How will cities grapple with the more difficult question of what to do with fraught landmarks that are more immovable than those statues—museums, train stations, and private houses, say—or whose connections to racism or slavery, while significant, are tougher to precisely trace? - The New Yorker
While soldier-led cross-dressing shows go as far back as the late 19th century, "drag in the military really took off during World War I and World War II when military leaders realized that it was a liability for their fighting men to be mired in conflict without any morale-boosting entertainment." - Slate
If the listener is wholly unaware that the narrator is digital, this raises some of the many ethical questions (such as that of consent) that arise whenever users are unaware that they are interacting with an AI-driven technology, rather than with a person. - The Conversation
Harriet Beecher Stowe, in her 1853 book A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, wrote that the autobiography of Josiah Henson was one of her main inspirations. And who was Henson? Someone with a life story as compelling as those of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. - MSN (The Atlantic)
Both studies used state-of-the art AI technology. Months after one study proclaimed that the so-called de Brécy Tondo, currently on display at Bradford council’s Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, is “undoubtedly” by Raphael, another has found that it cannot be by the Renaissance master. - The Guardian
Though the musical recounts, in reverse, the dissolution of a close personal and professional friendship, the work of re-creating the central characters has brought Daniel Radcliffe, Lindsay Mendez, and Jonathan Groff into a very tight (and platonic) relationship of their own. - The New York Times
"I think we’re at a moment with the development of AI where we have ways to provide support, encouragement, affirmation, coaching and advice. We’ve basically taken emotional intelligence and distilled it. And I think that is going to unlock the creativity of millions and millions of people for whom that wasn’t available.” - The Guardian
The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring (1884) was taken from the Singer Laren Museum near Amsterdam in March 2020. A culprit was convicted in 2021, but the painting had been passed on to an organized crime group. It was recently returned to the well-known Dutch art detective Arthur Brand. - BBC
We have an odd situation. The slow tune is no longer dreamy music for couples, but sad, lonely music for the isolated and depressed. It doesn’t help that handheld devices, earbuds, and other pervasive technologies have turned music into something consumed alone, not communally as it was in past. - The Honest Broker
"The last Walt Disney Co.-owned radio station is officially in the hands of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, which has closed on the $5 million purchase of KRDC Los Angeles (1110) and placed its religious teaching 'K-Wave' programming on the AM signal." - Inside Radio
"The (opera), which will be written by the Ukrainian composer Maxim Kolomiiets, with a libretto by the American playwright George Brant, tells the story of a mother who makes a long and perilous trip to rescue her daughter, who is being held at a camp inside Crimea." - The New York Times
"The Medina district dates back centuries and is enclosed by walls built of red sandstone. ... Long sections are showing deep cracks and parts have crumbled. Many of the old buildings inside the Medina have been damaged and some have collapsed entirely." - CNN
While he's still scheduled to conduct the orchestra's season opener on Sept. 28, he has cancelled all performances from late October through the end of 2023; he will undergo further treatment between conducting engagements for at least the first half of 2024. - AP
"A group of authors… have filed suit in federal court against OpenAI, alleging the company unfairly used their copyrighted works to teach its chatbots how to respond to written prompts." - MSN (San Francisco Chronicle)
"The orchestra members voted definitively Sunday to reject the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center Inc.'s 'best and final offer,' which came after three full days of bargaining. Eighty-five of the musicians voted against the offer, and two abstained. None voted in favor." - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
