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A Play About TikTok Performed In Person And Online At The Same Time

"'If you get me to 20,000 likes, I’ll do something amazing.' That is what the performance artist Louise Orwin promises audiences in Famehungry, a TikTok-set existential crisis about being an entertainer in the digital age. - The New York Times

Daniel Libeskind Has Designed A Low-Income Housing Project, And It’s Good

"His global brand would seem like an odd choice for the most basic tier of New York’s urban shelter, sort of like handing out food-bank groceries in Louis Vuitton bags. … (Yet) the pairing of high-design auteur and low-income residents meets an assortment of needs and isn’t just noblesse oblige." - Curbed (MSN)

Insurance Cos. Want To Deny $19.7 Million Claim For Fake Basquiats

Liberty Mutual and Great American are refuting the claim submitted by the owners of the 25 paintings which were on display at the Orlando Museum of Art in 2022 until the FBI seized them and they were revealed to be forgeries. - Artnet

Penguin Random House Parent Announces “Strategic Collaboration” With Open AI

"Penguin Random House parent company Bertelsmann has agreed to a 'strategic collaboration' with OpenAI to use ChatGPT technology across many of its operating units. ... The agreement not only includes employees' use of ChatGPT, but the 'development of new products and services' as well." - Publishers Weekly

Chicago Public Media Begins Offering Buyouts

"Struggling with declining revenue in its groundbreaking nonprofit radio/newspaper model, Chicago Public Media is offering voluntary buyouts for Chicago Sun-Times journalists and business employees at WBEZ. The WBEZ newsroom will not be affected by the buyout announcement Wednesday, but more cuts could be on the way." - Chicago Tribune (MSN)

Ballet In A Theatre With An Air Raid Shelter: Kyiv’s “The Snow Queen”

A full house for the National Ballet of Ukraine these days is 560 people, because that's the capacity of the bomb shelter in the theater's basement. Here's a photo journal of the Christmas production at a company where, as one ballerina puts it, every show could be the last. - The Times (UK)

Barnes & Noble CEO On The Bookseller’s Rising Fortunes

Upgrading the look of B&N stores, and improving the quality of its workforce, are among the reasons James Daunt cited as contributing to the bookseller’s resurgence: “We want to have good teams inside nice-looking stores.” - Publishers Weekly

Who Are We If We Lose The Ability of Language?

Aphasia brings up existential questions that get at the heart of human connection: Who are we without language? If I were struck by aphasia today, what would be left unsaid, to my family, my friends, my readers? - Public Books

The Louvre’s Building Is In Seriously Bad Shape, Warns Director

In a leaked memo to French culture minister Rachida Dati, Louvre director Laurence des Cars wrote that overcrowding at the museum is causing "physical strain" on the building and that some areas "are no longer watertight, while others experience significant temperature variations, endangering the preservation of artworks," - AFP (Yahoo!)

Man Discovers 2000-Year-Old Statue Near Some Garbage Cans

A 32-year-old Greek man discovered the artifact in a black bag in the college town of Thessaloniki and turned it in to police on Saturday evening, Greek authorities said in a statement Wednesday. - Washington Post (MSN)

Listeners Prize Vinyl For Its Analog Sound. Here’s The Thing, Though…

The ability to create a fully analog recording in 2025 is exceedingly difficult and expensive. Analog recording decks require specialized maintenance, and the tape used for master recordings is vastly more expensive than recording to a hard drive. - Digital Trends

How To Alleviate Milwaukee’s Arts Funding Crisis? Collaboration Across The State, Say Leaders

"Among the issues are determining what private philanthropy’s role should be in maintaining the arts-and-culture ecosystem and forging a unified effort to advocate for increased public funding." Key to the latter is forming partnerships with organizations elsewhere in Wisconsin, so as to counter "deep Milwaukee skepticism" in the state legislature. - Milwaukee Magazine

What Do Ticket-Buyers Value Most When Choosing A Seat?

Among the findings of the study are that people value being closer to the stage than further away. Reserved seating is more valuable than general admission seating. However, for people with children and older respondents, reserved seating held significantly more value. - Butts In Seats

Attention Has Now Become Our Most Precious Resource

Every single aspect of human life across the broadest categories of human organization is being reoriented around the pursuit of attention. It is now the defining resource of our age. - The Atlantic

Canada’s New “Online News Act,” Meant To Help Journalism, Has Been A Disaster For Small Media

The hare-brained Online News Act has only been in effect for a few months, but already it has proved a disaster for small and emerging news media in Canada, with the country’s Indigenous media perhaps the hardest hit. - Canadian Dimension

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