AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- The Latest Design For Rebuilding New York’s Penn Station Is Actually Very Good
Justin Davidson: “The latest version of this perpetual top priority just might dispel the curse of inertia — because it should dramatically alleviate crowds, delays, and misery, and because it comes with architecture we can treasure rather than tolerate.” – Curbed (MSN)
- One Year After It Shut Down, This Bay Area Theater Company Will Attempt A Resurrection
“Aurora Theatre Company devastated generations of fans and artists when it announced last summer it was vacating its (Berkeley) space and laying off staff. Now the 34-year-old theater, beloved for its intimate, high-quality productions featuring local actors, is coming back.” – San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
- Geneva’s Orchestre De La Suisse Romande Names Tugan Sokhiev Principal Conductor
“The initial three-season appointment will begin with the 2026–27 season, marking the conductor’s first major long-term leadership position since stepping down from his posts at the Bolshoi Theatre and the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse in 2022.” – Moto Perpetuo
- French Superstar Patrick Bruel Detained By Police Over Multiple Sexual Assault Charges
“The singer became a major star across the French-speaking world in the 1980s and 1990s with a string of hits that became part of French popular culture. He also appeared in more than 40 film and television productions. … (He faces) allegations by at least 13 women of rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.” – AP
- Wilma “Billie” Tisch, 98, One Of New York’s Leading Cultural Philanthropists
The wife of Larry Tisch, one of the brothers who made Loews into a conglomerate, she oversaw the donation of millions of dollars to Jewish and cultural organizations, notable among them the WNYC Foundation, the Tisch Children’s Zoo in Central Park, and the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. – The New York Times
ISSUES
- The Latest Design For Rebuilding New York’s Penn Station Is Actually Very Good
Justin Davidson: “The latest version of this perpetual top priority just might dispel the curse of inertia — because it should dramatically alleviate crowds, delays, and misery, and because it comes with architecture we can treasure rather than tolerate.” – Curbed (MSN)
- Sotheby’s Tried To Quietly Sell A Pollock For $50M. It Didn’t Go Well
According to one source familiar with the effort, Sotheby’s could not find enough bidders to get the auction off the ground. The auction was ultimately called off, though it remains unclear whether the painting was returned to Glimcher, sold privately, or remains with Sotheby’s. – ARTnews
- Minneapolis Gets A Massive Land Art Mural
Franco-Swiss artist Saype “said he decided to pick Minneapolis for the project during the federal immigration enforcement surge after seeing neighbors helping each other.” – Minnesota Public Radio
- Why Is Philly’s Gem Of A Bridge So Badly Neglected?
“The University Avenue Bridge was designed and built as a prime specimen of the City Beautiful aesthetic. … Today, the bridge that connects West Philadelphia and Grays Ferry is a monument to decrepitude.” – Philadelphia Inquirer
- The UK’s Heirloom Ceramics Sector Is In Deep Trouble
“The UK ceramics sector employs 20,000 people, half of them in the West Midlands, and is regarded as an indispensable to the economy” – but repeated blows are breaking even the ceramics for the defense sector. – The Guardian (UK)
MEDIA
- Hampshire College Confirms It Will Offer Final Semester This Fall
‘Hampshire College says it has secured financing that will allow it to complete a fall 2026 semester before closing for good, reversing concerns raised last week that the school might not have enough money to carry out the process.” – Boston.com
- What I Saw From Inside The Kennedy Center Meltdown
Palermo also said Trump’s Truth Social post about handing control back to Congress sounded like an attempt to distance himself from an institution. He adds that he believes the Trump administration has driven the center into bankruptcy. – NPR
- Will People Embrace The First AI Art Museum?
Dataland — a museum built with artificial intelligence — arrives as debates explode across socio-political lines about the impact of the advancing technology on our culture, cognition, communication, economy, environment and careers, including in the arts. – Los Angeles Times
- The Artists Producing ‘Anti-Slop’ In Response To Generative AI
“That spirit of rejection seems to be coalescing into its own design aesthetic – a move towards the conspicuously handmade, the janky, even the primitive.” – The Guardian (UK)
- What’s Gone Deeply Wrong With Social Media
“Something seems to have broken down in the functionality of the internet, between Facebook’s erratic algorithm and Google search results now headed by fabricated, AI-generated content and sponsored ads.” – El País English
MUSIC
- The Problem With Responses To AI Creations
At its core, this is a debate about values. A short story implies a human artistic act with intentional imaginative labour—the exact practice whose future is now at risk if the literary world doesn’t take a stand. – The Walrus
- Audiobook Sales Up 9 Percent In 2025, To $2.4B
General fiction accounted for the largest share of audiobook revenue at 27%, with science fiction/fantasy, romance, and mysteries/thrillers/suspense rounding out the top genres. The fastest-growing genres in 2025 were humor, general fiction, and children’s, including YA. – Publishers Weekly
- Do We Really Care If Memoirs Are Truthful?
“The facts may not totally line up, but the emotions are all present and accounted for.” – Washington Post (MSN)
- Sure, Write What You Know, But Write What Scares You
“When you sense a story, or glimpse a scene, or feel a character coming to life, you stop, step back, consider what in that might scare you most. … Let that dread jolt you loose. Then—and this is key for me—find a way to make it worse.” – LitHub
- A New Edith Wharton Story Highlights The Human Inability To Deal With War
“The story, on two typed and undated manuscripts that appeared to be different drafts, centers on a dinner party hosted at the same table where, earlier in the war, an army surgeon had performed amputations.” – The New York Times
PEOPLE
- The Latest Design For Rebuilding New York’s Penn Station Is Actually Very Good
Justin Davidson: “The latest version of this perpetual top priority just might dispel the curse of inertia — because it should dramatically alleviate crowds, delays, and misery, and because it comes with architecture we can treasure rather than tolerate.” – Curbed (MSN)
- One Year After It Shut Down, This Bay Area Theater Company Will Attempt A Resurrection
“Aurora Theatre Company devastated generations of fans and artists when it announced last summer it was vacating its (Berkeley) space and laying off staff. Now the 34-year-old theater, beloved for its intimate, high-quality productions featuring local actors, is coming back.” – San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
- Geneva’s Orchestre De La Suisse Romande Names Tugan Sokhiev Principal Conductor
“The initial three-season appointment will begin with the 2026–27 season, marking the conductor’s first major long-term leadership position since stepping down from his posts at the Bolshoi Theatre and the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse in 2022.” – Moto Perpetuo
- French Superstar Patrick Bruel Detained By Police Over Multiple Sexual Assault Charges
“The singer became a major star across the French-speaking world in the 1980s and 1990s with a string of hits that became part of French popular culture. He also appeared in more than 40 film and television productions. … (He faces) allegations by at least 13 women of rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.” – AP
- Wilma “Billie” Tisch, 98, One Of New York’s Leading Cultural Philanthropists
The wife of Larry Tisch, one of the brothers who made Loews into a conglomerate, she oversaw the donation of millions of dollars to Jewish and cultural organizations, notable among them the WNYC Foundation, the Tisch Children’s Zoo in Central Park, and the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. – The New York Times
PEOPLE
- The Latest Design For Rebuilding New York’s Penn Station Is Actually Very Good
Justin Davidson: “The latest version of this perpetual top priority just might dispel the curse of inertia — because it should dramatically alleviate crowds, delays, and misery, and because it comes with architecture we can treasure rather than tolerate.” – Curbed (MSN)
- One Year After It Shut Down, This Bay Area Theater Company Will Attempt A Resurrection
“Aurora Theatre Company devastated generations of fans and artists when it announced last summer it was vacating its (Berkeley) space and laying off staff. Now the 34-year-old theater, beloved for its intimate, high-quality productions featuring local actors, is coming back.” – San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
- Geneva’s Orchestre De La Suisse Romande Names Tugan Sokhiev Principal Conductor
“The initial three-season appointment will begin with the 2026–27 season, marking the conductor’s first major long-term leadership position since stepping down from his posts at the Bolshoi Theatre and the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse in 2022.” – Moto Perpetuo
- French Superstar Patrick Bruel Detained By Police Over Multiple Sexual Assault Charges
“The singer became a major star across the French-speaking world in the 1980s and 1990s with a string of hits that became part of French popular culture. He also appeared in more than 40 film and television productions. … (He faces) allegations by at least 13 women of rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.” – AP
- Wilma “Billie” Tisch, 98, One Of New York’s Leading Cultural Philanthropists
The wife of Larry Tisch, one of the brothers who made Loews into a conglomerate, she oversaw the donation of millions of dollars to Jewish and cultural organizations, notable among them the WNYC Foundation, the Tisch Children’s Zoo in Central Park, and the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. – The New York Times
THEATRE
VISUAL
- How America Lost Control Of Its History
A nation defined by blood and soil—built around a shared religion or ethnicity—can survive divergent narratives. To a country built on an idea, though, and bound together by a shared understanding of our history, the inability to tell a common story might well prove fatal. – The Atlantic
- Good AI? Model Proposes Thousands Of Designs, Test Them, Then Adapts
The AI model proposed study designs, and robots carried them out and fed the data back to the model for the next round. Humans set the goal, and the machines did much of the work in the lab, cutting the cost of producing a desired protein by 40 percent. – Singularity Hub
- Lessons From The Enhanced Games
Trying to break world records remains a high-risk, high-reward strategy for Enhanced. The event proved that breaking records is incredibly difficult, even with PEDs and technological enhancements such as swimming supersuits, both banned in traditional sport. – The Conversation
- If You Don’t Use AI It’s Tough To Spot AI
One of the problems with AI use seeping out of business and science writing and into the ‘literary’ world is that literary editors may be the worst equipped to identify AI writing. – London Review of Books
- Criticism In The Age Of AI: It’s Superfluous
The early parts of the story of how the humanities turned against “the human” are well told in two intellectual histories. – Hedgehog Review
