AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Warning: Age Verification Laws For Social Media Are A Disaster
While social media bans may seem like a prudent measure to protect children, they are not only ineffective, they endanger both children and adults. There is little evidence that social media is driving any type of widespread mental health crisis in children. – The Guardian
- The Actor Awards Showed That An Awards Presentation Could Actually Be Kind Of Fun
“Because it streamed on Netflix, there was no bleeping of F-bombs. Winners were not played off by an orchestra. The banter was not as stiff as the scripted dialogue we expect from the Oscars.” – Washington Post (Yahoo)
- A Conspiracy Theory That A Jim Carrey Doppelganger Picked Up His Honorary Cesar Is Making The Rounds In France
This is where we are with the internet now: The man in charge of the Césars (the “French Oscars”) had to say, ““From the outset, he was extremely touched by the Academy’s invitation. … He worked on his speech in French for months.”- The Guardian (UK)
- SNL Took A Great Moment, Tossed In Some Athletes, And Made It All Intensely Icky
“It does not take a communications professional, though I am one, to recognize this for what it is.” – Slate
- Why Did Thornton Wilder’s Our Town Suddenly Appear On Star Trek’s Starfleet Academy?
Turns out the youth are going to be putting on this play for … pretty much ever? “Our Town just sort of felt like this perfect, simple, rich story about the human experience and about time.” – Reactor
ISSUES
- Native Artist Hand-Stitches ‘Bead Bomb’ Projects Onto Utility Poles In LA
”At the edge of a Home Depot parking lot where federal immigration agents have violently detained vendors and others,” a utility pole “carries a band of color with a fluorescent sheath … made up of 10,000 pony beads spelling a message in block letters: ‘FUCK ICE.’” – Los Angeles Public Press
- The Vatican Has Removed What ‘A Chalky White Film Of Salt’ Coating The Last Judgement
That is to say, people’s sweat had gotten all over Michelangelo’s masterpiece, and now it’s being cleaned off while the sweat accumulates on a screen. – Associated Press
- The Los Angeles Olympics Logo Needs To Settle Itself Down
“If you’re going through all the trouble to create what I assume will be hundreds of logos by the time the games roll around, why would you not brand LA28 using ‘LA’ as a customized emblem? Why is it only the ‘A’ that changes out?” The answer may surprise you. – Torched LA
- The Snow Sculptures Of New York’s Latest Storm
“Collaboration was key. What came first? The snow baby sitting on the bench or the lounging mermaid beside him? Did the same person who built the snow pyramid also build the snow sphinx?” – The New York Times
- And Just Like That, 144 Year After Construction Began, Sagrada Familia’s Central Tower Is Finished
“Construction is expected to continue for a decade or so, but The Guardian called it ‘nevertheless a day full of emotion for a city that has lived with Gaudí’s unfinished work for generations.’” – ART News
MEDIA
- What’s On The Line As Warner Bros Accepts Paramount’s Bid
Oh: “The push into artificial intelligence by Oracle creates a thirst for more insight into how people view news and entertainment and what products they buy online. The streaming channels and social media giant both offer greater and more granular information.” – NPR
- Epstein Was Asked, Briefly, To Finance A Dick Cavett Biography
Luckily for Cavett, “the documentary was never made because WNET completed a background check on Mr. Epstein and decided it did not want him involved.” – The New York Times
- Who’s Going To Pay Out For The Kevin Spacey Cancellation And Implosion Of House Of Cards?
“The question at the center of the case: What actually killed Spacey’s appearance from the sixth season of the show? … A win for MRC will have major implications for production insurance coverage moving forward.” – The Hollywood Reporter
- The Debate Over What To Do With Portland’s Earthquake-Unsafe 3,000-Seat Theatre
Protesters have begun telling the city council exactly what they think of the idea to abandon the big theatre. “If you don’t renovate the Keller, it has no other use. … The only other choice is demolition, which would leave a hole in the heart of downtown.” – Oregon ArtsWatch
- How The BAFTAs And The BBC Absolutely Bungled Their Response To A Racist Slur
“Black people and people with Tourette’s have been grappling with the ugly language and the fallout from a night that was supposed to be a celebration.” – The New York Times
MUSIC
- Firefighters Rescue Rare Books From A Library On The Cliff Edge After Landslide
“Firefighters drilled through the wall of a building behind the structure and entering for minutes at a time, strapped the bookcases together and hauled them backwards to reach the books.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Ode To A Great Editor
During my own editing stint, I came to understand writers as prisoners of their own minds, pressed up against the bars of the words they have already committed to the page. Writers suffer from a cognitive impairment that limits their ability to see flaws in their prose. – The Atlantic
- Congressional Republicans Propose National Book Banning
House Resolution 7661 transforms grassroots library battles into national policy, giving censors sweeping powers to purge school and public collections. Democracy’s reading rooms become political battlegrounds as cultural wars scale up. — Literary Hub
- Where Has The Sex Gone? Our Literature Is Getting Cleaner
Literary writers have other demands to satisfy. In general, readers come to their books seeking not an escape from reality but perspective on it. Romance novels can provide this, just as literary novels can have happy endings, but they’re still beholden to the fantasy that’s part of the genre. – The Atlantic
- A Rebirth In Critic-ing?
If the review sections of newspapers are closing down, there’s a sense that this moment could make room for a meatier, weirder kind of criticism. – Columbia Journalism Review
PEOPLE
- Warning: Age Verification Laws For Social Media Are A Disaster
While social media bans may seem like a prudent measure to protect children, they are not only ineffective, they endanger both children and adults. There is little evidence that social media is driving any type of widespread mental health crisis in children. – The Guardian
- The Actor Awards Showed That An Awards Presentation Could Actually Be Kind Of Fun
“Because it streamed on Netflix, there was no bleeping of F-bombs. Winners were not played off by an orchestra. The banter was not as stiff as the scripted dialogue we expect from the Oscars.” – Washington Post (Yahoo)
- A Conspiracy Theory That A Jim Carrey Doppelganger Picked Up His Honorary Cesar Is Making The Rounds In France
This is where we are with the internet now: The man in charge of the Césars (the “French Oscars”) had to say, ““From the outset, he was extremely touched by the Academy’s invitation. … He worked on his speech in French for months.”- The Guardian (UK)
- SNL Took A Great Moment, Tossed In Some Athletes, And Made It All Intensely Icky
“It does not take a communications professional, though I am one, to recognize this for what it is.” – Slate
- Why Did Thornton Wilder’s Our Town Suddenly Appear On Star Trek’s Starfleet Academy?
Turns out the youth are going to be putting on this play for … pretty much ever? “Our Town just sort of felt like this perfect, simple, rich story about the human experience and about time.” – Reactor
PEOPLE
- Warning: Age Verification Laws For Social Media Are A Disaster
While social media bans may seem like a prudent measure to protect children, they are not only ineffective, they endanger both children and adults. There is little evidence that social media is driving any type of widespread mental health crisis in children. – The Guardian
- The Actor Awards Showed That An Awards Presentation Could Actually Be Kind Of Fun
“Because it streamed on Netflix, there was no bleeping of F-bombs. Winners were not played off by an orchestra. The banter was not as stiff as the scripted dialogue we expect from the Oscars.” – Washington Post (Yahoo)
- A Conspiracy Theory That A Jim Carrey Doppelganger Picked Up His Honorary Cesar Is Making The Rounds In France
This is where we are with the internet now: The man in charge of the Césars (the “French Oscars”) had to say, ““From the outset, he was extremely touched by the Academy’s invitation. … He worked on his speech in French for months.”- The Guardian (UK)
- SNL Took A Great Moment, Tossed In Some Athletes, And Made It All Intensely Icky
“It does not take a communications professional, though I am one, to recognize this for what it is.” – Slate
- Why Did Thornton Wilder’s Our Town Suddenly Appear On Star Trek’s Starfleet Academy?
Turns out the youth are going to be putting on this play for … pretty much ever? “Our Town just sort of felt like this perfect, simple, rich story about the human experience and about time.” – Reactor
THEATRE
VISUAL
- A Conspiracy Theory That A Jim Carrey Doppelganger Picked Up His Honorary Cesar Is Making The Rounds In France
This is where we are with the internet now: The man in charge of the Césars (the “French Oscars”) had to say, ““From the outset, he was extremely touched by the Academy’s invitation. … He worked on his speech in French for months.”- The Guardian (UK)
- In A Time Of Lies, Sudden Wars, And AI Hallucinations, We Desperately Need Live Performance
“The performing arts, with their warm embrace of subjectivity, might not seem the most likely corrective amid this crisis. But they have much to teach us about the notion of truth.” – The New York Times
- “Moral Self-Defense” And The Uses of Public Shaming
“There are plenty of self-serving, self-aggrandizing, morally objectionable reasons for why people participate in public shaming. Nevertheless, the concept of moral self-defence reminds us that our self-respect, our social identities, and our status in our communities are vital.” – Psyche
- The Qualities Of Ethics Required For Good Government
In a world increasingly defined by distance, between citizen and state, between policy and experience, between law and justice, Rammohun Roy offers a reminder that good government is not only a matter of laws or statistics. It is a matter of presence. – Aeon
- Just What/Where Is The Leisure Class?
We need to work, because survival demands it, and we need to rest, because work is tiring, but are those two possibilities really exhaustive? – Liberties Journal
