Stories

Public Radio Cuts Could Have A Disastrous Effect On Classical Music In America

Roughly 96% of the classical music on terrestrial radio in the U.S. is broadcast on public radio stations — and those stations often have crucial symbiotic relationships with the classical music scenes in their listening areas. Michael Andor Brodeur considers what’s at stake. - The Washington Post (MSN)

What Are The Issues Behind The Threatened Broadway Strike?

The Broadway League, which represents Broadway producers and landlords, is currently in tense negotiations with two different unions: Actors’ Equity (performers and stage managers) and AFM Local 802 (musicians). Here’s an explainer covering what’s at issue and what could happen if an actual strike is called. - TheaterMania

Unpublished Jack Kerouac Story Discovered In Mafia Boss’s Papers

“The two-page typewritten manuscript signed by Kerouac in green ink is titled ‘The Holy, Beat, and Crazy Next Thing’ and is dated 15 April 1957, five months before … On the Road was published. It was discovered last year during the disposal of items owned by (mafia don) Paul Castellano." - The Guardian

How AI Could Change The Way We Listen To Music

As AI becomes more embedded in music creation, the challenge is balancing its legitimate creative use with the ethical and economic pressures it introduces. Disclosure is essential not just for accountability, but to give listeners transparent and user-friendly choices in the artists they support. - The Conversation

How To Understand What We Used To Call The Idiot Savant

In the past (autism became a diagnostic category only in 1943), the ‘idiot savant’ was a paradox, who confounded categorisation because there was no unified way of comprehending how such exceptional musical and numerical skills might co-exist alongside their polar opposite: profound disability. - Aeon

Online Sales Are Changing The Market For Native American Art

An estimated one-third of Navajo Nation members make and sell art for a living, and in Zuni Pueblo, as many as 85 percent of households include a working artist. Yet for more than a century, Native artists have been subject to a marketplace that undervalues their work and rips off their designs. - Mother Jones

Smithsonian Museums Have Now Shut Down

The Smithsonian manages 21 museums around Washington, DC, and in New York, as well as the National Zoo and 14 research facilities. It had previously said it could rely on remaining funds from past fiscal years to remain open, originally for “at least” five days past the 1 October shutdown. - The Art Newspaper

What Happened to Kevin Costner?

The Oscar-winning director and actor with the most iconic American screen presence since Gary Cooper is now brawling with his castmates, getting sued by his crewmembers and, in recent months, giving paid keynote speeches at bakery and veterinarian conventions. - The Hollywood Reporter

My Letter To AI Tilly On The Meaning Of Being An Actress

Tilly, you never had to be 14, so I’ll tell you what Google can’t. It feels like your soul gets a broken glass enema. You go from curious about this marvelous world to drowning in un-marvelous you. Who am I? How should I be? Am I alone? Your human brain answers “no one,” “invisible” and “yes.” - The Hollywood...

Zadie Smith Ponders The Point Of Essay-Writing

My entire future rested on a few essays written in the school hall under a three-hour time constraint? Really? In the nineties, this was what we called “the meritocracy.” - The New Yorker

Libraries Scramble To Replace Industry’s Biggest Book Distributor

Given the complicated nature of library wholesaling and its existing position in the market, Ingram is well positioned to pick up a sizable chunk of B&T’s business.  - Publishers Weekly

Scientist Used Sensors To Discover How Pianists’ Touch Changes Timbre

A team led by Dr. Shinichi Furuya at the NeuroPiano Institute and Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc. has provided the first scientific evidence showing how pianists’ touch on the keys can actually change a piano’s timbre—the tonal character of its sound. - SciTech Daily

Will AI Create A Permanent Underclass?

The idea of a permanent underclass has recently been embraced in part as an online joke and in part out of a sincere fear about how A.I. automation will upend the labor market and create a new norm of inequality. - The New Yorker

Warner Bros Discovery Rejects Paramount’s First Offer, But The Talks Are Far From Over

Chat, is this less than ideal? “The merger would lead to the elimination of one of the original Hollywood film studios, and could see the consolidation of CNN with Paramount-owned CBS News.” - Los Angeles Times

What’s Next For The Book Industry?

The CEO of Simon & Schuster has some thoughts about what will be going on a decade from now: "I fearlessly predict that the average book will be shorter.” - Boston Globe (Archive Today)

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