The expansion of short-term rentals has been pricing out Edinburgh residents for years. But the cost of accommodation for festival performers and visitors has soared even more quickly. "Audiences outside of the wealthy, and young audiences in particular," warn the venues, "will be excluded and the Fringe will wither away." - The Scotsman
"Every single available ticket to see the Rijksmuseum's Johannes Vermeer retrospective is already gone, the Amsterdam institution said over the weekend, dashing the hopes of many far and wide who had hoped to see the unprecedented show." - ARTnews
Of course, every Dickinson poem reflects her intention to create meaning. When ChatGPT puts words together, it does not intend anything. Some argue that writings by LLMs therefore have no meaning, only the appearance of it. - Washington Post
It’s clear that despite her status, in purely commercial terms Beyoncé is not a dominating presence in the music industry, with many artists selling and streaming at considerably higher levels. - The Conversation
Music, ephemeral in its power over our emotions, is a notoriously demanding discipline, so this film presents exciting possibilities for an exploration of the dark sides of the “cult of genius.” - The Conversation
Forty years ago, Peter Brooks produced a pathbreaking study, Reading for the Plot, which was part of the so-called narrative turn in literary criticism. Narratology, as it became known, spread swiftly to other disciplines: law, psychology, philosophy, religion, anthropology and so on. - London Review of Books
There will always be a need for genuine community and human connection, which can be aided by tools like this. We see chatbots being used in fun and innovative ways to complement community and human connection — not replace it.” - The Verge
Freedom of expression is a hot potato—freedom for whom and for what, and who decides? The last English writer before the late 20th century to have totally free rein was Geoffrey Chaucer. Few then could read, and books were hand-lettered and very expensive. - The Atlantic
Learning to write is about more than learning to write. For one thing, it’s about learning to turn a loose assemblage of thoughts into a clear line of reasoning—a skill that is useful for everyone, not just those who enjoy writing or need to do a lot of it for work. - The Atlantic
There is growing evidence from neuroscience and careful experiments that the United States has adopted reading strategies that just don’t work very well and that we haven’t relied enough on a simple starting point — helping kids learn to sound out words with phonics. - The New York Times
The defection of Gustavo Dudamel from L.A. to conduct the New York Philharmonic reflects more than a switch in energy and show business muscle; the Venezuela-born conductor, many feel, also embodies inclusion at an inspirational level. - Deadline
Record tickets sales in Chicago's Theatre Week may indicate - finally - something's going OK for the COVID-bitten profession. - Daily Herald (Illinois)
"My capacity for speaking German is not unlike imagination or good writing: Believe hard enough and the genie reappears. But belief also cannot be faked or summoned. It can falter, prove you wrong." - LitHub
"The Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG), and the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) collectively called on Valparaiso University’s Brauer Museum of Art to reverse course." - Hyperallergic
Geetanjali Shree's Tomb of Sand, written and published in Hindi, pushed Western readers and critics to learn about the deep diversity of Indian literature that wasn't written in English. - The New York Times
