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AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only

DANCE

    IDEAS

    • When an Oscar Becomes a Weapon

      Good Morning,

      A TSA agent reportedly stopped Pavel Talankin — director of Mr. Nobody Against Putin — because the Oscar in his luggage “could be used as a weapon.” Lufthansa promptly lost it. International outcry recovered the statuette but the absurdity is harder to retrieve (CBC).

      The cultural sector spent the week drawing lines. The Motion Picture Academy ruled that no AI-generated film will win an Oscar, and that screenplays must be “human-authored” (NPR). SAG-AFTRA reached a tentative deal with the studios on AI and streaming residuals, dodging another strike (Variety). And consumers filed suit to block the Paramount-Warner merger, arguing it shrinks choice and production (LA Times).

      Meanwhile the squeeze keeps showing up. Indie labels like Sub Pop and Rough Trade are being absorbed by majors as vinyl plateaus and streaming, oddly, isn’t the worst option anymore (The Guardian). The proposed new White House ballroom is reading less like architecture than fortification (The Atlantic). Portland, ever Portland, has commissioned yet another study about whether it can support two concert halls (Oregon ArtsWatch).

      A quieter note: pianist Seymour Bernstein — who quit performing at 50 over stage fright and was rediscovered at 88 by Ethan Hawke — died at 99 (The New York Times).

      All of our stories below.

    • AI Slop Is Flooding Streaming Music Services, But Who Wants It?

      Very few, though “fully generative AI music will continue to be a threat to working musicians, session artists, library music composers, and the like. But they may struggle to find footing on the charts.” – The Verge

    • Oh God, What Happened To The New Animal Farm, And Why?

      Oh God, indeed: “A family of Latter-Day Saints heads up Angel Studios, and a fair share of its titles across both television and film spaces are right-leaning media with Christian values.” – Salon

    • TSA And Lufthansa Lost The Oscar Of The Director Of Mr. Nobody Against Putin

      But after an international outcry, Lufthansa managed to find it. The blame, though, rests with certain U.S. security forces: “A TSA agent stopped him and said the Oscar could be used as a weapon.” – CBC

    • Stop Saying Satire Is Dead

      “Can satire really change anything? Isn’t it a limp, almost quaint kind of protest?” – LitHub

    ISSUES

    • The Epic Journey Of Ukraine’s Origami Concrete Deer To The Venice Biennale

      The journey began in 2018. “Over time [the deer] became a landmark, a well-known feature of the city. It was a peaceable, delicate creature to replace a symbol of military domination and violence. Fast forward to the summer of 2024.” – The Guardian (UK)

    • London’s New Banksy Statue Appears In The Middle of The Night

      The sculpture depicts a man marching forward off a plinth while carrying a large, billowing flag that obscures his face. A video Banksy posted on social media shows the statue being towed to Westminster in the dead of night, alongside shots of the nearby statue of Winston Churchill. – The Guardian

    • Gallery Appoints Economist-In-Residence

      “We radically, radically need something new, because old thinking isn’t getting us anywhere. In my 30 years in the cultural sector I’ve never known a situation in which so many major institutions — the National Gallery, Tate — are in such a precarious economic state. If they catch cold, the rest of us will get pneumonia.” – Financial Times

    • Check Out The Plans For Putting An Actual Park In The Middle Of Park Avenue

      “A century ago, the median down … Park Avenue was much more welcoming than it is today, a place with seating and substantial plantings where you’d consider spending time. … In 2024, (New York City) announced a call for proposals wherein those two lanes would be reclaimed from traffic for leisure and greenery.” – Vulture (MSN)

    • The Entire Venice Biennale Jury Has Resigned

      “(The move was made) just nine days before the world’s oldest and most important contemporary art fair opens, amid tensions over Russia’s participation and the panel’s decision to bar prizes for countries accused of crimes against humanity.” – AP

    MEDIA

    MUSIC

    • How Booker-Nominated Author Katie Kitamura Reads

      “Even a book that I know I wouldn’t enjoy now would still be interesting to read, to figure out how both it and I had changed. And there is always the possibility that I would enjoy it after all. Books are always surprising you.” – The Guardian (UK)

    • The Struggle To Protect Mauritania’s Medieval Library Town

      Chinguetti developed as a trading post on the trans-Sahara caravan route to Timbuktu — and, as in Timbuktu, over the centuries Chinguetti families came to amass important collections of medieval manuscripts on religion, law, and science. Now, as the population dwindles and the desert sand encroaches, preserving these collections is a challenge. – The Dial

    • Idaho Legislature Changes Book Ban As Court Challenges Continue

      The three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit wrote that HB 710 enables a “system of informal censorship” and potentially “encourages formal censorship through the legal process. The First Amendment does not tolerate either outcome.” – Publishers Weekly

    • The Guardian Now Has More American Readers Than The Washington Post Has

      “(The Guardian) has found a lane in the U.S. news market as a progressive alternative to institutional American media, … backed by a voluntary contribution model that has attracted 700,000 supporters, 500,000 of them recurring. Reader revenue has grown 35% a year for the past two years, with a still-growing 150-person newsroom.” – The Rebooting

    • Lost Copy Of Oldest Surviving English Poem Turns Up In Rome

      “Scholars from Trinity College Dublin uncovered the manuscript that contains Caedmon’s Hymn at the National Central Library of Rome. Bede, the medieval theologian revered as the father of English history, recorded the nine-line poem in the eighth century.” – The Guardian

    PEOPLE

    • When an Oscar Becomes a Weapon

      Good Morning,

      A TSA agent reportedly stopped Pavel Talankin — director of Mr. Nobody Against Putin — because the Oscar in his luggage “could be used as a weapon.” Lufthansa promptly lost it. International outcry recovered the statuette but the absurdity is harder to retrieve (CBC).

      The cultural sector spent the week drawing lines. The Motion Picture Academy ruled that no AI-generated film will win an Oscar, and that screenplays must be “human-authored” (NPR). SAG-AFTRA reached a tentative deal with the studios on AI and streaming residuals, dodging another strike (Variety). And consumers filed suit to block the Paramount-Warner merger, arguing it shrinks choice and production (LA Times).

      Meanwhile the squeeze keeps showing up. Indie labels like Sub Pop and Rough Trade are being absorbed by majors as vinyl plateaus and streaming, oddly, isn’t the worst option anymore (The Guardian). The proposed new White House ballroom is reading less like architecture than fortification (The Atlantic). Portland, ever Portland, has commissioned yet another study about whether it can support two concert halls (Oregon ArtsWatch).

      A quieter note: pianist Seymour Bernstein — who quit performing at 50 over stage fright and was rediscovered at 88 by Ethan Hawke — died at 99 (The New York Times).

      All of our stories below.

    • AI Slop Is Flooding Streaming Music Services, But Who Wants It?

      Very few, though “fully generative AI music will continue to be a threat to working musicians, session artists, library music composers, and the like. But they may struggle to find footing on the charts.” – The Verge

    • Oh God, What Happened To The New Animal Farm, And Why?

      Oh God, indeed: “A family of Latter-Day Saints heads up Angel Studios, and a fair share of its titles across both television and film spaces are right-leaning media with Christian values.” – Salon

    • TSA And Lufthansa Lost The Oscar Of The Director Of Mr. Nobody Against Putin

      But after an international outcry, Lufthansa managed to find it. The blame, though, rests with certain U.S. security forces: “A TSA agent stopped him and said the Oscar could be used as a weapon.” – CBC

    • Stop Saying Satire Is Dead

      “Can satire really change anything? Isn’t it a limp, almost quaint kind of protest?” – LitHub

    PEOPLE

    • When an Oscar Becomes a Weapon

      Good Morning,

      A TSA agent reportedly stopped Pavel Talankin — director of Mr. Nobody Against Putin — because the Oscar in his luggage “could be used as a weapon.” Lufthansa promptly lost it. International outcry recovered the statuette but the absurdity is harder to retrieve (CBC).

      The cultural sector spent the week drawing lines. The Motion Picture Academy ruled that no AI-generated film will win an Oscar, and that screenplays must be “human-authored” (NPR). SAG-AFTRA reached a tentative deal with the studios on AI and streaming residuals, dodging another strike (Variety). And consumers filed suit to block the Paramount-Warner merger, arguing it shrinks choice and production (LA Times).

      Meanwhile the squeeze keeps showing up. Indie labels like Sub Pop and Rough Trade are being absorbed by majors as vinyl plateaus and streaming, oddly, isn’t the worst option anymore (The Guardian). The proposed new White House ballroom is reading less like architecture than fortification (The Atlantic). Portland, ever Portland, has commissioned yet another study about whether it can support two concert halls (Oregon ArtsWatch).

      A quieter note: pianist Seymour Bernstein — who quit performing at 50 over stage fright and was rediscovered at 88 by Ethan Hawke — died at 99 (The New York Times).

      All of our stories below.

    • AI Slop Is Flooding Streaming Music Services, But Who Wants It?

      Very few, though “fully generative AI music will continue to be a threat to working musicians, session artists, library music composers, and the like. But they may struggle to find footing on the charts.” – The Verge

    • Oh God, What Happened To The New Animal Farm, And Why?

      Oh God, indeed: “A family of Latter-Day Saints heads up Angel Studios, and a fair share of its titles across both television and film spaces are right-leaning media with Christian values.” – Salon

    • TSA And Lufthansa Lost The Oscar Of The Director Of Mr. Nobody Against Putin

      But after an international outcry, Lufthansa managed to find it. The blame, though, rests with certain U.S. security forces: “A TSA agent stopped him and said the Oscar could be used as a weapon.” – CBC

    • Stop Saying Satire Is Dead

      “Can satire really change anything? Isn’t it a limp, almost quaint kind of protest?” – LitHub

    THEATRE

      VISUAL

      WORDS