AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Film Critic Gene Shalit Dies At 100
Shalit started on Today in 1970, according to NBC’s report on his passing, and became its arts editor in 1973, interviewing celebrities and reviewing books as well as films. His role on the show was reduced in his later years and he retired at age 84 in 2010, saying, “It’s enough already.” – CBC
- Alan Cumming’s Theatre In The Scottish Highlands Will Present Its Own Mini-Version Of Edinburgh Fringe
Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s five-day event — called “Edinlochry” — won’t be as chaotic as the actual Edinburgh Fringe can be, mainly because it will be curated rather than open-access. – The Edinburgh Reporter
- What We Learned About How To Celebrate A Divided America’s Birthday From The Bicentennial
Philadelphia, as the cradle of American independence, was supposed to be the center of attention 50 years ago. From the beginning, deliberations involved arguably the most important architect of the late 20th century, Louis I. Kahn. – Architecture and the City
- Jurgen Habermas And The Public Sphere
Habermas’s death might mark the end of a mode of main-stage philosophizing that, in the German-speaking world, reaches back, by way of Adorno, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Marx, Schopenhauer, and Hegel, to Kant himself. – The New Yorker
- The Aesthetic That Fits Our Times: Tragicomic
This cockroach of forms—adaptive, resilient, unkillable—was named by the Roman dramatist Plautus in the second century BC, enjoyed its heyday in 17th-century Renaissance theater, and was revived in the 20th century to describe a slurry of existential despair and absurd farce. – ARTnews
ISSUES
- 11th-Century Cathedral In Kyiv Set On Fire By Russian Missiles
“A massive Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv has badly damaged the Dormition Cathedral in the Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, a UNESCO world heritage site and one of Ukraine’s most significant religious and cultural sites.” – The Guardian
- Sagrada Familia Might Have Topped Out, But Big Challenges Ahead
“The biggest [challenge] will be Glory Facade, which is the main facade. Maybe it will take 10 years, but we don’t yet have a fixed schedule.” – Dezeen
- Behold The New Obama Library
After standing in the glow of this new South Side landmark, I admittedly feel like a buzzkill focusing on documents, kind of like visiting the Sistine Chapel and contemplating the plumbing. – The Atlantic
- Living ‘FridaMania’ In Kahlo’s Hometown
“Frida died – but she didn’t pass away. She was like a rocket. She just went up and up.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Why The Art Workers Coalition Still Resonates Across The Art World
“Among their demands were a section of the museum dedicated to Black (and, in a later, amended statement, Puerto Rican) artists, an artist committee granted curatorial power, a ‘rental fee’ paid to artists for the exhibition of their work and free admission for all.” – The New York Times
MEDIA
- What We Learned About How To Celebrate A Divided America’s Birthday From The Bicentennial
Philadelphia, as the cradle of American independence, was supposed to be the center of attention 50 years ago. From the beginning, deliberations involved arguably the most important architect of the late 20th century, Louis I. Kahn. – Architecture and the City
- Kennedy Center Establishes A New Endowment, One Named After Donald Trump
“(Its) establishment comes less than two weeks after a judge ruled the Kennedy Center’s board acted unlawfully in adding the president’s name. … A source with knowledge of the plans for the endowment” — called the Trump Kennedy Center Fund — “suggested it will focus on the ‘physical disrepair’ of the building.” – CBS News
- The Kennedy Center Sign Is Restored. But There’s A Bigger Issue
My biggest concern is that the Kennedy Center will remain nominally open—as in, I’ll be free to walk through the doors and perhaps buy a coffee at the cafe—but there will be few, or even no, performances to see. – Washingtonian
- What The Kennedy Center Might Have Been
Imagine a scenario in which Bernstein and the Kennedys — John and Jackie both — bequeathed a proactive White House arts component prioritizing American achievement, past and present. It would have shaped the goals of the envisioned national cultural center. It almost happened. – ArtsFuse
- They Just Had To Take That Man’s Name Off The Kennedy Center From Behind A Curtain
After blowing the deadline and begging for more time – and being denied – workers took Donald J. Trump’s name off the Kennedy Center on Friday night. But “a spokeswoman for the center, said the institution was … evaluating ‘legal options.’” – The New York Times
MUSIC
- If People Aren’t Reading, Why Are Bookstores Thriving?
“The bookstore boom is a story about a certain educated, culturally aspirational demographic doing what it has always done, while the literacy crisis unfolds elsewhere, namely in under-resourced schools, rural communities, and households without the discretionary income to browse a charming bookshop on a Saturday afternoon.” – LitHub
- Ruth Ozeki Knows The Power Of A Good Book
And that good book is Charlotte’s Web. – The Guardian (UK)
- If You Want To Read More Books This Summer, Here’s How To Do It
“I have this daydream where I go to the park and read under a tree. The sun is shining. It’s not too hot. The ground beneath me is comfortable. I have snacks on hand, I’m hydrated, and I am captivated by the book in front of me.” – NPR
- Debut Authors Take Home Women’s Prize For Fiction, Nonfiction
The fiction award is well-known (as is, in this case, the award winner), but the Women’s Prize added the nonfiction award in 2023 to help redress an imbalance in nonfiction award winners in the UK. – The Guardian (UK)
- Oh, The Drama: Someone Tries To Trademark A Bookstagram Term, And It Does Not End Well
Can ‘Hot Girls Read’ be trademarked? One creator thought so. “She is using the trademarking this common phrase to retroactively target small businesses who very likely had the idea before her, or at the very least had it around the same time as her.” – Slate
PEOPLE
- Film Critic Gene Shalit Dies At 100
Shalit started on Today in 1970, according to NBC’s report on his passing, and became its arts editor in 1973, interviewing celebrities and reviewing books as well as films. His role on the show was reduced in his later years and he retired at age 84 in 2010, saying, “It’s enough already.” – CBC
- Alan Cumming’s Theatre In The Scottish Highlands Will Present Its Own Mini-Version Of Edinburgh Fringe
Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s five-day event — called “Edinlochry” — won’t be as chaotic as the actual Edinburgh Fringe can be, mainly because it will be curated rather than open-access. – The Edinburgh Reporter
- What We Learned About How To Celebrate A Divided America’s Birthday From The Bicentennial
Philadelphia, as the cradle of American independence, was supposed to be the center of attention 50 years ago. From the beginning, deliberations involved arguably the most important architect of the late 20th century, Louis I. Kahn. – Architecture and the City
- Jurgen Habermas And The Public Sphere
Habermas’s death might mark the end of a mode of main-stage philosophizing that, in the German-speaking world, reaches back, by way of Adorno, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Marx, Schopenhauer, and Hegel, to Kant himself. – The New Yorker
- The Aesthetic That Fits Our Times: Tragicomic
This cockroach of forms—adaptive, resilient, unkillable—was named by the Roman dramatist Plautus in the second century BC, enjoyed its heyday in 17th-century Renaissance theater, and was revived in the 20th century to describe a slurry of existential despair and absurd farce. – ARTnews
PEOPLE
- Film Critic Gene Shalit Dies At 100
Shalit started on Today in 1970, according to NBC’s report on his passing, and became its arts editor in 1973, interviewing celebrities and reviewing books as well as films. His role on the show was reduced in his later years and he retired at age 84 in 2010, saying, “It’s enough already.” – CBC
- Alan Cumming’s Theatre In The Scottish Highlands Will Present Its Own Mini-Version Of Edinburgh Fringe
Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s five-day event — called “Edinlochry” — won’t be as chaotic as the actual Edinburgh Fringe can be, mainly because it will be curated rather than open-access. – The Edinburgh Reporter
- What We Learned About How To Celebrate A Divided America’s Birthday From The Bicentennial
Philadelphia, as the cradle of American independence, was supposed to be the center of attention 50 years ago. From the beginning, deliberations involved arguably the most important architect of the late 20th century, Louis I. Kahn. – Architecture and the City
- Jurgen Habermas And The Public Sphere
Habermas’s death might mark the end of a mode of main-stage philosophizing that, in the German-speaking world, reaches back, by way of Adorno, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Marx, Schopenhauer, and Hegel, to Kant himself. – The New Yorker
- The Aesthetic That Fits Our Times: Tragicomic
This cockroach of forms—adaptive, resilient, unkillable—was named by the Roman dramatist Plautus in the second century BC, enjoyed its heyday in 17th-century Renaissance theater, and was revived in the 20th century to describe a slurry of existential despair and absurd farce. – ARTnews
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Jurgen Habermas And The Public Sphere
Habermas’s death might mark the end of a mode of main-stage philosophizing that, in the German-speaking world, reaches back, by way of Adorno, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Marx, Schopenhauer, and Hegel, to Kant himself. – The New Yorker
- The Aesthetic That Fits Our Times: Tragicomic
This cockroach of forms—adaptive, resilient, unkillable—was named by the Roman dramatist Plautus in the second century BC, enjoyed its heyday in 17th-century Renaissance theater, and was revived in the 20th century to describe a slurry of existential despair and absurd farce. – ARTnews
- The Old Are Taking Over America
Samuel Moyn argues that the oldest Americans, because of their retrograde politics and ever-increasing presence, are profoundly reshaping our collective life. – The New Yorker
- Reimagining The Benefits Of Music In Dementia Care
Music has a unique capability to engage multiple areas of the brain that can function in sync with one another. This includes areas involved in hearing and listening, movement, attention, language, emotion, memory and thinking. – The Conversation
- Study: There Are Cognitive Benefits To Reading Paper Books
Reading a book involves a complex series of mental tasks. A reader must decode words, interpret pictures, and connect new information to what they already know. To do this efficiently, the human brain builds what scientists call a story schema. – Psypost
