AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Cleveland Comes Out On Top For Public Funding Of The Arts
The report ranked Cleveland No. 1 revenue growth among arts organizations from 2019 to 2024 in a cohort of 10 U.S. cities. The others were Atlanta, Des Moines, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento and Seattle. – Ideastream
- Hollywood Press Tours Have Turned Into Gimmicky Side Shows
“Why do so many press-tour stops these days suddenly feel like the halfway point between TikTok and a cult’s humiliation ritual?” – The Guardian (UK)
- How Publishers Fight For Sweet, Sweet ‘Odyssey’ Money
New covers – foil-stamped! Or colorfully graphic-novel-esque! – famous translators, deckled edges, and marketing moves try to set apart various versions of The Odyssey for the surprisingly robust market. – The New York Times
- How Going To The Beach Turned Into A Country Music Trope
“Country music tends to be preoccupied with place; the charts are full of tributes to the satisfaction of being firmly rooted in a small town, and the sorrows of leaving it behind. In fact, this preoccupation is the secret theme of these sun-and-sand songs.” – The New Yorker
- The Man Who Killed Dancer O’Shae Sibley Is Finally Sentenced
“He became a devoted student at the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater’s drop-in classes. Sibley integrated his love of movement with his identity as a proud Black gay man, and in his advocacy for social change and racial justice through public performances.” – Hyperallergic
ISSUES
- The End Of The Mega Gallery
“Are we witnessing the art world’s Napoleonic march to Moscow, an over-expansion propelled by hubris that is now inevitably falling to its knees?” – Artnet
- Renoir Sure Painted A Lot Of Young Girls
Who were they? – LitHub
- Ghana’s Handpainted, Sensationalist, Often Inaccurate Film Posters Have Become Collectible Art
“Heavy J was creating a poster … for the animated fairytale The Little Mermaid. The man with the knife wasn’t a killer but the film’s kind-hearted prince, Eric. The skull was also unrelated to the story. ‘We add more to make people interested,’ said Heavy J.” – The Guardian (UK)
- As New Yorkers Brace For Flooding, The New New Museum Has Sprung A Pretty Big Leak
Yikes: “Video footage … shows water pooling on the gallery floor as staff members move quickly to place buckets beneath active leaks, as well as water streaming down the didactic for ‘New Humans: Memories of the Future.’” – ARTnews
- Speaking Of Nostalgia, Younger Adults Are Really Into Digital Cameras
What the actual heck? “The turn-of-the-millennium digital photo is hard to mistake: a bit grainy, sometimes fuzzy, overexposed in the center with a blinding flash, often date-stamped in red or orange. A nostalgic haze gives photos the feel of an instant memory.” – NPR
MEDIA
- Cleveland Comes Out On Top For Public Funding Of The Arts
The report ranked Cleveland No. 1 revenue growth among arts organizations from 2019 to 2024 in a cohort of 10 U.S. cities. The others were Atlanta, Des Moines, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento and Seattle. – Ideastream
- Music Publishers Drop Lawsuits Against X, Which Drops Lawsuits Against Music Publishers
Why? No one’s saying: “In their legal papers, the companies gave no reason for the stipulation of dismissal and did not mention any settlement.” – The New York Times
- Nebraska’s Cultural Endowment Did Decades Of Great Work, But The State’s Finances May Kill It Off
“This unusual, public-private fund is made up of philanthropic donations matched dollar-for-dollar by the state” – and now the state has snatched back one third of the endowment to help balance the budget. – NPR
- Why Trump Is Fixated On Smithsonian History
People often joke about how Trumpism would like to return us to some version of the 1950s, when America supposedly was “great.” In this report, the administration has done just that. The report would prefer that nothing had ever happened since the ’50s to mar the White House’s polished, superficial, puerile version of America’s past. – The New York Times
- How Vanderbilt University Made Itself Competitive With The Ivy League
Twenty years ago, the school’s acceptance rate was 38%; now it’s under 5%, roughly equivalent to Yale’s, and its undergraduates are reportedly the happiest in the country. The change is the result of deliberate, planned effort by two successive presidents over 20 years. – New York Magazine (MSN)
MUSIC
- How Publishers Fight For Sweet, Sweet ‘Odyssey’ Money
New covers – foil-stamped! Or colorfully graphic-novel-esque! – famous translators, deckled edges, and marketing moves try to set apart various versions of The Odyssey for the surprisingly robust market. – The New York Times
- In The UK, Fifty Years Of Post-Punk, Radical Fanzines See A Massive Resurgence
Why? “Digital attention span is at an all-time low. … You’re almost definitely going to spend more time looking at a zine than anything you see scrolling. It’s more interesting and more real.” – The Guardian (UK)
- The Irish Times Catches Up On BookTok And Bookstagram
“Contemporary readers remain as eccentric as ever. Some buy two copies of each book: one to read messily and another to display smartly on the shelf. … And many, many of them annotate. Furiously. Dedicatedly. Fanatically.” – Irish Times
- Inside The Beloved Art Deco Library Of Los Angeles
A”fter outgrowing several smaller downtown locations, the municipal dream of a monumental downtown library was financed through a $2.5m municipal bond measure approved in 1921” – and now it houses 89 miles of books. – The Guardian (UK)
- Turning A Podcast Into A Graphic Novel Isn’t Cheap
But a $2 million Kickstarter probably helped a little. – CBR
PEOPLE
- Cleveland Comes Out On Top For Public Funding Of The Arts
The report ranked Cleveland No. 1 revenue growth among arts organizations from 2019 to 2024 in a cohort of 10 U.S. cities. The others were Atlanta, Des Moines, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento and Seattle. – Ideastream
- Hollywood Press Tours Have Turned Into Gimmicky Side Shows
“Why do so many press-tour stops these days suddenly feel like the halfway point between TikTok and a cult’s humiliation ritual?” – The Guardian (UK)
- How Publishers Fight For Sweet, Sweet ‘Odyssey’ Money
New covers – foil-stamped! Or colorfully graphic-novel-esque! – famous translators, deckled edges, and marketing moves try to set apart various versions of The Odyssey for the surprisingly robust market. – The New York Times
- How Going To The Beach Turned Into A Country Music Trope
“Country music tends to be preoccupied with place; the charts are full of tributes to the satisfaction of being firmly rooted in a small town, and the sorrows of leaving it behind. In fact, this preoccupation is the secret theme of these sun-and-sand songs.” – The New Yorker
- The Man Who Killed Dancer O’Shae Sibley Is Finally Sentenced
“He became a devoted student at the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater’s drop-in classes. Sibley integrated his love of movement with his identity as a proud Black gay man, and in his advocacy for social change and racial justice through public performances.” – Hyperallergic
PEOPLE
- Cleveland Comes Out On Top For Public Funding Of The Arts
The report ranked Cleveland No. 1 revenue growth among arts organizations from 2019 to 2024 in a cohort of 10 U.S. cities. The others were Atlanta, Des Moines, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento and Seattle. – Ideastream
- Hollywood Press Tours Have Turned Into Gimmicky Side Shows
“Why do so many press-tour stops these days suddenly feel like the halfway point between TikTok and a cult’s humiliation ritual?” – The Guardian (UK)
- How Publishers Fight For Sweet, Sweet ‘Odyssey’ Money
New covers – foil-stamped! Or colorfully graphic-novel-esque! – famous translators, deckled edges, and marketing moves try to set apart various versions of The Odyssey for the surprisingly robust market. – The New York Times
- How Going To The Beach Turned Into A Country Music Trope
“Country music tends to be preoccupied with place; the charts are full of tributes to the satisfaction of being firmly rooted in a small town, and the sorrows of leaving it behind. In fact, this preoccupation is the secret theme of these sun-and-sand songs.” – The New Yorker
- The Man Who Killed Dancer O’Shae Sibley Is Finally Sentenced
“He became a devoted student at the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater’s drop-in classes. Sibley integrated his love of movement with his identity as a proud Black gay man, and in his advocacy for social change and racial justice through public performances.” – Hyperallergic
THEATRE
VISUAL
- How Indigenous Communities In Brazil Are Dealing With Threats From The Internet
Using Nhandeflix, “users can find Guarani cultural productions like Roda Cutia (a Guarani children’s song), Bicicletas de Nhanderú (a documentary about a Guarani-Mbya town in southern Brazil), … and Como a noite apareceu (a fictional film based on a Guarani legend).” – El País English
- There’s A Big Plot Twist At The End Of The Odyssey
Don’t blame Homer for this one, and don’t read this story if you don’t want spoilers. – Slate
- Spotify’s Weird New User Experience Design Flaw
“There are a number of panels in the app, and the layout is confusing. The service constantly tracks your activity. The app also seems to have an odd hostility to playing actual albums.” And now? Auto-playing music videos. – Wired
- The Internet Killed The Mail-Order Catalog
But mail-order catalogs might make a comeback, thanks to Millennial and Gen-Z nostalgia. “There’s a stark contrast between the frantic sense of urgency online retail often whips up … and the catalog’s invitation to flip, peruse, think, rethink — basically, to shop deliberately rather than reflexively.” – Salon
- AI-Created Music – What We Can Learn From Copyright History
AI can now generate songs, images, novels and artworks in seconds. Many of these works are already being streamed, licensed and sold. This raises an increasingly important question: should works produced without direct human authorship receive copyright protection? – The Conversation