Today's Stories

Wu-Tang Clan’s Historic Blunder Selling A Single Recording

The work was sold at auction for a reported $2 million to a then-anonymous American buyer, seemingly proving that music could sell at the level of Picasso and Warhol. It proved a Pyrrhic victory when the buyer was revealed to be the hated “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli. - ARTnews

As The National Ballet Of Canada Turns 75, It Demonstrates Both Artistry And Guts

But "is it a Canadian ballet company or just a first-rate ballet company based in Canada?" - The New York Times

Eric Bauza, Emmy-Winning Voice Actor And Heir To Mel Blanc At Looney Tunes, Has Died Suddenly At 46

Recently, "the Canadian actor outdid himself with Coyote vs. Acme, voicing everything from Bugs Bunny to Foghorn Leghorn and Tweety Bird." - The Hollywood Reporter

Can An Immigrant From Scotland Really Be ‘An Irish Writer’?

The writer herself has questions."Writers are, often, to generalise, outsiders, observers, given to the long view, odd if not downright awkward. ... How do these propensities relate to the construction of literature as an international sport?" - Irish Times

The Top Movie Soundtracks Of The 21st Century

From Jóhann Jóhannson's score for Sicario to the many joys of Shrek 2 to Howard Shore's scores for The Lord of the Rings, music makes these movies - not just better, but essentially makes them what they are. - The Atlantic

When The Mystery Author Is So Caustic She Ends Up A Character In A Murder Movie

Patricia Highsmith's "politics are horrendous. She is homophobic despite being gay, antisemitic, anti-everything. Yet she is one of the most psychologically astute writers of the 20th century, particularly brilliant at allowing us into the dark parts of the human psyche.” - The New York Times

Our Free Newsletters

Your eyes on the world through a culture lens

Stephen Fry On Sherlock Holmes

"Even as the stories were still being written and published, tens of thousands around the world behaved as if Holmes and Watson truly lived and breathed." Why? - The Guardian (UK)

The Predecessors To The Possibly Partly Fake Documentary You Can See Everything

For instance, Shirley Clarke's 1967 movie Portrait of Jason. - The New York Times

Anthony LaPaglia Didn’t Get To Be Tony Soprano, But That’s Not A Problem

The best piece of advice the actor says he's ever received: "'Know your lines and don’t hit the furniture.' That is Spencer Tracy’s acting advice. I’ve always thought, dead on.'" - The Guardian (UK)

Why Millennials Are So Into This Movie Star’s Turn On Dancing With The Stars

"It’s rare for Dancing With the Stars to attract a star of Stiles’s wattage. The show is hard, humbling work." - The New York Times

How To Write About People, And Place, Beyond War

"Turning to fiction allowed for stories that would otherwise have disappeared into the chest of time, to live on, and slowly but surely they are educating, bringing forth that we all share this place together. The 24-hour news cycle leaves little room for reflection or deeper understanding." - LitHub

Bristol Is Booming With New Spaces For Black Music

"We don't need to pretend to be nobody else, we're just us. It just took a while to get there." - BBC

Helping ‘Benjamin Button’ Grow Up, Into A Musical

"In rehearsals, they tightened the structure, fine-tuned the music and lyrics, tamping down the sentimentality. Still, the show is plenty sentimental." - The New York Times

What Makes For A Good Scary Story?

The end, says Stephen Graham Jones."The story is running along the top of a flat mesa, and it's nighttime and 95% of it is even-footing. But then at the very end, you jump off into the night, into the darkness, and you trust." - NPR

The Owners Of Elvis’s Music Catalogue Are Suing Anthropic

“The Elvis plaintiffs bring this action to enforce these exclusive rights against the defendant that has built its entire business model based on copyright infringement at a scale never seen before," according to the lawsuit. - The New York Times

It’s Spooky Season, And Time To Acknowledge The Most Influential American Writer Ever

Edgar Allan Poe "seems in deliberate, even flagrant, contrast with what were once regarded as the great themes of American literature: the freedom of self-reinvention promised by a new society and its frontier, exploration, rugged individualism, and the struggle to conquer nature." - Slate

Our Playlists Are Filled With ‘Old’ Music

Is nostalgia - and not just A.I. - ruining popular music right now, when more than 100,000 songs are released to streamers every single day? - BBC

Noise Laws, Drugs, And Cellphones Are Harming Dance Clubs In Britain

Or so lovers of (ridiculously) loud dance music claim. "At Gaffe, a DIY space in northeast London, a sign shows two arrows pointing in different directions. One says 'Dancing,' the other 'Yapping.'" - The Guardian (UK)

The Queer, Tattooed Colombian Author Who’s A National Book Award Finalist

Júlian Delgado Lopera: "'Most of the catastrophic violence in our history can be traced back to a man who hasn’t allowed himself to feel tenderness,' he affirms. ... He’s referring to a kind of violence that goes beyond the long-running armed conflict." - El País English

The Film Director Whose Impossible Class Struggle Movie Won At Venice

Lee Chang-Dong: "I constantly asked myself: am I worthy of telling this story? And if I am, how do I tell it? Do I stand close to the workers, or keep my distance?" - The Guardian (UK)

By Topic

Why Some Youth – The Ones Who Joust On Bikes, For Instance – Are Going Medieval

One "emerging medieval strand 'wenchcore,' which offers 'a more acceptable voracious sexuality, the ribald, singing, dancing, drinking, doesn’t-need-to-be-perfect idea of womanhood and of masculinity … more of just whatever goes.'" - The Guardian (UK)

The Art Of Attention

“You can’t talk about aesthetics,” he wrote, “without talking about the principle of hope and the existence of evil.” Attention, for him, was a matter of life and death, or at least of their cultural equivalents, remembering and forgetting. - The New York Times

Why Friction Is Necessary For Making Progress

The reality is that friction, despite seeming so antagonistic, is necessary and even productive. The force that resists motion has, since humans first struck a spark from a stone, been the very thing that propels us forward. - Aeon

The Creative Mindset

Actively shaping this perception, rather than only letting it shape you, is a big part of what makes you creative. You need to actively create an attitude that enables you to do work amidst your circumstances, or even transcending it.  - 3 Quarks Daily

Research: Why AI Won’t Replace Humans At Creativity

While AI can bypass years of artistic training, it cannot replace the transformative experiences that give creativity its deeper meaning. The research suggests that the future of art may lie less in producing impressive works and more in using technology to inspire exploration, meaningful experiences and new ways of seeing the world. - TechExplore

Arundhati Roy On The AI End Game

Remember how, in Thailand and Indonesia, the ocean drew back from the coastline? People ran out to marvel at the miles of pristine new beach that suddenly emerged, not realising that, far out at sea, a wall of water was building up and would come crashing over them. - Equator

The Film Director Whose Impossible Class Struggle Movie Won At Venice

Lee Chang-Dong: "I constantly asked myself: am I worthy of telling this story? And if I am, how do I tell it? Do I stand close to the workers, or keep my distance?" - The Guardian (UK)

A Huge Fire Has Destroyed Hitler’s Nazi Guesthouse

For some reason (the reason being that after WWII, "local officials fought successfully to keep it, seeing it as a historical site that could attract visitors"), it was still standing, and had a popular restaurant. - The New York Times

“Why Satire Is No Laughing Matter”: An Essay By Sacha Baron Cohen

“Satire doesn’t just needle politicians or regimes — it occasionally helps bring them down. … Historian Ben Lewis credits Soviet joke-­telling with helping to topple communism, by making it impossible for even the system’s own enforcers to take it seriously. … ‘Every joke,’ George Orwell observed, ‘is a tiny revolution.’” - Time

This Year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Booted From The National Mall, Thrived On A Nine-Month U.S. Tour

“Clifford Murphy, the director of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, which runs the festival, called it a ‘democratizing experience’ — one that added up to more than just making lemons into lemonade.” - The New York Times

Colombia’s National Museum Is The First Casualty In The New President’s Culture War

Last week, Abelardo de la Espriella, a far-right politician sworn in as President in August, declared a "cultural counterrevolution" and had dozens of artworks and historical objects removed from the Museo Nacional in Bogotá. In response, some 62,000 people demonstrated in the capital, arguing that the President's action violates Colombia's 1991 Constitution. - Artnet

Hong Kong Overhauls Its System For Performing Arts Funding, And Groups Are Nervous

Since 2008, the territory’s government has funded nine designated major performing arts groups, including the Hong Kong Ballet, Philharmonic, and Repertory Theatre. The city’s chief executive has announced a planned change to a more flexible, “merit-based” system which would make room for more organizations. - South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)

Wu-Tang Clan’s Historic Blunder Selling A Single Recording

The work was sold at auction for a reported $2 million to a then-anonymous American buyer, seemingly proving that music could sell at the level of Picasso and Warhol. It proved a Pyrrhic victory when the buyer was revealed to be the hated “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli. - ARTnews

The Top Movie Soundtracks Of The 21st Century

From Jóhann Jóhannson's score for Sicario to the many joys of Shrek 2 to Howard Shore's scores for The Lord of the Rings, music makes these movies - not just better, but essentially makes them what they are. - The Atlantic

Bristol Is Booming With New Spaces For Black Music

"We don't need to pretend to be nobody else, we're just us. It just took a while to get there." - BBC

The Owners Of Elvis’s Music Catalogue Are Suing Anthropic

“The Elvis plaintiffs bring this action to enforce these exclusive rights against the defendant that has built its entire business model based on copyright infringement at a scale never seen before," according to the lawsuit. - The New York Times

Our Playlists Are Filled With ‘Old’ Music

Is nostalgia - and not just A.I. - ruining popular music right now, when more than 100,000 songs are released to streamers every single day? - BBC

Some Questions For And About The Suddenly Shuttered Phoenix Symphony

For instance: "Why it hired a new music director ... amid much fanfare last March; whether any employees other than CEO Peter Kjome will be paid during the suspension; or what, specifically, is being done to help the musicians and staff whose pay has been cut off." - Phoenix New Times

San Francisco’s SFMoMA Gets A Big Boost From A K-Pop Star

Want to sell tickets? Get a K-pop star's art collection up. "The show has been a blockbuster success, with over 66,000 tickets sold and advance sales that were six times higher than any previous exhibition at the museum." - The Guardian (UK)

Dealers Scramble To Get Work Out Of Art Basel Paris After Surprise Early Closing

Multiple dealers told ARTnews they’d received an email announcing the decision at around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. By then, many had already suspected Saturday’s opening might be canceled. The loss of Sunday came as more of a surprise. - ARTnews

Man Arrested For Beheading Iwo Jima Memorial Statue At Quantico Marine Base

“Officers responding to a report of destruction of property at the Marine Corps Base Quantico around 10:31 p.m. saw a man ‘actively damaging the statue with a sledgehammer’ and detained him without incident, Prince William County police said.” - CNN

Art Basel Paris Is Closing Early Because Of France’s Violent Demonstrations

The art fair had been schedule to run through the weekend, but organizers have decided to shut it down on Friday evening “in light of potential demonstrations across Paris this weekend, and in the interest of safeguarding our visitors.” - Artnet

Kennicott: The New LACMA Is A Train Wreck

He has achieved what many curators, scholars and museum professionals dream of: A museum that decontextualizes art, mixes it all up in a giant cauldron of visual distraction and isolates it from history and culture. But why? How could this happen to one of the country’s great art collections? - Washington Post (MSN)

Now Staff At All Four V&A Museums In London Will Strike

“Unionized staff across all four branches of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London announced their intention to strike on October 29 and 30, citing stalled negotiations and allegations of ‘Amazon-style’ working conditions at the newly-opened V&A East Storehouse.” - ARTnews

Can An Immigrant From Scotland Really Be ‘An Irish Writer’?

The writer herself has questions."Writers are, often, to generalise, outsiders, observers, given to the long view, odd if not downright awkward. ... How do these propensities relate to the construction of literature as an international sport?" - Irish Times

How To Write About People, And Place, Beyond War

"Turning to fiction allowed for stories that would otherwise have disappeared into the chest of time, to live on, and slowly but surely they are educating, bringing forth that we all share this place together. The 24-hour news cycle leaves little room for reflection or deeper understanding." - LitHub

What Makes For A Good Scary Story?

The end, says Stephen Graham Jones."The story is running along the top of a flat mesa, and it's nighttime and 95% of it is even-footing. But then at the very end, you jump off into the night, into the darkness, and you trust." - NPR

It’s Spooky Season, And Time To Acknowledge The Most Influential American Writer Ever

Edgar Allan Poe "seems in deliberate, even flagrant, contrast with what were once regarded as the great themes of American literature: the freedom of self-reinvention promised by a new society and its frontier, exploration, rugged individualism, and the struggle to conquer nature." - Slate

The Queer, Tattooed Colombian Author Who’s A National Book Award Finalist

Júlian Delgado Lopera: "'Most of the catastrophic violence in our history can be traced back to a man who hasn’t allowed himself to feel tenderness,' he affirms. ... He’s referring to a kind of violence that goes beyond the long-running armed conflict." - El País English

Authors Are Angry And In Mourning As A Koch Scion Sells Off Catapult Books After Workers Unionize

Author Gina Frangello: "Catapult is intrinsic to L.A. culture and L.A. literature. So many of their writers are in this area. ... It’s a huge loss for L.A. It’s a huge loss for the West Coast.” - Los Angeles Times

When The Mystery Author Is So Caustic She Ends Up A Character In A Murder Movie

Patricia Highsmith's "politics are horrendous. She is homophobic despite being gay, antisemitic, anti-everything. Yet she is one of the most psychologically astute writers of the 20th century, particularly brilliant at allowing us into the dark parts of the human psyche.” - The New York Times

The Predecessors To The Possibly Partly Fake Documentary You Can See Everything

For instance, Shirley Clarke's 1967 movie Portrait of Jason. - The New York Times

How Netflix Went From Zeitgeist To, Well, Zeitghost

"The main problem with 2020s Netflix: It gets eyeballs watching far more than it gets tongues wagging. If a Super Bowl-size event takes place and nobody talks about it, does it even matter?" - Fast Company

Amy Poehler Goes To Ancient Greece

Poehler, and Hugh Laurie, star in a fictional show about realistic archaeologists. "Getting the objects right was important for the production because an appreciation of artifacts is central to archaeology." - The New York Times

Sofia Coppola On Finishing What Her Mother Eleanor Started

"'It’s like the opposite of Hearts of Darkness,' Sofia said. 'In a way it’s sort of a nice counterpoint because that movie’s so macho and masculine and this is so feminine.' And it’s also true to what really happened." - Seattle Times (AP)

AI Could Never Have Made The Stop-Motion Wildwood

"Every single thing you see onscreen is an artistic choice. You start with a blank canvas, nothing exists. Everything has to be thought through, designed and manipulated by an artist’s hands." - The New York Times

As The National Ballet Of Canada Turns 75, It Demonstrates Both Artistry And Guts

But "is it a Canadian ballet company or just a first-rate ballet company based in Canada?" - The New York Times

Why Millennials Are So Into This Movie Star’s Turn On Dancing With The Stars

"It’s rare for Dancing With the Stars to attract a star of Stiles’s wattage. The show is hard, humbling work." - The New York Times

Noise Laws, Drugs, And Cellphones Are Harming Dance Clubs In Britain

Or so lovers of (ridiculously) loud dance music claim. "At Gaffe, a DIY space in northeast London, a sign shows two arrows pointing in different directions. One says 'Dancing,' the other 'Yapping.'" - The Guardian (UK)

The Women Who Are Under Attack Everywhere, But Thriving In Dance Clubs

And not as dancers, but as DJs, promoters, and business owners. "Trans women aren’t just more visible in dance music—they’re 'taking the reins over the modes of production.'" - Slate

The Deadly Dancing Plague Of 1518

“Five centuries later, the dancing plague of 1518 remains one of history’s strangest medical mysteries. Historical records confirm that a bizarre episode turned a medieval city” — Strasbourg — “into a very unwilling dance floor that summer, but exactly why it happened remains a matter of debate.” - Popular Science

The International Dance League Is Trying To Make Dance Into A Competitive Sport. Is It Working?

Evidently so. "Since its official opener in May, the IDL has secured a media rights deal with ESPN and garnered more than 2 billion views on social media. ... Almost every stop on the season tour sold out; the Los Angeles finals sold out in 15 minutes." - Dance Magazine

Helping ‘Benjamin Button’ Grow Up, Into A Musical

"In rehearsals, they tightened the structure, fine-tuned the music and lyrics, tamping down the sentimentality. Still, the show is plenty sentimental." - The New York Times

Four Objects That Measure The Thirty Years Of Rent

"In an alternate universe, might 'Seasons of Love' have opened with the lyric: '31,536,000 seconds?'” - The New York Times

Who Will Take Over Portland’s Many City Performance Spaces?

The city only received two propsals to take over the spaces, known as Portland'5 (yes, there are 5 theatres), starting next July. - Oregon ArtsWatch

Jonathan Groff’s Next Broadway Project Will Be A Solo Show About A School Shooting

“The play, The Amish Project, will be Groff’s first nonmusical production on Broadway, and it’s strikingly personal for him: It’s a work of fiction inspired by a 2006 shooting at a one-room Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania, just a few minutes from Groff’s childhood home.” - The New York Times

Chicago Shakespeare Theatre Leader Moves On

Kimberly Motes, the executive director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater since 2023, is leaving her position in mid-November to become president and CEO of Hennepin Arts in Minneapolis. - Chicago Tribune

Broadway Contributes $21 Billion To NYC Economy: Study

The latest report from the Broadway League, covering the 2024-25 season, also found that the Broadway theater industry supported 114,600 full-time equivalent jobs and generated $979 million in taxes for the city. - Deadline

Eric Bauza, Emmy-Winning Voice Actor And Heir To Mel Blanc At Looney Tunes, Has Died Suddenly At 46

Recently, "the Canadian actor outdid himself with Coyote vs. Acme, voicing everything from Bugs Bunny to Foghorn Leghorn and Tweety Bird." - The Hollywood Reporter

Stephen Fry On Sherlock Holmes

"Even as the stories were still being written and published, tens of thousands around the world behaved as if Holmes and Watson truly lived and breathed." Why? - The Guardian (UK)

Anthony LaPaglia Didn’t Get To Be Tony Soprano, But That’s Not A Problem

The best piece of advice the actor says he's ever received: "'Know your lines and don’t hit the furniture.' That is Spencer Tracy’s acting advice. I’ve always thought, dead on.'" - The Guardian (UK)

J Todd Anderson, The Coen Brothers’ Longtime Storyboard Artist, Has Died

"For more than 40 years, Mr. Anderson was the hidden hand in nearly every movie the Coen brothers made. It was a close-knit but unheralded working relationship that aesthetically defined one of the greatest runs in moviemaking history." - The New York Times

Bard College Investigating Explosive Epstein Email

Someone writing from the Bard president’s email address asks Mr. Epstein whether a young woman was “for me, or are you keeping her for yourself.” The contention over the email is the latest, and perhaps most intense, dispute over the former Bard president’s ties to Mr. Epstein. - The New York Times

Noah Adams, Longtime Host Of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Dead At 84

“He guided listeners through major events like Ronald Reagan’s landslide electoral victories, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the September 11 terrorist attacks. But to the people who worked alongside him in the newsroom, Adams’s journalism shone through in the softer features he reported.” - NPR

Our Free Newsletter

Daily Focus on Culture, Ideas, Arts

AJ Premium Classifieds

Executive Director – Guild Hall of East Hampton

Guild Hall seeks a visionary leader to guide a renowned multidisciplinary cultural institution into its next era of artistic excellence, civic leadership, and national impact.

Artistic Director – The Apollo via TOC Arts Partners

The Apollo seeks an Artistic Director.‍

Director of Development – Ballet Hispánico via TOC Arts Partners

Ballet Hispánico in New York City seeks a new Director of Development.

David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation Director-The Gund at Kenyon College

The Gund at Kenyon College, a contemporary and modern art museum for shared learning and connection, seeks a leader with expansive vision--https://www.mcaonline.com/searches/director-gund

Global Executive Arts Management Fellowship –  Apply by Dec. 3

The DeVos Institute of Arts and Nonprofit Management invites applications for its Global Executive Fellowship, a fully subsidized program for arts and culture nonprofit leaders.

Ready to Lead What’s Next in the Creative Industries?

Build the strategic, business, and leadership skills to shape what’s next across entertainment, media, arts, and culture. Earn your Northwestern Master’s in one year.

AJClassifieds

Director of Operations

Join our team as our next Director of Operations! In this role, you'll direct The Clarice’s production, facilities and operational activities to advance our mission.

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco seeks Director of Digital Experience

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco seeks Director of Digital Experience. Salary range is between $140,000-$160,000

The Granada Theatre seeks Vice President of Stage Production & Operations

The Granada Theatre seeks Vice President of Stage Production & Operations. Annual salary range of $150,000 to $200,000.

Manager, Artistic Administration

Join our team as our next Manager, Artistic Administration! In this role, you'll focus on the operational and administrative aspects of daily operations.

Executive Director, National Museum of Women in the Arts

The National Museum of Women in the Arts seeks a bold, relationship-driven leader to serve as its next Executive Director

As The National Ballet Of Canada Turns 75, It Demonstrates Both Artistry And Guts

But "is it a Canadian ballet company or just a first-rate ballet company based in Canada?" - The New York Times

The Owners Of Elvis’s Music Catalogue Are Suing Anthropic

“The Elvis plaintiffs bring this action to enforce these exclusive rights against the defendant that has built its entire business model based on copyright infringement at a scale never seen before," according to the lawsuit. - The New York Times

Sofia Coppola On Finishing What Her Mother Eleanor Started

"'It’s like the opposite of Hearts of Darkness,' Sofia said. 'In a way it’s sort of a nice counterpoint because that movie’s so macho and masculine and this is so feminine.' And it’s also true to what really happened." - Seattle Times (AP)

Some Questions For And About The Suddenly Shuttered Phoenix Symphony

For instance: "Why it hired a new music director ... amid much fanfare last March; whether any employees other than CEO Peter Kjome will be paid during the suspension; or what, specifically, is being done to help the musicians and staff whose pay has been cut off." - Phoenix New Times

How Lance Oppenheim Gets Extraordinary, Un-Documentary-Like Scenes Like The Ones In “You Can See Everything”

"Being vulnerable with his subjects generally inspires them to return the favor. ... He’s seen subjects go to trial, face romantic rejection, and lose their jobs on-camera; he’s also been holed up in a dingy motel bathroom while two of them had sex in the other room." - New York Magazine (MSN)

Ann Hornaday, Longtime Washington Post Film Critic, Is Dead At 66

“(She) brought a casual, if knowledgeable, approach to her reviews, writing more from the viewpoint of a popcorn-eating moviegoer than from the lofty perch of a scholar of cinema. She wrote hundreds of reviews ... over more than 20 years and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in criticism in 2008.” - The Washington Post...

John Berger Is The Antidote To The Scroll

"It’s his essays about art and artists that matter most to me now. Reading them, you often feel you’re standing next to him in the museum or even looking through his eyes at a painting or a sculpture. You pay attention to his attention." - The New York Times

If We Force Chatbots Into Third Person, Will People Stop Thinking Of Them As Sentient?

Sherry Turkle: An AI is "really not afraid of death, it’s not afraid of illness, it's not afraid of pain, it doesn't love its children, and it doesn't care if you kill yourself or make dinner." - Wired

Creating Art In A Time Of International And Creative Crisis

Elif Shafak's latest book "arose out of our own historical moment, which Shafak has dubbed 'The age of three As: Angst, Anger and AI.'" - The Guardian (UK)

Isabel Allende, Writing Under A Pseudonym, Wins A Major Literary Prize In Spain

"The prize is open to unpublished manuscripts, with the option of submitting under a pseudonym, and Allende entered under the name Luz Ventura, with the fictional title Los que faltan." - The Guardian (UK)

TikTok Has Banned The Musk Documentary Advertiser From The Platform

Hunh: "Distributor Bleecker Street was informed Friday afternoon a 'permanent suspension' was coming regarding any ads it tried to buy, and the company was unable to do so shortly after." - The Hollywood Reporter

Indie Publisher New Directions Keeps Finding Nobel Prize Winners

"In an era when corporate publishers dominate a rapidly consolidating industry, New Directions has remained independent and continued its long tradition of seeking out and nurturing some of the world’s most seminal authors." - The New York Times

Subscribe to our newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers