After Jayson Gillham made a controversial speech about the Gaza War during a 2024 recital presented by the orchestra, the MSO cancelled his concerto engagement four days later. Gillham sued the organization in Australian federal court, claiming his rights as an employee were violated. The judge has now ruled against him. - The Guardian
As part of their broader lawsuits against OpenAI for copyright infringement for training its software on their media products without consent or compensation, the plaintiffs filed a motion accusing the company of lying during discovery by deliberately hiding evidence that its training datasets and output logs are searchable. - Variety
The open-sided Hunter Pavilion, where the Chicago Symphony performs every summer, has had changes made both for the audience (fewer but wider, ADA-compliant seats) and the orchestra players (LED lights and new ventilation to reduce onstage temperatures, improved onstage acoustics). - AP
The 88-year-old two-time Oscar-winner and acting legend says music was his first love, and Decca will release his first album, Life Is a Dream, on August 21. The disc, performed by London’s Philharmonia Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel, includes pieces composed over the entire course of Hopkins’s adult life. - The Hollywood Reporter
“The secretive operation was the result of years of negotiations, tricky logistical planning and multiple technical studies to ensure the integrity of the 70-metre-long (230ft) medieval artwork.” - The Guardian
“Between confusing release schedules, binge releases, long gaps between seasons and the regular flood of new content making it difficult for any new release to stand out, Netflix’s scale is quickly becoming its own worst enemy.” - The Wrap (MSN)
“When researchers have actually tried to document the size of cultural differences over time, the picture is far more complicated – and more interesting.” - Psyche
One architectural historian might go even farther: “Anything on a stone building that looks like a design gets picked up as these damn things now. There’s absolutely no evidence they were ever used like that.” - The Guardian (UK)
For instance: “The third and long-delayed final season of Euphoria didn’t make much of an impact on voters, as the once-celebrated drug-addled soap scored nods for Zendaya and Domingo, but not many of the other big stars.” - Variety
There are already at least four this summer, with more in production. "With the show’s success – all perky keisters, swanky hotel shags, a secret sex cottage and just a smidgeon of hockey – reckons it was inevitable.” - The Guardian (UK)
“For me, the key has always been to make Odette the embodiment of pure femininity, sorrow, refinement, and forgiveness — but never weakness. ... Odile, by contrast, should be explosive, feminine, bold, daring and wicked — but never vulgar. You know, without steam coming out of her nostrils.” - Gramilano (Milan)
Witness Obsession, made for less than $1 million and now having grossed more than $400 million worldwide (breaking the record held by Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon in the process). - The Wrap
“What’s left has the air of a ghost ship, as the center’s board prepares to reconsider to what degree the building will remain open. The Kennedy Center declined to comment.” - Washington Post
“Wilson’s translations of The Odyssey and The Iliad are some of the best-known pieces of contemporary translation, and they’ve turned the University of Pennsylvania professor into both a star and a specter of controversy.” - Vulture
“Mickalene Thomas, an artist known for her popular paintings and photo-based installations centering Black women, is facing a lawsuit from the photographer Barbara Karant, who alleges that Thomas used her pictures without attribution or permission in works that appeared at an array of museums and blue-chip galleries.” - ARTnews
