Stories

Disney Bails On $1B Investment In OpenAI After AI Company Pulls Plug On Sora

Disney and OpenAI announced the blockbuster three-year licensing deal in December, saying that over 200 Disney-owned characters would be available for use in Sora-generated videos. At the same time, Disney said it would be making a $1 billion equity investment in the AI company. - Ars Technica

This Chicago Symphony Musician Took Her Baby On An Orchestra Tour

Second flutist Emma Gerstein didn’t want to miss Klaus Mäkelä’s first tour with the CSO, which was to the East Coast last month. Neither did she want to stop nursing her ten-month-old, Ronan. So he came along with his mom, who kept a diary about the experience. - WBEZ (Chicago)

Lion King Composer Sues Comedian For Misrepresenting “Circle Of Life”

A Grammy-award winning South African composer who wrote and performed the iconic opening chant in “Circle of Life” for Disney’s “The Lion King” movies is suing a comedian for allegedly damaging his reputation by intentionally misrepresenting the song’s meaning on a podcast and in his stand-up routine. - AP News

“I Miss The Amateur Spirit” — Willem Dafoe On His Theatre Programming At The Venice Biennale

“His goal (is) to platform voices that many audiences won’t be familiar with — and to push back against a theater landscape he feels has lost its edge. ‘Professionalism has flattened its soul,” he said. ‘It can feel polished to the point of sameness.’ … His program ... (will) favor cracks over polish.” - The Hollywood Reporter

Stunning Museum In Downtown San Francisco For Sale

In another market, the building might fetch $100 million. Today, in a downtown cultural district still recovering from the pandemic - with depressed real estate values, weakened foot traffic and strained arts funding - the buyer pool shrinks to a narrow question: Who can take on a large, vacant cultural space and make it work? - San Francisco Chronicle...

Manchester’s Strange Quarter Bristles With Creative Activity, Redefining The City

In a city still somewhat in thrall to its heritage, from the Haçienda to Oasis, many in the Strange Quarter say the area has redefined Manchester’s cultural life. - The Guardian

How To Grow A Dance Company In Southern California

"If I’m just talking about the work, I would say we have a very clear movement approach that has developed over time, a shared language that includes a lot of different modern dance techniques, a language that has become unique to us." - LA Dance Chronicle

This Dancer Is Ending A 53-Year Stage Career With San Francisco Ballet — But He’s Not Retiring

“Since 1980, Val Caniparoli” — for decades SFB’s principal character dancer — “has dedicated most of his energies to a much-lauded choreography career, and rather than slowing down, he's building momentum as he enters an exciting new phase.” - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)

Former Museum Wunderkind David Ross’ Reckoning

Ross had become a master at catering to ego, facilitating deals and making a class of people feel important. Now he’d begun to wonder if the skills that made him exceptional at his job had also made him in some ways complicit. - The New York Times

The Gap Between Big AI And The Rest Of Us Are Growing Wider

The AI industry is splitting away from the lives of everyday people. Exclusive polling conducted for the Guardian last year found that twice as many Americans believe their financial security is getting worse than better, hardly half as optimistic as Jensen Huang’s prediction. - The Guardian

What Was The Boston Symphony Thinking When It Fired Andris Nelsons? Who Knows?

What’s the vision might not be the right question, then. It might be: Does the vision even exist? - Boston Globe

Staff At Australia’s National Broadcaster On 24-Hour Strike As Network Airs BBC Programming

“At 11am, the ABC News channel switched to broadcasting the BBC News channel as staff walked out in protest. The ABC News channel filled the schedule with repeats of Planet America and the National Press Club, but broadcast Question Time as normal.” - The Guardian

Patreon CEO Blasts AI Companies And Fair Use

“The AI companies are claiming fair use, but this argument is bogus,. It’s bogus because while they claim it’s fair to use the work of creators as training data, they do multimillion-dollar deals with rights holders and publishers like Disney, and Condé Nast, and Vox, and Warner Music.” - Fortune

When Is It Okay For Musicians Not To Give It Their All?

It is difficult to appreciate the toll of being on the road for days, weeks, and sometimes months on end, playing program after program and often dealing with social and media commitments in addition. - Nightingale Sonata

Producers Throw Playwright Out Of Rehearsals Weeks Before Broadway Opening

The show’s producing team told the playwright, Stephen Adly Guirgis, that he was no longer welcome at rehearsals after tempers flared on Friday between Guirgis and Mark Kaufman, who runs Warner Bros. Theater Ventures, an entity that is among the play’s lead producers. - The New York Times

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