AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- What If Getting Better Is a Con?
Technique aims to bring efficiency to everything in life. Anytime we use machine logic and apply it to humanity, we are in the realm of technique. For example, we don’t refine our morning routine so much as “hack” it. We don’t make the most of a vacation; we optimize our time off. – Plough
- Trump Has Outsourced America’s 250th Birthday History To Hillsdale College
On the “America 250” website created by the White House, the account of the nation’s founding is outsourced to Hillsdale College, a far-right institution that was a member of the advisory board for Project 2025. – Los Angeles Times
- What If Efficiency Doesn’t Make Us Better?
The problem with the technologies of 2025 — household, work or personal — is that we don’t have control over whether we use them, which perhaps is part of why we don’t see Americans gaining any more leisure time despite the wild advances of the past two decades. – The New York Times
- Why A Labor Movement For Musicians Is So Difficult
If the industrial, mechanical-reproduction era was a historical anomaly for musicians—as the “recording artist” emerged as a new way of making a living—perhaps so, too, were the aggressive, confrontational labor unions of the same period a temporary departure from the preindustrial guilds and associations focused on mutual aid and credentialing. – The Baffler
- The Radical 1960s Language Experiment That Left Students Unable To Spell
The Initial Teaching Alphabet was a radical, little-known educational experiment trialled in British schools (and in other English-speaking countries) during the 1960s and 70s. Billed as a way to help children learn to read faster by making spelling more phonetically intuitive, it radically rewrote the rules of literacy for tens of thousands of children. – The Guardian
ISSUES
- Inside The CIA’s Art Collection
What these paintings represent about the CIA’s relationship to the art world, though, is more complicated. On these walls, the intersection between US art and politics is especially busy. – Hyperallergic
- Tate Modern Is 25 Years Old. It’s Just Launched An Ambitious Endowment Campaign. Good Idea?
The gallery’s reserves have dropped sharply – from £22.6m in 2022–23 to £10.9m at the end of 2024. Government support is also in decline: the grant-in-aid the Tate received in 2023–24 was £50.8m, down from £54.2m the previous year. – Apollo
- Chaco Canyon Is Under Serious Threat From The Federal Government
“Chaco Culture, which includes Chaco Canyon National Historical Park and Aztec Ruins National Monument, was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. The network of archaeological sites once operated as a major center of the Chacoan culture … between the years 850 and 1250.” – Hyperallergic
- After Epically Bobbling A Venice Biennale Selection, Creative Australia CEO Faces Calls To Resign
An external review “recommended a review into Creative Australia’s governance processes, better training for future board members, and the urgent appointment of a board member with deep visual arts expertise.” Many in the visual arts community want to go a whole lot farther. – The Guardian (UK)
- Gallery Powerhouse Blum Will Lay Off Staff And Close, Citing Market Downturn
Founded as Blum and Poe in 1994 in Santa Monica, Calif., by Tim Blum and Jeff Poe, the gallery represents some of the most high profile, and expensive, artists working today, including Yoshitomo Nara and Mark Grotjahn, whose artworks have traded for more than $10 million. – Artnet
MEDIA
- Trump Has Outsourced America’s 250th Birthday History To Hillsdale College
On the “America 250” website created by the White House, the account of the nation’s founding is outsourced to Hillsdale College, a far-right institution that was a member of the advisory board for Project 2025. – Los Angeles Times
- What The Paramount Capitulation Means For Freedom Of The Press
“What’s clear, in any case, is that big corporations undoubtedly threaten journalistic independence.”- Salon
- The TikTok ‘Ban’ Will Morph Into A Sale And A New App
“The Trump administration says it’s close to working out a sale to a group of ‘non-Chinese’ investors, including Oracle, with current majority owner ByteDance maintaining a minority stake.” – The Verge
- Brad Pitt Is Fooling You
“The cumulative effect of F1 and its press tour have been a carefully tuned charm offensive meant to obscure, if not outright bury, the alleged violent particulars of his behavior toward ex-wife Angelina Jolie.” – Vulture (Internet Archive)
- Not A Huge Surprise, But That One AI-Generated ‘Band’ Was An Elaborate Hoax
“A Canadian who duped journalists in an elaborate AI music hoax says he apologizes to anyone hurt by his experiment but that it’s been ‘too fascinating’ to turn away from.” – CBC
MUSIC
- The Radical 1960s Language Experiment That Left Students Unable To Spell
The Initial Teaching Alphabet was a radical, little-known educational experiment trialled in British schools (and in other English-speaking countries) during the 1960s and 70s. Billed as a way to help children learn to read faster by making spelling more phonetically intuitive, it radically rewrote the rules of literacy for tens of thousands of children. – The Guardian
- No Translation? No Problem
Are you happy to watch Cormac McCarthy’s characters speak both English and Spanish, since they live on the border, or do you seek out translation? What about the Igbo in Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie’s books? Keep reading, maybe figure it out in context, or use Google Translate? – LitHub
- What Human Audiobook Narrators Think About The Rise Of AI
They’re not fans. One: “’I’ve narrated really raunchy sex scenes – AI doesn’t know what an orgasm sounds like,’ she says. ‘Birth scenes as well – I’d love to know how they plan on getting around that.’” – The Guardian (UK)
- Reading Aloud To Each Other Isn’t Just For Little Kids
It’s all a win for families (and sometimes adults as well): “Reading aloud engages kids in the story rather than their getting tangled up in the mechanics of reading. As a result, they can have deep discussions, build on current reading levels, and later have conversations with peers.” – Slate
- Summer Reading, By NPR
There’s Prose to the People, “a kind of fun celebration of how bookstores in general operate as more than just, like, a place where you go and pay money for a book. They are something bigger, and they mean something more to a community.” – NPR
PEOPLE
- What If Getting Better Is a Con?
Technique aims to bring efficiency to everything in life. Anytime we use machine logic and apply it to humanity, we are in the realm of technique. For example, we don’t refine our morning routine so much as “hack” it. We don’t make the most of a vacation; we optimize our time off. – Plough
- Trump Has Outsourced America’s 250th Birthday History To Hillsdale College
On the “America 250” website created by the White House, the account of the nation’s founding is outsourced to Hillsdale College, a far-right institution that was a member of the advisory board for Project 2025. – Los Angeles Times
- What If Efficiency Doesn’t Make Us Better?
The problem with the technologies of 2025 — household, work or personal — is that we don’t have control over whether we use them, which perhaps is part of why we don’t see Americans gaining any more leisure time despite the wild advances of the past two decades. – The New York Times
- Why A Labor Movement For Musicians Is So Difficult
If the industrial, mechanical-reproduction era was a historical anomaly for musicians—as the “recording artist” emerged as a new way of making a living—perhaps so, too, were the aggressive, confrontational labor unions of the same period a temporary departure from the preindustrial guilds and associations focused on mutual aid and credentialing. – The Baffler
- The Radical 1960s Language Experiment That Left Students Unable To Spell
The Initial Teaching Alphabet was a radical, little-known educational experiment trialled in British schools (and in other English-speaking countries) during the 1960s and 70s. Billed as a way to help children learn to read faster by making spelling more phonetically intuitive, it radically rewrote the rules of literacy for tens of thousands of children. – The Guardian
PEOPLE
- What If Getting Better Is a Con?
Technique aims to bring efficiency to everything in life. Anytime we use machine logic and apply it to humanity, we are in the realm of technique. For example, we don’t refine our morning routine so much as “hack” it. We don’t make the most of a vacation; we optimize our time off. – Plough
- Trump Has Outsourced America’s 250th Birthday History To Hillsdale College
On the “America 250” website created by the White House, the account of the nation’s founding is outsourced to Hillsdale College, a far-right institution that was a member of the advisory board for Project 2025. – Los Angeles Times
- What If Efficiency Doesn’t Make Us Better?
The problem with the technologies of 2025 — household, work or personal — is that we don’t have control over whether we use them, which perhaps is part of why we don’t see Americans gaining any more leisure time despite the wild advances of the past two decades. – The New York Times
- Why A Labor Movement For Musicians Is So Difficult
If the industrial, mechanical-reproduction era was a historical anomaly for musicians—as the “recording artist” emerged as a new way of making a living—perhaps so, too, were the aggressive, confrontational labor unions of the same period a temporary departure from the preindustrial guilds and associations focused on mutual aid and credentialing. – The Baffler
- The Radical 1960s Language Experiment That Left Students Unable To Spell
The Initial Teaching Alphabet was a radical, little-known educational experiment trialled in British schools (and in other English-speaking countries) during the 1960s and 70s. Billed as a way to help children learn to read faster by making spelling more phonetically intuitive, it radically rewrote the rules of literacy for tens of thousands of children. – The Guardian
THEATRE
VISUAL
- What If Getting Better Is a Con?
Technique aims to bring efficiency to everything in life. Anytime we use machine logic and apply it to humanity, we are in the realm of technique. For example, we don’t refine our morning routine so much as “hack” it. We don’t make the most of a vacation; we optimize our time off. – Plough
- What If Efficiency Doesn’t Make Us Better?
The problem with the technologies of 2025 — household, work or personal — is that we don’t have control over whether we use them, which perhaps is part of why we don’t see Americans gaining any more leisure time despite the wild advances of the past two decades. – The New York Times
- Google’s AI Summaries Of Recipes Are Going Away
Food writers were losing revenue at a terrible clip – but also, were the summaries any good? – Nieman Lab
- We Have To Trick Our Brains To Align Short-Term Fun With Long-Term Achievements
Basically? Only connect. “Our brains are equipped with a social processing system that is engaged in thinking about other people’s minds and helps us understand and connect with them — including people who have labored on similar causes before us.” – The New York Times
- Museums Are Collecting People’s Goals And Hopes For The 250th Birthday Of The United States
And it’s weirdly hopeful, deeply compelling stuff. “People were especially motivated to share their input when they were told that their contributions would be archived for posterity” (assuming the country & institutions, ah, survive). – Hyperallergic