AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Damian Lewis On Being In The Public Eye
“I had a stalker. We had an injunction on her and I thought that everything was safe and then I was on stage doing a press night in the West End and someone stood up out of the front row and put flowers at my feet and I realised it was my stalker.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Ireland’s Basic Income For The Arts Is Now Permanent, But What Does It Mean For The Artists?
In Ireland, despite how often the government uses Irish arts to market the country to tourists, “more than 56 per cent of artists and arts workers experience enforced deprivation (that’s three times the rate in the general population).” – Irish Times (Archive Today)
- With Lost Boys And Dracula On Broadway, Plus Sinners At The Oscars, Why Are We So Immersed In Vampire Culture?
“These mythological creatures tap into our anxiety over what would happen if we became otherly human. … As the horror author Grady Hendrix put it: ‘Vampires are the only monster that looks like us.’” – The New York Times
- The New Wuthering Heights Treats One Of Its Women Very, Very Badly
“The film Isabella is a narrative tool for Heathcliff rather than developing in her own right. She becomes another victim of ‘fridging,’ a term coined by Gail Simone that references the way in which many female characters are disposable, depthless plot devices.” – The Guardian (UK)
- South Africa Has Pulled Out Of The Venice Biennale
“The move comes after the country’s right-wing culture minister Gayton McKenzie scrapped a pavilion proposal by artist Gabrielle Goliath and curator Ingrid Masondo.” They said, “The space will remain empty: a space of erasure, cancellation, censure.” – Hyperallergic
ISSUES
- South Africa Has Pulled Out Of The Venice Biennale
“The move comes after the country’s right-wing culture minister Gayton McKenzie scrapped a pavilion proposal by artist Gabrielle Goliath and curator Ingrid Masondo.” They said, “The space will remain empty: a space of erasure, cancellation, censure.” – Hyperallergic
- Bow To Trump’s Vision Of The Country If You Want A Grant, Museums And Libraries Are Told
“The directive to hew to Trump’s preferences unnerved some grant writers, reviewers and former recipients accustomed to nonpartisanship from the agency, stirring debate over what it would mean to accept their funding.” – Washington Post (MSN)
- How Trump Gamed Approval For His Ballroom
“It’s sad that a majority of the commissioners lack expertise in art and architecture,” the person told CNN. “There is only one architect, yet he recused himself from reviewing the ballroom. This means that not a single architect will be reviewing the White House project.” – CNN
- Commercialization Of Frida Kahlo Has Gone Way Too Far, Says Her Grandniece
There is by now an untold variety of Frida merch, from watches to candles to tequila to home décor to a branded Miami condo building to (yes) sanitary pads. One reason is that Kahlo’s family members have lost control of the corporation which controls rights to her likeness and work. – The Times (UK)
- Architectural Drawings Of Trump’s Planned White House East Wing Released
“The drawings picture the East Wing volume extending well into the White House lawn. At roughly 90,000 square feet, its footprint is more than twice the size of the previous East Wing building, which is now fully demolished. … The documentation includes site plans, building plans, elevations, landscape drawings and renders.” – Dezeen
MEDIA
- Why Discord’s Age Verification Idea Isn’t Going According To Plan
Hackers discovered the Peter Thiel-backed verification software, Persona, “bundled in an interface that pairs facial recognition with financial reporting – and a parallel implementation that appears designed to serve federal agencies.” Discord swiftly decided to kick Persona to the curb. – The Rage
- The Berlinale Has Been A Complex Mess Of Politics. Why?
“The Berlinale has gained a reputation as the most overtly political of the major festivals, not only for its programming choices, but for its history of engaging with global crises. … Critics say that despite being vocal on other issues, the Berlinale has not spoken out about Gaza.” – NPR
- AMC Started Playing An AI-Generated ‘Film’ Before Movies, But Had To Stop Almost Immediately
“Some called for boycotts. Some found it insulting that if pre-show screen time were being given to short films, AMC would feature AI-generated content rather than human-made movies. Almost all seemed to agree that the move was, as one disgruntled user put it, ‘hot garbage.’” – Fast Company
- The World Shunned The Taliban. So Why Do They Seem To Be Thriving?
In January, the Taliban announced a new criminal code that, among other provisions, allows domestic violence and the corporal punishment of children and appears to legitimize slavery through the use of the word “slave.” – The Walrus
- Melbourne’s Arts Community Alarmed As State Government Funding Keeps Falling
From 2022 to 2026, the grant pool distributed by state arts agency Creative Victoria has fallen by over 25%, from $81.2 million to $59.4 million (Aus), with little hope of any change. Said one arts leader, “(Melbourne) is going to go from the cultural capital to the least funded city in Australia.” – The Guardian
MUSIC
- Toni Morrison, And The Power Of Ambiguity
“Fiction has no obligation to dispel ambiguity. It can make use of it—even intensify it—in order to evoke and transform experience. In Beloved, Morrison does take possession of the master’s tools, but she bends them, breaks them, and then uses them to reshape the house.” – LitHub
- Reading “Animal Farm” In Afghanistan: A Women’s Book Circle Becomes A Form Of Resistance
With the Taliban having outlawed the education of girls and severely restricted women’s other rights, a clandestine group of women gather weekly to read books ranging from Orwell and Hemingway to contemporary Iranian fiction. – The Guardian
- A Major Project To Revive Indigenous Languages
Chicago’s Newberry Library has received $4 million from the Mellon Foundation that will help widen access to Indigenous languages, some of which have been on the brink of disappearance. – WBEZ
- Outsourcing Publishing Decisions To Influencers
Bindery Books, a startup founded by publishing veterans, uses social media book influencers as acquiring editors to champion underrepresented authors and build engaged reader communities. – Los Angeles Times
- Children’s Vocabularies Are Shrinking In Shift From Reading To Screens
“So many children are now falling behind,” Dent said. “The vocabulary gap is getting bigger and there is a real perception that vocabulary development is suffering and that impacts on learning.” – The Guardian
PEOPLE
- Damian Lewis On Being In The Public Eye
“I had a stalker. We had an injunction on her and I thought that everything was safe and then I was on stage doing a press night in the West End and someone stood up out of the front row and put flowers at my feet and I realised it was my stalker.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Ireland’s Basic Income For The Arts Is Now Permanent, But What Does It Mean For The Artists?
In Ireland, despite how often the government uses Irish arts to market the country to tourists, “more than 56 per cent of artists and arts workers experience enforced deprivation (that’s three times the rate in the general population).” – Irish Times (Archive Today)
- With Lost Boys And Dracula On Broadway, Plus Sinners At The Oscars, Why Are We So Immersed In Vampire Culture?
“These mythological creatures tap into our anxiety over what would happen if we became otherly human. … As the horror author Grady Hendrix put it: ‘Vampires are the only monster that looks like us.’” – The New York Times
- The New Wuthering Heights Treats One Of Its Women Very, Very Badly
“The film Isabella is a narrative tool for Heathcliff rather than developing in her own right. She becomes another victim of ‘fridging,’ a term coined by Gail Simone that references the way in which many female characters are disposable, depthless plot devices.” – The Guardian (UK)
- South Africa Has Pulled Out Of The Venice Biennale
“The move comes after the country’s right-wing culture minister Gayton McKenzie scrapped a pavilion proposal by artist Gabrielle Goliath and curator Ingrid Masondo.” They said, “The space will remain empty: a space of erasure, cancellation, censure.” – Hyperallergic
PEOPLE
- Damian Lewis On Being In The Public Eye
“I had a stalker. We had an injunction on her and I thought that everything was safe and then I was on stage doing a press night in the West End and someone stood up out of the front row and put flowers at my feet and I realised it was my stalker.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Ireland’s Basic Income For The Arts Is Now Permanent, But What Does It Mean For The Artists?
In Ireland, despite how often the government uses Irish arts to market the country to tourists, “more than 56 per cent of artists and arts workers experience enforced deprivation (that’s three times the rate in the general population).” – Irish Times (Archive Today)
- With Lost Boys And Dracula On Broadway, Plus Sinners At The Oscars, Why Are We So Immersed In Vampire Culture?
“These mythological creatures tap into our anxiety over what would happen if we became otherly human. … As the horror author Grady Hendrix put it: ‘Vampires are the only monster that looks like us.’” – The New York Times
- The New Wuthering Heights Treats One Of Its Women Very, Very Badly
“The film Isabella is a narrative tool for Heathcliff rather than developing in her own right. She becomes another victim of ‘fridging,’ a term coined by Gail Simone that references the way in which many female characters are disposable, depthless plot devices.” – The Guardian (UK)
- South Africa Has Pulled Out Of The Venice Biennale
“The move comes after the country’s right-wing culture minister Gayton McKenzie scrapped a pavilion proposal by artist Gabrielle Goliath and curator Ingrid Masondo.” They said, “The space will remain empty: a space of erasure, cancellation, censure.” – Hyperallergic
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Ireland’s Basic Income For The Arts Is Now Permanent, But What Does It Mean For The Artists?
In Ireland, despite how often the government uses Irish arts to market the country to tourists, “more than 56 per cent of artists and arts workers experience enforced deprivation (that’s three times the rate in the general population).” – Irish Times (Archive Today)
- Our Inability To Focus On Books Isn’t A Failing
It’s a design flaw, and it can be fixed. “We have been here before. Not just once, but repeatedly, in a pattern so consistent it reveals something essential about how cultural elites respond to changes in how knowledge moves through society.” – Aeon
- Should Our Museums Be Responsible For Healing Us?
Like many other words that have been “problematised” using post-structural approaches in the humanities, “care” is no longer simply a benign building block of a sentence, but is now part of a broader academic nexus that underpins its public expression. – The Critic
- Are We Falling Out Of Love With Our AI Confidants?
There are good reasons why people, at least at first, feel positive about their relationship with an AI companion. But new research is showing that these feelings change over time. Artificial empathy, it turns out, comes at a cost. – Psyche
- Attention Spans Are A Design Problem
The same teenager who supposedly lacks attention span can maintain game focus for hours while parsing a complex narrative across multiple storylines, coordinating with teammates, adapting strategy in real time. That’s not inferior cognition. It’s different cognition. And the difference isn’t the screen. It’s the environment. – Aeon
