Stories

John Waters, Now 80, On What He’s Most Proud Of

“That I’ve been able to have this career, doing what I want, for sixty years. Hollywood’s been fair to me. I was always understood, I always had an audience. … I have more jobs than I’ve ever had in my life, so I’m not looking for a new one.” - The Hollywood Reporter

Kennedy Center Board Votes To Put Trump’s Name Back On The Kennedy Center

According to the resolution approved by the Trump-allied board, the inscription underneath the institution’s name would read: “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.” - The New York Times

What The Trump Administration’s Exhibition Of “Patriotic” Art Says About Patriotism And Art

“Now, in service of an ideology that brooks no deviation from blind nationalism, Passport to Patriotism advances a shallow vision of U.S. identity with all the nuance of a propaganda reel and all the sophistication of the art project your first-grader brought home on Flag Day.” - Slate (MSN)

Live Events Have Become Essential Income For Publishers

Events and related digital revenue are projected to account for half of Time's total revenue in 2026, up from 28% in 2023, the company confirmed to TheWrap. Time expects to hold 47 events this year, up from 11 in 2022. - The Wrap (MSN)

The Costs That Are Hitting Australian Performing Arts Companies The Hardest

For a closer look at which costs are worrying Australian performing arts companies the most right now, ArtsHub spoke to a range of company executives about their greatest concerns, and how they think the sector can curb these negative trends over the long term. - ArtsHub

BMG Makes Big Licensing Deal With AI-Music Company Suno

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

When A Mother Jones Writer Asked Claude The AI Bot To Write A Novel

David Corn gave the Anthropic software a pleasantly meta seven-sentence plot summary as a prompt. Several minutes later, Claude produced a 6,000-word manuscript. Corn replied that that wasn’t novel-length, and Claude served up a narrative eight times the length. Corn: “I ’ll cut to the chase: The novel isn’t so bad.” - Mother Jones

Counting Up The Cultural Heritage Damage Russia Has Done In Ukraine

The affected sites include 196 arts education institutions, 141 museums and galleries, and historic sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Cultural institutions across 24% of Ukrainian territories and nearly half of the country’s community cultural centers have been damaged during Russia’s prolonged and deadly campaign. - Hyperallergic

What You Learn From A Composer’s Handwritten Manuscript

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

Who Stole 200 Gold Mozart Statues In Salzburg?

More than 200 gold-colored Mozart figures have vanished from a public art installation in Salzburg, forcing organizers to end part of the exhibition early. - Deutsche Welle

David Ellison Is Making Himself The Best Argument Against The Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger

"So that's how Ellison wants to prove that he will be a steward of (Hollywood's) flailing entertainment industry — by threatening to rip out a big part of its still-beating heart and implant it in Texas or Tennessee?" - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

Kennicott: How DC’s Freedom Plaza Became A Battleground

The statuary ensemble, which also includes a new 23-foot rendering of a female figure dubbed “The Spirit of Liberty,” is one of the most cogent and confrontational expressions of the Trump administration’s views on race, urban design and public space. - Washington Post

WGA: Ellison’s Threat To Relocate Paramount From California Proves Its Outsized Power

“By threatening to leave the state because it doesn’t want the government to enforce the law, Paramount further proves the danger of its outsized power over the industry and what that will mean for writers and the creative community." - Deadline

Documenting The Harms To The National Symphony In The Past Year

They reveal that even as expenses ticked downward, donations fell 25 percent short of expectations last year, and that this year’s ticket revenue is on pace to earn about half of what the orchestra budgeted. - Washington Post

Move Over, Tilly Norwood: AI Companies Are Creating A New Crop Of Characters, Hoping They’ll Become Stars

One company, Inception Point AI, has “a cohort of more than 100 personas, each with its own market-friendly niche, that could be deployed to host podcasts, star in YouTube videos, converse with followers and — in the company’s loftiest vision — one day navigate the physical world in a robotic body.” - The New York Times

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