Stories

The Gap Between Big AI And The Rest Of Us Is Growing Wider

The AI industry is splitting away from the lives of everyday people. Exclusive polling conducted for the Guardian last year found that twice as many Americans believe their financial security is getting worse than better, hardly half as optimistic as Jensen Huang’s prediction. - The Guardian

What Was The Boston Symphony Thinking When It Fired Andris Nelsons? Who Knows?

What’s the vision might not be the right question, then. It might be: Does the vision even exist? - Boston Globe

Staff At Australia’s National Broadcaster On 24-Hour Strike As Network Airs BBC Programming

“At 11am, the ABC News channel switched to broadcasting the BBC News channel as staff walked out in protest. The ABC News channel filled the schedule with repeats of Planet America and the National Press Club, but broadcast Question Time as normal.” - The Guardian

Patreon CEO Blasts AI Companies And Fair Use

“The AI companies are claiming fair use, but this argument is bogus,. It’s bogus because while they claim it’s fair to use the work of creators as training data, they do multimillion-dollar deals with rights holders and publishers like Disney, and Condé Nast, and Vox, and Warner Music.” - Fortune

When Is It Okay For Musicians Not To Give It Their All?

It is difficult to appreciate the toll of being on the road for days, weeks, and sometimes months on end, playing program after program and often dealing with social and media commitments in addition. - Nightingale Sonata

Producers Throw Playwright Out Of Rehearsals Weeks Before Broadway Opening

The show’s producing team told the playwright, Stephen Adly Guirgis, that he was no longer welcome at rehearsals after tempers flared on Friday between Guirgis and Mark Kaufman, who runs Warner Bros. Theater Ventures, an entity that is among the play’s lead producers. - The New York Times

Robert White, America’s Favorite Irish Tenor, Has Died At 89

“He built a serious and wide-ranging classical career, collaborating with major artists like Eugene Ormandy, Leonard Bernstein and Yo-Yo Ma, without stinting the traditional ballads that John McCormack (1884-1945) had brought to the masses.” - The New York Times

Tacoma’s Leading Arts Organization Shutters, Prepares To Sell Its Home

“Tacoma Arts Live has filed for receivership, a court process similar to bankruptcy. ... TAL announced earlier this year that it would close for good this summer and sell the historic Tacoma Armory, its sole remaining building, citing debts incurred in part due to declining ticket sales following the pandemic.” - The Seattle Times

How Iran War Is Disturbing Publishing Industry’s Global Supply Chain

Shipping costs are rising; freighters are being re-routed, interfering with schedules; one shipment was on a vessel struck by a missile. Perhaps worst: insurance policies usually exclude acts of war. - Publishers Weekly

Here’s The Winner Of The First-Ever Hilary Mantel Prize

“The newly established award, launched to honour the legacy of the late Booker Prize-winning novelist, aims to support unpublished and un-agented writers across the UK and Ireland.” The inaugural winner is Florida-born, London-based writer and teacher Anna Dempsey for her yet-unpublished novel This Is About an Alligator and Nothing Else. - The Guardian

OpenAI Shuts Off Its Video-Generating App — And Disney Now Has A Problem

“OpenAI said it will discontinue Sora, the generative-AI video creation app it launched last year, without providing a reason for the decision. … The announcement comes just three months after Disney inked a groundbreaking deal with OpenAI” licensing the conglomerate’s characters for use with Sora. - Variety

Zurich Transfers Ownership Of All Its Benin Bronzes To Nigeria

Two of the 11 pieces have been sent back to Nigeria; the other nine will remain at Zurich’s Museum Rietberg on loan. - ARTnews

Brooklyn Museum Plans New $13 Million Galleries For African Art

“The institution’s new Arts of Africa galleries, … a 6,400-square-foot home for its 4,500-piece African art collection, … will open in Fall 2027, presenting 300 African artworks dating from antiquity through today, installed throughout the museum’s third floor.” - Artnet

“A Fiasco And A Miracle”: An Oral History Of The COVID Oscars In 2021

“It’s the story of an awards season unlike any other — one that stretched over 14 months and came to an end in, of all places, a train station in downtown L.A., with a ceremony that many felt went off the rails, even as its very occurrence was something of a miracle.” - The Hollywood Reporter

Using Tango As Therapy For Parkinson’s Patients In (Where Else?) Buenos Aires

“Once a week, about a dozen patients come to Ramos Mejía Hospital to dance — a session that uses the movements of tango to help address issues of balance, stiffness and coordination. The goal is to give them approaches to movement that they can use in their daily lives.” - The New York Times

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