"An estimated 49% of people who went to Black Rock City ... in 2023 identified as female, marginally higher than the 48% of attendees who identified as male. That reflects a stark change from 2013, when 40% of Burners identified as female and 58% identified as male." - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
He started in 1971 by buying the Barnes & Noble name and flagship Manhattan store, acquired hundreds more outlets (including the B. Dalton chain), then, in the 1990s, launched the "superstores" B&N became known for. Indie booksellers despised him — until he joined forces with them against Amazon. - AP
"AB 2642 would require explicit permission from performers (or their representatives) to use AI software to create digital replicas. … The bill will now return to the California Assembly, which must approve changes made in the state senate. If passed there as expected, it will then be sent to Gov. Newsom." - TheWrap
"Brent Assink, former executive director of the San Francisco Symphony and past president of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, … takes over for Michelle Miller Burns, who is leaving in September to lead the Dallas Symphony Orchestra." - The Minnesota Star Tribune
When we think about what makes our minds special, we tend to focus on intelligence. But if we want to grasp reality in all its complexity, then “cleverness is not enough.” We need to build capacious and flexible theories about the world—theories that will serve us in new, unanticipated, and strange circumstances. - The New Yorker
One issue is that every image is worth scrutinizing as a cultural object that conveys values—but only if we can be certain about its origins. How can we interpret a photograph of an event from 1924 if the photograph was digitally fabricated in 2024? - Art in America
Be My AI noted that DALL-E does not “‘see’ in the human sense; it processes data and identifies patterns within that data.” I countered, “But the human brain also does not see. The eyes feed signals to it for interpretation. AI and human perception do not seem so dissimilar to me.” - ARTnews
This devotional, graphomaniac, filibustering dimension of graffiti haunts me. It suggests tagging as a version of call-and-response, within a city whose cacophony of advertising, decay, and squabbling vernacular voices begs reply. - LitHub
Protest messages were read out after performances, including at the Traverse, Lyceum, George Square, Summerhall and Church Hill theatres, to loud applause from audiences, as thousands of artists and performers signed an open letter calling for the cuts to be reversed. - The Guardian
Errollyn Wallen succeeds Dame Judith Weir, the first woman to hold the role, who was chosen by Queen Elizabeth II in July 2014. In recent years the role has a fixed term of 10 years, and is comparable to the position of poet laureate. - BBC
"Our research … shows that simple headlines significantly increase article engagement and clicks compared with headlines that use complex language. … But importantly, we found that those who actually write headlines — journalists themselves — did not." - Nieman Lab
The ministry of culture of Buenos Aires dismissed Jorge Tetelman as director of the Teatro Colón, and the following day hired in his place Julio Bocca, a Buenos Aires native who was a world-famous dancer in the 1980s and '90s and director of Uruguay's national ballet from 2010 to 2017. - OperaWire
For every composer affirming authority in their work, opera’s history offers counterexamples: creators so committed to establishing a new world order in sound that they resisted all conventions and invented their own instruments, their own ensembles or their own theaters. - The New York Times
