AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Peppino Mazzullo, The Voice And Soul Of Puppet Topo Gigio, Has Died At 100
Mazzullo was “an Italian actor who for more than 40 years provided the endearing voice of the floppy-eared mouse puppet Topo Gigio, a TV character beloved by children all over the world,” not to mention by Ed Sullivan. – The New York Times
- Sadly, It’s Rational For Musicians To Fear, And Worry About, The Music Biz
For Liz Harris, “an elevated digital profile comes with a range of new concerns – like fake remixes and songs posted with the same titles as hers by bad actors trying to skim whatever royalties they can.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Why The Back Of The House Shouldn’t Choose The Dining Music
Screamo isn’t it. “Music can manipulate consumer moods. It’s why soothing, well-known songs for the local demo play in the grocery store (so you feel comfortable and familiar), why fancy restaurants play jazz, classical, or piano music (to create a sense of elevated place, influencing a higher spend).” – Ravenous
- Los Angeles’ Mayoral Frontrunner Promised To Be A ‘Relentless Advocate’ For Hollywood
“Nithya Raman comes by her Hollywood bona fides honestly. Her husband, after all, is Vali Chandrasekaran, writer on Modern Family, 30 Rock and other TV hits.” – The Hollywood Reporter
- After Years Of Renovation And Work, A Maryland Theatre Is Reborn
“Theater is so hard to do for so many reasons,” says one actor in the renovated Olney Theatre. He’s pleased “to see an actual new facility come up out of the ground, and to see talent and audience members come into this space and relish in the experience.” – Washington Post
ISSUES
- The British Museum Adds An Audio Tour To The Bayeux Tapestry in Response To Blind Man’s Lawsuit
The museum apparently hadn’t thought of adding an audio description to its app, or having more audio description tours, before the lawsuit – despite saying they worked with specialists on accessibility. – BBC
- We’re In A Gross ‘Great Man’ Statuary Backlash, But Look At Ancient Egypt
“The great public efforts—the colossal statuary, the expansive propaganda programs, the image campaigns, the attempts to remake the world of living people—have been shattered, defaced, and refaced.” – The Atlantic
- As A New Show Opens, It’s Past Time To Reevaluate Our Reactions To Lee Krasner’s Work
“Her response to life with a mean and desperate drunk was to cannibalize her old canvases and explode into the pugnacious scale, audacious color, and thrusting verticles of collages.” – The New York Times
- What Venice Could Have Been
At least, what the U.S. pavilion could have been. – The New York Times
- What’s Behind The Amazing Starchitect Building Boom In… Albania?
Sixty top architecture firms from around the world have mooted 500 eye-catching projects across Albania, sparking fury and protests. – The Guardian
MEDIA
- This Administration Is Moving The Kennedy Center Honors To Capital One Arena
“As Mr. Trump pushes to close the center for two years of renovations, he is trading the ruby-red Opera House for the 20,000-seat home of the N.B.A.’s Washington Wizards and the N.H.L.’s Washington Capitals.” – The New York Times
- Kennedy Center Honors To Be Moved To An Arena
The 49th annual awards are set to take place at Washington’s downtown arena, a Kennedy Center spokesperson said Friday. Few other details were immediately available, and an explanation for the change wasn’t given. – AP (Yahoo)
- Court Upholds Thomson Reuters’ Landmark AI Copyright Win
The ruling marks the first federal appeals case to reject a fair use argument for using publisher content, without permission or compensation, to train a commercial AI product. – NiemanLab
- One Third Of Britain’s Arts Centres Have “No Financial Cushion”: Report
“Drawing on financial data and member surveys of more than 131 arts centres, the report concludes that … one third of arts centres across the UK have ‘little or no financial cushion’ with which to absorb further increases in costs, reductions in funding or unexpected expenditure.” – The Stage
- After 40 Years, Segerstrom Center Is Thriving, Bringing L.A.-Level Performing Arts To Orange County
Building a Lincoln Center-style multi-venue arts center in a county that was a byword for conservative suburbia seemed improbable in 1986, but philanthropist Henry Segerstrom pulled it off. Now, after getting hit hard by the pandemic, the complex is back on track, with a $14.6 million surplus last year. – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
MUSIC
- In Censor-Happy Texas, School Librarians And Teachers Are Afraid To Discuss Books
“When you put your finger on every single book in order to type it into a spreadsheet, you really do think, ‘Am I willing to lose my job over this particular book?’ … I think that is a real concern for teachers around the state.” – The 74
- Russia’s War On Ukraine’s Books
“In total, this summer, 13 [million] Ukrainian books have been destroyed by Russian missiles or drones – a third, estimates the government, of all books printed in Ukraine this year.” – The Guardian (UK)
- So Now There’s Apparently ‘Weird Girl Lit’?
Emerging from Reddit, the subgenre is not fully defined, but “books that get called weird girl lit tend to deal in uncanny or dreamlike circumstances.” – The New York Times
- Is Writing Really The Best Way To Learn?
Writing can be useful cognitive scaffolding for memory and self-regulated learning, but the notion that it is the best process for developing thinking skills is a fairly recent idea, traceable to the 1970s writing-across-the-curriculum movement. – The New York Times
- Seattle Public Library Program To Make Banned Books Available Anywhere Hits 1M Checkouts
Books Unbanned is designed to give young people multiple ways to access digital books regardless of where they live or what their local library can provide. The library said some participants sign up because their local libraries have been censored or underfunded. – KOMO Seattle
PEOPLE
- Peppino Mazzullo, The Voice And Soul Of Puppet Topo Gigio, Has Died At 100
Mazzullo was “an Italian actor who for more than 40 years provided the endearing voice of the floppy-eared mouse puppet Topo Gigio, a TV character beloved by children all over the world,” not to mention by Ed Sullivan. – The New York Times
- Sadly, It’s Rational For Musicians To Fear, And Worry About, The Music Biz
For Liz Harris, “an elevated digital profile comes with a range of new concerns – like fake remixes and songs posted with the same titles as hers by bad actors trying to skim whatever royalties they can.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Why The Back Of The House Shouldn’t Choose The Dining Music
Screamo isn’t it. “Music can manipulate consumer moods. It’s why soothing, well-known songs for the local demo play in the grocery store (so you feel comfortable and familiar), why fancy restaurants play jazz, classical, or piano music (to create a sense of elevated place, influencing a higher spend).” – Ravenous
- Los Angeles’ Mayoral Frontrunner Promised To Be A ‘Relentless Advocate’ For Hollywood
“Nithya Raman comes by her Hollywood bona fides honestly. Her husband, after all, is Vali Chandrasekaran, writer on Modern Family, 30 Rock and other TV hits.” – The Hollywood Reporter
- After Years Of Renovation And Work, A Maryland Theatre Is Reborn
“Theater is so hard to do for so many reasons,” says one actor in the renovated Olney Theatre. He’s pleased “to see an actual new facility come up out of the ground, and to see talent and audience members come into this space and relish in the experience.” – Washington Post
PEOPLE
- Peppino Mazzullo, The Voice And Soul Of Puppet Topo Gigio, Has Died At 100
Mazzullo was “an Italian actor who for more than 40 years provided the endearing voice of the floppy-eared mouse puppet Topo Gigio, a TV character beloved by children all over the world,” not to mention by Ed Sullivan. – The New York Times
- Sadly, It’s Rational For Musicians To Fear, And Worry About, The Music Biz
For Liz Harris, “an elevated digital profile comes with a range of new concerns – like fake remixes and songs posted with the same titles as hers by bad actors trying to skim whatever royalties they can.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Why The Back Of The House Shouldn’t Choose The Dining Music
Screamo isn’t it. “Music can manipulate consumer moods. It’s why soothing, well-known songs for the local demo play in the grocery store (so you feel comfortable and familiar), why fancy restaurants play jazz, classical, or piano music (to create a sense of elevated place, influencing a higher spend).” – Ravenous
- Los Angeles’ Mayoral Frontrunner Promised To Be A ‘Relentless Advocate’ For Hollywood
“Nithya Raman comes by her Hollywood bona fides honestly. Her husband, after all, is Vali Chandrasekaran, writer on Modern Family, 30 Rock and other TV hits.” – The Hollywood Reporter
- After Years Of Renovation And Work, A Maryland Theatre Is Reborn
“Theater is so hard to do for so many reasons,” says one actor in the renovated Olney Theatre. He’s pleased “to see an actual new facility come up out of the ground, and to see talent and audience members come into this space and relish in the experience.” – Washington Post
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Freaked Out About Artificial Intelligence?
Look to Kant. – Aeon
- Digital Lists Are Destroying The Fabric Of Society
“The issue goes deeper than presents. I have four kids from elementary to high-school age, and as hard as I try to expose them to life’s realities, they remain sheltered from disappointment and dissatisfaction at every turn.” – Slate
- When Will We Know The Answers To AI’s Most Important Questions?
“Several of the most fundamental debates about the future and safety of AI remain unresolved. I believe we can’t expect these disagreements to be resolved until it’s too late to change course.” – Time
- Let’s Get Real: Intelligence Is About More Than Optimization
That slide from engineering model to human anthropology is easy to miss. We begin by saying: this is how machines work. Then, almost without noticing, we say: this is what intelligence is. And then, more dangerously still: perhaps this is what we are. – Aeon
- An Alternative Explanation Of Consciousness
Antonio Damasio argues, we “possess the celebrated gift of consciousness because of the continued presence and abundance of your homeostatic feelings.” According to Damasio, the conventional theories of consciousness have it backwards. – Undark