AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Thousands Of Japanese Are Moving A Historic Castle — Hauling It By Hand
In 2015, the fortified tower of Hirosaki Castle was moved, in one piece, about 260 feet from its old site to allow repairs to the compound’s outer walls. Now a horde of volunteers, working 80 at a time pulling ropes, are pulling the tower back to its site, centimeter by centimeter. – AFP (Yahoo!)
- California Passes Bill To Employ More Local Journalists
Assembly Bill 2222, known as the Community Newsroom Employment and Workforce Sustainability Act, creates refundable tax credits for the state’s news outlets based on the number of journalists they employ. – NiemanLab
- She Who Controls The Logistics…
- The Son Of 1960s America’s Most Notorious Leftist Revolutionaries Ended Up A Playwright And Northwestern Professor
Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, leaders of the Weather Underground, raised their kids while blowing up buildings and fleeing the FBI. Their older son, Zayd Ayers Dohrn, is ambivalent about his upbringing but says there was plenty of love. So how did he become an academic and a playwright? – WBEZ (Chicago)
- Consider The Lowly Bollard
The posts come in many forms — retractable, rigid, ordinary, ornate, thick, thin. There are other objects that serve a similar purpose, including “sugar cube” barriers and hulking planters. At Lincoln Center, stylish, warped concrete blocks guard the square. – The New York Times
ISSUES
- Thousands Of Japanese Are Moving A Historic Castle — Hauling It By Hand
In 2015, the fortified tower of Hirosaki Castle was moved, in one piece, about 260 feet from its old site to allow repairs to the compound’s outer walls. Now a horde of volunteers, working 80 at a time pulling ropes, are pulling the tower back to its site, centimeter by centimeter. – AFP (Yahoo!)
- Philadelphia’s Academy Of Natural Sciences To Close After 200 Years
The Academy of Natural Sciences will close its Parkway museum at the end of the month, ending a nearly 200-year run as a destination for generations of visitors. The museum, founded in 1812 and opened to the public in 1828, has long been a fixture for families, students and educators. – 6 ABC
- Kennedy Center Will Remove Major Outdoor Sculpture
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will remove a major outdoor sculpture from the center’s grounds on Wednesday. The work, installed in 2019, was targeted for elimination after President Trump’s takeover of the center, according to internal documents obtained by The New York Times. – The New York Times
- ICE Says It Has Seized Thousands Of Smuggled Ancient Artifacts In Florida
“The Homeland Security Investigations unit of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) said it seized more than 22,000 ancient artifacts in Florida as part of a smuggling inquest that counts ‘among the largest in the agency’s history,’ according to a press release.” – ARTnews
- Theft Of Renaissance Altarpiece In Sicily Confounds Investigators
“Investigative authorities have said very little on the record, but sources speaking anonymously to The Guardian and local media, as well as art historians who know the (museum in Messina) intimately, say lots of elements don’t add up, except one: the date chosen by the thieves.” – The Guardian
MEDIA
- Consider The Lowly Bollard
The posts come in many forms — retractable, rigid, ordinary, ornate, thick, thin. There are other objects that serve a similar purpose, including “sugar cube” barriers and hulking planters. At Lincoln Center, stylish, warped concrete blocks guard the square. – The New York Times
- Britain’s Working Class Is Getting Priced Out Of The Arts Entirely. Look Out For What Comes Next.
With the shrinking of arts instruction in schools and free higher education, it’s ever harder for non-rich artists to train. Then there’s the ever-rising cost of getting your work seen, even at open-access events like the Edinburgh Fringe. In response, Ivan Hewett writes, a “radical class-consciousness” is starting to appear. – The Telegraph (UK) (MSN)
- Scotland To Try Out A Basic-Income-For-Artists Scheme Like Ireland’s
“A pilot project in Scotland” — called the Scottish Artists Minimum Income initiative — “based on the Irish model could see an initial 2,000 writers, musicians, playwrights and visual artists secure almost £15,000 ($20,000) a year to help them pursue a career.” – The Herald (Scotland)
- How Did Brooklyn’s Skyline Go So Wrong?
Two decades ago, Downtown Brooklyn was well connected but underpopulated, a combination that drew armies of fresh college graduates, quintupling the population. It’s hard to believe how thoroughly and quickly the skyline has been remade in that time—and how shoddily. – Curbed
- City Audit Of Financially Troubled San Francisco Arts Center Is Complete
Calls for an audit of the African-American Arts and Culture Complex came after the nonprofit was consistently late with required reports on the spending of millions in city grant money. The audit found no misuse of funds but identified shortcomings with both the AAACC and the San Francisco Arts Commission. – San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
MUSIC
- Hong Kong’s Independent Bookstores Face Severe Pressure From Chinese Authorities
“(The shops), many of them tucked away … inside buildings, have long offered a refuge and a window to a freer world for some mainland Chinese readers seeking ideas suppressed at home. But these spaces now are under threat following a wave of bookseller arrests over alleged sedition under a 2024 national security law.” – AP
- Putin’s Crackdown On Literature
After Mr. Putin declared all-out war on Ukraine in 2022, he unleashed a devastating crackdown on free speech. That was initially confined to criticism of the war. Over time it spread, attacking a range of cultural expression. Now, the Kremlin is placing literature squarely in its cross hairs. – The New York Times
- Publisher Announces AI Bot Assistant For Health Care Books
Elsevier announced the launch of Nora AI, an AI-powered assistant available within Elsevier e-books through VitalSource’s Bookshelf platform. Nora AI enables users to ask questions and receive personalized, evidence-based answers drawn directly from Elsevier content. – Publishers Weekly
- Could Yiddish Be Headed For A New Revival?
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of students enrolled in Yiddish-language online courses exploded – not only in the United States but also in Canada, Mexico and Latin America, Europe and elsewhere. … At the same time, organizations like the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the Yiddish Book Center have pushed for a new perception of Yiddish.” – The Conversation
- The Long-Growing Audiobook Market Is Turning Into A Bubble
“(The) gap between the rapid expansion in available titles and slowing revenue growth is creating new pressure across the industry. … More titles are competing for a finite amount of listening time, raising the value of established audiences and making it harder for individual projects to break through.” – TheWrap (MSN)
PEOPLE
- Thousands Of Japanese Are Moving A Historic Castle — Hauling It By Hand
In 2015, the fortified tower of Hirosaki Castle was moved, in one piece, about 260 feet from its old site to allow repairs to the compound’s outer walls. Now a horde of volunteers, working 80 at a time pulling ropes, are pulling the tower back to its site, centimeter by centimeter. – AFP (Yahoo!)
- California Passes Bill To Employ More Local Journalists
Assembly Bill 2222, known as the Community Newsroom Employment and Workforce Sustainability Act, creates refundable tax credits for the state’s news outlets based on the number of journalists they employ. – NiemanLab
- She Who Controls The Logistics…
- The Son Of 1960s America’s Most Notorious Leftist Revolutionaries Ended Up A Playwright And Northwestern Professor
Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, leaders of the Weather Underground, raised their kids while blowing up buildings and fleeing the FBI. Their older son, Zayd Ayers Dohrn, is ambivalent about his upbringing but says there was plenty of love. So how did he become an academic and a playwright? – WBEZ (Chicago)
- Consider The Lowly Bollard
The posts come in many forms — retractable, rigid, ordinary, ornate, thick, thin. There are other objects that serve a similar purpose, including “sugar cube” barriers and hulking planters. At Lincoln Center, stylish, warped concrete blocks guard the square. – The New York Times
PEOPLE
- Thousands Of Japanese Are Moving A Historic Castle — Hauling It By Hand
In 2015, the fortified tower of Hirosaki Castle was moved, in one piece, about 260 feet from its old site to allow repairs to the compound’s outer walls. Now a horde of volunteers, working 80 at a time pulling ropes, are pulling the tower back to its site, centimeter by centimeter. – AFP (Yahoo!)
- California Passes Bill To Employ More Local Journalists
Assembly Bill 2222, known as the Community Newsroom Employment and Workforce Sustainability Act, creates refundable tax credits for the state’s news outlets based on the number of journalists they employ. – NiemanLab
- She Who Controls The Logistics…
- The Son Of 1960s America’s Most Notorious Leftist Revolutionaries Ended Up A Playwright And Northwestern Professor
Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, leaders of the Weather Underground, raised their kids while blowing up buildings and fleeing the FBI. Their older son, Zayd Ayers Dohrn, is ambivalent about his upbringing but says there was plenty of love. So how did he become an academic and a playwright? – WBEZ (Chicago)
- Consider The Lowly Bollard
The posts come in many forms — retractable, rigid, ordinary, ornate, thick, thin. There are other objects that serve a similar purpose, including “sugar cube” barriers and hulking planters. At Lincoln Center, stylish, warped concrete blocks guard the square. – The New York Times
THEATRE
VISUAL
- She Who Controls The Logistics…
- Why Letting AI Do Our Writing Is A Bad Idea
The act of writing is an act of thinking, and to automate our paragraphs is to populate our screens with words without filling our minds with the ideas necessary to conceive of them. – Derek Thompson
- How Our Gamification Culture Kills The Spirit Of Play
The entire architecture of digital life – with its algorithmic feeds, frictionless production and the ambient expectation that we should be consuming or optimising at all times – nudges us towards chasing outputs rather than generating meaning. – Aeon
- What I Learned From China’s Robot Games
For the first hour or so, I found the Robot Games enthralling. What can robots already do, and where do they still fall short? Which robot will manage to crawl under an obstacle, and which will pitifully get stuck? But after a while, I suddenly realized that I had grown deeply bored. – Yascha Mounk
- The Fake Experts That AI Keeps Citing
The authors don’t actually exist, but are instead names that large language models repeatedly produce when tasked with generating experts in certain fields. – 404 Media