Schjeldahl was a poet, art lover and sometime artist before he became an art critic. The Fourth of July parties he and wife Brooke Alderson threw were legendary. As a critic, "He was first and foremost a visual pleasure seeker, on the prowl for new thrills." - The New York Times
Though the true past is fixed and unrevisable, stories about that past are not. Palaeontologists understand these stories as theories, but their audiences often experience them in the same ways they would experience fictional tales – as narratives that shift with mood and politics and time. - Aeon
The overwhelming majority of the output of these AI language models is grammatically correct. And yet, there are no grammar templates or rules hardwired into them – they rely on linguistic experience alone, messy as it may be. - The Conversation
Predicated on “protecting our kids” from the “scourge” of sexual progressivism, the anti-democratic right is forming a powerful religious alliance against secular liberalism. - The New Republic
The internet has always had an expansive capacity to reach some pretty strange and inexplicable places, but with the ever-evolving nature of social media, its strangeness is more readily available than ever before. - ArtsHub
Is the mainstream media the place to debate the process of theatremaking? Or does honesty, however it cuts, break the compact of the rehearsal room, of the backstage? - The Stage
I’ve had artists and members of the theater community reach out after a review — yes, even ones where I didn’t care much for the show — and extend grace and understanding for my point of view on their work. As I sit here, I can’t fathom why some can’t extend that same hand to their colleague. - Seattle...
Lena Brown's play Sonia Itelson, or, A child, a Child was written, and set in, the 1910s; it was almost certainly not produced then, being against the same anti-obscenity laws under which Emma Goldman and Margaret Sanger were prosecuted. Then it sat in a drawer for decades, until ... - Tablet
Few places in the country host a professional show-business destination as quirky and expansive as this Missouri mountain town a few dozen miles north of the Arkansas border. Singer Andy Williams opened a theater here. So did comedian Yakov Smirnoff. - Washington Post
"School district officials and a high school student in Michigan have drawn the ire of parents who allege that a painted mural contains LGBTQ propaganda, a depiction of Satan and a message of witchcraft. The painting covers a wall inside a teen health center (in southwestern Michigan)." - NPR
In an era when chess engines entirely dominate the game—when they’ve so monopolized human players’ thinking, strategy, and preparation that chess has, in certain ways, come to resemble poker—is it really possible to disentangle creativity from computing? - The Atlantic
"Archaeologists excavating the Church of St. Nicholas in Demre, Turkey, have uncovered the original stone mosaic floors where the saint ... would have stood during mass, and where his tomb was first located within the house of worship." - Artnet
This new era of instant, inexplicable attention has also come at a price. In interviews with more than three dozen TikTok creators, many noted that the app’s reach often brings with it relentless demands: from angry commenters, from audience expectations, even from the algorithm itself. - Washington Post
"A small but growing number of Dalit comedians (is) breaking into India's Brahmin-dominated comedy scene. Onstage, they're finding that examining caste through humor not only makes for better comedy, but is also personally empowering." Says one, “If you don't laugh at my jokes, I'll touch you." - The Christian Science Monitor
It is easier to understand objects created during the current downfall of Columbus and those who followed him, if you can see the art created before they arrived and while they reigned. - The New York Times
