“We put $8 million into the BSO,” Governor Larry Hogan said. “They received the most money of any arts group in the state, 74 percent higher than any other arts group. . . . We continue to pour millions and millions of dollars into the BSO, but they’ve got real serious issues and problems with the management, with losing the support of their donor base.” – Washington Post
Author: Douglas McLennan
Why Medieval History(!) Has Become A Modern Battleground
Last week The New York Times reported in detail on YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, which is “capable of drawing users deeper into the platform by figuring out ‘adjacent relationships’ between videos that a human would never identify.” The Crusades are a plum example of a topic that turns into a thread, leading the viewer through a labyrinth towards potential radicalization. You can search “Knights Templar” on YouTube and reach conspiracy theories (“Ten Secret Societies Ruling The World”) within three intuitive clicks. – The New Republic
Worried About DeepFakes? How About CheapFakes?
Journalists, politicians, and others worry that the technological sophistication of artificial intelligence–generated deepfakes makes them dangerous to democracy because it renders evidence meaningless. But what panic over this deepfake phenomenon misses is that audiovisual content doesn’t have to be generated through artificial intelligence to be dangerous to society. “Cheapfakes” rely on free software that allows manipulation through easy conventional editing techniques like speeding, slowing, and cutting. – Slate
Rise Of The Fake Festivals
Over the past five years, ticket sales for Glastonbudget, Tribfest and The Big Fake Festival have seen a healthy increase, according to The Entertainment Agents’ Association, and there are now more than 30 outdoor music festivals in the UK showcasing tribute acts, such as Coldplace, Antarctic Monkeys, Guns2Roses, Stereotonics and Blondied. – BBC
By The Numbers: Picture Books In 2018 Were Less Diverse
Male characters continue to dominate the most popular picture books: a child is 1.6 times more likely to read one with a male rather than a female lead, and seven times more likely to read a story that has a male villain in it than a female baddie. Male characters outnumbered female characters in more than half the books, while females outnumber males less than a fifth of the time. – The Guardian
NYT’s Decision To Discontinue Political Cartoons Is Part Of Wider Trend
Some observers ascribe the paper’s apparent aversion to the reigning Sulzberger family’s alleged attitude that political cartoons, with their in-your-face messages and harsh caricatures of public officials, are “not Timesian” and “too middlebrow.” – The Daily Beast
America’s First Poster Museum Is Opening
How is it then that the US has never had its own poster museum? “We have a lot of cultural institutions in New York, and there’s a lot of competition between them,” Knight said. “Many of them have poster collections, but they use them as supplemental material. They don’t look at posters first. We think it’s really important to do that because it’s the bottom-up view of history as opposed to the top-down upper-echelon fancy art looking down.” – Hyperallergic
Should Orchestras Play The “Best” Music? So Who Decides?
“A common argument is that art should be a strict meritocracy, i.e., that the best music should be programmed regardless of who the composer is. But then, who determines what is of artistic quality, really? So goes one of the more philosophically heated debates in the classical music world at the moment.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
JFK’s TWA Terminal Is One Of The Great Buildings Of The 20th Century. Here’s What It’s Like Now As A Hotel
Saarinen’s TWA terminal, like the great cathedrals of Europe, the giant domes of the Renaissance and the miraculous infrastructure of the 20th century, asserts a truth far deeper than its original purpose: If man can build miraculous buildings, he can remake the world itself into something more equal, more fair, and more decent. – Washington Post
New York City Landmarks Strand Bookstore Building Over Owner’s Objections
The decision came despite strong opposition from the owner of the Strand, Nancy Bass Wyden, who argued that the designation would mire the bookstore “in a lifetime of needless red tape.” – Publishers Weekly