Kevin Killian published over a million words on Amazon, across almost twenty-four hundred reviews, before his death, in 2019. The products he evaluated included DVDs of classic twentieth-century cinema, literary biographies, and experimental poetry collections—but also toiletries, Halloween costumes, and a chestnut tree. - The New Yorker
Play is something that predates humans. It’s fundamental to how animals engage in and understand the world. It’s how we test and figure out the rules of our environment, how social relationships work. - LA Review of Books
"'Every day (there’s shooting),' sighed the director, Eliezer Guérismé, as his company took a break from their read-through to the all-too familiar sound of gunfire. 'But even with the shooting, we keep on working because that’s our mission. We don’t want to stop.'" - The Guardian
Some Giller winners state that “the only way to remedy what has been a deeply divisive period in Canadian arts is for the chief funders of so many arts prizes and organizations in Canada — banks such as Scotiabank — to divest from companies whose products are currently being used in mass killing.” - The Conversation
As a child, I felt lucky to be born in 1960. I’d be only 40 in the year 2000 and might live half my life in the magical new century. By the time I was a teenager, however, the spell had broken. The once-enticing future morphed into a place of pollution, overcrowding, and ugliness. - Works in Progress
It turns out that there is some benefit to working in an industry that is clearly contracting but has not yet died. It forces you to think. Which is anyway your job, if you’re a teacher. As Samuel Johnson said of the death penalty, it concentrates the mind. - Plough
"Eighty works, confiscated by the Italian authorities, went on show at Milan‘s Palazzo Reale this week. The exhibition, 'Save Arts: From Confiscations to Public Collections,' features paintings, graphic works, and sculptures by Andy Warhol, Salvador Dalí, Robert Rauschenberg, Christo, and other prominent artists." - ARTnews
"A three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled on Friday that a law designed to force a TikTok sale or ban is constitutional." - Business Insider
Background music for commercials, once the domain of human composers, can now be generated by AI in minutes, meeting technical and emotional requirements at a fraction of the cost. Why would a business pay a premium for human creators if AI can deliver similar or better metrics? - Shelly Palmer
We’ve had enough of endless, disappointing BookTok recommendations that promise payoff, not to mention its other cons. So are we finally at the end of BookTok’s chapter? - BookRiot
"In its second annual release, our State of the Arts: Arts Vibrancy Rankings analyzes measurements of arts-vibrancy for all 50 states, using a comprehensive, data-driven approach that considers factors like supply, demand, and public support for arts and culture, along with adjustments for cost of living and population size." - SMU DataArts
While podcasts’ popularity grows overall, the strongest momentum is with watchable podcasts. The data shows four in ten say they like actively watching a podcast, while another 29% prefer listening to a podcast while the video is minimized or playing in the background — for what one might consider an audio-like experience. - Inside Radio
"Castle of Our Skins, an arts institution that celebrates and aims to generate curiosity in Black music, cut the ribbon on Thursday … at its new location," to open in 2027. "The 2,491-square-foot space, which will be called Gold Hall, will function as a performance and community space." - WBUR (Boston)
"The company's executive director, Tim Griffin, who came on board in summer 2023, will ... become both executive and artistic director. Co-artistic directors, Ash Fure and Malik Gaines, who joined forces in an artistic director cooperative with Sharon in 2021, will form a new artistic advisory council." - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
Blaming its cash shortfall on the public-service sector employee contracts it has with staff and an inability to raise more revenue, Bayreuth management cut four productions from the summer 2026 schedule, leaving only Rienzi and the Ring cycle along with a concert performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony.. - AP
