AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Jonathan Cooper, One Of The Rare Fine Violin-Makers In The US, Has Died At 76
Cooper was “a luthier who crafted violins of such supple tone and exquisite range that they allowed players to bridge the gap between classical and American fiddle instrumentation, making him a favorite of musicians like Mark O’Connor and Alison Krauss.” – The New York Times
- The Musician And Artist Behind The World Of Meadowlark
“Meadowlark’s kids transmit messages of bravery and courage and celebrate childlike wonder in a world determined to stamp it out. Ósk’s folkloric storytelling has created a deeply parasocial fandom, attracting followers who find solace in this outsider world.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Turns Out That ‘Call My Agent’ Was Barely Even A Satire
When the series began, or even during financing, “There was scepticism about whether anyone in France, let alone audiences around the world, had any interest in a dramedy that pulled back the veil on the Gallic film industry.” Er … very, very wrong. – Irish Times
- Every Real City Needs A Cheap Music Venue
As the Music Hall of Williamsburg closes, one fan wonders what will happen next. – The New York Times
- Parents, Children Sue Meta Over Their Images Being Used For AI Facial Recognition
“The proposed class action alleges that Meta violated Illinois and California privacy laws by extracting biometric information from people’s photos without notice or consent” for training smart glasses – and generative AI images. – Wired
ISSUES
- As More And More Small Museums Get Hit By Thieves, Can France Keep Its Art At All Safe?
“Museum workers, the police and government officials are rattled. They worry about how to protect France’s cultural patrimony in an era of increasingly violent criminal gangs, some of whom have broken into museums in broad daylight.” – The New York Times
- The Current President Of The United States Wants To Install A ‘Colossus’ Statue Of The First President
Of course, the “request” came on conservative social media site Truth Social. It “underscores a perception that he sees himself as curator-in-chief of the nation’s national museum.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Learning, Or Re-Learning, The Story Told By The Bayeux Tapestry
What could justify moving the fragile tapestry to Britain this year? Probably politics: “Foot by foot, fiber by fiber, this is the material proof of England’s entwinement with the continent 21 miles from its coast.” – The New York Times
- High Tension As Charlie Kirk Statue Unveiled In Times Square
Shouting and a shoving match erupted as Italian-American artist Sergio Furnari unveiled his unpermitted life-size bronze memorial to slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Times Square on Thursday. – ARTnews
- Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Getting Ready To Open
All eyes are on the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi as it prepares for opening on December 11 after two decades of delays. – ARTnews
MEDIA
- Parents, Children Sue Meta Over Their Images Being Used For AI Facial Recognition
“The proposed class action alleges that Meta violated Illinois and California privacy laws by extracting biometric information from people’s photos without notice or consent” for training smart glasses – and generative AI images. – Wired
- Just How Much Is Your TV Spying On You?
Oh, says the company doing the spying, not that much. “The word ‘continuously’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting here as Gamers Nexus demonstrated on LG TV keeping extensive logs of ambient conversations.” This seems fine. – The Verge
- Lonnie Bunch Resignation Throws Smithsonian Into Uncharted Leadership Waters
Previous searches have largely revolved around professional qualifications. This one begins after Trump has spent more than a year demanding changes to the Smithsonian’s exhibits and leadership — and as Republicans and Democrats are already staking out competing visions for Bunch’s successor. – Washington Post (MSN)
- How The Smithsonian Prepared Its 9/11 Anniversary Exhibit As Trump’s White House Keeps The Pressure On
After the attacks, Congress charged the Institution with documenting them and preserving the physical record. A quarter-century on, with the White House constantly accusing the Smithsonian of distorting American history, its 9/11 exhibit is especially fraught — and especially important. – The Washington Post (Yahoo!)
- Arts Centre Melbourne Workers’ Conflicts To Win Better Pay
Where in most other industries bargaining occurs between workers and employers, in subsidised cultural institutions wage negotiations are often inseparable from questions of government support. – The Conversation
MUSIC
- That Time When Russian Printers Went On Strike Over Commas
“At the time, printers were paid by the letter set, but this didn’t include punctuation.” The workers were not having it. – LitHub
- Young Africans Are Sparking A Renewal Of Interest In African Languages
“Experts say the revival in some of them is driven partly by second- and third-generation Africans in the diaspora finding it easier to reconnect with their roots and communicate with older relatives, thanks to social media, online learning and entertainment.” – AP
- A New Survey Of Readers To Find Out How They Discover Books
The survey will talk to 5,000 book buyers and profile them by genre, covering how they discover books across every channel—including social media and other digital tools—where and how they buy, and their mix of print, e-book, and audio, with a deeper look at audio habits, subscription behavior, etc. – Publishers Weekly
- The Market For Non-Fiction Is Collapsing
The nonfiction collapse has profound implications for the industry. Nonfiction, historically, has always been seen as the more stable part of the business for logical reasons. The demand for nonfiction has always felt more predictable than fiction. – Dear Head of Mine
- Helen Vendler On Inhabiting Poetry
Vendler spent a lifetime – which ended in April 2024 – writing about lyric poetry. She believed literary criticism was about the pleasure of describing complex things and conveying the joy of understanding them to others. – London Review of Books
PEOPLE
- Jonathan Cooper, One Of The Rare Fine Violin-Makers In The US, Has Died At 76
Cooper was “a luthier who crafted violins of such supple tone and exquisite range that they allowed players to bridge the gap between classical and American fiddle instrumentation, making him a favorite of musicians like Mark O’Connor and Alison Krauss.” – The New York Times
- The Musician And Artist Behind The World Of Meadowlark
“Meadowlark’s kids transmit messages of bravery and courage and celebrate childlike wonder in a world determined to stamp it out. Ósk’s folkloric storytelling has created a deeply parasocial fandom, attracting followers who find solace in this outsider world.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Turns Out That ‘Call My Agent’ Was Barely Even A Satire
When the series began, or even during financing, “There was scepticism about whether anyone in France, let alone audiences around the world, had any interest in a dramedy that pulled back the veil on the Gallic film industry.” Er … very, very wrong. – Irish Times
- Every Real City Needs A Cheap Music Venue
As the Music Hall of Williamsburg closes, one fan wonders what will happen next. – The New York Times
- Parents, Children Sue Meta Over Their Images Being Used For AI Facial Recognition
“The proposed class action alleges that Meta violated Illinois and California privacy laws by extracting biometric information from people’s photos without notice or consent” for training smart glasses – and generative AI images. – Wired
PEOPLE
- Jonathan Cooper, One Of The Rare Fine Violin-Makers In The US, Has Died At 76
Cooper was “a luthier who crafted violins of such supple tone and exquisite range that they allowed players to bridge the gap between classical and American fiddle instrumentation, making him a favorite of musicians like Mark O’Connor and Alison Krauss.” – The New York Times
- The Musician And Artist Behind The World Of Meadowlark
“Meadowlark’s kids transmit messages of bravery and courage and celebrate childlike wonder in a world determined to stamp it out. Ósk’s folkloric storytelling has created a deeply parasocial fandom, attracting followers who find solace in this outsider world.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Turns Out That ‘Call My Agent’ Was Barely Even A Satire
When the series began, or even during financing, “There was scepticism about whether anyone in France, let alone audiences around the world, had any interest in a dramedy that pulled back the veil on the Gallic film industry.” Er … very, very wrong. – Irish Times
- Every Real City Needs A Cheap Music Venue
As the Music Hall of Williamsburg closes, one fan wonders what will happen next. – The New York Times
- Parents, Children Sue Meta Over Their Images Being Used For AI Facial Recognition
“The proposed class action alleges that Meta violated Illinois and California privacy laws by extracting biometric information from people’s photos without notice or consent” for training smart glasses – and generative AI images. – Wired
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Is Talk Of Extinction Simply Meant To Distract Us From The True Threats Of AI?
Timnit Gebru: Sometimes “I read quotes to people about artificial intelligence that I’ve gathered in my research, and I ask, What decade was this statement made in? Sometimes people get it right, but a lot of times they do not, because it all sounds the same.” – Wired
- Cockroach Milk, Underpants Soil Testing, A Scientific Definition Of Kissing: The 2026 Ig Nobel Prizes
“Winning work highlighted during the 36th annual award ceremony” (which was in Zurich this year rather than Boston) “included hilarious research on the aerodynamics of nose blowing, gently stepping on venomous snakes, confirming that teenagers do indeed smell worse than babies and other side-splitting scientific undertakings.” – Smithsonian Magazine
- Flock’s Vision Of Surveillance Everywhere
Flock was reported to have a valuation of more than eight billion dollars, with its biggest investor being the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Around forty per cent of the United States’ law-enforcement agencies now have contracts with the company, and a reported hundred and thirty thousand cameras monitor roads in every state but Alaska. – The New Yorker
- Today’s Tech Billionaires Learned The Wrong Lessons From Science Fiction
As young people, the future billionaires were spending hours (under their covers with flashlights, I imagine) consuming stories about killer robots or Mars colonies. What they seemed not to get—maybe couldn’t get—was that these were cautionary tales, stories that projected deep societal worries into space or onto a future many millennia away. – The Atlantic
- What Jonathan Swift Warned Us About Reading
“Far from merely raising a reactionary fist in the air at the new science, Swift identified an attitude that is still around today — and one that has created many of the greatest challenges now facing educators.” – The Dial