AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Hungary’s New Government Cancels New Museum

Hungary’s new government has scrapped plans for a New National Gallery that was to form part of a development in Budapest’s City Park (Városliget) aimed at elevating the capital’s cultural standing. – The Art Newspaper
- Contractors Sue $1B Lucas Museum Over Unpaid Bills

The suit, one of four recently brought by contractors alleging nonpayment, claims the museum “actively promoted, contracted, and labeled the construction as a ‘private, non-profit development’ to bypass the rigorous administrative, registration, and bonding mandates of the California Public Contract Code, Civil Code, and Labor Code.” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
- How Allen Ginsburg’s “Howl” Became A Free-Speech Landmark

In 1957, undercover police bought a copy of the poetry collection which featured “Howl” at City Lights bookstore in San Francisco — and proceeded to arrest owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti and manager Shig Murao for selling obscene material. Their trial set a major precedent in First Amendment case law. – BBC (MSN)
- We Need Word Detectives

We appreciate that each of us is a link in a millennia-long chain of language, connected to people over the centuries by the words they bequeathed us. Following where, and through whom, that chain has passed is the business of etymology. – Psyche
- The Meaning Of Lonnie Bunch Leaving The Smithsonian

What this administration cannot capture directly of the country’s culture, it destroys with chaos, making life intolerable for people who persevere in the audacious belief that things like “the increase and diffusion of knowledge” actually matter. – Washington Post (Yahoo)
ISSUES
- Contractors Sue $1B Lucas Museum Over Unpaid Bills

The suit, one of four recently brought by contractors alleging nonpayment, claims the museum “actively promoted, contracted, and labeled the construction as a ‘private, non-profit development’ to bypass the rigorous administrative, registration, and bonding mandates of the California Public Contract Code, Civil Code, and Labor Code.” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
- Hungary’s New Government Cancels New Museum

Hungary’s new government has scrapped plans for a New National Gallery that was to form part of a development in Budapest’s City Park (Városliget) aimed at elevating the capital’s cultural standing. – The Art Newspaper
- Trump Administration Strips Critical Language On Confederacy From Statue

That language has been removed from the website, and the marker in the cemetery has been replaced by a new sign that omits wording critical of slavery and the Confederacy. – Washington Post
- Rome’s Largest Surviving Ancient Fresco/Mosaic Is Opening To Public, Three Decades After Its Discovery

Mayor Roberto Gualtieri presented the recently restored ‘Painted City’ fresco and ‘Great Mosaic’ that were discovered in an underground gallery during excavations in the 1990s of the Baths of Trajan on the Oppio hill near the Colosseum.” The sites are opening on a trial basis, only on weekends, strictly for small groups. – AP
- The Making Of A de Kooning

Like Balanchine, de Kooning made images for the mind about the body as it was expressed in the streets of the city. Sometimes, when I watch Balanchine’s choreography, I can’t help imagining “Monumental Woman” and other drawings from the “Women” series flashing behind the dancers as they embody de Kooning’s symphony of flesh. – The New Yorker
MEDIA
- The Meaning Of Lonnie Bunch Leaving The Smithsonian
What this administration cannot capture directly of the country’s culture, it destroys with chaos, making life intolerable for people who persevere in the audacious belief that things like “the increase and diffusion of knowledge” actually matter. – Washington Post (Yahoo)
- Appalled Eiffel Tower Staffers Strike After Their Female Colleagues Are Told To Make Themselves Scarce
“The Eiffel Tower closed Monday due to strikes over outrage that female workers were allegedly ordered to leave and stay out of sight to comply with a special request from a traditional Hindu delegation that visited the monument over the weekend.” – ARTnews
- What Does A Healthy Arts Ecosystem Look Like?
A healthy cultural ecosystem needs not just the creation and presentation of art. It needs education, access, discovery, interpretation and criticism, documentation, advocacy, funding, participation, connection, preservation and audience development. – Culture OC
- Smithsonian Chief Lonnie Bunch To Retire Amid Trump’s Culture-War Attacks
“Bunch’s resignation comes at one of the most politically fraught moments in the Smithsonian’s 180-year history. … Trump has sought to purge what he calls ‘improper ideology’ from its museums, while his administration has threatened the institution’s federal funding, tried to fire a museum director and challenged its authority over personnel and exhibitions.” – The Washington Post (Yahoo!)
- South Carolina Arts Commission Requires Two LGBTQ Performing Groups To Prove Their Artistic Merit
In August, the Commission confirmed grants to all but two of the nearly 180 applicants its selection panel had approved. Those two are the Greenville Gay Men’s Chorus and Spartanburg’s Proud Mary Theatre Company, which have been told to provide additional demonstration of their artistic merit beyond what was in their applications. – The Post and Courier (Charleston)
MUSIC
- How Allen Ginsburg’s “Howl” Became A Free-Speech Landmark
In 1957, undercover police bought a copy of the poetry collection which featured “Howl” at City Lights bookstore in San Francisco — and proceeded to arrest owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti and manager Shig Murao for selling obscene material. Their trial set a major precedent in First Amendment case law. – BBC (MSN)
- We Need Word Detectives
We appreciate that each of us is a link in a millennia-long chain of language, connected to people over the centuries by the words they bequeathed us. Following where, and through whom, that chain has passed is the business of etymology. – Psyche
- American Literary Culture Is Besotted With Reissues
“If the past few years of American literary publishing have had a zeitgeist, it has been more like a series of geists from zeits past.” – n+1
- Destroying Rare Books To Capture Them?
Having identified books as the “highest quality source of training data” for Anthropic’s L.L.M.s, it initiated a covert program called Project Panama, defined succinctly in court documents as “our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world.” “Destructively scan” means precisely that. – The New Yorker
- Authors Push Back As Agents, Publishers Scramble To Get Pieces Of The Anthropic AI Settlement
Writers have been posting on social media that publishers seem to be claiming more than their fair share of some payments. – TechCrunch
PEOPLE
- Hungary’s New Government Cancels New Museum
Hungary’s new government has scrapped plans for a New National Gallery that was to form part of a development in Budapest’s City Park (Városliget) aimed at elevating the capital’s cultural standing. – The Art Newspaper
- Contractors Sue $1B Lucas Museum Over Unpaid Bills
The suit, one of four recently brought by contractors alleging nonpayment, claims the museum “actively promoted, contracted, and labeled the construction as a ‘private, non-profit development’ to bypass the rigorous administrative, registration, and bonding mandates of the California Public Contract Code, Civil Code, and Labor Code.” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
- How Allen Ginsburg’s “Howl” Became A Free-Speech Landmark
In 1957, undercover police bought a copy of the poetry collection which featured “Howl” at City Lights bookstore in San Francisco — and proceeded to arrest owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti and manager Shig Murao for selling obscene material. Their trial set a major precedent in First Amendment case law. – BBC (MSN)
- We Need Word Detectives
We appreciate that each of us is a link in a millennia-long chain of language, connected to people over the centuries by the words they bequeathed us. Following where, and through whom, that chain has passed is the business of etymology. – Psyche
- The Meaning Of Lonnie Bunch Leaving The Smithsonian
What this administration cannot capture directly of the country’s culture, it destroys with chaos, making life intolerable for people who persevere in the audacious belief that things like “the increase and diffusion of knowledge” actually matter. – Washington Post (Yahoo)
PEOPLE
- Hungary’s New Government Cancels New Museum
Hungary’s new government has scrapped plans for a New National Gallery that was to form part of a development in Budapest’s City Park (Városliget) aimed at elevating the capital’s cultural standing. – The Art Newspaper
- Contractors Sue $1B Lucas Museum Over Unpaid Bills
The suit, one of four recently brought by contractors alleging nonpayment, claims the museum “actively promoted, contracted, and labeled the construction as a ‘private, non-profit development’ to bypass the rigorous administrative, registration, and bonding mandates of the California Public Contract Code, Civil Code, and Labor Code.” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
- How Allen Ginsburg’s “Howl” Became A Free-Speech Landmark
In 1957, undercover police bought a copy of the poetry collection which featured “Howl” at City Lights bookstore in San Francisco — and proceeded to arrest owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti and manager Shig Murao for selling obscene material. Their trial set a major precedent in First Amendment case law. – BBC (MSN)
- We Need Word Detectives
We appreciate that each of us is a link in a millennia-long chain of language, connected to people over the centuries by the words they bequeathed us. Following where, and through whom, that chain has passed is the business of etymology. – Psyche
- The Meaning Of Lonnie Bunch Leaving The Smithsonian
What this administration cannot capture directly of the country’s culture, it destroys with chaos, making life intolerable for people who persevere in the audacious belief that things like “the increase and diffusion of knowledge” actually matter. – Washington Post (Yahoo)
THEATRE
VISUAL
- How Knowledge Is Assembled
Just because something makes sense doesn’t mean that it’s true. Even valid reasoning cannot establish that its starting premises are correct. Even today, science continues to rely on experience, reasoning, and knowledge passed down by others. Much of the scientific process comes down to how we check our knowledge. – 3 Quarks Daily
- How Neoliberal Policies Corroded Democracy (And How To Fix It)
Promises of prosperity by Reagan, Thatcher and other advocates of neoliberalism were mistaken because it brought only fragility to previously prosperous democracies. – Aeon
- How Art And AI Can Hold Each Other Accountable
Beyond pushing our concepts of “who” can make art, AI provides a new medium for art experience — it is immersive and participatory. – Stanford
- It’s Not Just Physical Media
Landlines are making a slightly abashed return. “The phone itself is a sleek black with gold trim, and the cord connecting the receiver is all coiled up—just like the ones I grew up with back in the ’90s.” – Maclean‘s
- Why Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey Is Destined To Be Forgotten
It’s “a nearly three-hour barn burner, racing from event to event with whirlwind kinetic energy. … Nolan’s reluctance to take a pause should, actually, give us pause. After all, Homer’s poem doesn’t just involve a lot of waiting. It is a postwar tale about waiting.” – Boston Globe











