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Bedoya: The Imagination Of Democracy

We already carry muscle memory: voting, organizing for fairness and equity, creating the beauty of art expressed in what we share between us — images, songs, movements, designs, or letters — shapes the will of the people and creates knowledges and visions of a fully manifested democracy. - GIA Arts

Spotify Adds Physical Books To Its Service

The tech platform is launching Page Match, a tool that will allow readers to scan a page of a printed or e-book using their phone and continue listening to the audiobook version where they left off. - The Hollywood Reporter

Longtime Musician: The Music Industry Is Broken

I’ve spent roughly 20 years in the Australian extreme metal scene – clubs, festivals, support slots with bands like Napalm Death, Psycroptic and Gorguts – and I can tell you this: the industry isn’t just tough. It’s quietly chewing up the people who keep it alive. - GuitarWorld

Davone Tines On Defining A Role In Classical Music

What’s too often missing for Tines in opera and classical music is an investigation into why treasured artworks remain valuable and what they may say today. What he’s not interested in, he concludes with a knowing cackle, is being “slapped into someone’s production of Don Giovanni. - The Guardian

The Meaning Of Serious Leisure

The idea of serious leisure was coined in 1982 by sociologist Robert Stebbins, who described the unique characteristics of more structured leisure pursuits. The more we understand about why people do the things they do, the more they can benefit from their pursuits. - The Conversation

The Books Ecosystem Is Dying

In a sense, the decline of book reviews, like the decline of newspapers themselves, is a story about disaggregation. Newspapers used to bundle several functions together in a way that made them both useful and profitable. - The Atlantic

How Architects Are Returning To The Earth

Today, as architects seek to improve the sustainability of a sector that is responsible for more than a third of global carbon emissions, the concept of using rammed earth sourced from, or near, the grounds of a proposed building site is attracting attention. - The Guardian

As ICE Roils Minneapolis, Minnesota Public Radio’s Numbers Soar

“(The network) finished the fourth quarter of 2025 as the No. 1 local public radio outlet in the United States in terms of web traffic. … In December, MPR’s traffic was 41% higher than that of the country’s No. 2 public radio website, WNYC’s Gothamist.” - Nieman Lab

If You Want To Keep Full Access To Discord, You’ll Have To Give Them Some Of Your Biometric Details

The (very) popular social media and community site will now require a facial scan or government ID scan for age verification. After an incident in October where a third-party vendor breach exposed thousands of government IDs, it’s possible that not every user will trust this plan. - The Verge

Music Agents Demand Casey Wasserman Leave His Agency Over His Epstein Ties, Or They Will

In addition, Chappell Roan (“Pink Pony Club”) is said to be leaving the agency whether he steps down or not. And "pressure against Wasserman has been mounting. Two LA Council members demanded that Wasserman resign from the chairmanship of the LA28, the city’s Olympic committee.” - The Wrap

Large Software Analysis Says Turin And Philly Paintings Aren’t Actually By Van Eyck

The AI-supported “findings supported scholars who had suggested that both versions were studio paintings – produced in the artist’s workshop but not necessarily by him,” but surprised some art historians, who now wonder whether an original exists somewhere. - The Guardian (UK)

Experiments With Deliberately Drunk Music Making, Wagner Edition

“Conservatory-trained musicians are expected to execute written texts flawlessly while sounding convincingly fluid and expressive. Loosening inhibition can seem like a solution to both anxiety and excessive rigidity. But alcohol is a blunt tool.” - The New York Times

It’s Not Easy Being The One Charged With Creating New Stained Glass Windows For Notre Dame

Tabouret: “It’s not very French to change stuff, so I thought that interesting as well as brave and fresh. They specifically wanted figurative painting, which also isn’t very French.” But church authorities eventually gave her a lot of artistic freedom. - The Guardian (UK)

Wallace Shawn May Be The Only Playwright To Be Recognized And Shouted Out Across New York

Of course, that’s usually because of his acting career (especially his iconic role in The Princess Bride). - The New York Times

How The Town Of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Created The Sounds Of A Generation

Alabama had no professional recording studios before a man named Rick Hall created FAME. Then the town became songwriting and recording central. “They were like, well, we can work in the aluminum factory, or we can find a way to make a hit record. I know which is more fun.” - NPR

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