“The cartoons were perplexing to me because the music they used is so far beyond what I would relate to,” he explains. “Don’t get me wrong, I loved it. I just didn’t have any idea how to make that kind of music. I had no (effing) clue what I was doing.” - Vulture
"Music is about relationships—how we come to understand one another, how we communicate and connect with those who are different from us, and how we build mutual trust and empathy over time." - Playbill
Gig work, as it turns out, didn’t begin with Uber but with Avon direct-sales reps. The wacky metaphysics of today’s tech billionaires have their analogues in the “mind-cures” of nineteenth-century spiritualists. And the celebration of “charismatic” executives has its origins in German social science, with disturbingly fascist undertones. - Commonweal
How did an obscure argument about a mathematically complex and rather baffling theory of physics become embedded in public consciousness as an extraordinary exploration of the human psyche? This essay tells the story. - Aeon
“Only 40% of parents ... agreed that ‘reading books to my child is fun for me’, according to a survey conducted by Nielsen and HarperCollins. (There’s) a steep decline in ... parents reading aloud to young children, with 41% of 0-to-4-year-olds now being read to frequently, down from 64% in 2012.” - The Guardian
After reporting a net loss of 183,000 residential broadband customers in Q1 2025, Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said the company isn't "winning in the marketplace" during an earnings call today. The Q1 2025 customer loss was over three times larger than the net loss in Q1 2024. - Ars Technica
The new funding, which will support humanities councils in all 50 states and six jurisdictions, comes a month after the National Endowment for the Humanities abruptly cut off federal funding for the councils, as well as most of its existing grants. - The New York Times
Chatbots learned from human writing. Now the influence may run in the other direction. Some people have hypothesized that the proliferation of generative-AI tools such as ChatGPT will seep into human communication, that the terse language we use when prompting a chatbot may lead us to dispose of any niceties or writerly flourishes. - The Atlantic (MSN)
“The former UArts undergraduate dance program, that landed at Bennington College in Vermont, had planned to return to Philadelphia for the 2025-26 school year. But leaders now say the return has been delayed as the program awaits Pennsylvania Dept. of Education’s authorization to award degrees.” - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
He was the COO of Focus Features beginning in 2002 and became president and co-CEO in 2006. In 2014 he left Focus to found the independently-financed distribution and production company Bleecker Street, which has released roughly 70 films since. - IndieWire
After seizing some of Mann’s photos of her children from an exhibition in Fort Worth, five FWPD officers spent four days and $6,988.77 in Manhattan. Officials say the police visited the Met, MoMA, the Guggenheim, and the Whitney. None of those museums have displayed Mann’s work for several years. - Fort Worth Report
“In its complaint, ... the CPB and the three board members — Laura Ross, Thomas Rothman and Diane Kaplan — said the president does not have the authority to fire these board members because it’s not a government agency subject to the decisions of the executive branch.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
“The Mellon Foundation has announced $15 million in ‘emergency funding’ for state humanities councils across the country. The support comes after the Department of Government Efficiency abruptly cancelled some $65 million in (National Endowment for the Humanities) grants earlier this month.” - NPR
“U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth … granted the temporary restraining order for the U.S. Agency for Global Media to disburse ($12 million) for April 2025 for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty pending the outcome of a lawsuit seeking to keep the station on the air.” - AP
“The Trump administration has terminated members of the board that oversees the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum appointed by President Joe Biden — including Doug Emhoff, the husband of former vice president Kamala Harris.” - The Washington Post (MSN)
