AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Why Andy Warhol Couldn’t Get Dolly Right
Parton’s astuteness may have extended to art, if it’s true she was disappointed by her Warhol portrait. – The New York Times
- After All This, Emily Wilson Is Retranslating The Odyssey From Scratch
“She says her translation methods have become more sophisticated and that enough time has passed for her to see some flaws in her work. … The new edition will be longer, she says, and will better reflect the differing social worlds of Homer’s poem.” – AP
- Today In European Museum Robberies: 200-Carat Diamond Necklace Stolen In Vienna
The platinum necklace with 673 diamonds, originally made for Egypt’s royal family and reportedly worth more than $4 million, was taken in a smash-and-grab at Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts. But at least the thieves paid for their tickets. – AFP (Yahoo!)
- CEO Of Sydney’s Huge New Museum Resigns Just Ten Weeks Before Opening Day
“In what came as a bolt from the blue to many, Powerhouse Parramatta staff were told on Thursday afternoon that chief executive Lisa Havilah would stand aside while an investigation (by the New South Wales state government) into governance and procurement practices at the museum is completed.” – Limelight (Australia)
- Political Issues Got Messy At The Cannes And Berlin Film Festivals. Will The Same Thing Happen At Venice?
Well, the foundation running the film festival is the same one that runs the art Biennale, and look what happened there … – Variety
ISSUES
- Why Andy Warhol Couldn’t Get Dolly Right
Parton’s astuteness may have extended to art, if it’s true she was disappointed by her Warhol portrait. – The New York Times
- Today In European Museum Robberies: 200-Carat Diamond Necklace Stolen In Vienna
The platinum necklace with 673 diamonds, originally made for Egypt’s royal family and reportedly worth more than $4 million, was taken in a smash-and-grab at Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts. But at least the thieves paid for their tickets. – AFP (Yahoo!)
- CEO Of Sydney’s Huge New Museum Resigns Just Ten Weeks Before Opening Day
“In what came as a bolt from the blue to many, Powerhouse Parramatta staff were told on Thursday afternoon that chief executive Lisa Havilah would stand aside while an investigation (by the New South Wales state government) into governance and procurement practices at the museum is completed.” – Limelight (Australia)
- $97 Million Rembrandt Temporarily Blocked From Leaving UK
“Portrait of Catrina Hooghsaet (1657) is ‘one of the artist’s most exceptional later works’ says the government. The painting, which (is valued at £71 million and) has been in the UK since the mid-18th century, was sold at Christie’s in a private sale last year.” – The Art Newspaper
- State Department’s Removal Of Painting Is Another Attack On Artists
By choosing Kehinde Wiley as the opening act in what may be a systematic effort to deaccession art from official government collections, the administration has chosen an artist whose work has become formulaic and clichéd, who has made comments that can easily be parodied as reverse racism. – Washington Post (MSN)
MEDIA
- Judge To Kennedy Center Board: Why Did You Vote To Put Trump’s Name On The Building Right After I Ordered You Not To?
“A judge on Thursday expressed skepticism about the Kennedy Center’s intention to return President Donald Trump’s name to the historic performing arts venue by early next month, challenging the board’s insistence on moving forward even in the face of a court ruling that blocked and reversed a previous effort.” – AP
- What It’s Like To Go Through One Of Burning Man’s Dust Storms
“The next big gust tore the tarp from our shade structure. I scrambled to secure the flapping tent walls, using water jugs and costume bags as weight. Above the screaming wind, I heard poles clanging as neighboring camps were blown to smithereens. Then, in a lull, I heard a faint voice. ‘Help!’” – The Guardian
- Numbers: The Percentage Of Australians Who Engage In Culture
The figures are growing. Live performance attendance has increased by 1.2 million since 2022, to the highest figures ever. Around three quarters of those surveyed had attended a live performance or festival in 2025. – ArtsHub
- Invoking Dolly Parton, Federal Judge Overturns Texas Law Banning Drag Shows
The law, Texas Senate Bill 12, would fine business owners up to $10,000 for hosting “sexually oriented performances”; performers would face up to a year in prison. The judge reaffirmed his ruling from three years ago that the law was an overly vague infringement on free speech. – The Texas Tribune
- Trump Administration Threatens To Demolish Kennedy Center If Renovations Don’t Proceed
“Without those efforts,” wrote administration attorneys in a court filing, “the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River.” – The Guardian
MUSIC
- After All This, Emily Wilson Is Retranslating The Odyssey From Scratch
“She says her translation methods have become more sophisticated and that enough time has passed for her to see some flaws in her work. … The new edition will be longer, she says, and will better reflect the differing social worlds of Homer’s poem.” – AP
- Where’s The Evidence That Colleges Are Committed To Teaching Writing?
AI has both clarified what we should be doing when we teach writing and made it much harder to teach writing than in the days prior to the technology’s existence. – InsideHigherEd
- Cyber Attack On Australian Book Distributor
A cyber attack on one of the country’s major publishing distributors has left bookshops and authors struggling to fill their shelves in the lead-up to their busiest trading period. – ABC Australia
- The Warehouse Where Amazon Takes Apart And Scans Books To Train Its AI: An Employee Speaks
“The employee worked at Amazon’s VGT3 warehouse, which is housed in the same facility as LAS8, where Amazon operates its print-on-demand business. … The Amazon employee I talked to described what that operation looks like from the warehouse floor.” – 404 Media
- Why Is So Much New Literary Fiction So Boring?
The question driving these opening pages is not: “What does it mean to live a good life?” or “What do we owe to people?” or “What can be saved from the ravages of time?” The question I hear is: “Have I impressed you yet?” – Devon Halliday
PEOPLE
- Why Andy Warhol Couldn’t Get Dolly Right
Parton’s astuteness may have extended to art, if it’s true she was disappointed by her Warhol portrait. – The New York Times
- After All This, Emily Wilson Is Retranslating The Odyssey From Scratch
“She says her translation methods have become more sophisticated and that enough time has passed for her to see some flaws in her work. … The new edition will be longer, she says, and will better reflect the differing social worlds of Homer’s poem.” – AP
- Today In European Museum Robberies: 200-Carat Diamond Necklace Stolen In Vienna
The platinum necklace with 673 diamonds, originally made for Egypt’s royal family and reportedly worth more than $4 million, was taken in a smash-and-grab at Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts. But at least the thieves paid for their tickets. – AFP (Yahoo!)
- CEO Of Sydney’s Huge New Museum Resigns Just Ten Weeks Before Opening Day
“In what came as a bolt from the blue to many, Powerhouse Parramatta staff were told on Thursday afternoon that chief executive Lisa Havilah would stand aside while an investigation (by the New South Wales state government) into governance and procurement practices at the museum is completed.” – Limelight (Australia)
- Political Issues Got Messy At The Cannes And Berlin Film Festivals. Will The Same Thing Happen At Venice?
Well, the foundation running the film festival is the same one that runs the art Biennale, and look what happened there … – Variety
PEOPLE
- Why Andy Warhol Couldn’t Get Dolly Right
Parton’s astuteness may have extended to art, if it’s true she was disappointed by her Warhol portrait. – The New York Times
- After All This, Emily Wilson Is Retranslating The Odyssey From Scratch
“She says her translation methods have become more sophisticated and that enough time has passed for her to see some flaws in her work. … The new edition will be longer, she says, and will better reflect the differing social worlds of Homer’s poem.” – AP
- Today In European Museum Robberies: 200-Carat Diamond Necklace Stolen In Vienna
The platinum necklace with 673 diamonds, originally made for Egypt’s royal family and reportedly worth more than $4 million, was taken in a smash-and-grab at Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts. But at least the thieves paid for their tickets. – AFP (Yahoo!)
- CEO Of Sydney’s Huge New Museum Resigns Just Ten Weeks Before Opening Day
“In what came as a bolt from the blue to many, Powerhouse Parramatta staff were told on Thursday afternoon that chief executive Lisa Havilah would stand aside while an investigation (by the New South Wales state government) into governance and procurement practices at the museum is completed.” – Limelight (Australia)
- Political Issues Got Messy At The Cannes And Berlin Film Festivals. Will The Same Thing Happen At Venice?
Well, the foundation running the film festival is the same one that runs the art Biennale, and look what happened there … – Variety
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Study: To Get Employees to Use a Benefit, Make Signing Up a Little Harder
In some cases, you need to make it (ever-so-slightly) harder for people to sign up for the program to help them feel like it’s worth the effort, suggests research forthcoming in Management Science. – Harvard Business Review
- A Case For Limiting AI In Culture
If we fail to think through and delimit the role of AI in our lives, we risk undermining the intelligibility of our own guiding cultural concepts, and thus initiating a period in our own society of which it may someday be possible to say that “nothing happened.” – The Point
- The Worst Year Ever To Be Alive
A massive volcanic eruption in AD536 has led historians to describe it as the “worst year to be alive”. Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia were plunged into darkness for 18 months. Temperatures in the summer months fell by 1.5˚C to 2.5˚C, initiating one of the coldest decades in the past two millennia. – The Conversation
- Our Misconceptions Of What Consciousness Is
Perceiving, experiencing and thinking are inherently embodied activities. The body is not just a physical object, it is a living organism that is in constant flux. It is also part of the social, cultural and material world. – Nature
- The Warnings From The Digital Age That Should Inform The AI Age
The adoption and diffusion of such technologies led to wild-eyed speculation about their possible social and political consequences, a discussion that, characteristically, ricocheted between dreams of a technological utopia and fears of an artificial state. – The Guardian