Luckily for managers, building human capital takes a long time. Or, at least, it used to: artificial intelligence is, among other things, a technology that speeds up learning and increases capability. Millions of people now use large language models. They’re not all flirting with their chatbots; instead, they’ve discovered that, with the help of A.I., … Read more
The invention, though, comes from real life. Alex’s experience is loosely modelled on that of John Bishop, a British pharmaceutical salesman who, with no standup experience, began performing at open-mike nights at the Frog and Bucket Comedy Club, in Manchester, in 2000. At the time, Bishop was separated from his wife, Melanie, and he later … Read more
The choreographer Marla Phelan is interested in the birth of stars—not Barbra Streisand or Lady Gaga but the cosmic kind. Working with the astrophysicist Blakesley Burkhart, she has made “Birth + Carnage,” a dance production in which performers mimic the patterns of star formation and other celestial motion. The dancers’ bodies are influenced by gravity … Read more
In the summer, the actress Natasha Lyonne relayed an anecdote about the late director David Lynch, in which he told her that A.I. in the creative arts would soon be as ubiquitous and indispensable as the pencil. Lyonne, who happens to be the co-founder of an A.I. studio, seemed to be implying that the revered … Read more
Every night during the shoot, Bi and his assistant directors convened in a conference room, where they and assorted crew members discussed everything from research on opium production to the optimal speed for a spinning phenakistoscope, an early animation device. As each night progressed, ashtrays piled up and bags of betel nuts emptied; every once … Read more
For the word gamer with old-school tastes and ample storage space, consider a Monogrammed Deluxe Scrabble set ($170), paired with a leather-bound Scrabble dictionary ($105) to help resolve disputes. Both items would look handsome on a hexagonal gaming table ($3,400 and up), which can be customized to include drink holders ($66) so that your recipient … Read more
new video loaded: ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ | Anatomy of a Scene transcript Back transcript ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ | Anatomy of a Scene The writer and director Rian Johnson narrates a sequence from his film. “My Name is Rian Johnson. I wrote and directed “Wake Up, … Read more
They’re a pretty wretched lot. There’s a local doctor, Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), who has slipped into alcoholic despair since his wife left him, and Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), a best-selling author and self-professed recovering liberal, whose rightward drift has led him to write an unreadable book about Wicks’s life. Somewhat more sympathetic are Simone … Read more
Employees told me that the new hires “don’t understand the basic vocabulary” of arts administration. They have questions. Things like, what is “capacity”? What is “an arena show”? What is a “backline”? What is “stage left”? What is an “usher”? Perhaps predictably, Trump’s takeover and firing of veteran cultural programmers made the center radioactive to … Read more
The business outlook remained bleak, of course. Throughout the nineteen-sixties, amid vast social and generational changes, the studios, many still under their longtime executives, struggled to keep pace, and Hollywood continued to face declining attendance, from thirty million in average weekly attendance in 1960 to eighteen million in 1970. A wave of takeovers began, attracting … Read more