AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Is LA Really a Theatre Town?
Good Morning:
The decline story is the easy one to write. Today’s feed makes the case for the other one — where culture is building, the rooms are full. Start in Istanbul, where Argentine tango has found a huge, fervent following, with milonga clubs and dance schools multiplying across the city (AP). In Los Angeles, the Hollywood Fringe just drew a record number of participants and is set to break even for the first time in years — perhaps evidence behind the old boast that “L.A. is a theater town” (MSN)?
Reinvention runs backward, too: in Palermo, director Emma Dante revived Sicilian dialect theatre and is now collecting a Golden Lion for it (The New York Times).
Two more to enjoy: how Gaudí engineered the Sagrada Família to stand without flying buttresses, which he dismissed as “crutches” (BBC), and a forgotten Tolkien translation surfacing in Oxford’s Bodleian after decades in the stacks (MSN).
Doug
- Turks Turn To Tango
The passionate ballroom dance of Buenos Aires and Montevideo has found a large, equally passionate base of fans in Istanbul, where a multitude of milonga clubs, dance studios and schools have arisen to support a vibrant tango scene. – AP
- Director Milo Rau’s Staged Moral Tribunals Have Been A Big Success. His Latest Choice Of Subject Has People Judging Him.
Rau’s trials — with real witnesses and arguments, followed by symbolic judgments — have put Gisèle Pelicot’s rapists, mining companies in the Congo, and the Russian jurists who prosecuted Pussy Riot in the dock. But when Rau invited controversial billionaire Peter Thiel for a tribunal, stakeholders rebelled. – The Guardian
- Web Video Is Coming To TV. But The Tyranny Of Web Format Is Problematic
How much do we want the internet to be television? A good gimmick for social-media content doesn’t automatically translate to interesting TV, a medium that many of us enjoy precisely because it doesn’t live or die by an algorithmic social-media feed. – The New Yorker
- Condustor Ryan Wigglesworth On What The Classical Music World Is Now
A new generation – of concert-goers as well as performers – are essential to classical music’s future. Would a Ryan Wigglesworth born today still become a musician? Are the networks and resources still in place? Wigglesworth thinks not. It’s a problem he’s navigating first-hand with his own children. – The Guardian
ISSUES
- How Gaudí’s Design Keeps Sagrada Familia Standing Tall Without Flying Buttresses
The great Barcelona architect despised flying buttresses, especially in 20th-century neo-Gothic architecture, calling them “crutches” for a building that couldn’t support its own weight. To keep the walls and towers of his masterpiece church standing tall, he relied on an even older architectural feature, one that dates back to antiquity. – BBC
- Archaeologists Find Intact 18th Century Ship Off Norway
In addition to the well-preserved ceramics, researchers found barrels of grain and an array of high-end European-made goods ranging from chandeliers to stemmed glasses. They also discovered a box filled with mysterious substances, possibly coffee, tea, cocoa or medicine. – Smithsonian
- Museum With World’s Largest Collection Of Kahlo And Rivera Paintings Reopens After Long, Unexplained Closure
“Set in lush gardens patrolled by peacocks and … dogs, the (Museo Dolores Olmedo in Mexico City) closed in 2020 during the coronavirus outbreak. It remained shuttered, with little explanation, long after the pandemic abated. Then on May 30, it reopened — in time, the management said, for the World Cup.” – The New York Times
- The Latest Design For Rebuilding New York’s Penn Station Is Actually Very Good
Justin Davidson: “The latest version of this perpetual top priority just might dispel the curse of inertia — because it should dramatically alleviate crowds, delays, and misery, and because it comes with architecture we can treasure rather than tolerate.” – Curbed (MSN)
- Sotheby’s Tried To Quietly Sell A Pollock For $50M. It Didn’t Go Well
According to one source familiar with the effort, Sotheby’s could not find enough bidders to get the auction off the ground. The auction was ultimately called off, though it remains unclear whether the painting was returned to Glimcher, sold privately, or remains with Sotheby’s. – ARTnews
MEDIA
- California Universities Abandoned The SAT. It’s Been A Disaster
A huge share of STEM and economics faculty across the UC system is now in open revolt—demanding that California’s public universities at least look at standardized-test scores before offering admission. – The Atlantic
- Trump Administration Asked National Park Visitors To Report “Negative” History Info. Visitors Did Something Different.
What most respondents considered negative was the effort itself. One visitor called it “un-American.” Another criticized the idea of “having Americans call in and snitch on each other.” One person wrote, “Hey Donald Trump! Trying to erase history doesn’t mean it didn’t still happen!” – AP
- Report: Arts Audiences Are Growing In Australia
The survey, conducted since 2009 and last published in 2022, has found that almost all Australians (98%) engage with the arts in some capacity – whether through music, reading, festivals, creating art, digital engagement or live attendance – and more Australians are recognising the positive impact of the arts on the economy and ourselves. – Limelight
- Arguing For The Arts: Careful What You Claim
Why aren’t people more careful when it comes to making claims about the benefits of the arts? Quite frankly, because shoddy research and even shoddier interpretations can have positive results in convincing policy makers of the importance of the arts—whether for economic development, educational outcomes, good health, and a variety of other public goods. – Nightingale Sonata
- Hampshire College Confirms It Will Offer Final Semester This Fall
‘Hampshire College says it has secured financing that will allow it to complete a fall 2026 semester before closing for good, reversing concerns raised last week that the school might not have enough money to carry out the process.” – Boston.com
MUSIC
- Forgotten Manuscript By JRR Tolkien Found In Oxford Library
“The Lord of the Rings author’s translation of a medieval religious text from the early 13th century had lain forgotten in the Bodleian Libraries’ collections until now. His reworking of Sawles Warde, an early Middle English prose homily, which he titled Soul’s Ward …, is to be published for the first time.” – The Telegraph (UK)
- As Russia’s War Rages On, Kyiv Hosts A Busy Literary Festival
“A sign of the nation’s complete engulfing by war was the presence of so many soldiers on the stages; writers who had become soldiers, soldiers who had become writers. The Russia-Ukraine war has dragged on so grievously, and for so long, that entire publishing cycles have turned since 2022.” – The Guardian
- Have You Ever Really Looked Carefully At The Declaration Of Independence?
It’s poetry, philosophy and polemic, all in a little more than 1,300 words and all represented in its second and most famous sentence. – The New York Times
- Utah Bans Alice Sebold’s Memoir “Lucky” From All Public Schools
“The ban comes amidst a lawsuit challenging these state-sanctioned bans filed in February, and it comes after banning 15 other books in 2026 alone.” – Book Riot
- The Problem With Responses To AI Creations
At its core, this is a debate about values. A short story implies a human artistic act with intentional imaginative labour—the exact practice whose future is now at risk if the literary world doesn’t take a stand. – The Walrus
PEOPLE
- Is LA Really a Theatre Town?
Good Morning:
The decline story is the easy one to write. Today’s feed makes the case for the other one — where culture is building, the rooms are full. Start in Istanbul, where Argentine tango has found a huge, fervent following, with milonga clubs and dance schools multiplying across the city (AP). In Los Angeles, the Hollywood Fringe just drew a record number of participants and is set to break even for the first time in years — perhaps evidence behind the old boast that “L.A. is a theater town” (MSN)?
Reinvention runs backward, too: in Palermo, director Emma Dante revived Sicilian dialect theatre and is now collecting a Golden Lion for it (The New York Times).
Two more to enjoy: how Gaudí engineered the Sagrada Família to stand without flying buttresses, which he dismissed as “crutches” (BBC), and a forgotten Tolkien translation surfacing in Oxford’s Bodleian after decades in the stacks (MSN).
Doug
- Turks Turn To Tango
The passionate ballroom dance of Buenos Aires and Montevideo has found a large, equally passionate base of fans in Istanbul, where a multitude of milonga clubs, dance studios and schools have arisen to support a vibrant tango scene. – AP
- Director Milo Rau’s Staged Moral Tribunals Have Been A Big Success. His Latest Choice Of Subject Has People Judging Him.
Rau’s trials — with real witnesses and arguments, followed by symbolic judgments — have put Gisèle Pelicot’s rapists, mining companies in the Congo, and the Russian jurists who prosecuted Pussy Riot in the dock. But when Rau invited controversial billionaire Peter Thiel for a tribunal, stakeholders rebelled. – The Guardian
- Web Video Is Coming To TV. But The Tyranny Of Web Format Is Problematic
How much do we want the internet to be television? A good gimmick for social-media content doesn’t automatically translate to interesting TV, a medium that many of us enjoy precisely because it doesn’t live or die by an algorithmic social-media feed. – The New Yorker
- Condustor Ryan Wigglesworth On What The Classical Music World Is Now
A new generation – of concert-goers as well as performers – are essential to classical music’s future. Would a Ryan Wigglesworth born today still become a musician? Are the networks and resources still in place? Wigglesworth thinks not. It’s a problem he’s navigating first-hand with his own children. – The Guardian
PEOPLE
- Is LA Really a Theatre Town?
Good Morning:
The decline story is the easy one to write. Today’s feed makes the case for the other one — where culture is building, the rooms are full. Start in Istanbul, where Argentine tango has found a huge, fervent following, with milonga clubs and dance schools multiplying across the city (AP). In Los Angeles, the Hollywood Fringe just drew a record number of participants and is set to break even for the first time in years — perhaps evidence behind the old boast that “L.A. is a theater town” (MSN)?
Reinvention runs backward, too: in Palermo, director Emma Dante revived Sicilian dialect theatre and is now collecting a Golden Lion for it (The New York Times).
Two more to enjoy: how Gaudí engineered the Sagrada Família to stand without flying buttresses, which he dismissed as “crutches” (BBC), and a forgotten Tolkien translation surfacing in Oxford’s Bodleian after decades in the stacks (MSN).
Doug
- Turks Turn To Tango
The passionate ballroom dance of Buenos Aires and Montevideo has found a large, equally passionate base of fans in Istanbul, where a multitude of milonga clubs, dance studios and schools have arisen to support a vibrant tango scene. – AP
- Director Milo Rau’s Staged Moral Tribunals Have Been A Big Success. His Latest Choice Of Subject Has People Judging Him.
Rau’s trials — with real witnesses and arguments, followed by symbolic judgments — have put Gisèle Pelicot’s rapists, mining companies in the Congo, and the Russian jurists who prosecuted Pussy Riot in the dock. But when Rau invited controversial billionaire Peter Thiel for a tribunal, stakeholders rebelled. – The Guardian
- Web Video Is Coming To TV. But The Tyranny Of Web Format Is Problematic
How much do we want the internet to be television? A good gimmick for social-media content doesn’t automatically translate to interesting TV, a medium that many of us enjoy precisely because it doesn’t live or die by an algorithmic social-media feed. – The New Yorker
- Condustor Ryan Wigglesworth On What The Classical Music World Is Now
A new generation – of concert-goers as well as performers – are essential to classical music’s future. Would a Ryan Wigglesworth born today still become a musician? Are the networks and resources still in place? Wigglesworth thinks not. It’s a problem he’s navigating first-hand with his own children. – The Guardian
THEATRE
VISUAL
- If It’s Art And People Like It, Then…
Our reigning cultural ideology has been poptimism—the idea that if a lot of people like a work of art, then it has to be good. Now sloptimism, which holds that if there’s a lot of art out there and people are engaging with it then how bad can it be? – The New Yorker
- How Good Is AI At Spotting Talent? Soccer Teams Are Working On It
For decades, the beautiful game depended on the human eye: a scout on the sideline, attentively watching, waiting for that something special. That process, however, is becoming increasingly data-driven. – The Conversation
- Why We Crave Social Interaction
Among humans, “you can feel lonely at a party, or you can feel fine alone in your office.” Whatever the ideal degree of togetherness, Tye and others think that an animal’s need to balance time alone and time with others represents a kind of homeostasis: an equilibrium that’s critical for survival. – Knowable
- We Have Entered The Imagination Era
We have moved beyond the Information Age and are now firmly rooted in what I call the Imagination Era, a time when ideas and thinking differently are our primary currency. In this landscape, technology is not replacing our humanity; it is demanding that we deepen it. – Fast Company
- How America Lost Control Of Its History
A nation defined by blood and soil—built around a shared religion or ethnicity—can survive divergent narratives. To a country built on an idea, though, and bound together by a shared understanding of our history, the inability to tell a common story might well prove fatal. – The Atlantic
