Good Morning,
Happy 250th. Fitting that today’s stories keep circling the question the country has never settled: what is American culture, and who gets to say? There’s a case for George Bristow’s “Niagara” — a choral finale that outscales Beethoven’s Ninth — as the first great American symphony (Early Music America). Stephen Foster, born on the nation’s 50th birthday, turns 200 today still singing to America’s contradictions (The Conversation). Noah Webster spent a career trying to pry American English loose from Britain’s grip (Literary Hub). Even the national symbol was an import: the Statue of Liberty, considered as an art object, is a French sculpture that melted into an American idea (The New York Times).
The argument isn’t only historical. An appeals court says the administration needn’t restore the national park displays it purged for “disparaging” Americans (The Hill) — the national story, still being edited in real time. New York, meanwhile, cast its vote for culture with money: a record $323.8 million for culture in the new city budget (Hyperallergic).
And Nieman Lab caught an AI-generated fake news article complaining that AI fake news is killing real news (Nieman Lab). The ouroboros files its first dispatch.
Happy 4th! All of our stories below.
Doug
