Human beings with a lot to say like to make noise. So do crickets, dogs, mice, other insects, rabbits when frightened or being killed, moose, and many, many others. Some of their noises are effective. Some fail to have an effect. - Harper's

We imagine our choices are free, our selves sovereign, but much of our behavior arises automatically. We are driven by inner conditions, social cues, learned scripts, and neural flows—just as the machine is driven by token prediction and loss minimization. The difference, of course, is that the human brain is plastic. - Hedgehog Review

On average, we spend more than two hours scrolling through such platforms each day. But not all reading is created equal. The mind can skim over the surface of a sentence and swiftly decode its literal meaning. But deep reading — sustained engagement with a longform text — is a distinct endeavor. - Vox

 “I was mad that the representation, whether of teenagers or queerness, was not completely akin to my own real-life experience — this show was my lifeline; the least it could have done was conform to my limited perception of reality, right?” - HuffPost

And be replaced with … people and print? "Indie local news publishers I know, already frustrated by the junkiness of digital distribution, are increasingly turning to in-person events, print editions and zines and printed handout cards with QR codes.” - Matt Pearce

With each recording, “we’re atrophying our memory a little and trusting that it will work autonomously. But it’s like an engine: if we give it a boost, it keeps working, but if we don’t, it gets worse and worse.” - El País

The outcome will shape who gets to tell Canadian stories and what those stories are, and also which ones count as Canadian under the law. This, in turn, will determine who in the film and television industries can access funding, tax credits and visibility on streaming services. - The Conversation

The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland, a global academic collaboration led by Trinity College Dublin, deployed historians, computer scientists and other specialists to digitally recreate parts of a vast archive destroyed in Ireland’s civil war. - The Guardian

America’s creators are mounting a campaign to push back on any use of their work without permission or compensation, seeking to head off potential abuses of their intellectual property. - The Wall Street Journal

“Heather Gerken has been the dean of the Yale Law School since 2017, and is currently serving her second term, which was scheduled to conclude in 2027. … Succeeding Darren Walker, Gerken will be the 11th president of the foundation and … will officially start on November 1.” - ARTnews

“By plane, motorbike, camper van and even on bicycles, tourists are beginning to discover Afghanistan, with solo travelers and tour groups gradually venturing in. … And the country’s Taliban government, which seized power more than three years ago but has yet to be formally recognized by any other nation, is more than happy to welcome them.” - AP

After Confederation, some of the country’s oldest records were stashed in a loft in the reading room of the Centre Block on Parliament Hill. That’s where a fire started in 1916 that destroyed the whole building, along with many historic treasures. - The Walrus

In the memo, reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter, Kyncl wrote that WMG is looking to reduce costs by about $300 million to “future-proof” the company and “reinvest in the business,” particularly into the music itself. - The Hollywood Reporter

“The (agreement), which continues through the 2027-28 season, extends a long history of harmonious labor relations at the symphony. For more than 30 years, MSO administration has shared its financial information with musicians.” - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

That is to say, the new agreement is retroactive to August 1, 2024, which is when the previous contract expired; the orchestra had been playing under temporary extensions ever since. - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

The 43-year-old Hrůša is currently chief conductor of Germany’s Bamberg Symphony; he becomes music director of the Royal Opera House in London this fall. He has been the Czech Philharmonic’s principal guest conductor since 2018; he succeeds Semyon Bychkov as chief in 2028. - AP

Less than a week after founding artistic directors David Finckel and Wu Han announced their 2026 departure, their successors have been revealed. They are longtime Music@Menlo participants Dmitri Atapine and Hyeyeon Park; like Finckel and Wu Han, they are a married cellist-pianist couple. - San Francisco Classical Voice

The movie isn’t seen as progressive, but “on TikTok, people … have reinterpreted the ‘Colors of the Wind’ lyrics to comment on an array of contemporary topics they feel strongly about, like immigration, the Middle East, the president and Elon Musk, Black Lives Matter and oil drilling.” - The New York Times

“A decadelong project to clean and restore the largest of the four … spectacularly frescoed reception rooms of the Apostolic Palace … uncovered a novel mural painting technique that the superstar Renaissance painter and architect began but never completed.” - AP

Hélio Menezes is no longer the director of the Museu Afro Brasil, a key São Paulo institution founded by sculptor Emanoel Araújo that is known for its support of Afro-Brazilian artists, who have long been neglected by mainstream institutions in the country. - ARTnews

The prophylactic in question, on view as part of an exhibition titled “Safe Sex?”, is printed with a pornographic illustration of three priests and a nun. The foundation Civitas Christiana wants the object removed, calling it “a grotesque insult to God, the Catholic Church and the entire Dutch nation.” - Artnet

Facing a growing deficit, the Brooklyn Museum announced its intent to cut around 47 full- and part-time workers — more than 10% of its staff — back in February, a plan that was immediately met with backlash from its unions and community supporters. - Hyperallergic

The museum, which allegedly cost $1 billion dollars, funded largely through Japanese loans and contributions from the Egyptian government, was first proposed by Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s longtime authoritarian president who announced plans for the museum in 1992. - Artnet

For many residents, visiting every local Smithsonian museum is a bucket list item. Kathryn Jones’s journey takes that challenge to the extreme. The 33-year-old is on a mission not only to visit every museum, but to engage with all the text, videos and interactive displays in each of the institutions. - Washington Post (MSN)

“This isn’t about banning books,” Premier Danielle Smith posted on X. “It’s about protecting kids from graphic, sexually explicit content that has no place in a classroom.” (None of the books appear to have been part of any classroom curriculum, nor were students compelled to read them.) - The Walrus

“It’s called performative reading not just because someone might be pretending to read, but rather that they want everyone to know they read. The presumption is that they’re performing for passersby, signaling they have the taste and attention span to pick up a physical book instead of putting in AirPods.” - The Guardian

In the early 1970s, when many American women still couldn’t open bank accounts in their own names and the terms (and concepts) “domestic violence” and “sexual harassment” hadn’t yet been developed, Ms. Magazine helped bring about real change. The staff, meanwhile, got thousands of letters as well as occasional death threats. - The Guardian

“Writing Australia, Creative Australia’s new literature body, launches today, bringing the history of Australian cultural policy full circle: writers were the first artists in Australia to receive government support. … Government investment in the sector is critical – not least because supporting writers is nation-building work.” - The Guardian

Which of America’s founding fathers began writing his memoirs in the early 1770s, a project that remained unfinished when it was posthumously published in 1793? - The New York Times

Oh, it’s big. Rebecca Yarros’s Onyx Storm “came out earlier this year and sold 2.7 million copies in its first week,” for instance. - NPR

 Gov. Ron DeSantis cut nearly $6 million in recurring funding to the state’s public radio and TV stations, one day before the state’s 2025 budget took effect. - Inside Radio

“Paramount said the $16 million sum ‘includes plaintiffs’ fees and costs,’ and will not be paid to Trump directly, but instead will be allocated to Trump’s future presidential library — mirroring a settlement agreement that Disney’s ABC struck with Trump last December.” - CNN

Trump filed the suit last year, alleging that 60 Minutes producers deceptively edited an interview with Kamala Harris to benefit her campaign. (Trump won the election anyway, of course.) It’s widely thought that the FCC won’t approve Paramount’s merger with Skydance unless the suit is settled to Trump’s satisfaction. - The Hollywood Reporter

What strikes me most about the list is this: Long-held categories in the movie business are fading, just like they are in the broader culture. - The New York Times

 The idea that AI-generated video is both the future of filmmaking and an existential threat to Hollywood has caught on like wildfire among boosters for the relatively new technology. - The Verge

"We are being advised that the curtailing of Palestine Action could have a major knock-on effect for us as it could become not only illegal for others to voice support for them but also for us, as film-makers, to distribute this film.” - The Guardian (UK)

“I’ve always been aligned with the mission and values of Ailey. So when I heard they were searching for a new artistic director, given all the knowledge and experience I’ve gained, it almost felt like I would be doing myself and the organization a disservice not to try.” - Dance Magazine

A successful Irish barrister with a long dedication to the arts, she and co-founder and artistic director Alessio Carbone are on an ambitious mission to revitalise dance in Venice. “It was once the ballet capital of the world, and in the 18th century there were more ballet theatres than in any other city. -...

This fall, in partnership with the company DanceOne, they’re launching a dance tour called Ovation by DanceOne, which merges ballroom and commercial competition traditions into one event. - Dance Magazine

Links Hall, long the hub of contemporary dance in Chicago, closed permanently in June. This raises two questions: Is there a crisis coming for small, independent arts venues? Where in the city can cutting-edge dance be presented now? Journalist Courtney Kueppers spoke with three Chicago dancemakers about what comes next. - WBEZ (Chicago)

At Repertory Dance Theatre, Linda C. Smith is retiring after 42 years as artistic director, 39 of them as executive director as well; two company executives will jointly fill those roles. At Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, artistic director Daniel Charon is stepping down after 13 years, replaced by Leslie Kraus. - The Salt Lake Tribune

“In Kakuma in northern Kenya, where more than 300,000 refugees’ livelihoods have been affected by funding cuts that have halved monthly food rations, the children use the Acholi traditional dance as a distraction from hunger and have perfected a survival skill to skip lunches as they stretch their monthly food rations.” - AP

“A King Lear and two Othellos are in repertoire in major Kyiv theatres; there is also A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the capital, a Hamlet, a Macbeth and a Romeo and Juliet.” And there’s the Ukrainian Shakespeare Festival in Ivano-Frankivsk, which Guardian chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins went to visit. - The Guardian

“It has traditional skills and tricks and excitement, but instead of being a traditional succession of acts it’s a completely theatrical experience: a rollercoaster of a show.” Then there are the foxes that sneak in at night and steal costumes. - Irish Times

"It’s organized chaos at rehearsal for The Color Purple on a recent afternoon at the Goodman Theatre downtown,” but “director Lili-Anne Brown looks on with expert calm.” - Chicago Sun-Times

"There was a group of writers who were part of something called the New York Theatre Strategy; Sam Shepard and Lanford Wilson and Terrence McNally and Julia Bovasso and Irene Fornes, and they were all upset because no one would do their work Off-Broadway. So they said, “Will you co-produce with us?" - American Theatre

“Meadow, 78, has served as artistic director of Manhattan Theater Club since 1972, and by her own count has produced or presented more than 600 shows” — not to mention presiding over the nonprofit’s astounding growth — “making her one of the most prolific and successful figures in the American theater.” - The New York Times

He’s the guiding hand behind Tom Hiddleston’s offbeat Rome, Nicole Scherzinger’s revelatory, Tony-winning Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, and Rachel Zegler singing “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” to passersby from the balcony of a London theatre. But his unorthodox tactics aren’t always that successful. - The Guardian

The Library announced this week that it has acquired more than 5,000 items from Sondheim's collection, which will be available to the public on July 1. - CBC

A new study suggests that there are six specific traits that these people tend to have in common: Cool people are largely perceived to be extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous. - The New York Times

“A war hero, attorney and real estate developer, … (he) led the design and development of major L.A. landmarks, including the Museum of Contemporary Art and Walt Disney Concert Hall, … (shepherding) the city out of a cultural stasis and turn(ing) it into a global cultural and architectural powerhouse.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

“A prolific director of Off-Broadway, Broadway and regional productions, beginning in the 1990s (he) worked with some of the brightest emerging playwrights, including Douglas Carter Beane, Kenneth Lonergan, Nicky Silver, and Paula Vogel,” directing the acclaimed premieres of Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth and Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive. - Deadline

 Her unwavering commitment to shoring up the integrity of a book at every stage solidified her legacy as an editor who could turn talent, hers and that of the authors she published, into cultural and literary power. - Slate

“I worked for a long time facilitating other people’s creativity, and that was very meaningful and very fulfilling, but I started to miss my own,” Roth, 49, told me during a rehearsal break at a black box studio in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood. - The New York Times