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- The Internet Killed The Mail-Order Catalog
But mail-order catalogs might make a comeback, thanks to Millennial and Gen-Z nostalgia. “There’s a stark contrast between the frantic sense of urgency online retail often whips up … and the catalog’s invitation to flip, peruse, think, rethink — basically, to shop deliberately rather than reflexively.” – Salon
- Music Publishers Drop Lawsuits Against X, Which Drops Lawsuits Against Music Publishers
Why? No one’s saying: “In their legal papers, the companies gave no reason for the stipulation of dismissal and did not mention any settlement.” – The New York Times
- Netflix Is Not Having A Good Moment
At least, on the market: “The stock reached a new 52-week low on Friday and is down 49% from a year ago.” – Los Angeles Times
- Joe Melson, Who Co-Wrote Crying, Only The Lonely, And Many Other Roy Orbison Hits, Has Died At 91
Melson was a” musician and songwriter whose close collaboration with the singer Roy Orbison in the late 1950s and early ’60s produced a long list of sweeping, operatic rock ballads that established Mr. Orbison as an international star.” – The New York Times
- When K-Pop Replaces The Great Leader
North Korean defectors say they “used to listen to songs in secret, often not knowing who they were listening to, but clinging to the mysterious and hopeful lyrics. Some even managed to watch K-pop performances, shocked by the blue-haired idols wearing make-up.” – BBC
- Every Generation Gets ‘The Odyssey’ It Deserves
“A colleague revealed that her 12-year-old was irritated by the absence of a scene involving the God of Wind which is, apparently, quite important in the original text, and that girl definitely went to a better middle school than I did.” – Washington Post
- Sensing Some Real Challenges, Paramount Offers To Delay Warner Bros Merger
Twelve states attorneys general have filed suit to stop the merger. “Paramount made the pledge in hopes of avoiding such a ruling that would tie its hands — and give the states an early win in the litigation.” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
- Brenda Fricker, The First Irish Woman To Win An Oscar, Has Died At 81
Fricker, who won for My Left Foot, also gained fame as a beloved, heroic pigeon-feeder in Home Alone 2. – The New York Times
- As Ted Lasso Returns For Season Four, Hannah Waddingham Is Dealing With An Unexpected Level Of Fame
Hannah Waddingham, of Ted Lasso fame: “An overnight success after 25 years is delicious. And I’m fine with it, because I’m very at peace with who I am. I’m more than happy to share that I’m 51 and proud of it.” – The Guardian (UK)
- At Avignon, French And Korean Languages Meet On Stage
“In 2023, English was represented by only a handful of productions, and last summer the majority of Arabic-related offerings were dance shows, rendering the question of language somewhat moot. But the focus on Korean at this year’s festival … has opened an inviting window.” – The New York Times
- The Hollywood Bowl Has A Gorgeous New Sound System
But it might be too good – so good that audience members can hardly believe they’re outside. – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
- Nebraska’s Cultural Endowment Did Decades Of Great Work, But The State’s Finances May Kill It Off
“This unusual, public-private fund is made up of philanthropic donations matched dollar-for-dollar by the state” – and now the state has snatched back one third of the endowment to help balance the budget. – NPR
- Is this really a “post-literate” age?
This Week’s Highlights:
The recording industry proposed labels distinguishing “AI-generated” from “AI-assisted” music (Deadline). Set it beside major publishers suing Google over the books that trained Gemini (The Guardian) and a pattern emerges — culture’s markets are beginning to price provenance. When the what can be manufactured infinitely, value perhaps migrates to the who and the how. The industry’s labels point at the machine.
The week also suggested our literacy panic is aimed at the wrong generation. The Atlantic declared a post-literate age, but the numbers show older Americans’ daily reading has nearly halved since 2003 while young people’s is growing slightly (The New York Times) — and Gen Z has built its own robust book-recommendation infrastructure on TikTok (The New Yorker).
And censorship this week mostly didn’t need a censor. A Texas provost pulled an ICE-critical exhibition to manage any “barking” from the state capital (NPR); Moscow’s art scene, further down the same road, has retreated into apartments and kitchens (The New York Times). But a counterweight: pianist Jayson Gillham won his free-speech case against the Melbourne Symphony (The New York Times).
All this week’s stories below, organized by topic.
- Bianca d’Avila do Prado and Dion Morales share the joy of composing for ASTA’s New Canon Project
Bianca d’Avila do Prado, Cellist, Teacher & Composer and Dion Morales, Composer, Teacher & Arranger share the joy and impact of composing for ASTA’s New Canon Project.
- Surrealists Were The Original Antifa
“While Surrealism is figured as a style in popular imagination — trippy, dreamy, and escapist, detached from reality in every way — (the exhibition) ‘In the Very Bowels of Change: Surrealism and Antifascism’ reminds just how much the movement was formed in response to the politics of its time.” – Art in America
- AI-Created Music – What We Can Learn From Copyright History
AI can now generate songs, images, novels and artworks in seconds. Many of these works are already being streamed, licensed and sold. This raises an increasingly important question: should works produced without direct human authorship receive copyright protection? – The Conversation
- How The Pedant Became A Stock Character In Theater
Going all the way back to before 1600, the cantankerous, pompous, book-smart nincompoop has been a figure of mockery on European stages, a target for venting people’s dislike for know-it-all behavior. Some of the stereotypes associated with the character, however, were rather nasty. – The Public Domain Review
- We Should Worry About How AI Might Change Us With Its Use
How, then, could an automated oracle help? It cannot tell you what to feel, because feeling is not something you can summon by obedience. But neither can it settle the matter by telling you what to do. Reasons matter, and to be a morally responsible agent you must reason for yourself. – Humanist Review
- What If Smartphones Are Not Responsible For What Ails Our Kids?
Which change that happened 15 years ago was the real source of so much misery for children? “You can’t run experiments on history,” Haidt said, so we’ll never be able to prove that smartphones and social media caused the steep decline in youth mental health. – The Atlantic
- Brooklyn Man Sentenced To 20 Years For Fatal Stabbing Of Dancer O’Shae Sibley
Though Dmitriy Popov, now 20, was acquitted of murder, he was convicted of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime and other charges for attacking Sibley — a Black and visibly gay man — with a knife and puncturing his heart while Sibley and friends were dancing outside a Brooklyn gas station in 2023. – Gothamist
- FCC Will End Ownership Caps On Local TV Companies
“Today, national programmers can distribute their programming to 100 percent of the country — either through their own streaming services or through deals they cut with nationwide ‘virtual cable companies,’ like YouTube TV. The cap no longer constrains their control over distribution in this respect,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr wrote. – Variety
- Why TikTok Has Become A Force In Book Buying
One of the reasons TikTok’s book-review videos, known collectively as BookTok, have become so popular—and powerful in the publishing world—is that they offer a human-based, quasi-critical recommendation portal for fans and genre devotees to connect, commiserate, and promote their favorite work. – The New Yorker
- Gen Z Has Big Nostalgia For Eras Before They Were Born
- Brenda Fricker, First Irish Actress To Win An Oscar, Has Died At 81
She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1990 for playing the mother of disabled painter/writer Christy Brown (Daniel Day-Lewis) in My Left Foot. She’s remembered by a (mostly) different set of moviegoers as the Central Park Pigeon Lady in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. – The Hollywood Reporter
- Who’s Reading Less? It’s Older Americans, Not Younger
In 2003, older Americans read on average just under an hour each day — 58.5 minutes. By last year, that had fallen nearly by half, to roughly 32.4 minutes each day, a drop that represents the lion’s share of overall reading declines. – The New York Times
- Why Trump Is Fixated On Smithsonian History
People often joke about how Trumpism would like to return us to some version of the 1950s, when America supposedly was “great.” In this report, the administration has done just that. The report would prefer that nothing had ever happened since the ’50s to mar the White House’s polished, superficial, puerile version of America’s past. – The New York Times
- Culture Shift: Why Young People Are Choosing Culture That Brings Them Together
We human beings remain stubbornly, beautifully starving for one another. More surprising — and heartening — we are looking upward and outward, and returning to one another after being tethered for so long to our screens. This all portends well for the entertainment business, no doubt. – The New York Times
- How Vanderbilt University Made Itself Competitive With The Ivy League
Twenty years ago, the school’s acceptance rate was 38%; now it’s under 5%, roughly equivalent to Yale’s, and its undergraduates are reportedly the happiest in the country. The change is the result of deliberate, planned effort by two successive presidents over 20 years. – New York Magazine (MSN)
- Hong Kong Government Gives Ominous Warning To Booksellers
“Hong Kong’s top security official said Thursday that booksellers should ensure the titles they sell do not harm national security, a day after five people linked to two bookstores were arrested. The police operation on Wednesday was the third round of arrests targeting independent bookstores within four months.” – AP
- Madison Symphony Appoints Laura Jackson Music Director
Jackson is currently music director of the Reno Philharmonic in Nevada — a position she’ll keep through 2028-29 — and will officially take up this post as of the 2027-28 season. She succeeds John DeMain, who retired in June after 32 years. – The Cap Times (Madison, WI)
- White House May Bring US Government Into Trump’s Lawsuit Against BBC
“According to filings seen by the FT, the US government told the court in Florida ‘that it is considering participating in this litigation’. … The ‘conflict of interest is clear and stark’, the BBC said in a filing responding to the US government’s submission.” – Financial Times
- Trump Drops A Portion Of His Defamation Case Against The BBC
“Trump is demanding damages from the corporation, claiming a Panorama documentary defamed him because of an allegedly misleading edit of footage of one of his speeches. … However, while (he) is pressing on with the case as a whole, he has dismissed defamation claims against … the broadcaster’s commercial and production arms.” – The Telegraph (UK) (Yahoo!)
- Nashville Symphony’s New CEO: Mark Cantrell Of Colorado Symphony
“Cantrell’s appointment comes after a nationwide search sparked by the retirement of longtime Nashville Symphony leader Alan Valentine, who served in the role for 28 years. Cantrell, who will officially assume the position on Aug. 1., comes to Nashville Symphony from the Colorado Symphony in Denver.” – Nashville Post
- Ravinia Festival Cancels Performance Due To Wildfire Smoke
The July 16 performance of Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio, with James Conlon conducting the Chicago Symphony and soloists including Katherine Lewek and Miles Mykkanen, was called off due to hazardous air quality caused by smoke from wildfires raging in Canada. – Ravinia Festival
- Mahler: Fact and Fiction
