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- Sylvester Stallone Finally Reckons With Decades Of Trauma
“When I look at that footage, I look distorted. I was gone for a few seconds. Sometimes in acting or painting or writing, you just subliminally lose yourself. You do not know where you are. … What was that?” – The New York Times
- An Ohio School District Cancels A Popular Play, And The Fallout Is Ongoing
“Copley Superintendent Aimee Kirsch said the play was canceled not because of its gay themes but because the proper vetting procedure wasn’t followed.” Unh-hunh. The students cast in the canceled She Kills Monsters were offered parts in the newly approved Alice in Wonderland. – Akron Beacon Journal (Yahoo)
- Action Films Use To End Just As Happily As Any Rom-Com
Basically, “the heroes are still winning, but it’s costing them a whole lot more.” But why? – The New York Times
- An Art Crawl, By Bike, In Melbourne
“Even as a Melbourne local and a longtime art lover I find it near impossible to keep up with the independent openings happening in my city.” – The Guardian (UK)
- What The Grammys Usually Get Wrong About K-Pop, And Asian Music In General
“If eligibility is determined by musical style, what does language have to do with it? Why should a K-pop act’s music be labeled ‘Asian’ on the basis of language—and if a recording is performed entirely in English, does it somehow cease to be ‘Asian pop’?” – Time
- Milwaukee Museum Returns Enslaved Artist David Drake’s Works To His Descendants
“Drake made and inscribed ambitious stoneware jars while enslaved in South Carolina in the 1800s, despite punishing conditions and anti-literacy laws that prevented teaching enslaved persons to read.” – The New York Times
- The School District That Tried To Cancel ‘Ragtime’ Claimed It Was A Miscommunication, But Emails Reveal A Different Story
“In emails with members of the public obtained by KyCIR, Duncan repeatedly said the show was never canceled because Balasubramanian ‘went rogue.’” That’s a little different from a miscommunication. – WFPL
- Haitian-Canadian Author’s Book Withdrawn From Goncourt Short List Over Accusations Of AI
“As critics sparred with defenders of Mr. Orélien, who is Black, over whether he was targeted because of his race and his book’s treatment of migrants, he was accused of plagiarism in earlier writings, inflaming the controversy.” – The New York Times
- We Don’t Make People Pay To Access Public Parks
Public parks are widely considered a social good, and we know that because our tax dollars go to maintain them, we don’t have to pay every time we go to a park. What if the same were true for theatre? – American Theatre
- While Some Cleveland Musicians Are On The Picket Line, Others Are Performing Free For The Community
One musician: “This is for our community and for the people who love what we do with our music. …The concert came together very quickly and we have many people who are excited to play chamber music for our fans.” – WKYC
- Who Killed Paulina Borsook’s Tech Writing Career?
Maybe it wasn’t one person, or one magazine – maybe it was just the Zeitgeist changing. Right? (Because that’s the way it always goes for “difficult” women.) – Wired
- Let’s Check In On How New York Feels About Dudamel
Justin Davidson is very, very pleased. “At every moment, you could feel Dudamel’s multilayered control — over the pacing, careening tempo changes, and the complicated sense of spaciousness.” – Vulture
- A Guy Who Scammed Writers And Publishers For Years Sure Appears To Be Back, If Hidden, Online
“The messages bear the hallmarks of Bernardini’s original scheme: look-alike emails, carefully replicated fonts and signatures, fluency in industry slang and an intimate knowledge of relationships in the book world.” Then there are the poop emojis. – The New York Times
- When A Limited Series Pushes Way Past Itself
Should a “limited series” that won Emmys and then turned unlimited less than two weeks later be forced to give those Emmys back? – Vulture
- City Ballet Finally Gets A Woman On Its Choreography Staff
She – Tiler Peck – just happens to be a City Ballet principal dancer as well. – The New York Times
- Adam Schumaker talks about the impact of $300,000 in prizes at The Gilmore
Adam Schumaker, Director of Education at The Gilmore, talks about the impact of their $300,000 prizes along with role of The Gilmore Fellowship in the field.
- Catching Up With Art Dealer Inigo Philbrick, Now That He’s Out Of Prison
“I’ve done my time, and all that I ask is that people give me the benefit of the doubt. I may not be given a second chance — but at least recognize that I’ve suffered a lot from what happened.” – Artnet
- Survey: How Libraries Are Using AI
Respondents were most likely to use AI for enhancing staff productivity (57.7%), supporting student learning (55.8%), and improving content discovery (53.3%). They were less likely to use AI tools for digital preservation (21.3%) or collection management (27.5%). – Publishers Weekly
- Atlanta Ballet Cuts Way Back On Its Orchestra, And Musicians Picket
Members of the pit orchestra protested outside the theater last weekend at performances of the company’s season-opening program, which was danced to recorded music. Atlanta Ballet management says it can afford a live orchestra this season only for its stagings of The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. – ArtsATL
- A Convicted Prolific Publishing Scammer Seems To Be Back In Business
Over more than five years, Bernardini created some 160 fraudulent internet domains, prosecutors argued, and impersonated hundreds of publishing professionals to obtain more than a thousand unpublished manuscripts. – The New York Times
- Steve Reich At 90: Most Music Isn’t Very Good
Born in New York in 1936, Reich has spent the last six decades producing music that has changed the soundtrack of modern life in Europe and North America, and inspired superlatives from a wide array of music critics. The New Yorker has called him “the most original musical thinker of our time”. – The Guardian
- Political Ad Money Has Flooded Into Podcasts. Has The Medium Overtaken TV?
Ad spending on political podcasts jumped 42% in the first half of 2026 after rising 36% during the same period last year, according to Magellan AI estimates provided to TheWrap. Taken together, spending increased approximately 93% over two years. – The Wrap (MSN)
- A New Streaming Platform Where Indie Filmmakers Keep Their IP (And Money)
“The Drive-In, a TVOD service that will operate within independent film and TV discovery app RecDek, … will stream directly from the filmmaker’s library within the platform, which means that ‘nothing is handed over, re-uploaded or locked away.’ Producers will also set their own prices and keep receipts from first sale.” – Variety
- Wikipedia Is 25 Years Old
In 25 years Wikipedia has transformed from a new and provocative innovation to a stalwart of the internet age. That journey reflects persistent anxieties about credibility, expertise, and user-generated content that have continually haunted our relationship with the online. – History Today
- The Crazy Story Breaking Readership Records At The Boston Globe
“Per a note to Boston Globe staff today, the lesbian bar story generated 1,000 subscriptions to the paper yesterday. The Globe’s managing editor said it was ‘by far our best performing story of the year,’ and appears to be ‘on pace to shatter all sorts of Globe records.’” – Mediaite
- Correcting The Record On Lee Krasner
Krasner and Pollock were, in mid-20th-century New York, at the heart of the artistic movement that would become Abstract Expressionism. At that time, the only label more detrimental to a talented artist’s career than “woman” was the handle “wife.” – The New York Times
- America’s Largest Young-Adult Book Festival Is Adding Adult Programming
YALLFest, held each fall in Charleston, is adding ROMFest, a parallel programming track for actual grownups, focusing on romance novels. Why are they doing this? Because it turns out that the majority of YALLFest attendees are full-fledged adults. – Publishers Weekly
- Habermas’ Ideas On Public Debate
He explained the three types of discourse that characterise deliberation – moral, ethical, and pragmatic – and was clear that when it comes to the moral, there are no experts: only individuals working out, together, what’s right in a given context. – Aeon
- A Bookseller Confronts The AI Company Trying To Buy His Rare Books
Brandon DiSabatino quickly became concerned that Blue Angel might be trying to buy his books for a similar ulterior—and to him, sinister—purpose. In so doing, he joined the ever-expanding crowd of people who the AI rush has forced to constantly reconsider their reality. – Mother Jones
- Hearing From The New LA Phil And SF Symphony Music Directors
Conversations with the newly minted music directors quickly reveal two distinct, dynamic personalities ready to embark on their next musical journeys. – NPR
- Shakespeare’s Globe Opens London’s First Dedicated Shakespeare Library And Research Centre
“The library sits underground, beneath the Globe in London’s South Bank, and is accessible to the public, containing more than 6,000 books about Shakespeare, early modern literature and the history of dramatic performance around the world. A digital performance archive is also available to the public by appointment.” – The Bookseller (UK)
- There’s About To Be A Bidding War For The Movie-Fan Website Letterboxd
“A number of suitors, … enamored by the site’s obsessive audience and the subscription and advertising revenue streams it provides, … have submitted expressions of interest, including The New York Times Company, Sony Pictures Entertainment and (indie studio) A24. … Any deal is expected to value Letterboxd at more than $300 million.” – The New York Times
- Mark Swed’s Farewell Column As L.A. Times Classical Music Critic
“When I accidentally stumbled into music criticism with an academic penchant for music analysis, my crutches for writing about music were technical and of little use in a newspaper. I had to find a way to simply listen. It gave me new ears, and I was hooked.” – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
- In Colombia, Arts Workers Of All Sorts March To Protest Cuts To Culture Budget
“Hundreds of artists, students and cultural workers gathered outside of (the) Ministry of Culture in Bogotá on Monday, protesting a proposed 30% cut to the cultural budget in 2027 and a suspension of national arts awards.” – The Art Newspaper
- At Long Last, MOCA In L.A. Has Its New Director
“After almost two decades of high leadership turnover and a more than year-long search, the Museum of Contemporary Art has appointed Jonathan Abbott as its new director and chief executive.” He comes from Boston’s PBS affiliate, GBH, where he was CEO for 15 years. – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)