AJBlogs

Mad Dog at the FBI Is Sued in the Noonday Sun

Fired FBI agents are suing the bureau and Kash Patel for dismissing them because they took part in an investigation of el presidente Trumpscheisse’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

Doing the Right Thing With Nonprofit Arts Organizations: “Like Walking in High Heels Through Meat”

...while the attention to charity has evolved, the nonprofit arts behemoth class has not.

Was Richard Wagner a “Monster”?

In Verdi, the elephants are in Aida. In Wagner, the elephant in the room is a pamphlet: “Judaism and Music.” It seems the Rosetta Stone of Wagner scholarship, the central text that lays bare what lurks hidden in his life and work. Beyond a doubt, it is an egregious text,

AI tricks

[A human named David Szalay]. Paul Bloom posted this note on Substack: I’ve always thought that I would never want to read an AI-written novel, no matter how objectively well-written it is. But I’m starting to question this. I’m on a real David Szalay kick these days; last night, I finished “London

The People Marched ‘No Kings’ Signs and Costumes Spoke for Them

'No Kings' marchers in Manhattan, March 28, 2026

AJ Chronicles: Why Tech Infrastructure is the Most Important Arts Story of the Year

The infrastructure carrying culture to audiences — legal, technical, financial, corporate — was not built for the creative sector. It was built by and for technology companies, telecommunications firms, and entertainment conglomerates.

Sidney Jackson talks about the unique role of the Chicago Sinfonietta

Sidney Jackson, President & CEO of Chicago Sinfonietta, talks about their unique role and impact regionally and nationally.

Wagner’s “Tristan” at the Met — Then and Now

I am in Ann Arbor, participating in a Mahler project with Ken Kiesler and his fervent University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra – the group with which I memorably toured South Africa a year ago (and about which I blogged and broadcast). Addressing a class of young conductors this morning, I

Baghdad Bob in Drag Sycophancy Is a Feature Not a Bug

'President Trump has been right about everything." — White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. (This is old news by now, but the staff felt an obligation to memorialize it.)

“Dog on a Cold Stone Floor,” or When Nonprofit Arts Organizations Obsess About the Art More Than the People

Art is a universal good. No argument. Nonprofit arts organizations are not art, and therefore are not a universal good. No argument there, either.

Liberal Arts

(Kudos to the art director who chose that American flag done with handprints – it’s perfect). I enjoyed reading Becca Rothfield’s “Listless Liberalism” in The Point, in which she reviews Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s Abundance, and Cass Sunstein’s Liberalism, and also asks the question of why the aesthetics of a liberal society, barely addressed

Shostakovich: His Time Has Come (Alas)

Leonard Bernstein celebrated Dmitri Shostakovich’s sixtieth birthday by proclaiming him “an authentic genius” – “and there aren’t too many of those around anymore.” That took courage in 1966, when Shostakovich – the leading Soviet musician — remained a Cold War cartoon of the stooge and simpleton. As Bernstein appreciated earlier

AJ Chronicles: What Habermas Feared for our Public Sphere

This week we collected 118 stories. It's worth noting, I think, that attempts to address the current collapse of the non-profit culture sector are focused on changing market forces. But this is a larger, more systemic set of issues that has corroded all of civic life -- from culture to

Rachel Thompson shares the curricular ties between students and arts institutions

Rachel Thompson, Program Manager at the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise & Public Policy at Vanderbilt, talks about building curricular ties between students and the arts and art institutions.

What Ireland’s Basic Artist Income Experiment tells us about a new Arts Economy

Ireland demonstrated something: economic insecurity doesn't just force workers out, it diminishes the overall creative economy. That matters enormously right now, because we are entering a period when a lot of people across a lot of industries are about to lose their job security.

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