Well, from Apple, in any case: "The pay-as-you-go plan would see publishers paid only when Siri AI uses their content,” which is similar to the Apple News+ model for print (er, digital). - Nieman Lab

For “collective effervescence” to occur organically, bodies need to be present, in the same space, dancing to the same rhythm. The function is to restore the social bonds and shared beliefs that are eroded by the drudgery of ordinary life. - The Guardian

More than 25,000 people are working at the site on any given day, building a design by Norman Foster, the celebrated British architect. The city is laid out in grids and includes about a five-mile stretch of government buildings. - The New York Times

Most discussions of AI and consciousness ask whether machines can experience anything. But maybe the real mystery is: If consciousness is not fundamentally related to higher cognition, then what kind of phenomenon is it? - Noema

In popular culture and pop psychology, crowds are often associated with strong emotions, excessive emotional expression and the uncritical spread of emotions. Commentators often link that crowd emotion in turn with uncontrolled behaviour and, in some cases, mindless violence. - Psyche

In both its depth and breadth, Hegel’s philosophy is perhaps rivalled only by that of Aristotle. - Psyche

Wow, OK, way to be just obviously evil. “The printed book is destroyed in the process. The logo of the Amazon team that works at this warehouse, called VGT3, is a dinosaur, brandishing its teeth and with a book in its hands." - 404 Media

The 47th president shared "a series of seemingly AI-generated images ... and a short video in which Trump and Washington stroll through the still-unbuilt ballroom. ‘Thank you, George, for some of your brilliant ideas on this great Military Complex/Ballroom!’ Trump captioned the 10-second video.” - Salon

“No one wants more uncertainty, and certainly no one wants this chaos. And let’s face it, no one really wants to move from Beverly Hills to Nashville.” - The New York Times

“The trauma of the Holocaust has lived beneath the surface of daily life for decades, too painful to confront. But now second- and third-generation family members are getting access to archives of collaboration. In some cases, it’s opening old wounds.” - The New York Times

Wow: "Administrators later warned teachers there were a ‘LOT of mistakes’ on pages 19 through 36 and instructed students to tear the pages out of their planners before taking them home.”- Salon

“In the heart of old Ljubljana, a mannequin with a bucket on its head welcomes visitors to a new and ambitious project – a museum focusing on the varied and sometimes antagonistic humour of the former Yugoslavia.” - The Guardian

In one British McDonald’s, a hot spot for fighting and generally antisocial behavior, “measures were brought in including a playlist of classical music in the evenings.” - BBC (Yahoo)

A Nick Jonas concert “reminded me of an obscure phrase coined by a 19th-century sociologist – Émile Durkheim’s ‘collective effervescence.’ … Individuals who are normally preoccupied with their personal concerns get swept up into a kind of electric, communal intensity.” - The Guardian (UK)

Soprano Asmik Gregorian: “This feels very strange and empty. … It was planned by Markus Hinterhäuser, and we are all here because of him. It feels a bit like a boat without a captain.” - The New York Times

The oldest known brass instruments in existence are two smallish trumpets found inside the tomb of the boy pharaoh in 1922. Seventeen years later, for a live BBC broadcast from Cairo, a modern musician played one.  Bad idea. - CNN

BMG is the first significant rightsholder to ink a licensing deal with Suno since Warner Music Group announced an alliance with the AI company nine months ago. - MusicBusinessWorldwide

Scores are more available than ever: in multiple published editions, online in public domain collections, in libraries and elsewhere. But a manuscript, music written in a composer’s hand, has the almost magical power to make even the most distant giants feel near and alive. - The New York Times

In the morning, good news about an art theft from March. Then came the evening. “Thieves got past the alarm system at Messina's Museo Interdisciplinare Regionale (MuMe), and broke open a security case. They soon left with four wooden panels.” - NPR

“The recovered works are Cézanne’s Still Life with Cherries, which authorities said was valued at about $7m (£5.2m), Renoir’s Fish, valued at $3.5m, and Matisse’s Odalisque on the Terrace.” - The Guardian (UK)

In Chicago, a lone statue of George Washington is now surrounded by “Other Washingtons,” which take the form of blue flags bearing the faces of Black Americans who bear the same last name. - CNN

Of international bodies, Unesco is active in keeping a record of the fate of cultural heritage worldwide, but a record is just a record. Its listing of Russia’s and Israel’s devastation of their hated foes is like watching a historic tragedy unfold in real time. - The Guardian

The Matisse illustrations, made for a limited-edition art book, were taken last December from the Biblioteca Mário de Andrade, where they were part of an exhibition presented jointly with the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art. Also stolen were five engravings by Brazilian artist Candido Portinari; they have not yet been located. - BBC

The Carabinieri have regained possession of Renoir’s “Fish,” Cézanne’s “Still Life with Cherries,” and Matisse’s “Odalisque on the Terrace,” which were stolen from the Magnani Rocca Foundation near Parma this past March. - AP

The booksellers are wondering how they’re supposed to feel. Tey’re "are “uncomfortable with the idea of books being destroyed - even if they admit not every title needs to be saved.” - BBC

“I began asking myself: what will remain of this experience if it is not written down?”  - LitHub

From the editors: “Rather than translating existing work from The Rumpus, El Alboroto will commission and publish original Spanish-language writing spanning cultural criticism, personal essays, interviews, fiction, poetry and comics.” - LitHub

And NPR gets right down to it with the owner: What is “Monster smut,” and why is it so popular right now? - NPR

In groups, sometimes with full-throated yawps, it’s time to take back public, communal reading. - The New York Times

“You can still type a symbol originally invented for Cicero nearly 21 centuries ago — at least if you configure your keyboard properly.” - Open Culture

A Heated Rivalry actor had to “pause” his account on Cameo after possibly revealing that they're filming two seasons of the hit show at once. - CBC

For instance: “There’s a seven-minute ... tale of a mountain biker who rushes straight from a race to support his wife who’s giving birth, only to get killed by the very ambulance carrying her—all narrated from the POV of his bike.” - Slate

And now, after an improbable path whose twists and turns even the Roadrunner would have a hard time navigating, it’s a feature film. - The New York Times

"Games on Netflix have had mixed results,” but the plan is to focus on kids and sports, or so it seems. So much for narrative synergy. - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

The big thing is “Disney’s push into the booming vertical media space — aka microdramas and other shortform clips designed to be viewed on mobile phones .” - Variety

Here are eight that did it right — landed that unwieldy plane, circled back, etc. — did whatever they needed to do to wrap things up well. - The Atlantic

That’s because the Firewerks are dancing in the Moda Center, the home of the new WNBA team the Portland Fire. "I don’t think any of us really knew what we were walking into. We were just excited about this new dance opportunity in Portland,” says one Firewerk. - Oregon ArtsWatch

Claire Salinda: “They finesse, they practice and pretend. And from their tinkering comes their version of right and good. ... It seems not so different from the fiddling I do in my own mirror … in an effort to more accurately portray who I wish to be perceived as that day.” - Los Angeles...

“The past year has seen an explosion of dance on the big screen. Behind some of (the) more technical sequences are dance doubles — professional dancers who step in for the actors and execute the choreography. But what does being a dance double actually entail? And how do performers book these roles?” - Dance...

“(For) this year’s NOW evening of world premieres at Vail Dance Festival, tap dancer/choreographer Michelle Dorrance … is creating a work with … Chelsea Hoy, co-artistic director of Chicago’s Trinity Irish Dance Company, for a cast that includes top New York City Ballet dancers” — who, says Dorrance, “are blowing everyone’s minds.” - Dance...

The drama which nearly derailed the company began in April 2024, when the company members voted to unionize and the then-executive director fired them en masse. That boss has now retired, the dismissed dancers moved on, and their successors — with no resistance from management — have joined AGMA. - The Dallas Morning News...

“A perusal of the archives shows how rich the Dance Division’s history has been, with a roster of teachers and students that reflects the arc of American dance in the 20th century. And the curriculum, a mix of ballet and modern dance, once seen as eccentric, now is the norm.” - The New York...

The production, which had been scheduled for next February and March at Stratford-upon-Avon, is being postponed to a yet-to-be-announced date while the 60-year-old Clarke undergoes treatment for cancer. - The Guardian

“The comedians behind some thoughtful shows (this year) are exploring the vexed problem with a mixture of droll wit and intuitive wisdom." One of them created an AI replica of himself and interacts with it onstage; another recounts how he became convinced AI software was deliberately sabotaging his career. - The New York Times

This past season saw only six new musicals, the fewest in 25 years; the coming season will have at least eight, roughly the post-COVID normal. The shows have eight-figure budgets, and some have music by superstars (Lin-Manuel Miranda, Dolly Parton, Prince), while others have familiar IP (Paddington, Benjamin Button, Black Swan.) - Broadway Journal

“When a show becomes a meme, the meme becomes the story, eclipsing the show itself. This phenomenon is here to stay. Thankfully, we’ll always have satire.” - The New York Times

Cell phones are the least of it. Yes, of course they occasionally find people having sex in the auditorium or restrooms, but they've encountered things even worse. - The Guardian

ATG Entertainment (originally Ambassador Theatre Group) owns seven Broadway houses, ten London venues, numerous theatres in Europe, and the discount app TodayTix. Now Emanuel’s company Mari, which owns Frieze art fairs and two large pro tennis tournaments, has agreed to acquire ATG for a rumored $6 billion. - The Hollywood Reporter

The man who created Maus has some worries: “The media are struggling with how to convey the stakes in this post-truth era, he explains, the courts are packed with Trump appointees, democratic norms have been destroyed, and there is no effective opposition.” - The Guardian (UK)

Perry was “a depth-defying scuba diver and underwater stuntwoman whose reverence for the oceanic world was deepened by tripping out on LSD in a research study that included Cary Grant, Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper.” - The New York Times

Heilmann, emblematic of women artists of her generation, “was in her 60s when she belatedly achieved wide acclaim for her ebulliently colored, loose-limbed, often lopsided abstract paintings.” - The New York Times

“Hensley made a clear distinction between a fiddle and a violin, even though they are essentially the same instrument. ‘If you can read music, you play the violin,’ she told The Tulsa World in 1982. ‘I can’t read music, so I just play the fiddle.’” - The New York Times

But the so-called “Slayer Statute” prevents the youngest child of Michelle Singer Reiner and Rob Reiner from doing that. - The New York Times

Admired for both beauty of voice and acting skill, she was also notably brave, handling boa constrictors as Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, appearing briefly topless at Covent Garden in Tippett’s The Knot Garden, and simulating oral sex as the Duchess of Argyll in Adès’s Powder Her Face. - The Telegraph (UK) (Yahoo!)