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- Court Rules Investigators Overstepped In Seizing Art Institute Of Chicago Drawing
In a blow to New York investigators, an appellate court has found they inappropriately cited a penal law to seize an Egon Schiele drawing from the Art Institute of Chicago. – The New York Times
- New UK Company Will Recreate Famous Concerts With Hyper-Realistic Digital Avatars In Any Space
The former chief executive of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s entertainment group has obtained a near-£15m investment for his UK music tech startup that hopes to recreate classic concerts by manifesting musicians as digital avatars. – The Guardian
- Daily Mirror Publisher Cuts Jobs As Web Traffic Plummets Because Of AI
The company said earlier this year that a slump in overall digital page views had been driven by a 46% year-on-year decline in traffic from Google as features such as Google’s AI Mode and AI Overviews negate the need for readers to click through to its websites. – The Guardian
- One Man’s Quest To Understand Theatre Economics
If these institutions were really facing an existential financial situation, “they’re acting commercial” wasn’t much of a fair, nor novel, accusation. The question soon turned to: Once commercial capital entered the nonprofit stream, whose risk did the nonprofit’s advantages reduce, and who captured the resulting value? – Jared Harbour
- MrBeast Has 500M Followers. He Wrote A Book. So Why Isn’t It Selling?
The book sold a reported 22,646 copies in its first week, landing it at #3 on The New York Times bestseller list. They are very low relative to the names involved. MrBeast has one of the largest communities with over 515 million YouTube followers. – Ben Liebmann (LinkedIn)
- Internal Documents: What OpenAI Workers Said About Pirating Books
A court filing unsealed Thursday details internal messages and testimony laying out how OpenAI employees—including executives—talked about the company’s use of pirated books to train an early ChatGPT model, as well as their technology’s potential impact on authors. – The Wall Street Journal
- Paramount And California In Negotiations To Clear Warner Merger
The parties have discussed compromises including Paramount agreeing to operate the two companies’ movie studios separately for a period rather than immediately combining them, the people said. – The Wall Street Journal
- The Fake AI Books Impersonating Real Authors
Across categories—fantasy, horror, even coloring books—writers say they’re seeing AI-generated listings crop up on their Amazon author pages. Some of these works are in entirely different genres from their usual work. – The Atlantic
- Macklemore, Sheeran, Kraft
This has been all over the papers, so I’ll only give a brief synopsis: Ed Sheeran is on a US stadium tour, and has Macklemore as an opening act. Macklemore makes statements about Israel-Palestine on stage. A forthcoming stadium gig, at Robert Kraft’s Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, is cancelled owing to Macklemore’s remarks, and other stadium owners follow suit. Sheeran’s concert promotor, Messina Touring Group, drops Macklemore from the tour. Sheeran does not protest, saying it is the promotor’s call. Sheeran’s other opening acts and his own back-up band quit in protest.
I’ve written before that if an artist is contracted for a gig, and their views on politics, and the nature of their performance, are well-known beforehand, then the organization or person that contracted with the artist has a duty to stand by them even if and when some people raise complaints.
Macklemore is a known commodity.
Very known: he has been accused of antisemitism (as the headline from twelve years ago puts it) – I’ll let readers be the judge. Macklemore has released songs about Gaza. Here is his official video for his song Hind’s Hall. In his concerts with Sheeran he said on stage he was committed to “Free Palestine”, which seems to have been the trigger for the cancellations, but he had said it pretty emphatically before.
In any case, everybody involved in this tour knew what they were getting with Macklemore.
Sheeran could have done more, and it surprises me that someone with that much experience on the big stage has been so deer-in-the-headlights in response. Obviously he was not entirely at the mercy of the tour promoter – he has significant bargaining clout when a contractual difficulty arises. Sheeran used his concert in Philadelphia to explain his position.
There’s no defending Robert Kraft. If you hire out your stadium to pop music concerts with various artists, there are going to be songs and acts and speech that are not necessarily to your taste, and to be shocked that Macklemore would say “Free Palestine” on stage, shocked to the point of demanding his removal from the tour, is a bit much.
There are lots of takes, of course. Jason Okundaye at The Guardian and Roxane Gay at the New York Times both think Sheeran is naive in thinking music and concerts can possibly be divorced from politics, though I see more assertion than reasoning. Gay writes about Sheeran:
He promised good music and a good time, no politics, even though after three hours, his fans would stream out of the stadium and return to their lives where they did not get to opt out of all of the problems politics creates — the immense emotional toll of so many civilians dying senseless deaths, not to mention high gas prices because of the war in Iran, inflation and stagnant wages.
How dare he promise a good time and some escapism – have you even seen the price of gas lately? I’ve been to many concerts where the musicians made no statements about politics at all – even in the 1970s when gas prices were very high – it really can be done. And it seems the case that when writers say you can’t divorce politics from art, or even (very) light entertainment, they mean politics that is on their side. Political cheerleading.
After all, “politics” at a pop concert means expressing bumper-sticker length slogans. Most musicians, like most people, do not have a great depth of knowledge of politics or history. Some musicians, like some people, do. But in a stadium-sized concert it will all reduce to the same thing: yay this, boo that. And to say “you can’t take politics out of music” is to say “I want to hear cheers for what I already believe.” It’s not what we could call any sort of discourse.
I think the most intelligent argument comes from Ludovic Hunter-Tilney at the Financial Times: If Sheeran wants shows that aren’t political, he shouldn’t have asked a political musician to open for him. That choice was the primary cause of this debacle. But once he made that regrettable call, he needed to stand by it.
Cross-posted at https://michaelrushton.substack.com/
- Inside The Kennedy Center’s Real Finances
Now there’s a fuller picture of the finances Trump inherited—and of what happened during his first months in charge. A previously unseen federal tax filing captures an institution in transition. – The Atlantic
- New Arts Council England Chairwoman Wants ACE To Get Louder
Airey recalled that on her first visit as chair to ACE’s London office, “it felt quiet, a little bit subdued. I didn’t expect that.” She said she wanted ACE to get its “swagger” back. – The Guardian
- This 1972 Canadian Godspell Truly Had All The Good Gifts
The Toronto production was “a Rosetta stone of funny people that featured then unknowns such as Martin Short, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, Victor Garber and Paul Shaffer.” – The New York Times
- Thousands Of Young Dancers Are Auditioning For The Nutcracker All Over The Country, Right Now
The kids have Ideas, too, like their dream roles: “I kind of want to be a rat. … I think a rat just is fun because it makes you laugh a lot.” – Boston Globe
- After A Massive Storm, Archaeologists Rush To Save Artifacts In Alaska
“Since the dig began, they’ve watched the Bering Sea creep closer and closer to the site. Shorelines in this part of Alaska are now more vulnerable to erosion due, in part, to decreasing sea ice and permafrost thaw.” – NPR
- When You Get Offered A Met Opera, But At The Last Minute, Do You Take The Job?
Louisa Proske: “It was insane and thrilling. … It was like, ‘the director has to assemble a team, and we kind of need the design yesterday.’” – The New York Times
- In A Surprise To Exactly No One, Meta’s New AI Is Better At Surveillance Than Help
“Muse’s default avatar is a beige-colored cross between an Ewok and a Labubu, with its arms outstretched, presumably to scoop up all my data.” – Wired
- Epic Spanish Film Inspired By Garcia Lorca Story Wins The People’s Choice Award In Toronto
“The award, voted on by audiences, can be a bellwether of the best picture Oscar, as in 2018 and 2020, when Green Book and Nomadland went on to win at the Academy Awards.” – The New York Times
- Sally Rooney (And Irish Law) Versus A Data Center
“Rooney—the author and Mayo native whose novels have become a cultural phenomenon over the past decade—lodged an objection to the proposed data center back in January, writing to Mayo County Council that permission for the facility would increase carbon emissions and create a risk of blackouts.” – LitHub
- Movie Audiences Have Fallen In Love With Really Big Screens
“The 2026 summer box office take is already the largest since 2020, and unadjusted for inflation, the largest ever. Most of that money comes from films that played in premium formats.” – Washington Post (MSN)
- Actor Amanda Redman Got Caught Practicing A BAFTA Acceptance Speech
The actor, known for her ten years on New Tricks as well as the film Sexy Beast, was meeting her then-boyfriend’s parents, one of whom was an award-winning director. They left her alone in the room with the trophies. – The Guardian (UK)
- Ed Sheeran Speaks About Mistakes In His First Concerts Back From The Macklemore Debacle
The English singer apologized while blaming his promoter for dropping the U.S. musician. In addition, “he described the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks as ‘horrific’ and called the situation in Gaza ‘unjustifiable.’” – BBC
- The President’s Obsession With Monuments
To himself, of course. – The Atlantic
- The Eerie Artistic Of New York’s Metro
“I look for the colorful scenes of decay on the tunnel walls, the rusted iron beams, patterns formed in crumbling tiles and peeling paint. I’m drawn to the strange forms found in discarded bubble gum.” – The New York Times
- What Would A Movie Of A Gamer Really Look Like?
“A true representation of what it’s like to play a video game would be one of the most avant-garde movies ever made. (Imagine a four-hour stretch where the main character fights the same enemy over and over again.)” – Slate
- Opposition Grows Against The Paramount-WB Merger During A Critical Week
While California AG Rob Bonta is hinting at some progress toward a settlement, other state AGs who have standing in a lawsuit aimed at stopping the merger are not having it. – Los Angeles Times
- This Show Is A Critical And Audience Hit
So why did Prime Video cancel Ride or Die after one season? It’s a whole mystery. – Forbes
- “The Odyssey” and Hi-Tech Regression in HollywoodSiegfried and the dragon, from Fritz Lang”s “Die Niebelungen”
[The following piece is reprinted from Boston’s ArtsFuse online magazine.]
- Lincoln’s Watchmaker Left a Note Inside
Good Morning,
In April 1861 a watchmaker cleaning Lincoln’s pocket watch the day Fort Sumter fell engraved inside the case: “Thank God we have a government.” Nobody saw it until the Smithsonian opened the watch in 2009 (NPR). Aardman, the Bristol animation studio behind Wallace and Gromit, 50 this year and still winning BAFTAs with stop-motion, says AI won’t reach the storytelling; its academy teaches students to keep the imperfections of a hand-made blink (BBC).
The Kennedy Center’s African Lounge held a Ghanaian carving of grief at Kennedy’s death, kente cloth and Yoruba doors. The room is now empty, the curator wasn’t told where the works went, and the center calls them “fully safeguarded” while declining to show them (The New York Times).
Venue owners got Macklemore pulled from Ed Sheeran’s tour; within a week Sheeran and Robert Kraft had pledged millions to Gaza relief and the rapper had his first headlines since the 2010s. Netanyahu is threatening to strip the citizenship of the two Israeli directors of NAZA, a documentary on civilian deaths in Gaza, which took a record 25-minute ovation at Venice and reaches the New York Film Festival September 26 (Los Angeles Times).
Deborah Sandler Kemper, general director of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, is leaving after 15 seasons; she kept the company alive after Covid with a $2.5 million state appropriation she won by lobbying Missouri’s governor herself, unannounced, in a year of headlines about arts cuts (Kansas City Stack).
All of our stories below.
- You’ll Have To Take The A Train Even Farther Than 181st For This New Theatre
What if actors and backstage workers who live in Inwood could walk home from work? That’s part of the appeal of the new, Lin-Manuel Miranda-supported, permanent buildling for the People’s Theatre: Centro Cultural Inmigrante on 206th Street. – The New York Times
- Turns Out The Lucas Museum Provides A Great Backdrop For Jedi-Themed Protests
At the event, about workers’ rights and the upcoming Olympics in L.A., “protesters from the Fair Games Coalition — wearing Jedi robes and Jar Jar Binks masks and carrying lightsabers — rallied together outside the new museum.” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
- Miss Marple Goes To The Alps
Why not? Her creator sure did – and, originally, Death on the Nile was supposed to be a Marple mystery, so Miss Marple can travel. – The Guardian (UK)
- The Secret Inscriptions Inside President Lincoln’s Watch
The watchmaker inscribed words about Fort Sumter being attacked, and then wrote, “Thank God we have a government.” – NPR
- A Full Report From Inside The U.S. Administration’s Commitment To Breaking The Kennedy Center
So much art was planned to be decommissioned. For instance: “The removal plan targeted 15 artworks in the African Lounge. … The lounge’s textiles, artwork and a carved wood sculpture from Ghana representing Africans’ grief over Kennedy’s death were removed without public explanation.” – The New York Times
- Kathy Griffin Is Still Around, And Still Making Political Comedy
“Do not whine to Kathy Griffin about cancel culture. She’s lived through it, not the version stand-up bros claim to have suffered during their latest Netflix specials.” – Salon
- Another White House Attack On The First Amendment Sees CNN, MS NOW, And Politico Banned
CNN is not OK with press passes being revoked: “We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do our reporting without hindrance or interference from the government and this ban is an illegal assault on this fundamental right.” – CNN
