"Facing widespread unhappiness over its response to the Israel-Hamas war, the writers’ group PEN America has called off its annual awards ceremony. Dozens of nominees had dropped out of the event, which was to have taken place next week." - AP
"While lawmakers in the House advanced a similar bill last month, this effort is different for two reasons: It is attached to a sweeping foreign aid bill providing support for Ukraine and Israel. And it addresses concerns from some (Senators) by extending the deadline for TikTok to find a buyer." - NPR
“Rather than enlarging its physical footprint, LACMA aims to broaden its cultural reach, influence and presence in the West, and globally — a benign Manifest Destiny for the California visual arts scene.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
Much of the publication obviously focuses on UMG’s extraordinarily successful 2023: A year in which it posted USD $12 billion in total revenues, with annual adjusted EBITDA just north of USD $2.5 billion. But there’s a bundle of other interesting facts and figures revealed within the report. - Music Business Worldwide
“Moving the organization forward would depend not only on the art that the company produced, but also on the legacy through its alumni. And that is a huge thing.” In April, an alumni platform will go live, a place, he said, “where we could galvanize and connect and become a community.” - The New York Times
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Growing research shows regular exposure to even relatively subtle prejudice and discrimination degrades physical and mental health, leading to outcomes like high blood pressure, chronic stress and depression." - Phys
It is well known many musicians work simultaneously in arts and non-arts roles, often to create some income security. Less understood is just how well the extensive skillset developed in music transfers to a non-arts, professional workplace. - The Conversation
In the Educational Theater Association’s most recent survey, 85 percent of American theater teachers expressed concern about censorship. Even Shakespeare is at risk: In Florida, new laws led to the restriction of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” to grades 10 through 12 and “Romeo and Juliet” could not be taught. - The New York Times
Many of them gleefully share misinformation or repackage basic facts from WikiHow behind a title that’s been search-engine-optimized to hell and back again. Some of them even steal the names of well-established existing authors and masquerade as new releases from those writers. - Vox
We have entered a culturally risk-adverse period. Our present age of anxiety — which includes post-pandemic economic challenges to the arts, diminished attention spans and audiences seeking escape from all but virtual reality — has ushered in an atmosphere of caution in just about everything presented to the public. - Los Angeles Times
he is considered the author of the “selection, coordination, and arrangement of text generated by artificial intelligence.” This means no one can copy the book without permission, but the actual sentences and paragraphs themselves are not copyrighted and could theoretically be rearranged and republished as a different book. - Wired
As bad art museum ideas go, this one is right up there. But it fits LACMA’s similarly bad — and unprecedented — decision to build a new, hugely expensive permanent collection building on Wilshire Boulevard that features less gallery space than it had in the 1960s edifice it bulldozed to make way. - Los Angeles Times
“'I was like, as long as someone is musical, any idiot can be in a band,’ Butler said. ‘I can write to whatever level.’ Later Butler realized that this was perhaps naïve.” - The New York Times
“His reaction to The Magic Eye showed Kubrick’s image-control obsessions taken to extremes. He didn’t just make edits – he erased the entire project.” But now, after the director's death, Neil Hornick's 55-year-old manuscript has been prepared for publication. - The Observer (UK)
