AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- BBC Lost More Than Half A Million License-Fee Payers Last Year
“Today’s BBC Annual Report showed that license fee payers slid by 539,000 last year to around 23.3 million. This is the biggest decline since 2020-21 and likely one of the biggest of all time. … News of the decline in license-fee payers comes with the BBC seeking some sort of revamped financial model.” – Deadline
- Trump Administration Removes Mentions Of Slavery From Site Of George Washington’s House In Philadelphia
“The original panels” — removed on Wednesday following a court decision — “were put in place in 2010 and told the story of how nine slaves lived in the home along with George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation’s capital.” – AP
- The Bow Makers Are Replanting the Forest
Good Morning,
Nearly every fine violin bow starts as pernambuco, an endangered Brazilian wood, and its most devoted conservators turn out to be the bow makers themselves, documenting legal stockpiles, tracing the provenance of finished bows, replanting trees by the millions (The New York Times).
In London, theatre owners and Equity negotiated a three-year West End pay deal that averts a strike (WhatsOnStage). On Broadway, Andrew Lloyd Webber answered the closing of Cats: The Jellicle Ball with a plea for owners, unions and producers to convene before “a crisis coming to a head” (Broadway World).
Wyoming’s public TV station will keep PBS programming but drop the branding — “Wyoming’s storyteller first and a member station second” (Current) — a bet that stewardship is valuably local. The countercase: UK universities axed nearly 4,000 humanities and arts jobs in a single year (The Guardian).
And the Louvre heist suspects say the client who hired them was disappointed — he thought they could have taken more (The Guardian). Everyone’s a critic.
All of our stories below.
- Letters Confirm That André Breton’s Wife Was Frida Kahlo’s Lover
“A revelatory new biography of the overlooked French Surrealist painter Jacqueline Lamba brings to light her long-rumored affair with Frida Kahlo — all thanks to a cache of newly-discovered love letters. Kahlo specialist Salomon Grimberg has long hoped to revive Lamba’s reputation, which he believes has been unfairly overshadowed by that of her husband, the Surrealist icon André Breton.” – Artnet
- Why Betting Site Kalshi Is Pushing Into Bets On Reality TV
Millions of dollars in bets on “Love Island USA” signal prediction platform Kalshi’s push into pop culture, where reality TV fandoms are fueling a rapid surge in entertainment trading volume. – Los Angeles Times
ISSUES
- Six Decades After It Was First Performed, Yoko Ono’s “Cut Piece” Is Still Frightening
Ono debuted the work at Carnegie Hall in 1964, sitting motionless onstage as people took turns cutting off her clothes with scissors. The Broad in Los Angeles is presenting Cut Piece twice this weekend across the street at REDCAT. The performer, known as MPA, is scared — but not of the scissors. – The Guardian
- Why Did Toledo Museum Of Art Cancel Its Exhibition Of Bongs?
The museum began work on “High Style: The Art of Cannabis Pipes” three years ago, thinking that increasing legalization and acceptance of marijuana made the timing good. Yet the show was cancelled this spring; museum management says it was for logistical reasons. The question: the logistics of what exactly? – The New York Times
- Major Collection Of Mexican Art, Including Kahlos And Riveras, Is Going On Tour. Angry Mexicans Fear It Won’t Come Back.
The privately-owned Gelman Santander Collection, whose 68 pieces include 10 paintings by Frida Kahlo along with works by Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and others, is scheduled to spend two years touring Europe. Some citizens, unconvinced that the art will come home, are suing to keep it in Mexico. – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
- EU To Cancel Venice Biennale Grant Over Russia Participation
Over the weekend, a European Union commission followed up on its earlier threats to cancel a €2 million grant to the Venice Biennale, citing Russia’s participation in the event this year as its reasoning. – ARTnews
- Louvre Jewel Robbery Suspects Say They Were Hired To Steal By Mastermind Client — Who Was “Disappointed”
“The suspects, named locally as Abdoulaye N and Ghelamallah A, claimed they had broken into the Louvre’s Apollo gallery on the orders of a client they refused to name out of fear for their families. … The alleged mastermind … ‘wasn’t happy’ with the outcome. ‘He thought we could have taken more.’” – The Guardian
MEDIA
- Trump Administration Removes Mentions Of Slavery From Site Of George Washington’s House In Philadelphia
“The original panels” — removed on Wednesday following a court decision — “were put in place in 2010 and told the story of how nine slaves lived in the home along with George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation’s capital.” – AP
- Foreign Artists Are Skipping The US Because Of Broken Visa Process
The time it takes to process a visa has dramatically increased. The number of available interview slots at U.S. embassies is backlogged. Application costs have surged. And there’s an added layer of uncertainty: paperwork can be perfect, fees can be paid, and yet artists still can be turned away at the border. – NPR
- What Happens To Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center Without Robert Wilson?
“’Bob was always saying he didn’t want Watermill to become an institution,’ said Charles Chemin, Watermill’s new artistic director. ‘He didn’t want to create a Bob Wilson school. But Watermill is filled with the vision of Bob Wilson, with his unique form of composition and his unique way of collaborating.’” – The New York Times
- Report: UK Humanities Programs Being Axed By Hard-Up Universities
Analysis of the latest official data by the academy for the Guardian shows that nearly 4,000 academic posts in social sciences, humanities and the arts have been axed in one year alone. – The Guardian
- Trump Admin’s Critique Of The Smithsonian Is Laughably Wrong
Even when judged by the standards of the form, the White House’s anti-woke polemic is a shoddy piece of workmanship not unlike the peeling blue sealant in the $15 million renovation of the Reflecting Pool. – The New Republic
MUSIC
- No, AI Is Not Killing Reading
AI summaries differ in speed, scale, and uncertain accuracy, but not in their basic educational function. They compress and translate. They can provide a map before we enter unfamiliar territory. – AI In
- Utah’s Board Of Education Bans Stephen King’s “Different Seasons”
“It’s a collection that includes stories which inspired the acclaimed movies ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ and ‘Stand By Me’. Libraries in (four) school districts removed the book. Under a 2022 Utah law, that means it can be removed from schools statewide, since at least three districts banned it.” – Utah Public Radio
- “Catcher In The Rye” At 75
Pour out a Scotch and soda — make that a malted milk — for this spry codger of a novel that’s stayed on the dance floor long past when might be expected, leaping over book bans from the right and dodging cancellation from the left. – The New York Times
- Major Publishers Sue Google Contending Unprecedented Copyright Infringement
A group of major publishers have filed a lawsuit against Google, accusing the company of illegally using millions of copyrighted books to help build its Gemini artificial intelligence models, in “one of the most prolific infringements of copyrighted materials in history”. – The Guardian - Ohio’s School Librarians Are Worried
“Proposed legislation to filter the reading choices students can make has brought concern, and budget reductions make some worry about the future of public school librarians. … ‘Right now, a lot of administrators and school boards look at having school librarians as a luxury,” said (union president) Gayle Schmuhl.” – Ohio Capital Journal
PEOPLE
- BBC Lost More Than Half A Million License-Fee Payers Last Year
“Today’s BBC Annual Report showed that license fee payers slid by 539,000 last year to around 23.3 million. This is the biggest decline since 2020-21 and likely one of the biggest of all time. … News of the decline in license-fee payers comes with the BBC seeking some sort of revamped financial model.” – Deadline
- Trump Administration Removes Mentions Of Slavery From Site Of George Washington’s House In Philadelphia
“The original panels” — removed on Wednesday following a court decision — “were put in place in 2010 and told the story of how nine slaves lived in the home along with George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation’s capital.” – AP
- The Bow Makers Are Replanting the Forest
Good Morning,
Nearly every fine violin bow starts as pernambuco, an endangered Brazilian wood, and its most devoted conservators turn out to be the bow makers themselves, documenting legal stockpiles, tracing the provenance of finished bows, replanting trees by the millions (The New York Times).
In London, theatre owners and Equity negotiated a three-year West End pay deal that averts a strike (WhatsOnStage). On Broadway, Andrew Lloyd Webber answered the closing of Cats: The Jellicle Ball with a plea for owners, unions and producers to convene before “a crisis coming to a head” (Broadway World).
Wyoming’s public TV station will keep PBS programming but drop the branding — “Wyoming’s storyteller first and a member station second” (Current) — a bet that stewardship is valuably local. The countercase: UK universities axed nearly 4,000 humanities and arts jobs in a single year (The Guardian).
And the Louvre heist suspects say the client who hired them was disappointed — he thought they could have taken more (The Guardian). Everyone’s a critic.
All of our stories below.
- Letters Confirm That André Breton’s Wife Was Frida Kahlo’s Lover
“A revelatory new biography of the overlooked French Surrealist painter Jacqueline Lamba brings to light her long-rumored affair with Frida Kahlo — all thanks to a cache of newly-discovered love letters. Kahlo specialist Salomon Grimberg has long hoped to revive Lamba’s reputation, which he believes has been unfairly overshadowed by that of her husband, the Surrealist icon André Breton.” – Artnet
- Why Betting Site Kalshi Is Pushing Into Bets On Reality TV
Millions of dollars in bets on “Love Island USA” signal prediction platform Kalshi’s push into pop culture, where reality TV fandoms are fueling a rapid surge in entertainment trading volume. – Los Angeles Times
PEOPLE
- BBC Lost More Than Half A Million License-Fee Payers Last Year
“Today’s BBC Annual Report showed that license fee payers slid by 539,000 last year to around 23.3 million. This is the biggest decline since 2020-21 and likely one of the biggest of all time. … News of the decline in license-fee payers comes with the BBC seeking some sort of revamped financial model.” – Deadline
- Trump Administration Removes Mentions Of Slavery From Site Of George Washington’s House In Philadelphia
“The original panels” — removed on Wednesday following a court decision — “were put in place in 2010 and told the story of how nine slaves lived in the home along with George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation’s capital.” – AP
- The Bow Makers Are Replanting the Forest
Good Morning,
Nearly every fine violin bow starts as pernambuco, an endangered Brazilian wood, and its most devoted conservators turn out to be the bow makers themselves, documenting legal stockpiles, tracing the provenance of finished bows, replanting trees by the millions (The New York Times).
In London, theatre owners and Equity negotiated a three-year West End pay deal that averts a strike (WhatsOnStage). On Broadway, Andrew Lloyd Webber answered the closing of Cats: The Jellicle Ball with a plea for owners, unions and producers to convene before “a crisis coming to a head” (Broadway World).
Wyoming’s public TV station will keep PBS programming but drop the branding — “Wyoming’s storyteller first and a member station second” (Current) — a bet that stewardship is valuably local. The countercase: UK universities axed nearly 4,000 humanities and arts jobs in a single year (The Guardian).
And the Louvre heist suspects say the client who hired them was disappointed — he thought they could have taken more (The Guardian). Everyone’s a critic.
All of our stories below.
- Letters Confirm That André Breton’s Wife Was Frida Kahlo’s Lover
“A revelatory new biography of the overlooked French Surrealist painter Jacqueline Lamba brings to light her long-rumored affair with Frida Kahlo — all thanks to a cache of newly-discovered love letters. Kahlo specialist Salomon Grimberg has long hoped to revive Lamba’s reputation, which he believes has been unfairly overshadowed by that of her husband, the Surrealist icon André Breton.” – Artnet
- Why Betting Site Kalshi Is Pushing Into Bets On Reality TV
Millions of dollars in bets on “Love Island USA” signal prediction platform Kalshi’s push into pop culture, where reality TV fandoms are fueling a rapid surge in entertainment trading volume. – Los Angeles Times
THEATRE
VISUAL
- What If Americans Just Don’t Want To Participate In Community?
Over and over again, Americans choose to sever bonds that connect us with each other: We move away from our hometowns, we leave our churches, we quit our unions, we quit our parties, we stay in instead of going out, we donate instead of volunteering, we let friendships fade away. – Matt Pearce
- How Foucault Anticipated What’s Happening Today
“What Is an Author?” predicted a future where old ideas about authorship would give way to new questions about technology and power. “What are the modes of existence of this discourse?” Foucault asked. “Where does it come from, how is it circulated” and — perhaps most important — “who controls it?” – The New York Times
- The Canadians Who Want To Stop AI In Its Tracks
Canadians are hugely wary: a Leger poll found 85 percent of respondents want the government to regulate the technology. But that number doesn’t convey just how frightened many are. – The Walrus
- Silicon Valley’s Science Fiction Problem
Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founder, gave expression to this ethos in 2017 when he said: ‘We are the people who make fantasies real.’ It sounds inspiring, but it is important to know which parts of those fantasies they’re choosing, and which parts they’re leaving out. – Aeon
- Is It Really Possible To Map The Odyssey?
The ancient Greek polymath Eratosthenes, who was the first person to measure the circumference of the Earth, disputed that the Odyssey had anything to do with geography. He said: “You will find the scene of the wanderings of Odysseus when you find the cobbler who sewed up the bag of the winds.” – The Conversation