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The Unraveling Of Alice Munro

No writer who heard it would touch it. From bookstores to biographers to journalists, the literary world had everything to gain from an untarnished Alice Munro. Open secrets require closed doors. - The Walrus

Aggressive Prediction: Music Streaming Revenue Will Double By 2030

By the numbers, that refers to $49.7 billion in paid streaming gross revenue for 2030, nearly double 2023’s $26.4 billion, and a cool 647 million paid subscribers in emerging markets (up from 300 million in 2023), per Music in the Air. - Digital Music News

“Easy Rider,” The Messy Movie That Changed Hollywood

The 1969 road movie had an unusually messy shoot, thanks largely to director/star Dennis Hopper. (Co-star/producer Peter Fonda later described Hopper as "a bit of a megalomaniac.") - BBC

Atlantic Magazine Becomes Profitable, Reports 1M Subscriptions And Returns To Monthly Print

It’s an everything-old-is-new-again finding that also explains the continued success of some books, luxury magazines and literary journals. - CNN

Data: How Massachusetts Arts Sector Has Recovered From Covid Shutdowns

Organizations remain very reliant on declining revenue sources. In 2022, 65% of expenses were covered by contributed revenue. However, the rate of contributed revenue growth has slowed. - SMU Data

What Alvin Ailey Built

What he wanted to promote with his company was the idea that Black audiences—general Black audiences, like the folks Acocella probably saw applauding “Revelations”—should connect not only with their “ ’buked” and “scorned” selves onstage but with the feeling that performance can be a kind of balm, an embrace. - The New Yorker

How American Sign Language Is Transforming “American Idiot”

"Now, this revival of that show is proving, with gusto, that American Idiot can be yet another thing: a near-scientific study of the innumerable ways to give somebody the finger." - The New York Times

Royalties Lawsuit Against Giant Music Producer Rattles The Industry

In a lawsuit filed in California, attorneys representing Durst, Limp Bizkit and Flawless Records accused UMG of using software “deliberately designed to conceal artists’ (including Plaintiffs’) royalties” so it can pocket the profits. - The Guardian

Japan’s Hidden Clutter Culture

Homes filled to the rafters with hoarded junk are common enough to have an ironic idiom: gomi-yashiki (trash-mansions). And in areas where space is limited, cluttered residences and shops will often erupt, disgorging things onto the street in a semi-controlled jumble so ubiquitous that urban planners have a name for it: afuré-dashi (spilling-outs). - Aeon

Flat Broke And Desperate, This Artist Signed Away His Works And His Rights. Now He’s Suing To Get Them Back.

Bjarne Melgaard, whose career soared in the 2010s, developed some very ill-advised habits (including crystal meth) and ran up big debts. Two investors gave him roughly $10 million in this Faustian deal — with a contract Melgaard says he was too drunk to understand at the time. - The New York Times

Study: How Authenticity Matters

The emotional and psychological ties people have with places contribute to their perception of authenticity. Just as much as the exposed bricks and wooden floors, it’s because of its community connections and personalised atmosphere that a centuries-old pub in London can feel more authentic than a commercialised pub in the United States. - Psyche

Young People Won’t Read Books? That’s Just Not True!

"The rising young generations want texts that matter to them, that reflect their lives and experiences. So when we force-feed yet another vanilla canonical dust collector, and then complain that they aren’t playing along, it’s just not a good look for us." - CMSThomas

Darren Walker Is New Director Of The National Gallery

Walker, who has been a board member of the National Gallery since 2019, is perhaps best known for his 11-year tenure at the helm of one of the nation’s largest and most influential philanthropies, the Ford Foundation.

Meet The Woman Leading The Digitization Of The U.S. National Archives

"It makes a weird kind of sense that the government worker who understands the value of providing online advice and information to far-flung Americans … is a woman whose hometown is a 32-hour drive from a reference desk in D.C." - The Washington Post

University Of Texas At Dallas Is Building A New Arts District

"The new district, named the Edith and Peter O'Donnell Jr. Athenaeum, will have two museums, a performance hall, a music building and an outdoor plaza. The Crow Museum of Asian Art … opened a second location last week on the UT Dallas campus as part of the first phase of the project." - Axios

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