Arts news

• The Takacs Quartet At 50

  30-04-2025 21:31 via nytimes.com
  The Takacs thing. “They have always been one of the world’s pre-eminent string quartets, and they have a unique approach to the repertoire,” said John Gilhooly, the director of Wigmore Hall in London. “Whatever they have, they have it in abundance.” – The New York Times
  
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• How The Met Opera Makes The Severed Head For “Salome”

  30-04-2025 21:01 via vulture.com
  It has to look like Peter Mattei, who’s singing John the Baptist, so they start by making a mold of his head.  Then they have to get the mold off him. “We typically ask them to … start making funny faces so that silicone starts releasing,” says (ahem) head master Tera Willis. – Vulture
  
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• This Year’s Tony Nominations: The Year Of Hollywood Stars?

  30-04-2025 20:31 via deadline.com
  Forty-two productions are eligible for Tony Award nominations this year – the announcements come Thursday morning – making many of the categories very, very competitive. – Deadline
  
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• “AI Narration Is, In My Opinion, Immoral,” Writes David Sedaris

  30-04-2025 20:04 via observer.co.uk
  “I’m as interested in an artificial voice as I am in an artificial author, which is to say not at all. … This is the thing: you think it won’t come for you – but it will. Luckily, I’ll be dead or retired by then.” – The Observer (UK)
  
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• The Inherent Contradictions Of Mark Twain

  30-04-2025 19:44 via newyorker.com
  Even when he was at the height of his literary powers, the title “businessman” might have suited Twain better than “author.” Not that avidity bred success. – The New Yorker
  
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• As AI Makes Some Things Very Easy, Will We Continue To Do Them?

  30-04-2025 19:31 via newyorker.com
  We’re so used to trying things for ourselves that it seems bizarre to imagine us ever stopping. And yet, more and more, it’s becoming clear that artificial intelligence can relieve us of the burden of trying and trying again. – The New Yorker
  
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• Nude Models In Florence Complain Of Difficult Working Conditions

  30-04-2025 19:15 via artnews.com
  Nude models at the fine arts academy, which was founded in 1784, complained to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera about their “exhausting” work. They want more breaks and argue that their renewable annual contracts, which offer 500 hours over 11 months, do not compensate for the mental and physical suffering caused by their job. – ARTnews
  
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• How Did Pop Wizard David Foster Figure Out Broadway Songs For, Of All Characters, Betty Boop?

  30-04-2025 19:05 via vulture.com
  “The cartoons were perplexing to me because the music they used is so far beyond what I would relate to,” he explains. “Don’t get me wrong, I loved it. I just didn’t have any idea how to make that kind of music. I had no (effing) clue what I was doing.” – Vulture
  
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• Gustavo Dudamel On The Purpose Of Orchestras

  30-04-2025 18:44 via playbill.com
  “Music is about relationships—how we come to understand one another, how we communicate and connect with those who are different from us, and how we build mutual trust and empathy over time.” – Playbill
  
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• The Dark Sides Underpinning Today’s Entrepreneurial Zeitgeist

  30-04-2025 18:31 via commonwealmagazine.org
  Gig work, as it turns out, didn’t begin with Uber but with Avon direct-sales reps. The wacky metaphysics of today’s tech billionaires have their analogues in the “mind-cures” of nineteenth-century spiritualists. And the celebration of “charismatic” executives has its origins in German social science, with disturbingly fascist undertones. – Commonweal
  
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• Why Schrödinger’s Cat Has Become A Pop Cult Sensation

  30-04-2025 18:15 via aeon.co
  How did an obscure argument about a mathematically complex and rather baffling theory of physics become embedded in public consciousness as an extraordinary exploration of the human psyche? This essay tells the story. – Aeon
  
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• Majority Of Parents Don’t Enjoy Reading To Their Kids: Study

  30-04-2025 18:06 via theguardian.com
  “Only 40% of parents … agreed that ‘reading books to my child is fun for me’, according to a survey conducted by Nielsen and HarperCollins. (There’s) a steep decline in … parents reading aloud to young children, with 41% of 0-to-4-year-olds now being read to frequently, down from 64% in 2012.” – The Guardian
  
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• Comcast Is Bleeding Broadband Customers. Here’s Why

  30-04-2025 17:44 via arstechnica.com
  After reporting a net loss of 183,000 residential broadband customers in Q1 2025, Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said the company isn’t “winning in the marketplace” during an earnings call today. The Q1 2025 customer loss was over three times larger than the net loss in Q1 2024. – Ars Technica
  
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• Mellon Foundation Steps Up To Support Humanities Funding Stripped By Trump Admin

  30-04-2025 17:31 via nytimes.com
  The new funding, which will support humanities councils in all 50 states and six jurisdictions, comes a month after the National Endowment for the Humanities abruptly cut off federal funding for the councils, as well as most of its existing grants. – The New York Times
  
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• Remembering One of His Most Fabulous Monologues

  30-04-2025 17:27 via artsjournal.com
  <a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2025/04/remembering-one-of-his-most-fabulous-monologues.html" title="Remembering One of His Most Fabulous Monologues” rel=”nofollow”>
  
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• AI Learned About Writing From Us. Will We Now Learn About Writing From AI?

  30-04-2025 17:15 via msn.com
  Chatbots learned from human writing. Now the influence may run in the other direction. Some people have hypothesized that the proliferation of generative-AI tools such as ChatGPT will seep into human communication, that the terse language we use when prompting a chatbot may lead us to dispose of any niceties or writerly flourishes. – The Atlantic (MSN)
  
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• Orphaned University Of The Arts Dance Program Is Coming Back To Philly, But Not Yet

  30-04-2025 17:03 via msn.com
  “The former UArts undergraduate dance program, that landed at Bennington College in Vermont, had planned to return to Philadelphia for the 2025-26 school year. But leaders now say the return has been delayed as the program awaits Pennsylvania Dept. of Education’s authorization to award degrees.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
  
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• Andrew Karpen, Pillar Of U.S. Independent Film Industry, Has Died At 59

  30-04-2025 16:32 via indiewire.com
  He was the COO of Focus Features beginning in 2002 and became president and co-CEO in 2006. In 2014 he left Focus to found the independently-financed distribution and production company Bleecker Street, which has released roughly 70 films since. – IndieWire
  
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• Fort Worth Police Took $7,000 Trip To New York To Investigate Sally Mann For Child Porn

  30-04-2025 16:04 via fortworthreport.org
  After seizing some of Mann’s photos of her children from an exhibition in Fort Worth, five FWPD officers spent four days and $6,988.77 in Manhattan. Officials say the police visited the Met, MoMA, the Guggenheim, and the Whitney. None of those museums have displayed Mann’s work for several years. – Fort Worth Report
  
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• Corporation For Public Broadcasting Sues Trump Administration For Trying To Fire Board Members

  30-04-2025 15:31 via msn.com
  “In its complaint, … the CPB and the three board members — Laura Ross, Thomas Rothman and Diane Kaplan — said the president does not have the authority to fire these board members because it’s not a government agency subject to the decisions of the executive branch.” – The Washington Post (MSN)
  
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• Mellon Foundation Provides “Emergency Funding” For State Humanities Councils Defunded By NEH

  30-04-2025 15:05 via npr.org
  “The Mellon Foundation has announced $15 million in ‘emergency funding’ for state humanities councils across the country. The support comes after the Department of Government Efficiency abruptly cancelled some $65 million in (National Endowment for the Humanities) grants earlier this month.” – NPR
  
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• Federal Court Orders Trump Administration To Release Radio Free Europe Funding

  30-04-2025 14:30 via apnews.com
  “U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth … granted the temporary restraining order for the U.S. Agency for Global Media to disburse ($12 million) for April 2025 for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty pending the outcome of a lawsuit seeking to keep the station on the air.” – AP
  
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• All U.S. Holocaust Museum Board Members Appointed By Biden Have Been Fired

  30-04-2025 14:06 via msn.com
  “The Trump administration has terminated members of the board that oversees the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum appointed by President Joe Biden — including Doug Emhoff, the husband of former vice president Kamala Harris.” – The Washington Post (MSN)
  
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