AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- The Women Inspired By Legally Blonde
“I had always worn pink and been really girly. I stood out in every room I was in. When I watched Legally Blonde, I was like, ‘Oh my god, I can be taken seriously.’” – The Guardian (UK)
- At The Proms, A Return To The Family Secrets And Revelations Of Festen
“Given the complexity of the music, the central role of the voices and the challenging subject matter of the opera, how has it been to re-immerse in that sound world and those themes? Has [Mark-Anthony Turnage] learned anything new during the process of writing the orchestral suite?” – Bachtrack
- The Schomburg Center Turns A Century Old
“Growing up in Puerto Rico in the late 19th century, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was told by his teacher that Black people had no significant history or accomplishments.” Just how wrong was that teacher? Very. – The Guardian (UK)
- Transgender Teen Drops Out Of Irish Dance Competition After Florida AG Threatens Legal Action
The unnamed 17-year-old, who’s been competing in girls’ youth divisions for several years, was enrolled as a contestant in last week’s North American Irish Dance Championships in Orlando. She withdrew after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier threatened to pursue the competition’s governing bodies for violating state law. – Orlando Sentinel
- Anish Kapoor And The Meaning Of The Void
“When Kapoor first made one of these works in Prussian blue, he was stunned to find ‘it wasn’t an empty space painted blue,’ he said. ‘It was full of blueness or, as I say, darkness. What was empty became full. How can that be?’” – ArtNet
ISSUES
- Anish Kapoor And The Meaning Of The Void
“When Kapoor first made one of these works in Prussian blue, he was stunned to find ‘it wasn’t an empty space painted blue,’ he said. ‘It was full of blueness or, as I say, darkness. What was empty became full. How can that be?’” – ArtNet
- The Bayeux Tapestry Arrives In Britain, Under Armed Guard, For The First Time In A While
Where “a while” equals 900 years. – BBC
- The Bacteria That Causes Legionnaire’s Disease Has Been Found In The Guggenheim’s Cooling Tower
But, er, don’t freak out, New York. “The building remains safe for employees and visitors, according to both the museum and the union that represents its workers.” – The Art Newspaper
- Bayeux Tapestry Arrives Safely At British Museum
“The secretive operation was the result of years of negotiations, tricky logistical planning and multiple technical studies to ensure the integrity of the 70-metre-long (230ft) medieval artwork.” – The Guardian
- Have Two English Preservation Societies Been Exaggerating About ‘Witch Marks’ On Old Buildings?
One architectural historian might go even farther: “Anything on a stone building that looks like a design gets picked up as these damn things now. There’s absolutely no evidence they were ever used like that.” – The Guardian (UK)
MEDIA
- A Lot Of True Believers Sponsored ‘The Chosen’ Before It Became A Money-Printing Juggernaut
But they seem to have been left behind. “A shareholder lawsuit, quietly filed this past week against 5&2 Studios in the Delaware Court of Chancery, alleges that some of those early acolytes were prevented from sharing in the miracle.” – Puck
- New York Times, Ziff Davis, The Intercept, Others Accuse OpenAI Of Possible Obstruction Of Justice
As part of their broader lawsuits against OpenAI for copyright infringement for training its software on their media products without consent or compensation, the plaintiffs filed a motion accusing the company of lying during discovery by deliberately hiding evidence that its training datasets and output logs are searchable. – Variety
- Will The Kennedy Center Survive This ‘Open,’ Empty Time?
“What’s left has the air of a ghost ship, as the center’s board prepares to reconsider to what degree the building will remain open. The Kennedy Center declined to comment.” – Washington Post
- Smithsonian Chief Rebuts Trump Administration Report Accusing American History Museum Of Extremism
In a staff-wide email, Lonnie Bunch wrote that “there will always be room for improvement,” but the report “is not a fair characterization of … the National Museum of American History. At the Smithsonian, our work is driven by scholarship, accuracy, and an uncompromising commitment to tell the fullness of America’s story.” – The Washington Post
- Ukrainian Troops Get Handbook On Protecting Cultural Property
“The handbook sets out Ukrainian soldiers’ main obligations under international humanitarian law, the different levels of protection afforded to cultural property, the precautions to be integrated into operational planning, and the procedures for identifying, reporting and documenting attacks against heritage.” – The Art Newspaper
MUSIC
- Reckoning With Beat Poet Allen Ginsburg’s Complicated Legacy
The great poet of Howl and defender of free speech has one (pretty huge) legacy problem during his centennial celebration: His defense of, and membership in, the North American Man-Boy Love Association. – The Guardian (UK)
- Dinaw Mengestu Resigns As President Of PEN America After Only Seven Months
“Mengestu declined to provide further details. PEN America confirmed that he had resigned and also declined to say more. The organization has been on shaky ground in recent years because of backlash from writers and activists over its response to the war in Gaza.” – The New York Times
- Emily Wilson Knows From Angry ‘Odyssey’ Bros
“Wilson’s translations of The Odyssey and The Iliad are some of the best-known pieces of contemporary translation, and they’ve turned the University of Pennsylvania professor into both a star and a specter of controversy.” – Vulture
- Man Sentenced For Theft Of Rare Chinese Manuscripts From UCLA Library
Jeffrey Ying, a 39-year-old resident of Fremont, Cal., gets a year of house arrest and three years of probation for a scheme in which he reserved and checked out, under false names, several 17th-century manuscripts, then returned fake dummy copies. – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)
- The UK’s New Children’s Laureate Is Neither White Nor Dead
Patrice Lawrence “has a practical vision for her laureateship. ‘To change policy you need evidence,’ she says. ‘We say stories work, let’s show how they work.’” – The Guardian (UK)
PEOPLE
- The Women Inspired By Legally Blonde
“I had always worn pink and been really girly. I stood out in every room I was in. When I watched Legally Blonde, I was like, ‘Oh my god, I can be taken seriously.’” – The Guardian (UK)
- At The Proms, A Return To The Family Secrets And Revelations Of Festen
“Given the complexity of the music, the central role of the voices and the challenging subject matter of the opera, how has it been to re-immerse in that sound world and those themes? Has [Mark-Anthony Turnage] learned anything new during the process of writing the orchestral suite?” – Bachtrack
- The Schomburg Center Turns A Century Old
“Growing up in Puerto Rico in the late 19th century, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was told by his teacher that Black people had no significant history or accomplishments.” Just how wrong was that teacher? Very. – The Guardian (UK)
- Transgender Teen Drops Out Of Irish Dance Competition After Florida AG Threatens Legal Action
The unnamed 17-year-old, who’s been competing in girls’ youth divisions for several years, was enrolled as a contestant in last week’s North American Irish Dance Championships in Orlando. She withdrew after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier threatened to pursue the competition’s governing bodies for violating state law. – Orlando Sentinel
- Anish Kapoor And The Meaning Of The Void
“When Kapoor first made one of these works in Prussian blue, he was stunned to find ‘it wasn’t an empty space painted blue,’ he said. ‘It was full of blueness or, as I say, darkness. What was empty became full. How can that be?’” – ArtNet
PEOPLE
- The Women Inspired By Legally Blonde
“I had always worn pink and been really girly. I stood out in every room I was in. When I watched Legally Blonde, I was like, ‘Oh my god, I can be taken seriously.’” – The Guardian (UK)
- At The Proms, A Return To The Family Secrets And Revelations Of Festen
“Given the complexity of the music, the central role of the voices and the challenging subject matter of the opera, how has it been to re-immerse in that sound world and those themes? Has [Mark-Anthony Turnage] learned anything new during the process of writing the orchestral suite?” – Bachtrack
- The Schomburg Center Turns A Century Old
“Growing up in Puerto Rico in the late 19th century, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was told by his teacher that Black people had no significant history or accomplishments.” Just how wrong was that teacher? Very. – The Guardian (UK)
- Transgender Teen Drops Out Of Irish Dance Competition After Florida AG Threatens Legal Action
The unnamed 17-year-old, who’s been competing in girls’ youth divisions for several years, was enrolled as a contestant in last week’s North American Irish Dance Championships in Orlando. She withdrew after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier threatened to pursue the competition’s governing bodies for violating state law. – Orlando Sentinel
- Anish Kapoor And The Meaning Of The Void
“When Kapoor first made one of these works in Prussian blue, he was stunned to find ‘it wasn’t an empty space painted blue,’ he said. ‘It was full of blueness or, as I say, darkness. What was empty became full. How can that be?’” – ArtNet
THEATRE
VISUAL
- The Schomburg Center Turns A Century Old
“Growing up in Puerto Rico in the late 19th century, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was told by his teacher that Black people had no significant history or accomplishments.” Just how wrong was that teacher? Very. – The Guardian (UK)
- What Society Is Losing As It Becomes Postliterate
“The literate era will prove to be a brief interlude between the oral and digital ages. Reading shaped the modern mind. Its disappearance will reshape it. Cognitive scientists are starting to understand what these changes might look like.” – The Atlantic
- Does Worldwide Modernization Lead To Reduction In Cultural Differences? Not Necessarily
“When researchers have actually tried to document the size of cultural differences over time, the picture is far more complicated – and more interesting.” – Psyche
- Who Makes Choices When We ‘Choose’?
“The brain initiates voluntary action unconsciously: our conscious sense that we have decided to act is actually the result of this brain activity.” It’s possible that our only choice is in deciding not to do something. – 3 Quarks
- The Effective-Altruism Movement Is About To Make A Comeback, Powered By AI Titans And Their Money
“Since the (Sam Bankman-Fried/FTX) scandal, the movement’s organizations have shied away from the limelight and become extremely concerned with PR. For several years, their growth has been severely curtailed. But they survived. And the new AI money has given EA a chance to come back larger than ever before.” – New York Magazine