be terrible. But go out and have fun.” - The Guardian (UK)

Mark Swed: “MTT made music matter by making hope matter. He was, moreover, one of us. He achieved greatness though an epic amplification of a uniquely L.A. positivity in which grumpy became wistful.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)

Thomas was also an example of an artistic leader serving as a guiding star for an entire geographic area - emphasizing the importance of audiences being, as it were, cultural locavores. - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo)

“Sarah Wedl-Wilson has stood down over a funding scandal involving the irregular distribution of €2.6 million in public money for programmes to fight antisemitism. As culture senator for the Berlin regional government, Wedl-Wilson had already sacked a state secretary in her department, Oliver Friederici, over the affair this week.” - The Guardian

“He was widely considered one of the most distinguished American conductors of his generation” — most notably for his 25 years as music director of the San Francisco Symphony. “In addition to making more than 100 recordings of both rare and familiar classical repertory, he created valuable instructional series for television and radio.” - The Washington Post (Yahoo)