"Freedom is neither a fixed idea nor a story of progress toward a predetermined goal. The history of American freedom is a tale of debates and struggles. Often, battles for control of the idea illustrate the contrast between the “negative” and “positive” meanings of freedom." - The Nation

Whatever the fate of modern DEI programs in corporate America, diversity of experience, thought, and ideology is a meritorious goal for a company to pursue. Done right, it will be good for business. - The Atlantic

Might the relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence follow a similar logic—a hope of consciousness helping consciousness across generations? Perhaps the best thing that we’re put here for is indeed to see; but our vision is limited. - 3 Quarks Daily

Reality, as we now understand, does not tend towards existential flourishing and eternal becoming. Instead, systems collapse, things break down, and time tends irreversibly towards disorder and eventual annihilation. - Aeon

To say that “reasonable people can disagree” can encourage suspension of judgment in response to important matters of personal and social concern. - 3 Quarks Daily

ChatGPT, as ever, was upbeat, inexhaustible, and, crucially, unfazed by failure. It made suggestions. It asked its own questions. Some avenues were promising; others were dead ends. - The New Yorker

Hm: “The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), sent a scathing letter to a number of tech giants, including Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple. The letter's subject: the European Digital Services Act cannot be applied if it jeopardizes freedom of expression and, above all, the safety of US citizens.” - Wired

Not ideal: “This isn’t some relatively harmless inconvenience that just targets celebrities, either. These bots often insist they’re real people and will even offer physical locations for a user to meet up with them.” - The Verge

One actor, in three movies at the festival, said that “on stage and screen, actors are counted on to speak emphatically. ‘I’m happy to make louder the simple sentence of “Stop killing.”’” - The New York Times

“The desert festival … began Sunday, following a weekend of brutal storms that battered camps, tore down art installations and caused dozens of injuries.” (Worse, they destroyed the Orgy Dome.) “By midweek, vehicles were again entering the site, though muddy conditions forced … delays of up to eight hours each day.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

There is a seismic shift happening in the media landscape, fueled by the rise of digital platforms, declining print readership and mass layoffs in cultural journalism. It also points to a larger epidemic in the consumption of this kind of writing, and how people engage with this industry wide. - The Observer

A White House official described the exchange as productive and cordial and confirmed that White House senior associate Lindsey Halligan — who was tasked with enacting Trump’s March executive order on the Smithsonian — attended. - Washington Post (Yahoo)

“Musicians have been staging ongoing performances in protest at the Utah State Capitol.” - NPR

“Opera Naples has seen a 71 percent increase in ticket sales over the past two years, and a 310 percent jump in corporate sponsorships.” - WGCU (Fort Myers, FL)

The busy 29-year-old maestro, soon to start music directorships at both the Chicago Symphony and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, will relinquish the post of chief conductor in the Norwegian capital at the end of the coming season. - Moto Perpetuo

Why did this humble tune, first conjured by medieval farmers, capture so many people’s imaginations and even feature in The Addams Family? - BBC

Tim Greiving: “As the recipient of those quotes, I want to try and clear it up. … It’s true that he said to me, ‘I never liked film music very much.’ … In that particular conversation he was specifically talking about the complicated role of putting film music on a concert program.” - The...

"No Suno output contains anything like a ‘sample’ from a recording in the training set, so no Suno output can infringe the rights in anything in the training set, as a matter of law.” - Music Business Worldwide

“The world is burning. Fascism is rising. Countries are falling. And we’re on the brink of incredible technological change, which will either be the end of everything or a new beginning. So, who needs artists?” - The Guardian (UK)

Vail will host a powwow and provide cultural sensitivity training. “The town also agreed to fund a new art program for underrepresented and economically disadvantaged people, and to sponsor and pay for a community forum on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” - The New York Times

The Confederacy was the enemy of the United States. Remember the extremely bloody war? So why, with a restoration of Confederate statues and names, are Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump "making common cause with apologists who believe that the wrong side won the Civil War”? - The Atlantic

Leonardo “had become one of us in the way we want 21st-century celebrities to be one of us: a tech entrepreneur, a creative, a misunderstood visionary who had more to do with our moment in history than his own.” - Irish Times

CalArts had tried to get 50-60 faculty and staff to take “voluntary separation” or early retirement, but when they didn’t get enough takers, they simply laid staff ad faculty off. - Hyperallergic

“What many opponents resent above all is the high-handed way they feel Macron decided to make his gesture to the UK, overriding the advice of specialists who say the vibrations inevitable in a long journey by road could cause irreparable damage.” - BBC

Lea Ypi: “In literature there is an experimentation with genres and with cultures and with languages, and so you get this sense of complexity. You have almost the exact opposite happening in the political realm.” - The Guardian (UK)

The truth is that "disability is not a choice, but a natural variation of existence. That disability is part of the natural world, and not an anomaly to be corrected. That incurable illnesses exist. That medicine is an inexact science.” - LitHub

But this is a walking (audio) book club. - Washington Post (Yahoo)

"It is hard to think that the world once fondly referred to as one “of letters” does not half-deserve its dwindling readerships and shattered finances when a volume of new writing, from a writer who continues to command a vast, maybe exorbitant, level of attention, is listed at such an absurdly inflated price."...

Nine literary festivals parted ways with investment company Baillie Gifford last summer amid controversy over its involvement with fossil fuels and companies that operate in Israel, with the events industry having faced other major changes post-pandemic such as the rise of theatre-style tours. - The Bookseller

You may not recognize the term, but you use pragmatics all the time; we all do. John McWhorter explains what exactly they are, and he predicted that when AI programs started incorporating pragmatics properly, chatbots would start become convincing to human users. - The New York Times

The director's new film is partly funded by MUBI. On the company's investor with ties to the Israeli military: “All corporate money is dirty. ... You can avoid it and not make films at all. But films are how I carry what I like to say.” - Variety

The Journal-Constitution plans to go all-digital at the end of 2025. - Nieman Lab

“Most of the 1,300 Voice of America journalists had already been fired or remained on paid leave prior to these layoffs. Only 100 journalists and other staff members remain employed by the organization.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)

“TIFF, long considered the people's festival because screenings are open to the public, is preparing to host its 50th edition.” But brands are blocking fan access - and the people are not thrilled. - CBC

“Even as the subjects reported trusting online content less after the quiz, they still ranked (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany’s largest circulation broadsheet daily) highly and turned to it more after being confronted with a quiz that showed how difficult it can be to tell fake from real.” - Nieman Lab

“The move follows last month’s congressional rescission of more than $1 billion in federal public media funding. Vermont Public CEO Vijay Singh said the station will lose $2 million from its current budget.” Fifteen employees have been laid off; two further positions were reduced from full-time to part-time. - Inside Radio

It’s because there are cis men doing the cheerleading alongside the women — and the Minnesota Vikings squad has become the primary target, despite the fact that several other teams have had men on their squads for years. (Not to mention that, until World War II, cheerleading was done mostly by men.) - Vox...

Interestingly, Ferri has no prior connection to the Vienna State Opera. ... She sees this as a positive, especially in light of the two years she’s had to prepare for the role. “I have no personal agenda, and it gave me a lot of freedom to step back and observe.” - Pointe Magazine

Anthony Krutzkamp, a Kentucky native, is currently both artistic and executive director at Sacramento Ballet, where he achieved record ticket sales, formed a second company, and started the organization's first endowment. He succeeds outgoing co-artistic directors Mikelle Bruzina and Harald Uwe Kern in October. - Louisville Courier Journal

Stephen Nakagawa, a former dancer with the Washington Ballet, was hired just days after the Kennedy Center fired its entire dance programming staff.  Nakagawa had written a letter to the center’s president, Richard Grenell, saying he wants to help “end the dominance of leftist ideologies in the arts.” - The New York Times

Then a seemingly random, deeply senseless knife attack nearly killed her. Now she tells the story of her recovery and return to dance in a documentary. - West Australian

“Everyone can have a bad day at the office. But for most of us, it doesn’t take place in front of millions of viewers,” argues Lyndsey Winship, who points out that objecting to Rachael Gunn being a white academic amounts to gatekeeping who’s allowed to do what kind of dance. - The Guardian

Should Portland State build two new performing arts centers to handle Broadway tours while the earthquake-unsafe Keller Auditorium is renovated? Can the city in any way afford this? And what about traffic? - Oregon ArtsWatch

“Broadway musicals overwhelmingly focus on historical or fictional events; it’s exceptionally rare for an actress to cultivate a long relationship with a subject that she will embody through pop ballads and box steps. Especially one who’s investing in her project.” - The New York Times

About 71% of theaters there have seen audience numbers improve since the COVID shutdowns, though only 41% are back to pre-2020 levels. The major problem right now is that 30% of theatergoers in the city, and 22% in the region, use mass transit, which is undergoing savage cuts. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

Tshidi Manye has played the mandrill shaman who sings “Circle of Life” in roughly 9,000 performances, a large majority of them on Broadway. - The New York Times

“Hip-hop, (songwriter Dave Hook) argues, has never blandly replicated itself, but always adapted to new circumstances. … By giving hip-hop a Scottish voice and, in this case, bringing it into the world of William Wallace, Hook believes he is staying true to the genre’s political roots.” - The Guardian

If it works for the few but not more widely – in particular, if it doesn’t work for global-majority artists or those breaking with popular forms – what does that mean about the fringe as a marketplace for the wider industry? - The Stage

Rossiter was “a historian whose trilogy, Women Scientists in America, documented in sharp detail the ways women were excised from the annals of science.” - The New York Times

At the peak of her career, aged 50, she was effectively banned from the stages of Europe, following Russia’s full-scale illegal invasion of Ukraine. Three years on, as nightly Russian bombardments of Ukrainian cities continue, Netrebko is due to return to London to play Tosca at Covent Garden. - The Observer

He and his wife, the Bolshoi ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, were high culture’s power couple in the late Soviet era; his works were staples of the repertoire. After the USSR fell, interest in Shchedrin’s music soared in Russia and abroad, where it was championed by Mstislav Rostropovich and Lorin Maazel. - The New York Times

“At the height of folk revival, Hickerson began what became more than a quarter-century tenure at the Library of Congress in 1963, swiftly establishing himself as a knowledgeable guide to the sometimes-convoluted collections of recordings, documents and oral histories that were vital to performers, songwriters and historians of the genre.” - Billboard

With colleague Joan Woodbury, who died in 2023, she founded the state’s first contemporary troupe, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, in 1964 and developed it into a prominent ensemble. Though she relinquished the helm at the turn of the millennium, she remained a part-time employee for the rest of her life. - The Salt Lake Tribune

“For more than five decades at W.W. Norton, (he) waded into the so-called slush pile ... to discover unsung authors and to help fashion sometimes amorphous antecedents into sizzling, culturally significant potboilers” such as Liar’s Poker, The Big Short, Moneyball, The Perfect Storm, and Master and Commander. - The New York Times