AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- The Infinity Machine Starts Pressing Vinyl
Good Morning,
Suno, valued at $5.4 billion and buried in lawsuits, announced two things. It will start watermarking the songs made on its platform (TechCrunch). And it opened a waitlist to press those songs onto 12-inch records (MusicBusinessWorldwide). The machine built to make music infinite is now selling physical artifacts. Guess it knows where the value is?
The demand side is arriving at the same place from the other direction. Digital cameras, wired headphones and iPods are selling again, largely because they don’t send notifications (BBC). Researchers who asked people why they rewatch the same films found intent rather than habit: viewers knew which emotion they were shopping for and skipped the twenty minutes of scrolling (Silicon Canals) trying to find something new (and chancy). Constraint chosen on purpose.
Meanwhile, Andrew Lloyd Webber marked the closing of Cats: The Jellicle Ball by suggesting Broadway might finally reckon with what it now costs to run a new show (Variety) — an optimistic thing to read into a closing notice.
Meanwhile, everything is turning beige. Since the late 2000s, colorless colors have taken over houses, cars, couches and refrigerators (The Atlantic). The interesting question is why.
And a British radio station accidentally broadcast the death of King Charles. The staffer responsible “panicked and left the premises” (BBC).
All of our stories below.
- This AI Moment Could Be Clarifying For How We Think About Culture. Or…
“Our contention is that, if we fail to think through and delimit the role of AI in our lives, we risk undermining the intelligibility of our own guiding cultural concepts, and thus initiating a period in our own society of which it may someday be possible to say that “nothing happened.” – The Point
- Why Are America’s Houses Turning Gray?
Today, almost no one seems to be looking to the hues of jelly beans for inspiration for their home—or car or couch or fridge or practically anything else. Since the late 2000s, essentially colorless colors—think white, beige, gray—have taken over. – The Atlantic
- Trump Arch “Horribly Flawed” Says Cultural Landscape Foundation
“The process for the selection and siting of the Triumphal Arch has been horrifically flawed from the outset. Remarkably, there was no design competition, which is a dangerous and radical decision for what would be the second largest monument in the Monumental Core after the Washington Monument.” – Los Angeles Times
- Uffizi Unveils Its Most Extensive Renovation Plans Ever
Described as one of the Uffizi’s most ambitious projects to date, the nearly $58-million effort will leave virtually every space with new infrastructure or a fresh look. – Smithsonian
ISSUES
- Why Are America’s Houses Turning Gray?
Today, almost no one seems to be looking to the hues of jelly beans for inspiration for their home—or car or couch or fridge or practically anything else. Since the late 2000s, essentially colorless colors—think white, beige, gray—have taken over. – The Atlantic
- Trump Arch “Horribly Flawed” Says Cultural Landscape Foundation
“The process for the selection and siting of the Triumphal Arch has been horrifically flawed from the outset. Remarkably, there was no design competition, which is a dangerous and radical decision for what would be the second largest monument in the Monumental Core after the Washington Monument.” – Los Angeles Times
- Uffizi Unveils Its Most Extensive Renovation Plans Ever
Described as one of the Uffizi’s most ambitious projects to date, the nearly $58-million effort will leave virtually every space with new infrastructure or a fresh look. – Smithsonian
- Stolen Picasso Suddenly Turns Up
The Spanish artist’s 1949 etching — “Torero,” or “Bullfighter” — was hanging in the lobby of DeLind Fine Art Appraisals in downtown Milwaukee when it vanished in February 2018. – Washington Post
- Was An All-Night Art Heist In Italy Some Kind Of Revenge?
“About 30 artworks belonging to Lilli Petroli owner Mauro Lilli were stolen in the unusual heist, including bas-reliefs attributed to Pablo Picasso, a bronze ballerina sculpture by Giacomo Manzù, paintings by Bruno d’Arcevia of the Italian Manner movement, and pieces by sculptor Mario Moretto.” – ARTnews
MEDIA
- A Radio Station That Erroneously Broadcast The Death Of King Charles Is In Some Trouble
Whoops: “Once the staff member who accidentally played the files realised what they had done, they stopped playing them, ‘panicked and left the premises.’” – BBC
- Study: Arts Orgs That Got More COVID Relief Funding Are Doing Better Than Those That Didn’t
From Sacramento and Seattle to New York City and Philadelphia, the study highlights diverging trends across cities — some rebounded from the pandemic and even exceeded their 2019 numbers, while others plummeted. – Hyperallergic
- Seven Smithsonian Museums Closed Due To HVAC Issue
The museums, all on the south side of the National Mall, share one of the General Service Administration’s HVAC plants; the chilled water supply at that facility was disrupted on Thursday, leaving the museums without air conditioning during a heat wave. The buildings will reopen once the issue is resolved. – Washington City Paper
- Do The People Of This Slovakian Village Really Want To Lose UNESCO World Heritage Status?
That’s what all the headlines said, but the people of the well-preserved medieval village of Vlkolínec say it’s not that simple. They want to protect their small, still-living community from the pressures of overtourism, which could easily overwhelm it. – Deutsche Welle
- Dallas’s Perot Museum Of Nature And Science Seems To Be Planning A Big Expansion It Hasn’t Announced
The news comes from a filing the museum made last week with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation; management has also filed with the city of Dallas for a construction permit. Work is expected to start early next year. – The Dallas Morning News (MSN)
MUSIC
- Judging Books By Their Covers
We can thank the Preraphaelite coterie for this tendency. ” – LitHub
- Companies Using AI To Create Writing Are Missing The Entire Point Of Books
“It speaks about the creative process as though it were something getting in the way of our creativity, slowing us down, rather than being the path that leads us to it. Then again, it’s no surprise that a capitalist venture focuses on the product and speed to market.” – Irish Times
- Millennials Miss Their Childhood Book Program So Much That They’ve Recreated It For Adults
Personal pan pizzas for reading? Yes: “Pizza Hut’s Book It! program is part of the lore of countless childhood readers turned adults. According to Pizza Hut, over 70 million children have participated since the program was founded in 1984, a Reagan-era initiative.” – Slate
- Book Prizes Judges Are Human, And In An Age Of AI, We Should Be Deeply Thankful For That
“Modern prize culture has existed for about 125 years; James F. English, in his excellent book The Economy of Prestige, dates the current craze for literary awards to the Nobel Prize, which debuted in 1901.” – The New York Times
- Not Only Is Poetry Still Alive, But It’s Having A Hell Of A Moment
No, not just The Odyssey. “A new audience is finding poetry, particularly (though not exclusively) through social media: a new generation of poets, particularly but not exclusively performance poets, have come to prominence through Instagram, TikTok, and other short-form video formats.” – The Guardian (UK)
PEOPLE
- The Infinity Machine Starts Pressing Vinyl
Good Morning,
Suno, valued at $5.4 billion and buried in lawsuits, announced two things. It will start watermarking the songs made on its platform (TechCrunch). And it opened a waitlist to press those songs onto 12-inch records (MusicBusinessWorldwide). The machine built to make music infinite is now selling physical artifacts. Guess it knows where the value is?
The demand side is arriving at the same place from the other direction. Digital cameras, wired headphones and iPods are selling again, largely because they don’t send notifications (BBC). Researchers who asked people why they rewatch the same films found intent rather than habit: viewers knew which emotion they were shopping for and skipped the twenty minutes of scrolling (Silicon Canals) trying to find something new (and chancy). Constraint chosen on purpose.
Meanwhile, Andrew Lloyd Webber marked the closing of Cats: The Jellicle Ball by suggesting Broadway might finally reckon with what it now costs to run a new show (Variety) — an optimistic thing to read into a closing notice.
Meanwhile, everything is turning beige. Since the late 2000s, colorless colors have taken over houses, cars, couches and refrigerators (The Atlantic). The interesting question is why.
And a British radio station accidentally broadcast the death of King Charles. The staffer responsible “panicked and left the premises” (BBC).
All of our stories below.
- This AI Moment Could Be Clarifying For How We Think About Culture. Or…
“Our contention is that, if we fail to think through and delimit the role of AI in our lives, we risk undermining the intelligibility of our own guiding cultural concepts, and thus initiating a period in our own society of which it may someday be possible to say that “nothing happened.” – The Point
- Why Are America’s Houses Turning Gray?
Today, almost no one seems to be looking to the hues of jelly beans for inspiration for their home—or car or couch or fridge or practically anything else. Since the late 2000s, essentially colorless colors—think white, beige, gray—have taken over. – The Atlantic
- Trump Arch “Horribly Flawed” Says Cultural Landscape Foundation
“The process for the selection and siting of the Triumphal Arch has been horrifically flawed from the outset. Remarkably, there was no design competition, which is a dangerous and radical decision for what would be the second largest monument in the Monumental Core after the Washington Monument.” – Los Angeles Times
- Uffizi Unveils Its Most Extensive Renovation Plans Ever
Described as one of the Uffizi’s most ambitious projects to date, the nearly $58-million effort will leave virtually every space with new infrastructure or a fresh look. – Smithsonian
PEOPLE
- The Infinity Machine Starts Pressing Vinyl
Good Morning,
Suno, valued at $5.4 billion and buried in lawsuits, announced two things. It will start watermarking the songs made on its platform (TechCrunch). And it opened a waitlist to press those songs onto 12-inch records (MusicBusinessWorldwide). The machine built to make music infinite is now selling physical artifacts. Guess it knows where the value is?
The demand side is arriving at the same place from the other direction. Digital cameras, wired headphones and iPods are selling again, largely because they don’t send notifications (BBC). Researchers who asked people why they rewatch the same films found intent rather than habit: viewers knew which emotion they were shopping for and skipped the twenty minutes of scrolling (Silicon Canals) trying to find something new (and chancy). Constraint chosen on purpose.
Meanwhile, Andrew Lloyd Webber marked the closing of Cats: The Jellicle Ball by suggesting Broadway might finally reckon with what it now costs to run a new show (Variety) — an optimistic thing to read into a closing notice.
Meanwhile, everything is turning beige. Since the late 2000s, colorless colors have taken over houses, cars, couches and refrigerators (The Atlantic). The interesting question is why.
And a British radio station accidentally broadcast the death of King Charles. The staffer responsible “panicked and left the premises” (BBC).
All of our stories below.
- This AI Moment Could Be Clarifying For How We Think About Culture. Or…
“Our contention is that, if we fail to think through and delimit the role of AI in our lives, we risk undermining the intelligibility of our own guiding cultural concepts, and thus initiating a period in our own society of which it may someday be possible to say that “nothing happened.” – The Point
- Why Are America’s Houses Turning Gray?
Today, almost no one seems to be looking to the hues of jelly beans for inspiration for their home—or car or couch or fridge or practically anything else. Since the late 2000s, essentially colorless colors—think white, beige, gray—have taken over. – The Atlantic
- Trump Arch “Horribly Flawed” Says Cultural Landscape Foundation
“The process for the selection and siting of the Triumphal Arch has been horrifically flawed from the outset. Remarkably, there was no design competition, which is a dangerous and radical decision for what would be the second largest monument in the Monumental Core after the Washington Monument.” – Los Angeles Times
- Uffizi Unveils Its Most Extensive Renovation Plans Ever
Described as one of the Uffizi’s most ambitious projects to date, the nearly $58-million effort will leave virtually every space with new infrastructure or a fresh look. – Smithsonian
THEATRE
VISUAL
- This AI Moment Could Be Clarifying For How We Think About Culture. Or…
“Our contention is that, if we fail to think through and delimit the role of AI in our lives, we risk undermining the intelligibility of our own guiding cultural concepts, and thus initiating a period in our own society of which it may someday be possible to say that “nothing happened.” – The Point
- There’s A Lot Of Sex In This Summer’s Movies
OK, not The Odyssey or Spider-Man, but the other movies. – The Guardian (UK)
- Which Is More Tiring: A Christopher Nolan Movie Or The Discourse About A Christopher Nolan Movie?
“Perhaps you didn’t leave The Odyssey wondering what kind of chief executive Odysseus would be. That’s OK — Forbes has you covered.” – The New York Times
- The Field Museum Is Now Mixing Pokemon And Fossils
And making money hand over fist, er, phalange over … anyway, the exhibit “is drawing huge crowds by hitching its star to the Poke-verse, using fossil Pokemon to teach about hunting and collecting fossils in the real world.” – NPR
- This ‘Chat’ Is Fully Human-Powered, And Now Very Popular
“The experience is just very average — or maybe bad. … It’s just me saying, like, ‘I don’t know, maybe make a sandwich for yourself’ or whatever.” – San Francisco Chronicle