AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Disney Prepares To Cut Thousands Of Workers
According to sources, the new round of layoffs will be made across multiple divisions, including TV networks and the motion picture studio, at varying amounts. – Deadline
- French Galleries Accuse Art Basel Of Disrespect
In the letter addressed to the new director of Art Basel Paris, Karim Crippa, the association demanded “concrete proposals for compensating exhibitors,” stated that the galleries were never consulted about the event’s early closure, and accused organizers of “disrespect, even contempt,” according to Monopol. – Hyperallergic
- Clifford Odets, The Great Agitprop Playwright Of The 1930s, Is In The Spotlight Again
His most famous play, Waiting for Lefty, is getting a major Off-Broadway revival; Awake and Sing! is opening on Broadway next month; Golden Boy just finished a London run with movie star Josh O’Connor in the lead. Why is Odets having a moment now? Helen Shaw has some ideas. – The New York Times
- Why This Fall’s Big Musicals Are Opening Off-Broadway
The theaters are smaller. The tickets are lower, but you still often have big casts. You have to pay the musicians. And you may not have to make a million dollars to make your nut, but maybe you have to make half a million or 400 grand. That’s still a lot of money. – NPR
- Gavin Newsom Calls For $1 Billion Tax Incentives For Film Industry
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday called for a significant expansion of the state’s film and TV tax incentives in the face of mounting evidence that producers are fleeing California in search of cheaper locales. – Los Angeles Times
ISSUES
- French Galleries Accuse Art Basel Of Disrespect
In the letter addressed to the new director of Art Basel Paris, Karim Crippa, the association demanded “concrete proposals for compensating exhibitors,” stated that the galleries were never consulted about the event’s early closure, and accused organizers of “disrespect, even contempt,” according to Monopol. – Hyperallergic
- The Enduring Appeal Of Glass Art — New Again
The history, combined with the opportunity for hands-on experience, is fueling new exhibitions at museums across the United States that are exploring today’s complex scientific and social issues through the artistry’s lens. – The New York Times
- Can Australia’s Biggest, Most Expensive Cultural Project In Decades Live Up To Expectations (And Its Price Tag)?
Paramatta Powerhouse, a new art and science museum in Sydney’s booming western suburbs, has cost roughly AU$915 million (US$639 million) and has been touted as western Sydney’s equivalent of the Opera House. Is that too much to expect, especially after the bumpy road to the museum’s completion? – The Guardian
- US Embassy Warns Of Planned Terrorist Attack At Moscow Museum; Teenaged Suspect Arrested
On Saturday the US embassy in Moscow issued a security alert about a “credible threat of a mass casualty event” at the Tsaritsyno Museum Reserve, a popular palace and park complex. Russia’s FSB has arrested one suspect, a teenager who is a Russian citizen. – Al Jazeera
- Italian Police Locate $200M Of Stolen Art Using AI
The Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, Italy’s art crime squad, has been using an AI algorithm to identify stolen artworks and artifacts since 2023. The platform they use is called SWOADS—or Stolen Works of Art Detection System—and was developed by Salvatore Rapicavoli, an IT engineer who joined the art crime team in 2023. – ARTnews
MEDIA
- Kennedy Center Leaders Threatened Payroll Over Trump Naming, Lawmaker Alleges
Kennedy Center leaders jeopardized the institution’s operations by tying millions of dollarsin funding to keeping President Donald Trump’s name on its building, a Democratic congresswoman who serves on its board alleges in a court brief filed Friday. – Washington Post
- Anti-Trans Political Rhetoric Is Harming Nonbinary And Trans Actors Too
Even actors like Elliot Page and Asia Kate Dillon have said it’s harder to find work in a world where roles for them are, according to them, vanishing. – CBC
- AI Isn’t Just Cooking Our Water Supply And Our Writing, But Also Our Food
“Most of those bowls and sandwiches available in the lunchtime hours are sold by fast-casual chains, the kind of establishments that give private equity investors wet dreams thanks to their sky-high margins, low labor costs, and simplistic, trend-driven menus.” – Ravenous
- Solidarity Mural In Iowa, Covered By Blue Tarp In Advance Of Trump Visit, Ordered By The City To Be Uncovered
A spokesperson from the building’s management company: “The goal of the White House in covering the mural was to provide exterior branding and put up a U.S. flag.” But the city had not authorized any exterior modifications. – Des Moines Register (MSN)
- You Don’t Know What The Algorithms Are Doing To Us Until You Walk Away
“Here’s the thing about spending a month off grid and overseas: … You are more relaxed than you have ever been, and you have forgotten the way nearly every news story of the past decade grabs hold of your heart and squeezes, twists, strangles. That constant, low-level dread.” – Slate
MUSIC
- Russia’s Last Major Independent Newspaper Shuts Down
“’We have been killed,’ reads a statement from the editorial team behind the Russian independent news outlet Novaya Gazeta, as it announced on Friday that it would be ceasing operations. … ‘The newspaper no longer exists. The Russian authorities and the Russian security services have forced our editorial team to cease its operations.’” – Euronews
- UK’s Collins Dictionary Chooses “Mogging” As Word Of The Year (What’s Mogging?)
“The copywriter Rachel Quin said the term describes making someone or something look inferior in terms of appearance, confidence or status. Believed to originate as a shortening of ‘AMOG’ (alpha male of the group), the word had first appeared in bodybuilding culture around 2016 before spreading through online communities.” – The Guardian
- The Enduring Appeal Of Literary Locations
Hotels are particularly adaptable settings for fiction. They bring strangers together in temporary communities, creating opportunities for encounters, misunderstandings and suspicion. In detective fiction, they can also provide a ready-made sense of enclosure: a place where characters are brought together and escape becomes difficult. – The Conversation
- Oldest Recording Of Someone Speaking Creole Was Discovered
“The moment I heard these recordings, I knew that they would drastically change our understanding of this language,” Dr. Mayeux said. His research findings were published in the journal “Language Documentation and Description.” – The New York Times
- AI Has Thrown The Publishing World Into Chaos
Book publishing houses have also been inundated with AI writing, and the industry is scrambling to respond. “There is a high level of concern and I think maybe anxiety among editors,” Friedman said. “They’re not sure how to detect it.” – WNG
PEOPLE
- Disney Prepares To Cut Thousands Of Workers
According to sources, the new round of layoffs will be made across multiple divisions, including TV networks and the motion picture studio, at varying amounts. – Deadline
- French Galleries Accuse Art Basel Of Disrespect
In the letter addressed to the new director of Art Basel Paris, Karim Crippa, the association demanded “concrete proposals for compensating exhibitors,” stated that the galleries were never consulted about the event’s early closure, and accused organizers of “disrespect, even contempt,” according to Monopol. – Hyperallergic
- Clifford Odets, The Great Agitprop Playwright Of The 1930s, Is In The Spotlight Again
His most famous play, Waiting for Lefty, is getting a major Off-Broadway revival; Awake and Sing! is opening on Broadway next month; Golden Boy just finished a London run with movie star Josh O’Connor in the lead. Why is Odets having a moment now? Helen Shaw has some ideas. – The New York Times
- Why This Fall’s Big Musicals Are Opening Off-Broadway
The theaters are smaller. The tickets are lower, but you still often have big casts. You have to pay the musicians. And you may not have to make a million dollars to make your nut, but maybe you have to make half a million or 400 grand. That’s still a lot of money. – NPR
- Gavin Newsom Calls For $1 Billion Tax Incentives For Film Industry
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday called for a significant expansion of the state’s film and TV tax incentives in the face of mounting evidence that producers are fleeing California in search of cheaper locales. – Los Angeles Times
PEOPLE
- Disney Prepares To Cut Thousands Of Workers
According to sources, the new round of layoffs will be made across multiple divisions, including TV networks and the motion picture studio, at varying amounts. – Deadline
- French Galleries Accuse Art Basel Of Disrespect
In the letter addressed to the new director of Art Basel Paris, Karim Crippa, the association demanded “concrete proposals for compensating exhibitors,” stated that the galleries were never consulted about the event’s early closure, and accused organizers of “disrespect, even contempt,” according to Monopol. – Hyperallergic
- Clifford Odets, The Great Agitprop Playwright Of The 1930s, Is In The Spotlight Again
His most famous play, Waiting for Lefty, is getting a major Off-Broadway revival; Awake and Sing! is opening on Broadway next month; Golden Boy just finished a London run with movie star Josh O’Connor in the lead. Why is Odets having a moment now? Helen Shaw has some ideas. – The New York Times
- Why This Fall’s Big Musicals Are Opening Off-Broadway
The theaters are smaller. The tickets are lower, but you still often have big casts. You have to pay the musicians. And you may not have to make a million dollars to make your nut, but maybe you have to make half a million or 400 grand. That’s still a lot of money. – NPR
- Gavin Newsom Calls For $1 Billion Tax Incentives For Film Industry
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday called for a significant expansion of the state’s film and TV tax incentives in the face of mounting evidence that producers are fleeing California in search of cheaper locales. – Los Angeles Times
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Is It Time For A “Great Books” Revival?
What we are trying to do is not just help ground students—the large majority of them scientists and engineers in training—in a humanistic research program, but to identify irreplaceable ideas during a time of accelerated change. – The Atlantic
- Why Culture Seems So Generic Now
“What we see in front of us used to be culturally diverse. Now it is culturally generic. Most of what we see is the big chains we see everywhere,” she said. “It creates a sense of placelessness. We could be anywhere.” – The New York Times
- Is Curiosity A Good Idea?
Our curiosity may be or could be one of the best things about us (though when we describe someone as a curious person we can sometimes mean that they are a bit odd, as though we admire curiosity but it makes us uneasy). – London Review of Books
- Predictive Algorithms Are Flattening Culture Everywhere In The World
“At ‘temperature zero,’ the [large language] model always chooses the most likely next token and gives the same answer every time” – down to the music and menus in every restaurant or pub. – The New York Times
- Why We Like To Be Scared
“Because of horror’s position as a sandbox for misfortune, consumers tend to reward horror films that reflect their generation’s anxieties.” – Time