AJ Four Ways:
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- Have We Wrecked Childhood?
This doesn’t sound like a very nice life, does it? It’s an existence in which you’re micromanaged and surveilled, given almost no freedom or privacy, and put under constant pressure while, at the same time, being seen as incompetent and lazy. – The New Yorker
- Twilight Of The Oxford Dons
These same dons disdained Britain’s provincial universities—known pejoratively as Redbrick—as well as academics in the U.S., whom they scorned for going about their business with “woefully unnecessary seriousness.” A don, by contrast, was effortlessly successful. – The Wall Street Journal
- This May Not Be The Great American Novel, But It’s Got To Be The Great American Manuscript
That would be the 120-foot scroll of architectural tracing paper on which Jack Kerouac typed — single-spaced — his original draft of On the Road. He produced the whole megillah in three very caffeinated weeks. – AP
- Vancouver Police Break Into Gallery Mistaking Sculpture For Person In Distress
According to the VPD, a caller reported seeing a person’s feet sticking out from behind a counter and believed medical assistance was needed. – Vancouver City News
- Iconic Salt Lake City Temple Has Been Transformed. Now A Rare Look Inside
After years of extensive renovation and structural upgrades, the LDS Church will open its signature temple April 5 to the public — Mormons and non-Mormons alike – for six months of unprecedented tours. – CNN
- Far-Right German Party Attacks Iconic Bauhaus School
Attacks on Bauhaus by Alternative for Germany, also known as AfD, come as Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany is about to vote in an election that could see a far-right party take control of one of the country’s states for the first time since World War II. – AP
- In Some Places, Congress’s Defunding Of Public TV And Radio Is Literally Dangerous
“Public television stations are not only broadcasters. They are physical infrastructure inside FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System — one of the pathways that pushes AMBER Alerts, severe-weather warnings, and evacuation orders to the phone in your pocket.” And if rural communities lose their public stations, those alerts disappear. – The Hollywood Reporter
- What Makes Good Writing For Video Games?
“The kinds of writing that players encounter in games comes as a direct result of the medium’s competing needs and origins.” – Washington Post
- What Will Become Of Broadway’s Ed Sullivan Theatre Now That Colbert Has Left?
What will happen to the stage where Elvis’s swiveling pelvis was kept demurely out of frame, where the Beatles made their American debut, where Jackie Mason may or may not have flipped the bird at the host, where Topo Gigio found inexplicable fame? – Curbed
- Cleveland Orchestra Musicians Authorize Strike
The bargaining committee said it’s far apart from management with regard to compensation, repetitive stress injuries and gaining a voice in the orchestra’s artistic direction. – Ideastream
- How City Arts Funding In Chicago Stacks Up Against That Of Other Big U.S. Cities
“Across the country’s five largest cities, Chicago was the only one to cut the funding for its local arts agency during its most recent budget cycle. And while its spending dwarfs that of the larger Los Angeles, and trails only behind New York per capita, the pressure is mounting to do more.” – WBEZ (Chicago)
- The Most Successful Work Of Art About 9/11? A Canadian Musical
“In the quarter-century since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the horror of that day has inspired novels, films, television shows, paintings and sculpture. But the most enduring artistic response has been … Come From Away, about a small town with a big airport where nearly 7,000 travelers were diverted.” – The New York Times
- Michael Sheen’s Welsh National Theatre Takes On A Subject That, Shockingly, No One Has Done Until Now
That subject is the Welsh nobleman Owain Glyndŵr, who led a major rebellion against the English in the 15th century. Despite his fame, Sheen says, Glyndŵr’s story wasn’t taught in Welsh schools and nobody had ever staged it on a large scale before. – The Guardian
- Enormous Hoard Of Viking Silver Found In Danish Guy’s Garden
“The anonymous homeowner was planning to build a new terrace in his garden when he found … a trove of 700 Viking Age silver objects and fragments. … The hoard contains numerous silver bars, as well as bracelets, 47 whole coins and fragments, a small Thor’s hammer, and various cut silver objects.” – ARTnews
- CEO Who Turned Around Joffrey Ballet’s Finances To Step Down
“Since joining the Joffrey in 2013, (Greg) Cameron has brought financial stability to the organization, eliminating a budget deficit and establishing its first-ever endowment, which has grown to approximately $30 million. During his tenure, the operating budget more than doubled from $13 million to about $33 million.” – WBEZ (Chicago)
- Just What Exactly Was Going On With Yayoi Kusama During Her Final Decade?
Those years seemed to be productive and were certainly profitable: she became the highest-priced living female artist, famous all over the world. At the same time, she stopped seeing visitors, fired longtime assistants and was reportedly bedridden. How, and with whom, was she producing her late work? – The New York Times
- Trump Officials Threaten To Withdraw All Aid If Smithsonian Doesn’t Drop “Ideological Agenda”
“Administration officials ‘cannot in good conscience continue to support the Smithsonian under current leadership,’” said a letter from a key policy director and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. “citing artifact loans, procurement assistance and discretionary grants as examples of federal support that could be at risk.” – The Washington Post (Yahoo!)
- Who decides what “best” even means?
Good Morning,
Tom Service asks a question the classical world mostly avoids: what does it mean to call the Berlin Philharmonic the best orchestra in the world, and how has the label survived a half-century of conductors, politics and technology? (The Guardian) The answer isn’t in the playing. It’s in who confers the title and why it sticks.
Reputation, it turns out, is a poor predictor of survival. Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences announced its closure Tuesday and got a rescue deal Wednesday (Philadelphia Inquirer) — 200 years of standing bought it exactly one news cycle. Georgia Ensemble Theatre, after 34 years, got no rescue and no announcement; the board simply went quiet (ArtsATL). A Louisville high school’s cancelled Ragtime drew a million views and Broadway’s attention before it got the district’s (Playbill). What decides who gets saved isn’t age or quality, it seems to be whether anyone with money or a megaphone is watching.
Boston Ballet had someone watching: an anonymous patron just wrote a $10 million check (People). Edinburgh’s arts groups will get their pay from tourists, through a visitor levy worth up to £50 million a year (The Stage) — the city finally billing the crowds for the culture that draws them.
Also: at 25, Adult Swim TV channel is thriving while the rest of cable dies, and even its own people can’t explain why (TheWrap).
All of our stories below.
- How Is Adult Swim Still Prospering When Most Cable TV Is Fading Away?
“It feels like a wicked joke that Cartoon Network’s late-night programming block — already an aberration when it launched in cable’s heyday in 2001 — is somehow thriving, … even as the rest of cable slowly slides into oblivion. Even the folks behind Adult Swim don’t really understand it.” – TheWrap (Yahoo!)
- What Replaced The World Trade Center Should Have Been So Much More
The twin towers were a product of their time, the mid-1960s, and what has replaced them is still, sadly, in too many ways a product of that same time. We have learned a lot about building cities since the World Trade Center went up, and we did not put nearly enough of that knowledge to use. – The New York Times
- Is The Berlin Philharmonic Really The Very Best Orchestra In The World?
Tom Service: “What does being the ‘best’ mean? And how and why have the Berliners acquired, and held on to, their globe-topping orchestral reputation for so many decades, through changes of conductor and personnel, political upheaval and technological transformation?” – The Guardian
- There’s A Difference Between Celebrating Innovation and Trying To Understand It
Journalist Nicholas Carr called the online world “the shallows” for the way it erodes concentration. But the paradox is that its depthlessness arrives as immersion. – The Walrus
- Why There Are Fewer English Majors In Universities Today
The decline of the English major offers a lesson in what young people want. Teenagers in the 2020s have a spiritual thirst that is unmet by a curriculum without order and greatness and charm. A field without a bible like the Norton doesn’t satisfy them. – Portico Quarterly
- Americans Are Fascinated With Art Heists. Not So Much Fascinated By Art?
If you are a fictional character and you happen to be stealing art, odds are excellent that you’re in a heist movie. At this point, the genre is so famous, and mocked, that plumbing it for serious lessons about art and the art market may seem quixotic. – ARTnews
- Thanks To New Tourist Tax, Edinburgh Arts Organizations To (Probably) Get 25% Increase In City Funding
“The distribution of funds raised by the Scottish capital’s new visitor levy, which is expected to raise up to £50m annually, has been the subject of intense debate in recent weeks. … (Organisations now) face a ‘deeply frustrating’ delay until the uplift is confirmed.” – The Stage
- Bookshop.com Has Directed $50M To Indy Bookstores
The company launched in 2020 to offer shoppers a way of buying books online that supported independent bookstores and to divert sales away from Amazon and competing platforms. It operates both as a proprietary sales channel and offers affiliate sales for independent stores and influencers. – Publishers Weekly
- US Government Agency Weakens Protections For Cultural Heritage Sites
Proposed federal rule changes would eliminate the requirement for public feedback and consultation with key parties like Tribal Nations and ultimately lead to the destruction of much of our cultural heritage. – Live Science
- A Deal To Save Philadelphia’s Academy Of Natural Sciences
The announcement comes one day after Drexel and the Academy said they would close the Academy’s museum effective Sept. 30 and that Academy CEO Scott Cooper would be stepping down immediately. Sept. 27 will be the last day the museum will be open to the public. – Philadelphia Inquirer
- How D.C.’s Dance Place Fell Apart
This past May, Dance Place executive director André Mazelin abruptly fired artistic director Tariq O’Malley and eliminated his position. In July, at a town hall, former staffers, performers, and choreographers gave accounts of severe staffing, management, and interpersonal difficulties. (Mazelin himself resigned in August.) – Washington City Paper
- Somebody Just Gave Boston Ballet $10M
The money was given by “an anonymous, long-time patron” of the organization who found themselves “inspired” by its transformation during Nissinen’s time there, according to the news release. – People
- Singer Cassandra Wilson, 70
Wilson’s catalog showcased the full breadth of her native Mississippi’s musical heritage, drawing primarily from jazz but spanning every foundational American genre. – Los Angeles Times
- Yo-Yo Ma At 70
“There’s a real relationship between the way he plays and the way he talks. There’s a sense of gathering the room, gathering a community, and you’re drawn into the emotional experience of his playing.” – The New York Times
- A Filmmaking Couple And The Hit That Transformed Both Their Careers And Their Relationship
When Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi — famous in their native Spain as “Los Javis” — took their film La Bola Negra to Cannes this year, they earned a 20-minute ovation, the Best Director prize, a bidding war over distribution rights, and Oscar buzz. They’ve also learned something serious about themselves. – The New York Times
- A Kentucky High School’s Production Of “Ragtime: Was Abruptly Cancelled. Then Broadway Spoke Up.
Last week the principal of Louisville’s performing arts high school told the cast and crew that the school district had cancelled their production due to community concerns about subject matter. The students posted a video online; it quickly tallied a million views — including by members of the current Broadway team. – Playbill
- Georgia Ensemble Theatre In Metro Atlanta Quietly Shuts Down
“The company opened in 1992 at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center, served thousands of patrons over the years and collaborated with a ‘who’s who’ of area performers. On April 19 of this year, the Board of Trustees decided to close the company with no fanfare and no public statement.” – ArtsATL