AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- In Pamplona With The Bulls As Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” Turns 100
“Hemingway is etched into the landscape of Pamplona. Hotels and bars have busts of him or signs up that he was once there. Outside the Pamplona bull ring, … a huge banner hangs in honor of the novel, including a quote that shows how the festival left the writer speechless.” – AP
- No Joke: The Onion Has Finally Opened Infowars Again
The strategy with saying Alex Jones exploded; “We’re trying to draw him in [because then] … he’s not hurting anybody else for a few minutes or he’s not, you know, spreading more ridiculous lies about innocent people. So we want to waste his time.” – Slate
- The Origins Of Performance Star Carmelita Tropicana
“What resulted was not just an outré and out lesbian ‘Latin spitfire,’ in [artist Alina Troyano’s] words, but also decades of film and theater work on topics ranging from racism and homelessness to revolution to questions of identity.” – Hyperallergic
- Kahlo Foundation Creates A New Prize For Emerging Mexican Artists
“Through the process of opening the museo and welcoming the globe into Frida’s world, there has been one constant refrain: Más amor, más família, más Mexico – more love, more family, more Mexico,” said the artist’s grandniece. – ARTnews
- How The Dynasties Of Imperial China Wrote Their Histories (It’s Complicated)
The Emperors’ courts did, in fact, document their history carefully, according to a procedure which was followed more-or-less faithfully from the first century BCE onward. That’s not to say that the result was either comprehensive or impartial. – Aeon
ISSUES
- Kahlo Foundation Creates A New Prize For Emerging Mexican Artists
“Through the process of opening the museo and welcoming the globe into Frida’s world, there has been one constant refrain: Más amor, más família, más Mexico – more love, more family, more Mexico,” said the artist’s grandniece. – ARTnews
- NYC’s New Museum Finds Its New Director In-House
“Ending months of speculation, the New Museum said today that it has selected Massimiliano Gioni, its artistic director, to be its next director. Gioni has been with the New York standby since 2006, and will take the helm in August. Its previous leader, Lisa Phillips, announced her retirement last September.” – Artnet
- Thieves Steal $5.1 Million Worth Of Crystal And Jewelry From Lalique Museum In France
“Three thieves targeted the Lalique museum in Wingen-sur-Moder in northeastern France at around 5:30 am on Sunday, … (and) made off with 27 pieces of jewelry worth an estimated €4.5 million ($5.1 million), prosecutors said Monday.” – AFP (Yahoo!)
- Velázquez Portrait Rediscovered By Detroit Institute Of Arts Director
“Salvador Salort-Pons, the director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, recently revealed the discovery of a portrait by Diego Velázquez made during the artist’s earliest years as a court painter to King Philip IV. Salort-Pons, a specialist in Velázquez, published his findings in the current issue of ARS Magazine.” – ARTnews
- The Art World Really Is Unsustainable Now
It is extraordinarily difficult for most brick-and-mortar stores in any industry to survive, and that is especially true for art galleries. These large art shows may create a lot of foot traffic, but that doesn’t always translate to robust on-site sales for the galleries. – The New York Times
MEDIA
- Construction Begins On Frank Gehry’s Final Building, A Performing Arts Center In Abu Dhabi
Dar al Funoon, located in the starchitect-heavy Saadiyat Island cultural district — alongside the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (also by Gehry), the Zayed National Museum (Foster + Partners), the Louvre Abu Dhabi (Jean Nouvel) and others — will contain a 2,000-seat performance hall, a 3,500-seat open-air amphitheatre, a 400-seat theatre and a 250-seat jazz venue. – Dezeen
- White House’s “Report” Criticizing Smithsonian History Is Riddled With Errors
The report often doesn’t even bother to engage with many of the claims it ridicules — like obvious and well-documented facts about anti-Chinese sentiment in post-Civil War America — or takes them as self-evident proof that the Smithsonian is misrepresenting history. – Washington Post
- The Congresswoman Who Sued Trump For Renaming The Kennedy Center — And Won
Joyce Beatty, a seven-term representative from Ohio, became an ex officio Congressional member of the Kennedy Center’s board in 2019. She says that the resolution to add Trump’s name to the complex was introduced without advance notice at a meeting in December, and she was muted when she objected. – The New York Times
- Historians Defend Smithsonian American History Museum Director From Trump Administration Attacks
“(Anthea) Hartig, director of the National Museum of American History since 2019, has commissioned exhibitions that … document the lived experiences of ordinary people, sometimes focusing on race, sexuality and colonialism. … Many historians support her goal of telling a more nuanced story of the United States.” – The New York Times
- What Exactly Does The Trump Administration Think Is Wrong With The Way The Smithsonian Depicts American History?
“Here are some of the report’s main charges, and how they relate to the administration’s broader push to promote what President Trump has called ‘patriotic’ history.” – The New York Times
MUSIC
- In Pamplona With The Bulls As Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” Turns 100
“Hemingway is etched into the landscape of Pamplona. Hotels and bars have busts of him or signs up that he was once there. Outside the Pamplona bull ring, … a huge banner hangs in honor of the novel, including a quote that shows how the festival left the writer speechless.” – AP
- How The Dynasties Of Imperial China Wrote Their Histories (It’s Complicated)
The Emperors’ courts did, in fact, document their history carefully, according to a procedure which was followed more-or-less faithfully from the first century BCE onward. That’s not to say that the result was either comprehensive or impartial. – Aeon
- We Need To Talk, Again, About That Possibly AI-Generated Award-Winning Short Story
“While nothing that he writes is of much interest, Nazir himself is shaping up to be an oddly appealing character. He’s a cultural chancer.” (And wow, Commonwealth Prize jury, what were you doing?) – Slate
- How AI Is Changing How Humans Write
The problem is that not only does AI train on human writing, but humans are stylistically influenced by AI, the interplay creating a kind of linguistic hall of mirrors. Short of an author admitting it, it’s hard to say for certain whether an individual piece of writing is AI or not. That uncertainty is a recipe for paranoia. – The Guardian
- New Hampshire Governor Vetoes Book-Banning Bill
“House Bill 434 would require school districts to establish formal policies for removing content from schools that is ‘obscene and harmful to minors,’ … (creating) a standardized removal process in which parents could challenge any book, magazine, film, video, web-based content, sound recording, or live performance offered to students.” – New Hampshire Bulletin
PEOPLE
- In Pamplona With The Bulls As Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” Turns 100
“Hemingway is etched into the landscape of Pamplona. Hotels and bars have busts of him or signs up that he was once there. Outside the Pamplona bull ring, … a huge banner hangs in honor of the novel, including a quote that shows how the festival left the writer speechless.” – AP
- No Joke: The Onion Has Finally Opened Infowars Again
The strategy with saying Alex Jones exploded; “We’re trying to draw him in [because then] … he’s not hurting anybody else for a few minutes or he’s not, you know, spreading more ridiculous lies about innocent people. So we want to waste his time.” – Slate
- The Origins Of Performance Star Carmelita Tropicana
“What resulted was not just an outré and out lesbian ‘Latin spitfire,’ in [artist Alina Troyano’s] words, but also decades of film and theater work on topics ranging from racism and homelessness to revolution to questions of identity.” – Hyperallergic
- Kahlo Foundation Creates A New Prize For Emerging Mexican Artists
“Through the process of opening the museo and welcoming the globe into Frida’s world, there has been one constant refrain: Más amor, más família, más Mexico – more love, more family, more Mexico,” said the artist’s grandniece. – ARTnews
- How The Dynasties Of Imperial China Wrote Their Histories (It’s Complicated)
The Emperors’ courts did, in fact, document their history carefully, according to a procedure which was followed more-or-less faithfully from the first century BCE onward. That’s not to say that the result was either comprehensive or impartial. – Aeon
PEOPLE
- In Pamplona With The Bulls As Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” Turns 100
“Hemingway is etched into the landscape of Pamplona. Hotels and bars have busts of him or signs up that he was once there. Outside the Pamplona bull ring, … a huge banner hangs in honor of the novel, including a quote that shows how the festival left the writer speechless.” – AP
- No Joke: The Onion Has Finally Opened Infowars Again
The strategy with saying Alex Jones exploded; “We’re trying to draw him in [because then] … he’s not hurting anybody else for a few minutes or he’s not, you know, spreading more ridiculous lies about innocent people. So we want to waste his time.” – Slate
- The Origins Of Performance Star Carmelita Tropicana
“What resulted was not just an outré and out lesbian ‘Latin spitfire,’ in [artist Alina Troyano’s] words, but also decades of film and theater work on topics ranging from racism and homelessness to revolution to questions of identity.” – Hyperallergic
- Kahlo Foundation Creates A New Prize For Emerging Mexican Artists
“Through the process of opening the museo and welcoming the globe into Frida’s world, there has been one constant refrain: Más amor, más família, más Mexico – more love, more family, more Mexico,” said the artist’s grandniece. – ARTnews
- How The Dynasties Of Imperial China Wrote Their Histories (It’s Complicated)
The Emperors’ courts did, in fact, document their history carefully, according to a procedure which was followed more-or-less faithfully from the first century BCE onward. That’s not to say that the result was either comprehensive or impartial. – Aeon
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Who Makes Choices When We ‘Choose’?
“The brain initiates voluntary action unconsciously: our conscious sense that we have decided to act is actually the result of this brain activity.” It’s possible that our only choice is in deciding not to do something. – 3 Quarks
- The Effective-Altruism Movement Is About To Make A Comeback, Powered By AI Titans And Their Money
“Since the (Sam Bankman-Fried/FTX) scandal, the movement’s organizations have shied away from the limelight and become extremely concerned with PR. For several years, their growth has been severely curtailed. But they survived. And the new AI money has given EA a chance to come back larger than ever before.” – New York Magazine
- Do We Listen/See/Read Differently When The Name Of The Artist Is Changed?
Why should a name matter so much? Psychologists have a term that might help explain what’s happening here: prestige bias. Developed by the cultural evolution theorists Joseph Henrich and Francisco J Gil-White, the concept describes the human tendency to preferentially attend to, learn from, and value the outputs of high-status individuals. – Psyche
- When Innovation Scrambled Everything At The Turn Of The 20th Century
At the time, Americans did not understand that they were living through the largest energy transition in human history. Instead, they perceived a series of disconnected events. Unable to discern or conceptualize an underlying cause, they often declared the transformations around them were “kaleidoscopic.” – MIT Press
- Research: Learning From Short-Form Video Doesn’t Stay With You
Using social media applications to digest bite-sized educational content actually reduces a person’s ability to remember the information, according to new research. – Psypost