Today's Stories

How Langston Hughes’s “The Black Clown” Became An Opera

“The magic of creator, lead actor, and bass-baritone Davóne Tines’s operatic adaption of Langston Hughes’s 1931 dramatic monologue The Black Clown lies in its everythingness. (The) poem … consolidates 300 years of the Black American experience into 18 emotional stanzas.” - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

The AI Revolution Is Meant To Overwhelm You

I’ve written previously that one of AI’s enduring cultural impacts is to make people feel like they’re losing their mind. But lately, I believe, it’s the accelerated nature of the AI boom that’s driving people everywhere mad. - The Atlantic

One Of Cuba’s Most Unusual Choreographers Tries To Stay Afloat Amid The Island’s Economic Collapse

“For nearly three decades Cuba’s Danza Voluminosa regularly filled prestigious venues like the 2,000-seat National Theater. Directed by Juan Miguel Mas, the troupe pioneered a new movement by working exclusively with larger-bodied dancers. ... (Now) Mas’s daily life has been upended by persistent blackouts, water outages, soaring costs and a lack of transportation.” - AP

A Rothko Sells For $86 Million

The seller of the 1957 work, “Brown and Blacks in Reds,” was the estate of former Goldman Sachs banker turned art dealer Robert Mnuchin, who paid $6.7 million for the work in 2003. The winning telephone bidder at Sotheby’s was anonymous. - The Wall Street Journal

The Anti-AI Backlash Is Growing

Even absent any uptick in AI-induced layoffs, the anti-AI sentiment is likely to keep growing. - The Atlantic

Sorry, But Introspection Is Just An Illusion

There are no such stable beliefs and desires “inside” us that can be observed and reported. Instead, the human mind is a wonderfully fluent, but profoundly deceptive, improviser: spinning stories justifying our thoughts and actions as fast as we ask questions. And these invented explanations are vague, inconsistent, and often provably wrong. - IAI News

Trial Begins For Murder Of Art Dealer Brent Sikkema, Allegedly By Order Of His Husband

“The estranged husband of a prominent New York City art dealer said he wished his spouse was dead before the co-owner of a contemporary art gallery was found stabbed to death in his Brazilian townhouse, a witness testified Tuesday as a murder-for-hire trial got underway in Manhattan.” - AP

What Kinds Of Non-Fiction Reporting Wins Pulitzers

If you do look closely at the history, biography, memoir, and general-nonfiction honors, a noticeable pattern emerges. The picks typically share a particular quality. - The Atlantic

Would Paying Reviewers Help Fix The Peer Review Problem?

“The current system of unpaid reviews undermines the standards of the peer-review process. It produces late reviews and excludes large segments of the research community who cannot afford to work for free. If you have a financial commitment from the reviewer, it creates a lever for expecting quality. Payment creates accountability, not corruption.” - InsideHigherEd

GenZers Are Going To Movie Theatres: Here’s Why

People born between 1997 and 2012 are now more frequent cinemagoers than some older age groups, according to a US-based survey by Fandango, with 87% having seen at least one film in a cinema in the last 12 months compared with 58% of baby boomers. - The Guardian

London Museum To Return Old Jain Manuscripts (Though They Aren’t Leaving Britain)

The Wellcome Collection is ceding ownership of more than 2,000 documents, dating from the 15th to 19th centuries, bought from a Jain temple in present-day Pakistan in 1919. Now deeming the purchase of the manuscripts “unethical,” the museum is turning them over to the UK-based Institute of Jainology. - The Telegraph (UK) (Yahoo!)

Study: Use Of AI Narrows Diversity Of Creativity

A recent preprint study provides evidence that while these tools might boost individual performance, they contribute to an overall reduction in the diversity of ideas across different users. - PsyPost

Knoxville Removes Alex Haley’s “Roots” From School Libraries

“Roots” is a multi-generational story following the descendants of a man sold into slavery in the United States. It won the Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a mini-series. There is a statue of Haley in East Knoxville. - WATE

What Pop Music Criticism Has Become

The “Greatest Living Songwriters” list was dumb clickbait which omitted an entire pantheon of irreplaceably brilliant songwriters. But the thing I most lament is the loss of a critical landscape in which you could open up the paper each morning and read six reviews of weird shows on the Lower East Side. - Gabrial Kahane

How Some Of Broadway’s Biggest Stars This Season Get Themselves Into Character

Daniel Radcliffe, Every Brilliant Thing: “My ideal version is that the play starts without you noticing.” Ana Gasteyer, Schmigadoon!: “People from my particular background, which is Saturday Night Live, which is sketch, work very quickly. There is no process.” - The New York Times

Have A Look Inside The New Home Of Chicago’s TimeLine Theatre

“It’s a $46 million project built within the shell of a historic storage warehouse that was built by the W.C. Reebie and Brother Company in the 1910s, and the big vertical sign is easily visible to anyone traveling past.” - Chicago Tribune (Yahoo!)

Staffers At San Francisco Arts Commission Want To Know Where The Hell Their Boss Is

“Employees and artists are speaking out about turmoil in the San Francisco Arts Commission, alleging that its leader has been chronically absent and arguing that it's harming the arts by cutting staff and changing how it funds artists.” - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)

The Dallas Opera Appoints New CEO, David Lomelí

Previously chief artistic officer at Santa Fe Opera, Lomelí — who had an 11-year career as a tenor — has spent more than a decade over the years working with The Dallas Opera as consultant, artistic administrator, and founding director of the Hart Institute for Women Conductors. - The Dallas Morning News (MSN)

Suspect Arrested In Massive Louvre Ticketing Scam

"A Louvre employee was indicted and detained on Wednesday on charges including organized gang fraud as part of an investigation into a scheme to defraud the Paris museum of ticket fees for thousands of visitors. Six others had been placed in custody ‘because of the communications they may have had with the first defendants’.” - ARTnews

Settlement Reached In South Florida Public Radio Lawsuit

“In an out-of-court settlement announced Thursday, the Miami-Dade County School Board, which owns the news/talk outlet (WLRN), and South Florida Public Media Group, which manages it, say they have struck a seven-year management deal for WLRN.” - Inside Radio

By Topic

The AI Revolution Is Meant To Overwhelm You

I’ve written previously that one of AI’s enduring cultural impacts is to make people feel like they’re losing their mind. But lately, I believe, it’s the accelerated nature of the AI boom that’s driving people everywhere mad. - The Atlantic

Sorry, But Introspection Is Just An Illusion

There are no such stable beliefs and desires “inside” us that can be observed and reported. Instead, the human mind is a wonderfully fluent, but profoundly deceptive, improviser: spinning stories justifying our thoughts and actions as fast as we ask questions. And these invented explanations are vague, inconsistent, and often provably wrong. - IAI News

Study: Use Of AI Narrows Diversity Of Creativity

A recent preprint study provides evidence that while these tools might boost individual performance, they contribute to an overall reduction in the diversity of ideas across different users. - PsyPost

Study: People Are Bad At Figuring Out What They Don’t Know (Yet They Think They Can)

People aren’t just bad at remembering things they see all the time, but also in actually knowing how they work. In a 2006 study, many people made significant errors when drawing a bicycle, like putting the chain around the front wheel as well as the back wheel. - The Conversation

How Your Brain Toggles Between The Familiar And Exploration

Research from my team suggests that people balance between exploration and habit – that is, trying something new or sticking with the familiar – when deciding what route to take. Which navigation strategy someone chooses depends not only on their spatial abilities but on their network of brain regions that support navigation. - The Conversation

Reconciling The Values Of Silicon Valley

For decades, these ideologies were tolerated as part of a tacit social bargain: A group of intelligent eccentrics were left to their own devices on a patch of land in the Santa Clara Valley, and, in return, American society received an extraordinary set of new technologies. - Liberties Journal

The Anti-AI Backlash Is Growing

Even absent any uptick in AI-induced layoffs, the anti-AI sentiment is likely to keep growing. - The Atlantic

Would Paying Reviewers Help Fix The Peer Review Problem?

“The current system of unpaid reviews undermines the standards of the peer-review process. It produces late reviews and excludes large segments of the research community who cannot afford to work for free. If you have a financial commitment from the reviewer, it creates a lever for expecting quality. Payment creates accountability, not corruption.” -...

Staffers At San Francisco Arts Commission Want To Know Where The Hell Their Boss Is

“Employees and artists are speaking out about turmoil in the San Francisco Arts Commission, alleging that its leader has been chronically absent and arguing that it's harming the arts by cutting staff and changing how it funds artists.” - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)

Ontario Starts Crackdown On Ticket Resellers

The Ontario government has begun cracking down on ticket scalpers and resale websites to make sure they're complying with new rules brought in last month that cap the resale price of tickets at face value, as some ticketing platforms still openly list tickets for well above their original price. - CBC

NYU Students Protest Jonathan Haidt As Graduation Speaker

Student government leaders at New York University are objecting to his selection as the graduation speaker at Yankee Stadium — calling it “deeply unsettling” — and in a letter, asked university officials to reconsider before the ceremony on Thursday. - The New York Times

Lincoln Center Unveils $335 Million Redesign Of Its Western Edge

The project, which aims to make that side of the campus less fortress-like and more inviting, will turn the concrete-heavy stretch around Damrosch Park into a space with gardens, public gathering areas and a new 2,000-seat amphitheater. - Time Out New York

How Langston Hughes’s “The Black Clown” Became An Opera

“The magic of creator, lead actor, and bass-baritone Davóne Tines’s operatic adaption of Langston Hughes’s 1931 dramatic monologue The Black Clown lies in its everythingness. (The) poem … consolidates 300 years of the Black American experience into 18 emotional stanzas.” - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

What Pop Music Criticism Has Become

The “Greatest Living Songwriters” list was dumb clickbait which omitted an entire pantheon of irreplaceably brilliant songwriters. But the thing I most lament is the loss of a critical landscape in which you could open up the paper each morning and read six reviews of weird shows on the Lower East Side. - Gabrial...

The Dallas Opera Appoints New CEO, David Lomelí

Previously chief artistic officer at Santa Fe Opera, Lomelí — who had an 11-year career as a tenor — has spent more than a decade over the years working with The Dallas Opera as consultant, artistic administrator, and founding director of the Hart Institute for Women Conductors. - The Dallas Morning News (MSN)

Remembering “The Pied Piper Of Early Music,” David Munrow, 50 Years After His Suicide

"With all the bravura of the 1960s, David Munrow erupted into the world of early music and transformed what had been a minority interest into popular listening. His … impact lives on in the music he rediscovered and popularised, and the innovative ways in which he presented and performed it.” - The Guardian

The Most-Performed Classical Music Concerts In Australia: Live Movie Music

According to the latest Live Performance Australia data, the most popular classical music performances in 2024 included Star Wars, How to Train Your Dragon, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Man from Snowy River in Concert. - ABC (Australia)

Santa Fe Opera Extends Music Director’s Contract, Appoints New Principal Conductor

British conductor Harry Bicket, who was appointed the summer festival’s principal conductor in 2013 and music director in 2018, has extended his contract through the 2028 summer season. Meanwhile, Mexican maestro Iván López Reynoso, currently principal conductor at Atlanta Opera, will take the same position at Santa Fe in 2027. - OperaWire

A Rothko Sells For $86 Million

The seller of the 1957 work, “Brown and Blacks in Reds,” was the estate of former Goldman Sachs banker turned art dealer Robert Mnuchin, who paid $6.7 million for the work in 2003. The winning telephone bidder at Sotheby’s was anonymous. - The Wall Street Journal

Suspect Arrested In Massive Louvre Ticketing Scam

"A Louvre employee was indicted and detained on Wednesday on charges including organized gang fraud as part of an investigation into a scheme to defraud the Paris museum of ticket fees for thousands of visitors. Six others had been placed in custody ‘because of the communications they may have had with the first defendants’.” - ARTnews

Neue Galerie To Merge With The Metropolitan Museum

Beginning in 2028, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will own the Neue’s Fifth Avenue home and the prestige collection of 20th-century Austrian and German art built by Ronald S. Lauder. - The New York Times

Artists In The Age Of AI: Let’s Explore The Labor-Intensive Art Of The Renaissance

Artists have been raiding the toolkits of the Old Masters with new urgency of late, borrowing and reworking Renaissance and Baroque compositional drama, symbolism, and increasingly, their labor-intensive methods. - Artnet

How The Smithsonian Decided To Celebrate America’s 250th Birthday

“What we landed on were those moments where individuals or communities had fought for recognition and advocated for their own sense of identity and self in their role in creating and becoming a part of the United States. But we also wanted to do the playful.” - The Guardian

Louvre Prioritized Prestige Over Security In Period Before Crown Jewel Theft, Says French Parliament Report

“Security, the report revealed, had been ‘relegated to the background,’ despite two audits completed in 2017 and 2019, years before the jewel heist. The 2019 audit prompted a Security Equipment Master Plan, but it was apparently not implemented in a timely fashion by (then-director) Jean-Luc Martinez.” - ARTnews

What Kinds Of Non-Fiction Reporting Wins Pulitzers

If you do look closely at the history, biography, memoir, and general-nonfiction honors, a noticeable pattern emerges. The picks typically share a particular quality. - The Atlantic

London Museum To Return Old Jain Manuscripts (Though They Aren’t Leaving Britain)

The Wellcome Collection is ceding ownership of more than 2,000 documents, dating from the 15th to 19th centuries, bought from a Jain temple in present-day Pakistan in 1919. Now deeming the purchase of the manuscripts “unethical,” the museum is turning them over to the UK-based Institute of Jainology. - The Telegraph (UK) (Yahoo!)

Knoxville Removes Alex Haley’s “Roots” From School Libraries

“Roots” is a multi-generational story following the descendants of a man sold into slavery in the United States. It won the Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a mini-series. There is a statue of Haley in East Knoxville. - WATE

Keats’s Rediscovered Love Letters Could Sell For $2 Million

“A once-stolen collection of letters written by the poet John Keats to his fiancée Fanny Brawne will be sold at Sotheby’s New York this June with an estimate of $1.5 million to $2.5 million. The group of eight letters … date from 1819 to 1820, a period when Keats was suffering from tuberculosis.” -...

The Various Things British People Mean When They Say “Sorry”

“In the UK, ‘sorry’ is not simply an apology, it's a cultural reflex – a five-letter pressure valve used to soften requests, smooth over awkwardness, fill conversational gaps and avoid the national horror of seeming rude. … For visitors, the puzzle is ... working out what ‘sorry’ actually means.” - BBC

What Makes Some People So Good At Picking Up And Changing Accents?

One study found that the best predictor of whether someone could imitate a new accent was being able to execute a tongue-twister. A good ear for music and openness to new experiences also correlate with skill at accents. - BBC

GenZers Are Going To Movie Theatres: Here’s Why

People born between 1997 and 2012 are now more frequent cinemagoers than some older age groups, according to a US-based survey by Fandango, with 87% having seen at least one film in a cinema in the last 12 months compared with 58% of baby boomers. - The Guardian

Settlement Reached In South Florida Public Radio Lawsuit

“In an out-of-court settlement announced Thursday, the Miami-Dade County School Board, which owns the news/talk outlet (WLRN), and South Florida Public Media Group, which manages it, say they have struck a seven-year management deal for WLRN.” - Inside Radio

Netflix Becomes An Ad Giant: 250M Subscribers

The streaming titan said Wednesday during its “upfront” presentation to advertisers that its ad-supported subscription tier reaches reaches more than 250 million global monthly active viewers, up from the 190 million it cited in November of 2025. - Variety

As CBS News Radio Goes Off The Air, Longtime Staffers Remember Its 99-Year History

Dan Rather: “CBS Radio should be remembered for becoming a national institution. It, for many, many years, was part — and I would argue not a small part — of what held the country together.” - CBS News

PRX Leans Into Innovation In Public Media Crisis

PRX works with 900 stations across the U.S., distributing more than 20 public radio shows like “The Moth” and “Latino USA.” They reach 5.3 million U.S. listeners each week — growth that PRX acknowledges bucks the trend of declining public radio audiences. - Inside Radio

Seismic Shift: Streaming Ad Buying About To Overtake TV Ad Revenue

After increasing rapidly in recent years, streaming ad spending is projected to approach $20 billion by 2029, not far off linear TV ad spending, according to estimates from ad consulting firm Madison and Wall. - The Wall Street Journal (MSN)

One Of Cuba’s Most Unusual Choreographers Tries To Stay Afloat Amid The Island’s Economic Collapse

“For nearly three decades Cuba’s Danza Voluminosa regularly filled prestigious venues like the 2,000-seat National Theater. Directed by Juan Miguel Mas, the troupe pioneered a new movement by working exclusively with larger-bodied dancers. ... (Now) Mas’s daily life has been upended by persistent blackouts, water outages, soaring costs and a lack of transportation.” -...

Aszure Barton’s Final Choreography Commission For Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

LubDub is the fourth and final piece of Barton’s three years as Hubbard Street’s resident choreographer. “Asked to discuss the movement vocabulary she employs here, Barton demurred. But when the descriptor 'unruly' was suggested, she was quick to embrace it. …  (And) there are plenty of quirky, unexpected sights in the piece.” - WBEZ...

Luxury Brands Are Becoming Dance’s Number-One Patrons

It’s not just a matter of advertising in the playbills; that’s been happening for decades. Van Cleef and Arpels has directly funded dance festivals in six cities on three continents, while Chanel sponsors a large biennial award to (among others) choreographers. But are there serious ethical issues tied to this money? - Dance Magazine

The Stigma Against Boys Studying Dance Still Lingers, But At Least It’s Weaker Now

“I think the public’s relationship with dance has changed, to the point where for the generation coming up, dance is associated more heavily with TikTok than with the Royal Ballet. I think that is what has really opened up the doors and taken away the stigma.” - The Guardian

Philly Pays Tribute To The Black Matriarchs Of Ballet

The women “infused African, Caribbean, and modern dance rhythms into traditional ballet practices and integral in shaping Philadelphia’s dance community. They inspired young Black girls who faced immense gatekeeping.” - Philadelphia Inquirer

America’s First Baroque Dance Company Is Now 50

“While early music enjoyed a strong following (since) the 1970s, historical dance needed help catching up — and the New York Baroque Dance Co., founded in 1976 by Catherine Turocy and Ann Jacoby, was seminal in jump-starting research, performance styles, and popularity.” - Early Music America

How Some Of Broadway’s Biggest Stars This Season Get Themselves Into Character

Daniel Radcliffe, Every Brilliant Thing: “My ideal version is that the play starts without you noticing.” Ana Gasteyer, Schmigadoon!: “People from my particular background, which is Saturday Night Live, which is sketch, work very quickly. There is no process.” - The New York Times

Have A Look Inside The New Home Of Chicago’s TimeLine Theatre

“It’s a $46 million project built within the shell of a historic storage warehouse that was built by the W.C. Reebie and Brother Company in the 1910s, and the big vertical sign is easily visible to anyone traveling past.” - Chicago Tribune (Yahoo!)

A New Raft Of Plays With Invented Dialogue Depicting Real People And Events

“Drama has historically been considered a form of fiction or poetry. Yet as recent plays approach the feeling of reportage, what’s surprising isn’t that so many fail to convince but that several succeed, in the process inventing a new style befitting our time.” - T — The New York Times Style Magazine

Chicago’s Theater Awards, The Jeffs, “Pause” Consideration Of All Non-Equity Shows

The Joseph Jefferson Awards present two sets of honors, one for Equity productions and another for non-union shows at the area’s storefront theaters. The Jeff Committee is suspending consideration of non-Equity shows opening after June 1 due to backlash over an award in March to a director accused of abuse. - WBEZ (Chicago)

Britain’s National Theatre To Begin Annual Nationwide Tour

“Called National Theatre Nationwide, the initiative will see one National Theatre production tour annually direct from its London run with its original cast, … (to) 12 venues across England,” among them venues in Sheffield, Coventry, Salford/Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, and Newcastle. - WhatsOnStage (UK)

Researchers Use AI To Write New Moliere

More than 350 years after his death, the 17th-century dramatist has been revived after scholars at the Sorbonne University in Paris used artificial intelligence to help write an experimental play in his style. - The Guardian

Trial Begins For Murder Of Art Dealer Brent Sikkema, Allegedly By Order Of His Husband

“The estranged husband of a prominent New York City art dealer said he wished his spouse was dead before the co-owner of a contemporary art gallery was found stabbed to death in his Brazilian townhouse, a witness testified Tuesday as a murder-for-hire trial got underway in Manhattan.” - AP

Claudine Longet — Singer, Actress, Notorious Criminal Defendant — Has Died At 84

“The French-born singer, actress and ex-wife of Andy Williams was at the center of a scandalous 1976 trial and media circus after she fatally shot her boyfriend, Olympic skier Spider Sabich.” - The Hollywood Reporter

Georgian Government Sentences Renowned Opera Singer-Turned Opposition Leader To Seven Years In Prison

Paata Burchuladze, who had a very successful career as a bass before returning home to participate in the struggle against an increasingly authoritarian government, was convicted of “organization and leadership of group violence,” and “incitement to change the constitutional order of Georgia through violence” for organizing a large election-day protest last October. - OperaWire

Harvey Weinstein Is On His Third Trial For This Rape Case — And This Time Nobody’s Paying Much Attention

The disgraced movie mogul was first tried for the alleged assault of Jessica Mann in 2020; he was convicted of third-degree rape, but the verdict was overturned in 2024 over prosecutors' missteps. Weinstein’s 2025 retrial had a hung jury, and the current retrial is drawing little interest from media or spectators. - Vulture (MSN)

Two Women Who Shaped Houston’s Art Scene For Decades

Maybe these two weren’t wildcatters or captains of industry, but their contributions to the cultural life of Houston and its global reputation as a destination for the arts are significant. - Texas Monthly

Critic Rex Reed, 87

“Reed’s reviews, as well as his stylishly written profiles of Hollywood and Broadway stars …, moved beyond the bland and laudatory, offering candid and penetrating portraits of artists and celebrities that stand out in an era where A-listers are (more protected). … His writing often moved beyond the incisive into the offensive.” - Variety

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The Fresno Philharmonic is seeking a fundraising professional to join us in making great music thrive in California’s Central Valley.

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Springboard for the Arts, an artist-centered community and economic development organization, seeks an experienced leader to serve as its next Executive Director.

What Happens To A Singer When She Loses Her Voice

Julie Andrews has reinvented herself almost completely, but after she lost her voice, she "fell into a deep depression. She said that she felt like she had lost her identity. Other vocalists have compared this feeling to the experience of an athlete who loses a limb.” - El Pais English

At The Venice Biennale, Wondering If Everything Will Collapse In On Itself

“Perhaps the crucial thing to recall is that the basic structure of the biennale that we recognise today was conceived in the 1930s, under Mussolini, becoming, said Ricci, ‘a focus for propaganda and positioned as the peak of Italian culture.’” - The Guardian (UK)

What Happens To Humanity When We Lose A Language?

“Some communities are lucky enough to have the political or cultural autonomy to protect their languages – think of Welsh or Māori – but many aren’t so fortunate. Some rue and rally; others resign themselves to decline.” - The Guardian (UK)

The Art That Nazis Stole, Still Waiting To Go Home, Wherever Home May Be

“What makes the Orsay initiative notable is not simply that it acknowledges this history, but that it embeds it physically inside a major national museum — placing unresolved provenance cases in direct view of the public.” - Salon

Several Country’s Venice Pavilions Closed On Friday In Protest Of Israel’s Inclusion

“The Belgian, Dutch, Austrian, Japanese, Macedonian and Korean pavilions were closed for the day. The British, Spanish, French, Egyptian, Finnish and Luxembourg entries were either closed and then reopened, or opened and expected to close early.” - The Guardian (UK)

Opposition Is Mounting To The Paramount-WB Merger

Will it - can it? - make a difference? - Variety

Is This Why The Venice Biennale Jury Resigned En Masse?

The jurors had clearly stated, a few days before they quit, that they would not consider the entrants from Russia and Israel. The Israeli artist in the event then threatened lawsuits, and the Biennale warned jurors that they could be personally liable for damages. - Hyperallergic

Publishers And Authors Sue Meta And Mark Zuckerberg (Personally) For AI-Related Copyright Infringement

Five large publishing houses, along with Scott Turow representing authors as a class, allege in their filing that Zuckerberg himself “personally authorized and actively encouraged the infringement” of copyrights by Meta, which used countless books and articles to train Llama, its AI language system. - AP

If You Want Privacy, Never Watch TV

Why? “Your TV and smartphone are far more interoperable and indistinguishable than ever before, and an inescapable user-tracking singularity is developing, accordingly, in your own living room.” - Slate

Wait, Portland Has Another New Analysis Saying Two Concert Halls Would Be Just Fine

Competing studies find that Portland can support one performing arts center or maybe two performing arts centers, or not. And of course, "Portland has appointed a number of advisory committees to study the choices more closely before holding public hearings to make a final decision.” - Oregon ArtsWatch

The Epic Journey Of Ukraine’s Origami Concrete Deer To The Venice Biennale

The journey began in 2018. “Over time became a landmark, a well-known feature of the city. It was a peaceable, delicate creature to replace a symbol of military domination and violence. Fast forward to the summer of 2024.” - The Guardian (UK)

Check Out The Plans For Putting An Actual Park In The Middle Of Park Avenue

“A century ago, the median down ... Park Avenue was much more welcoming than it is today, a place with seating and substantial plantings where you’d consider spending time. … In 2024, (New York City) announced a call for proposals wherein those two lanes would be reclaimed from traffic for leisure and greenery.” -...

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