This is the paradox of sad music: We generally don’t enjoy being sad in real life, but we do enjoy art that makes us feel that way. Countless scholars since Aristotle have tried to account for it. - The New York Times
What I find most fascinating about the lawsuit, though, is the glimpse it offers into how national and state-level political dynamics empower the most fanatical members of a community to impose their will on everyone else. - The New York Times
Many of the more recent changes in local arts organizations were sparked by the pandemic, which shone a spotlight on society’s inequities, as well as by the 2020 protests and the increased attention to diversity, equity and inclusion. - Seattle Times
Today, all serious historians and archaeologists acknowledge that the cross-fertilization of “Western” and “non‐Western” cultures happened throughout human history, and that the modern West owes much of its cultural DNA to a wide range of non‐European and non‐white forebears. - Smithsonian
The abrupt closure comes less than three weeks after the theater, known for adapting beloved books into short musicals and for devising dance parties and shows for toddlers and even infants, canceled one production and announced an emergency fundraising campaign with the goal of raising $750,000 by July 1. - San Francisco Chronicle
Michael Davies: "I want to build an elite pyramid of competition that plays a postseason every single year at the same time. … It doesn't mean that Monday-through-Friday Jeopardy! isn't as important. … But I do believe our very best players deserve to be in competition with each other." - MSN (Vulture)
Working with ChatGPT, an author inputs a prompt request and can choose from an infinite number of outputs. If you don’t like a paragraph ChatGPT wrote, you can edit your prompt and ask it for another one. These tools can guide anything from character names to plot points. - Wired
"Performed by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, Legacy is widely considered to be the first contemporary dance to tell the story of modern Taiwan. It re-enacted the journey undertaken by the 17th-century pioneers who traveled from mainland China, via the choppy Taiwan Strait, before settling on the island." - CNN
Joined by free-speech advocacy group PEN America and several authors and parents, Penguin Random House filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the Escambia County School District and its school board, alleging they were violating the 1st Amendment by scrubbing library shelves of books based on a political or ideological disagreement. - Los Angeles Times
"The publicly- and privately-funded museum will open in Palermo's 18th-century neoclassical Palazzo Jung palace, sources report. Joining an existing No Mafia Memorial and museum, the new institution will offer archival documents, film, and photos on loan from major Italian museums, as well as immersive experiences featuring scent and sound." - Artnet
To demonstrate how this improves the AI's performance, Anthropic loaded the entire text of The Great Gatsby (72,000 tokens) with one line modified from the original. The AI was tasked with spotting the difference, which it did in just 22 seconds, the company claimed in a press release. - Interesting Engineering
"Public speaking is always ranked in polls as among our greatest fears. Stand-up must be worse. But 'The Naked Comedy Show'? This monthly showcase represents the Everest of anxiety." - The New York Times
“I would just say that we are, without changing … our fundamental position about the ownership of the sculptures, we’re trying to explore a possible win-win proposition that would work for both sides.” - Artnet
"Stories online will no longer include a traditional dateline that tells where a story was reported from. Instead, certain stories will have 'enhanced bylines' that tells readers more about how journalists did the reporting." - Nieman Lab
