AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Trump Insider Alleges Donations To Kennedy Center Went Missing Under Ric Grenell’s Watch
Former Trump attorney Alina Habba told the president that another one of his top advisers — former Kennedy Center leader Ric Grenell — failed to deposit a multimillion-dollar donation that her billionaire husband made to the center a year ago. – Axios
- Pop Star’s Performance En Pointe On Saturday Night Live: Was It Real?
Rosalía left audiences in awe with her Saturday Night Live performance of “Reliquia” over the weekend, appearing to stand en pointe for nearly four minutes while singing. But ballet professionals aren’t convinced she pulled off the feat without some theatrical assistance. And, surprisingly, they don’t seem to mind. – Consequence
- Public Radio Stations Licensed To Public Universities Are Wondering If They’d Be Better Off Separating
If a station’s broadcast license is owned by a public entity, including a state university, then government officials ultimately have power over the station. With the right having made public radio a political target, and with culture wars getting ever hotter, more officials have started using that power to interfere. – Columbia Journalism Review
- The Latest Viral Dance Moves In China Are Landing People In The Hospital
The steps, known in Chinese as the “flash step”, “prodigal kicking the ball” and “black bear shaking fur,” took off from videos by professional dance instructors, and some people who are picking them up online (rather than in a class) are injuring themselves. – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
- Broadway Box Office Revenue Soars As Hollywood Stars Take The Stage
Other Desert Cities starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris, and Allison Janney grossed $2.1 million in its first week, behind only long-running juggernauts Hamilton, Harry Potter and Lion King. Other hits include Billy Crystal’s 360, A Few Good Men starring Bradley Whitford and Tom Blyth, and Bowen Yang’s turn in Oh, Mary! – The Hollywood Reporter
ISSUES
- The Newest Museum In Metro Paris Is In An Old Renault Factory On An Island In The Seine
Le Large is part of the Pointe des Arts, a €450 million cultural development (there are also a cinema, a hotel, and other amenities) on Île Seguin in the affluent inner suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt. – ARTnews
- “Disaster”: Director Of Louvre Warns That Building Would Have To Close If Not Renovated
Christophe Leribault says that improved security in the wake of the crown jewel robbery is not enough: leaking pipes, collapsing ceilings, and other problems with the deteriorating building could force the world’s most-visited museum to close to the public unless there’s an overhaul estimated to cost €700–800 million. – Euronews
- Daniel Weiss Is A Mr. Fix-It. Can He Fix The Philadelphia Museum Of Art?
He has been fixing institutions for his entire career, from his very first job, at the Kennedy Center’s gift shop, to the Metropolitan Museum, which, when he became CEO, had issues not dissimilar to those at the PMA when he became director last year. So far, the staff appears to be happier. – ARTnews
- The Art Trafficker Who Flooded LA Museums
The Stendahl Art Galleries were a key driver in the illegal looting, smuggling, and sale of these objects to its Los Angeles clientele. The Galleries’ archive is now housed at the Getty Research Institute (which published this book), allowing for a deep investigation into the shady dealings of an art dealer. – Hyperallergic
- Getty Images Is A Giant. It Was Worth $4.8B A Few Years Ago. Now It’s In Bankruptcy. What Happened?
Getty Images is preparing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after years of financial struggles, a failed merger, and growing competition from technology that can create images in seconds. – Fast Company
MEDIA
- Trump Insider Alleges Donations To Kennedy Center Went Missing Under Ric Grenell’s Watch
Former Trump attorney Alina Habba told the president that another one of his top advisers — former Kennedy Center leader Ric Grenell — failed to deposit a multimillion-dollar donation that her billionaire husband made to the center a year ago. – Axios
- Philadelphia’s Jewish Museum Could Become Part Of The Smithsonian
“The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia is being considered as a potential new member of the Smithsonian museum network, with members of a new congressional commission sworn in on Tuesday set to study the matter.” It would be the only Smithsonian museum outside metro DC or New York. – ARTnews
- Bayeux Tapestry Exhibition Has Spectators Flocking To Battle Of Hastings Re-Enactment
“Each fall, about 1,000 history enthusiasts gather in Battle, a town in southern England, to recreate the Battle of Hastings (the main event depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry) … on the very landscape where the conflict unfolded on Oct. 14, 1066. This year … the crowds have been more teeming than usual.” – The New York Times
- Why King Arthur Still Resonates In Our Popular Culture
Arthur and the chivalric culture he evokes remain part of our cultural lexicon, as shown by his continued reimagining in popular media. – Jstor
- Seattle Artists Make A Case For Funding From City’s Public Safety Budget
What matters most is how they made the case. They didn’t ask Seattle to support the arts because culture enriches a city. They asked the city to treat arts and culture as public safety infrastructure. – Return on Art (LinkedIn)
MUSIC
- The Essential Anne Carson: Fragments Across Time
Fragmentation is frequently associated with the crisis of representation in 20th-century literature. Carson reveals that the ancient textual tradition already contains discontinuities that resist the modern desire for completeness. – The Conversation
- 80 Books Were Banned In Minnesota Last Year. They Were All At One School.
Among the titles involved were The Handmaid’s Tale, The Kite Runner, and a cookbook. Outraged students protested. And, mind you, this was after Minnesota passed a law forbidding book bans in public schools. – The Minnesota Star Tribune
- Author Of France’s Hit Novel Of The Fall Denies Using AI But Admits To Past Plagiarism
“The novel by Thélyson Orélien, C’était ça ou mourir, which translates to ‘It was either that or dying,’ came under scrutiny last month over allegations of AI use. This was followed by other news reports that raised questions about passages in the author’s previous work.” – The Canadian Press
- Think You Can Spot AI Writing? Probably Not
A question that is turning us all into different kinds of readers—skeptical, antagonistic, and less willing to give our fellow humans the benefit of the doubt. Trying to figure out what AI writing looks like is turning writer and reader into adversaries. And I’m going to tell you why. – The Walrus
- Non-Fiction Is In Trouble?
What if, like a thumb on the scales tipping debut novels toward more favourable outcomes, nonfiction’s bleaker fate was also a product of accumulated choices—choices about where the money goes and how the story of these books gets told? – The Walrus
PEOPLE
- Trump Insider Alleges Donations To Kennedy Center Went Missing Under Ric Grenell’s Watch
Former Trump attorney Alina Habba told the president that another one of his top advisers — former Kennedy Center leader Ric Grenell — failed to deposit a multimillion-dollar donation that her billionaire husband made to the center a year ago. – Axios
- Pop Star’s Performance En Pointe On Saturday Night Live: Was It Real?
Rosalía left audiences in awe with her Saturday Night Live performance of “Reliquia” over the weekend, appearing to stand en pointe for nearly four minutes while singing. But ballet professionals aren’t convinced she pulled off the feat without some theatrical assistance. And, surprisingly, they don’t seem to mind. – Consequence
- Public Radio Stations Licensed To Public Universities Are Wondering If They’d Be Better Off Separating
If a station’s broadcast license is owned by a public entity, including a state university, then government officials ultimately have power over the station. With the right having made public radio a political target, and with culture wars getting ever hotter, more officials have started using that power to interfere. – Columbia Journalism Review
- The Latest Viral Dance Moves In China Are Landing People In The Hospital
The steps, known in Chinese as the “flash step”, “prodigal kicking the ball” and “black bear shaking fur,” took off from videos by professional dance instructors, and some people who are picking them up online (rather than in a class) are injuring themselves. – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
- Broadway Box Office Revenue Soars As Hollywood Stars Take The Stage
Other Desert Cities starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris, and Allison Janney grossed $2.1 million in its first week, behind only long-running juggernauts Hamilton, Harry Potter and Lion King. Other hits include Billy Crystal’s 360, A Few Good Men starring Bradley Whitford and Tom Blyth, and Bowen Yang’s turn in Oh, Mary! – The Hollywood Reporter
PEOPLE
- Trump Insider Alleges Donations To Kennedy Center Went Missing Under Ric Grenell’s Watch
Former Trump attorney Alina Habba told the president that another one of his top advisers — former Kennedy Center leader Ric Grenell — failed to deposit a multimillion-dollar donation that her billionaire husband made to the center a year ago. – Axios
- Pop Star’s Performance En Pointe On Saturday Night Live: Was It Real?
Rosalía left audiences in awe with her Saturday Night Live performance of “Reliquia” over the weekend, appearing to stand en pointe for nearly four minutes while singing. But ballet professionals aren’t convinced she pulled off the feat without some theatrical assistance. And, surprisingly, they don’t seem to mind. – Consequence
- Public Radio Stations Licensed To Public Universities Are Wondering If They’d Be Better Off Separating
If a station’s broadcast license is owned by a public entity, including a state university, then government officials ultimately have power over the station. With the right having made public radio a political target, and with culture wars getting ever hotter, more officials have started using that power to interfere. – Columbia Journalism Review
- The Latest Viral Dance Moves In China Are Landing People In The Hospital
The steps, known in Chinese as the “flash step”, “prodigal kicking the ball” and “black bear shaking fur,” took off from videos by professional dance instructors, and some people who are picking them up online (rather than in a class) are injuring themselves. – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
- Broadway Box Office Revenue Soars As Hollywood Stars Take The Stage
Other Desert Cities starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris, and Allison Janney grossed $2.1 million in its first week, behind only long-running juggernauts Hamilton, Harry Potter and Lion King. Other hits include Billy Crystal’s 360, A Few Good Men starring Bradley Whitford and Tom Blyth, and Bowen Yang’s turn in Oh, Mary! – The Hollywood Reporter
THEATRE
VISUAL
- We’re Losing Our Skills As We Lean Into Technology
We have fallen into habits that are steadily deskilling the human body, eroding capacities honed by evolution to support our wellbeing as we move through the world. Some of these capacities are weakening through disuse: we have come to rely on our phones, for example, and now, increasingly, on AI. – Aeon
- Complicating The Morality Of Colonialism?
“My pessimism is reinforced by the zero-sum view of economics that typically accompanies the zero-sum view of moral agency around colonialism. A major piece of evidence for the ‘colonisation explains everything’ thesis is economic.” – 3 Quarks Daily
- Sorry, But The Reading “Crisis” Isn’t One
The practice of using our eyes to create and absorb systems of language instead is so difficult and so weird, in fact, that, as best as we can tell, and as Marriott reminds us, it’s been invented no more than four times in our 300,000 years as a species. – The New Republic
- American Retirees Aren’t Spending Down Their Savings. This Is A Problem
A survey of older adults with at least $100,000 showed that only 28 percent were comfortable watching their savings taper off to cover living expenses, ostensibly exactly what the money was saved for in the first place. This is a problem—not just for retirees but for the country. – The Atlantic
- A Three-Year Arts Launchpad In Boston Provides A Path For Smaller Arts Groups
The Boston Center for the Arts Launchpad “is meant to provide both an anchor and a resource without restricting what each company might create.” – Boston Globe