All of a sudden, chefs, lawyers, podcasters, critics – all people with jobs once associated with an off-camera existence – are turning the lens on themselves. Even film director Werner Herzog, a once proud non-social media user, is now sizzling steaks and doing unboxing videos to camera. - The Guardian

Not only will AI agents compete away the revenue streams of the giant digital platforms, but they will also render irrelevant the data on which the platforms built their competitive advantage. - Harvard Business Review

Capitalism—and then late capitalism, and then late, late capitalism—has been identified as the culprit for culture’s flattening for at least a century. David Marx borrows heavily from Fredric Jameson’s account of postmodernism. - LA Review of Books

Artificial intelligence will bring us heaven on earth or kill us all. It is the most important invention in human history or a scam. - The Nation

The few jobs today that are tangibly useful—say, social workers and science teachers—pay far less than the mass of uninspiring administrative and middle-management roles that prop them up. As a result, many opt for the paycheck, even if that means resigning oneself to working a job that doesn’t really need to be done. - The Point

If ‘language is one of the keys to individual autonomy’, the central challenge in a linguistic landscape being flattened and standardized by AI is to ‘continue to believe in language learning as a tool of emancipation and liberation’. - Eurozine

Now, thanks to new A.I. tools, anyone can write code. Soon, bad actors could use those same tools to find out what’s wrong with code. The détente is over. - The New York Times

At a time of great suffering and upheaval, is it right to engage with art? Or are we using it as a way of dodging the moral realities of the world? - ArtsHub

“The proposed budget (reduces arts spending) from $13.8 million to just about $2 million, eliminating all funds under the city’s two grant-making arms. … The remaining $2 million will essentially keep open the city’s Cultural Affairs Department, whose staff oversee the public art program and grant-making process.” - The San Diego Union-Tribune (MSN)

Suliana Caldwell will plead guilty to one count of wire fraud and pay restitution. She admitted to making repeated unauthorized transfers of city taxpayer money intended for arts funding to her personal PayPal and bank accounts and to falsifying financial documents to hide her theft. - Fresnoland

If 100 years of data are any indication, then an outsized share of the new recipients work at the most renowned universities in the US. Over time and across fellowships, the high prevalence of winners from well-resourced, high-status institutions can understandably bring to mind Percy Bysshe Shelley’s adage that “the rich have become richer.”...

“Matt Floca, the new executive director and COO, is leading tours this month that show water damage and intrusion to expansion joints, marble slabs and exterior pavers. Participants are guided through the building’s water and HVAC systems, as well as the parking garages and loading docks said to need repairs.” - AP

There’s more that connects metal and classical music than sets them apart. A love of volume, turning the noise up to 11? From Black Sabbath to Stravinsky, check. A worship of virtuosity, of speed, technique and orgiastic instrumental excess, from Vivaldi to Van Halen? Absolutely. - The Guardian

“The Louisville Orchestra has received a $3.2 million from the Kentucky General Assembly to continue its statewide In Harmony Tour through 2028. (The tour is) a music education and performance program that has brought live music to more than 57,000 people across 50 counties in the Commonwealth.” - Louisville Courier Journal (MSN)

Under the partnership, Spotify will boost visibility for independent venues through existing features including venue pages and its Live Events Feed throughout 2026. The platform will also display NIVA’s Certified Live Independent seal on venue pages for participating spaces. - Music Business Worldwide

Chan, known for films like Rush Hour and Rumble in the Bronx, will introduce martial arts into the storytelling as a means of emotional expression. Each character will be given a warrior incarnation to represent their inner strength and desires. - Theatre Mania

The quest to achieve the “Mk.gee tone” spawned a series of “How Does He Make His Guitar Sound Like That?” YouTube videos; musicians compared notes on Discord servers and Reddit threads. - The Atlantic

In the company’s staging of Kaija Saariaho’s opera Innocence, seven stage managers, four prop masters, and a big flock of stagehands transform the set from a decorated wedding-banquet hall into a blood-spattered high-school classroom in a minute and a half — and they do it while the set is rotating. - The New York...

Trump’s push to build the giant arch — more than quadrupling its size from original plans — has alienated early proponents of the project, classical architects and veterans groups who say it will diminish nearby Arlington Cemetery. - The New York Times

One wing has already been renovated; another is being built; galleries will be renewed and rehung; new retail and dining areas are coming; infrastructure will be improved. And it’s all happening within the museum’s current footprint and while the visitors keep streaming in. - The New York Times

“The bill aims to simplify the return of cultural property taken illegally from France’s former colonies, particularly focusing on items taken between 1815 and 1972 — the year UNESCO’s convention for the protection of cultural heritage came into force.” - Euronews

"How do I know this isn't a prank?" the 58-year-old asked when he was told he was the new owner of the 1941 work by the Spanish master. Organisers said more than 120,000 tickets for the prize draw were sold at €100 (£87; $118) each, raising around €11m (£10m; $13m) for Alzheimer's research. -...

The two museums now share a similar challenge: to reach across racial, economic, educational and even geographic lines to feel vital and necessary to a vast cross-section of people who constitute Atlanta. And to do so at a time when it seems there is more competition for attention and resources than ever before. -...

The Victoria and Albert Museum has agreed to requests by the Chinese printing company to delete maps and images from at least two recent exhibition catalogues, according to documents released to the Guardian after freedom of information requests. - The Guardian

"It is mysterious and confounding to see a severely autistic nonspeaker perform acts of scholarship and fiction writing if you don’t presume intelligence in a disabled person. I have been using the same green board since I was in middle school and I find the letters and colors very calming." - The Atlantic

“Axel Springer’s planned £575 million takeover of Telegraph Media Group has been approved by the UK Government. It is still awaiting regulatory approval in Ireland and Austria (due to there being a lower threshold for competition concerns in those countries although there is no expectation of any impact there).” - Press Gazette (UK)

This book is Caroline Bicks’s account of what happened when King gave her permission to spend a year in his archive, poring over the drafts of five of his most popular novels, including Pet Sematary, The Shining and Carrie. Bicks’s particular aim is to spot what she calls King’s “biblio‑magic” in action. - The Guardian

“The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, the nonprofit parent organization of The Baltimore Banner, reached an agreement with Block Communications to acquire the I, which was slated to shut down in May.” - Nieman Lab

So far, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is the fourth large one (not including The Philadelphia Inquirer, which remains for-profit itself though it is owned by a nonprofit organization). - AP

“The number of LGBTQ+-focused bookstores in the U.S. has slowly but steadily increased over the past five years. While this new generation of booksellers all give a nod to their predecessors, they’ve also made a point of doing things differently.” - Publishers Weekly

The Kingdom’s bet on entertainment at home has been matched by an equally ambitious push abroad — one that is rapidly reshaping Hollywood’s balance sheet. - The Hollywood Reporter

The deal shatters several records: It gives Nexstar control of 265 local stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, reaching 80% of the nation's households. Federal competition law from 2004 limits companies to less than half that level. - NPR

NPR today announced it has received philanthropic gifts totaling more than $110 million — including the largest by a living donor in NPR's history — as a strategic investment in its future. - Editor & Publisher

“The BBC said Wednesday that it plans to cut up to 2,000 jobs to save 10% of its annual budget — £500 million ($677 million) — over the next two years. … The (broadcaster) said earlier this year that it faced ‘substantial financial pressures’ and wanted to cut a tenth of its budget by 2029.”...

Among those let go are 20 people from the company's publicity departments, as well as the entire home entertainment and EPK teams. On the digital marketing side, positions at every level, including senior vice president, were eliminated. Layoffs have also occurred throughout the Marvel division due to a reduced production slate. - TheWrap (MSN)

“Further concentrating marketplace power in the hands of a smaller group of distributors that dictate the terms, windows, scheduling, screen-placement of movies, and access to historic film catalogs will have a real and lasting impact on Main Street and millions of movie fans around the world.” - Los Angeles Times

“The owner of the shuttered Boulder dance studio, Frequency Dance, turned herself in Thursday afternoon at the Boulder County Jail after being indicted on accusations of staging two break-ins and getting more than $567,000 in fraudulent insurance payouts.” - Daily Camera (Boulder)

“Dancers danced at the company’s new North Broad Street building for the first time. Even as construction workers continued their own choreography of spackling and power-driving screws, company dancers could be seen in a large, glassy, sunlight-filled studio working out movements for an upcoming run of Romeo and Juliet.” - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, to use the full name, has been popular all over the country and overseas for decades. Now some venues worry that what little government funding they get will be cancelled if they present a drag troupe, even one that’s been around for 50 years. - The Irish Times

The Artistic Health and Wellness Student Center, which opened in September, is a $4.7 million expansion of the school, the training ground for New York City Ballet. - The New York Times

This season, the Martha Graham Dance Company celebrates 100 years, and for better and worse, her early works are back in fashion. - The New York Times

In Lowell, Mass., a center of America's Cambodian diaspora, the Angkor Dance Troupe has worked hard to preserve the dance traditions nearly wiped out by the Khmer Rouge. Yet the company also wants to expand the repertory and reach a wider community; adapting the Tchaikovsky classic seemed an ideal option. - WBUR (Boston)

It’s unclear what will happen to the 116-year-old, 1,400-seat Merle Reskin Theatre. It has landmark status, however, and won’t be demolished. - Chicago Sun-Times

“Central Works, which has been making new plays in Berkeley for 36 years, plans to close at the end of its 2026 season with the retirement of co-directors Gary Graves and Jan Zvaifler.” They tried to find successors, but nobody wanted to work that hard for that little money. - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)

“Handing down a name over generations is a central part of the traditional Japanese artform, … and that ceremony gets celebrated at theaters and special events every few years. Now, the ritual is taking place with the eighth Kikugoro, who is having that honor passed down from his 83-year-old father, the seventh Kikugoro.” -...

“Featuring four actors, a sparse set, and no props, … this production has been performed since 2023 on all manner of improvised stages. An airplane hangar in Los Angeles. An opera house in Colorado. A dining hall, library and bar at Yale. A Baptist church and various homes in Manhattan.” - The Washington Post...

Send in the clowns. - Oregon ArtsWatch

“The many awards for Paddington were perhaps unsurprising given that the show earned rave reviews when it opened and has played to sellout crowds ever since.” - The New York Times

His new movie, Outcome — which he directed- co-wrote, and co-stars in — “is difficult to watch without drawing parallels to Hill’s odd and unexpected arc, as well as to the real-life controversies that could have sunk his career.” - The Hollywood Reporter

Opinions on her recent stance are strongly divided: some have praised her principled refusal to play the self-promotion game that takes so much out of writers, while others have called her a spoilt, entitled nightmare. - The Guardian

The accidental shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust, the two (unsuccessful) prosecutions in New Mexico, finishing the film in another state — it all took a huge toll on Baldwin, financially as well as psychologically and physically. - The Hollywood Reporter

’I would like to, with utmost sensitivity and respect, suggest to the administrations of the major American orchestras to consider using your voices... I’m quite convinced that the situation would get easier, faster, if the arts community came together to say “no more” in unison, in a way that inspires.’ - The Strad

A puppeteer since childhood, Sid, with his younger brother Marty (who died 2½ years ago), produced H.R. Pufnstuf, Land of the Lost, The Bugaloos, Lidsville and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters and created the look of The Banana Splits — all using a psychedelic 1970s day-glo style and flashes of knowing grownup humor. - Deadline

Bhosle, who recorded more than 12,000 songs, became her country’s pre-eminent exponent of playback singing – recording tracks that were then lip-synced on film by actors. She also boldly embraced cabaret and western-influenced melodies to forge a distinctive musical identity. - The Guardian