AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- 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
- AI Backlash: Reaching For Vinyl
Good Morning,
Three stories today circle a backlash to AI: when the machines flood the zone, people reach for what they can hold. A wave of artists is now producing deliberate “anti-slop” — work whose entire value proposition is that a human sweated over it (The Guardian). The Walrus argues the real scandal of that prize-winning AI story wasn’t the machine but how fast everyone rushed to defend or dismiss it, instead of asking what we actually want from art (The Walrus). Meanwhile in downtown LA, Dataland opens as the first museum built entirely around AI-generated art (Los Angeles Times).
The counter-move is showing up at the cash register. Tired of streaming’s churn, audiences are buying physical media again (ABC); vinyl keeps climbing, even as the making of records turns out to be an environmental mess (Yahoo).
Elsewhere, a group of states is lining up to sue over the Paramount-Warner deal (Gizmodo), and an artist recounts the Kennedy Center meltdown from the inside (NPR). And the Tonys crowned Schmigadoon best musical and Liberation best play (The New York Times).
All of our stories below.
Doug
- 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
- Austin Opera seeks Director of Artistic Administration
Reporting to the General Director & CEO, the Director of Artistic Administration oversees Austin Opera’s artistic staff and works closely with the executive leadership (General Director & CEO, Music Director, and Chief Advancement Officer) and the artistic and production teams to plan and execute season programming at the Butler Performance Center and Long Center. Ensuring the seamless operations of multiple, concurrent artistic programming streams, the Director of Artistic Administration is a key partner in fulfilling the company’s strategic goals to provide outstanding arts experiences that reflect the Austin community.
Please go to https://austinopera.org/about/join-austin-opera/ to see a full job description.
- 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
ISSUES
- 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)
- Archaeologists Are Discovering Centuries’ Worth Of Paris History Underneath Notre-Dame
“Among the hundreds of objects already found: a fourth-century coin stamped with the face of the Emperor Constantine, and shards of medieval pottery painted on the inside with marks no expert has yet deciphered — like a modern Da Vinci Code.” – AP
MEDIA
- 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
- The New School In Manhattan Lays Off Nearly 90 People
It’s a body blow to the institution’s humanities sectors. “All 19 impacted faculty members were in the Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts and the New School for Social Research.” – Hyperallergic
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
- 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
- AI Backlash: Reaching For Vinyl
Good Morning,
Three stories today circle a backlash to AI: when the machines flood the zone, people reach for what they can hold. A wave of artists is now producing deliberate “anti-slop” — work whose entire value proposition is that a human sweated over it (The Guardian). The Walrus argues the real scandal of that prize-winning AI story wasn’t the machine but how fast everyone rushed to defend or dismiss it, instead of asking what we actually want from art (The Walrus). Meanwhile in downtown LA, Dataland opens as the first museum built entirely around AI-generated art (Los Angeles Times).
The counter-move is showing up at the cash register. Tired of streaming’s churn, audiences are buying physical media again (ABC); vinyl keeps climbing, even as the making of records turns out to be an environmental mess (Yahoo).
Elsewhere, a group of states is lining up to sue over the Paramount-Warner deal (Gizmodo), and an artist recounts the Kennedy Center meltdown from the inside (NPR). And the Tonys crowned Schmigadoon best musical and Liberation best play (The New York Times).
All of our stories below.
Doug
- 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
- Austin Opera seeks Director of Artistic Administration
Reporting to the General Director & CEO, the Director of Artistic Administration oversees Austin Opera’s artistic staff and works closely with the executive leadership (General Director & CEO, Music Director, and Chief Advancement Officer) and the artistic and production teams to plan and execute season programming at the Butler Performance Center and Long Center. Ensuring the seamless operations of multiple, concurrent artistic programming streams, the Director of Artistic Administration is a key partner in fulfilling the company’s strategic goals to provide outstanding arts experiences that reflect the Austin community.
Please go to https://austinopera.org/about/join-austin-opera/ to see a full job description.
- 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
PEOPLE
- 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
- AI Backlash: Reaching For Vinyl
Good Morning,
Three stories today circle a backlash to AI: when the machines flood the zone, people reach for what they can hold. A wave of artists is now producing deliberate “anti-slop” — work whose entire value proposition is that a human sweated over it (The Guardian). The Walrus argues the real scandal of that prize-winning AI story wasn’t the machine but how fast everyone rushed to defend or dismiss it, instead of asking what we actually want from art (The Walrus). Meanwhile in downtown LA, Dataland opens as the first museum built entirely around AI-generated art (Los Angeles Times).
The counter-move is showing up at the cash register. Tired of streaming’s churn, audiences are buying physical media again (ABC); vinyl keeps climbing, even as the making of records turns out to be an environmental mess (Yahoo).
Elsewhere, a group of states is lining up to sue over the Paramount-Warner deal (Gizmodo), and an artist recounts the Kennedy Center meltdown from the inside (NPR). And the Tonys crowned Schmigadoon best musical and Liberation best play (The New York Times).
All of our stories below.
Doug
- 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
- Austin Opera seeks Director of Artistic Administration
Reporting to the General Director & CEO, the Director of Artistic Administration oversees Austin Opera’s artistic staff and works closely with the executive leadership (General Director & CEO, Music Director, and Chief Advancement Officer) and the artistic and production teams to plan and execute season programming at the Butler Performance Center and Long Center. Ensuring the seamless operations of multiple, concurrent artistic programming streams, the Director of Artistic Administration is a key partner in fulfilling the company’s strategic goals to provide outstanding arts experiences that reflect the Austin community.
Please go to https://austinopera.org/about/join-austin-opera/ to see a full job description.
- 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
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
