"I can’t get a fraction of that today. You can say, Well, we choked the golden goose, but all those films made money. Then Hollywood changed. I don’t understand that world. Nobody understands that world. There’s no rules. - The New York Times
We Googled the first line, expecting it to be an existing Philip Larkin poem, but we couldn’t find it on the Internet. It was an original work, composed by the A.I. in less time than it takes a man to sneeze. - The New Yorker
While the recent destruction of statues in the contemporary West ostensibly relates to a racial reckoning, it nonetheless stands in a long lineage of iconoclasm, and one can understand its meaning only when viewed alongside its predecessors. - American Affairs Journal
Pragmatism emerged in the US in the late 1800s as a response to the Enlightenment push for absolute truth. Pragmatists — like William James and John Dewey — were less interested in certainty and more concerned with immediate experience. They wanted to know what worked for ordinary human beings. - Vox
Comedy is a social corrective exposing the gap between what is (injustice, poverty, environmental disaster) and what some think it ought to be (fairness, equal opportunity, gentle breezes). This gap, which may be history’s largest mass case of cognitive dissonance, remains our omnipresent duality. - The Conversation
The agreement between the company, called Higher Ground, and Spotify was not renewed because of disagreements over both content and distribution. The new deal with Audible (owned by Amazon) will make Higher Ground available on numerous platforms, not only on Audible, thus addressing one major sticking point with Spotify. - Variety
"Greene usually liked to see his novels adapted, but not this time. What Greene was trying to say about American ignorance and arrogance in foreign affairs was distorted ... by a Cold War, McCarthy-era fear of bringing a movie to the public that might be seen as 'anti-American.'" - The Baffler
It has been a rocket-fueled rise to the top of the contemporary art world for Ms. Weyant—and far from her unassuming start in Calgary, Canada. Spotted on Instagram three years ago and quickly vouched for by a savvy handful of artists, dealers and advisers, Ms. Weyant is now internationally coveted. - The Wall Street Journal
The scripts come from the Bronze Age civilization on Crete during the 2nd millennium BCE. It was a long and somewhat tricky process to establish that Linear B was used for a very ancient form of Greek; Linear A still hasn't been deciphered, but they're getting ever closer. - Aeon
Since the 1978 movie Dawn of the Dead, we have been using “the apocalyptic scale, the language and imagery of civilizational collapse” to describe malls. And yet: a 2021 study found that last year, the number of mall visitors was actually 5 percent higher than before the pandemic. - The Atlantic
"Giacomo Casanova practiced many trades — violinist, gambler, spy, Kabbalist, soldier, man of letters — but his main line of work was deceiving fools. ... His conquests in the boudoir, not to mention those in carriages, in bathhouses, or behind park shrubbery, have eclipsed his accomplishments while fully dressed." - The New Yorker
The Chicano generation of artists and activists that emerged in the late 1960s knew that self-empowerment requires historical knowledge. The same goes for art, which propagates and adapts from other art. Systematic study of usable, relevant Chicano art history is now underway in Riverside. - Los Angeles Times
The Pittsburgh Symphony was looking to buy a new Steinway concert grand for its concerto soloists. The price: $198,000. Fortunately, Emanuel Ax was there to play a concerto that week, so he was able to help music director Manfred Honeck and others make the decision. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A new study by Vanderbilt Genetics Institute researchers ... found a genetic link to our ability — and inability — to move to musical rhythm in time. Using data from more than 600,000 participants, the study identified 69 genetic variants related to the ability to move in synchrony with music." - Mel Magazine
The initiative on this year's general election ballot "would require the state to find a source of revenue to fund K-12 arts education equal, at a minimum, to one percent of the total state and local revenues that local education agencies receive from Proposition 98 funding." - San Francisco Classical Voice
