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Italian Newspaper Publishes First All-AI Generated Edition

The initiative by Il Foglio, a conservative liberal daily, is part of a month-long journalistic experiment aimed at showing the impact AI technology has “on our way of working and our days”, the newspaper’s editor, Claudio Cerasa, said. - The Guardian

Why Beckett Is Perennially Relevant (But Especially Now)

Beckett is perennially timely because his works concern themselves with those eternal questions that the political emergencies of the day cannot override. Even as we confront impossible times, we remain planted in that greater impossibility — human existence. - Los Angeles Times

Fast Company’s List Of 2025’s Most Innovative Architects

Innovation doesn’t have to mean reinventing the wheel: Often it just means making it better, more relevant, and a lot easier to use. - Fast Company

Two Major Theater Figures Are Working On A New James Taylor Musical

Tony- and Pulitzer-winning actor-playwright Tracy Letts (August: Osage County and The Minutes) is writing the story and book for the jukebox show, titled Fire and Rain, and another Tony winner, David Cromer (The Band’s Visit), will direct. - Variety

Trump Tours Kennedy Center, Declares It Substandard, Vows To Fix It

“It’s in tremendous disrepair, as is a lot of the rest of our country, most of it because of bad management,” Trump told reporters Monday after he toured the Kennedy Center and met for the first time as chair of its board. - The Hill

Edgar Allan Poe’s Life Was A Mess. He Wrote To Compensate

Through all his binges and bankruptcies, through every setback and depressive spell, he kept making art because he knew that’s where the best of him lay. - Washington Post

American Universities Under Threat As Government Uses Funding Threats

 “If the federal government can show up and demand a university department be shut down or restructured, then we don’t have universities in this country.” - The Hill

The Rise Of Legislation That Could Make Librarians Criminals

A wave of proposed state laws that would hold librarians criminally liable for the presence of any material in their libraries’ collections deemed “obscene” has been getting increased attention and drawing opposition. Yet it’s important to remember that such laws are (a) straight out of Project 2025 and (b) not new. - Book Riot

Meet The Man The Met Hired To Locate Looted Objects In Its Collection

“As the Met’s head of provenance research, a new position created last May, … (Lucian) Simmons (has) a job to correct earlier errors, to prevent new questionable acquisitions and to ensure that the museum’s reputation for integrity and scholarship is not further damaged.” - The New York Times

“Emotionally, Socially, Incredibly Stupid”: Re-Examining The Pharma Mogul Who Created The Barnes Foundation

Blake Gopnik: “I’m not sure that we really understood the contradictions at the heart of Albert Barnes, the fact that he could be just an incredibly smart man and a man who was emotionally, socially incredibly stupid, a man who could be incredibly generous and just absurdly vituperative.” - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

Staff Cuts At Britain’s Tate Galleries

“Tate is cutting 7% of its workforce as the British arts institution seeks to address a funding deficit left over from the pandemic. … Tate, which has four galleries across London, Liverpool and Cornwall, said it had been working with staff for a number of months to achieve the reduction.” - The Guardian

The New Yorker Fires Art Critic Jackson Arn

The magazine parted ways with Arn, who replaced the late Peter Schjeldahl in 2023, after receiving complaints about his inappropriate behavior at the publication’s 100th birthday last month. - The New York Times

Public Radio Legend Diane Rehm Ends 52-Year Career At Her Home Station

The 88-year-old host has taken a buyout offer from WAMU, the DC-based NPR outlet where she started her radio career as a volunteer producer in 1973 and, in 1979, began hosting the arts program Kaleidoscope, which became the more wide-ranging Diane Rehm Show in 1984. - The Washington Post (MSN)

Trump Begins Shutdown Of Voice Of America

“A White House statement said the order would ‘ensure taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda’, and included quotes from politicians and right-wing media criticising the broadcaster. VOA, still primarily a radio service, … says it currently reaches hundreds of millions of people globally each week. - BBC

On Further Reflection, Was “Mona Lisa” A Vampire?

Looking again at how the myth of the Mona Lisa emerged, I believe that her fame is due not just to the painting’s display of artistic ingenuity – but to the troubling vampirism and gender ambiguity that 19th-century critics saw in Leonardo’s work. - The Conversation

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