AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Lauding Lauder: The Consummate Museum Benefactor Dies at 92
I’ve been unpardonably remiss about this (having been uncharacteristically off-blog for two months). But I must belatedly add my voice
- What Happens When You Expose Octopuses To Art?
The Japanese artist Shimabuku wanted to find out — so he started making artworks for them. – CNN
- The Power Of Gossip And Spiritual Ease
I was able to differentiate between types of gossip through this association: the kind that aims to bring a rival low, that tries to set the record straight about some unfairly maligned individual, or that is akin to a secret stock tip and meant to benefit a shrewd listener. Every subject was fair game. – The Walrus
- Just Whom Is Spotify’s New Time-Limited Audiobook Subscription For? Not Enough Time For The Whole Book.
The 30-hour limit won’t get you through titles like George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones or Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings, for example. You could listen to two or three smaller novels instead, but if you want to re-listen to them in the future, you’ll have to sacrifice those hours again. – The Verge
- Yale Art Gallery Withdraws Grant Applications After NEA Anti-DEI Rules
The Yale Art Gallery, the renowned university museum in New Haven, Connecticut, has withdrawn two federal grant applications for an African art exhibition after rejecting the new, anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) stipulations introduced by the Trump administration. – ARTnews
ISSUES
- What Happens When You Expose Octopuses To Art?
The Japanese artist Shimabuku wanted to find out — so he started making artworks for them. – CNN
- Yale Art Gallery Withdraws Grant Applications After NEA Anti-DEI Rules
The Yale Art Gallery, the renowned university museum in New Haven, Connecticut, has withdrawn two federal grant applications for an African art exhibition after rejecting the new, anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) stipulations introduced by the Trump administration. – ARTnews
- The School Teacher Who Was Selling “Creepy” Art Made By His Students
The page was entitled “Creepy Portrait Art,” and the pictures were, as promised, incredibly creepy. Dozens of student portraits, mostly in crayon, depicted a grab bag of nightmarish externalization: twelve- and thirteen-year-olds with bleeding wounds, sutured mouths, and dangling eyeballs. – The Walrus
- Russia’s Private Art Museums Are Targets In Putin’s Crackdown On Dissent
“Many cultural workers and some billionaire museum founders have chosen to leave Russia; others have felt compelled to do so after warnings that they could be imprisoned. Here is how four private Russian museums are faring in this difficult environment.” – The Art Newspaper
- What The UK’s Redesigned Money Will Say About Its People
The invitation to contribute to the redesign will therefore show two things. It will tell us how the country sees itself. It will also demonstrate the contradictions around national symbols and the exclusions they can produce. – The Conversation
MEDIA
- How Trump’s Attacks On Journalists Are Weakening The First Amendment
They show Trump has found tactical ways to prevail in his nonstop battle to discredit outlets that report critically on him and his activities. – Variety
- Republicans Propose Big Cuts To NEA, NEH, Kennedy Center Budgets
House Appropriations Interior Subcommittee recommended 35 percent cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) budget, and a 17.2 percent reduction in the Kennedy Center’s budget. If passed, this would be the NEA’s lowest allocation since 2007. – American Theatre
- Burlesque Is Experiencing Yet Another Revival
“(The 21st-century’s neo-burlesque) feels relevant to 2025 – in step with drag and queer culture, and in line with the broader movement towards diversity and inclusivity that we’ve seen in the last decade. Yet what’s surprising about some of the new burlesque offerings is how old-fashioned they seem.” – BBC
- Australian Artists And Universities Could Have Funding Blocked If They Fail To Fight Antisemitism
“Universities and artists would have funding withheld if they fail to act against antisemitism, AI tools would be banned from sharing Jewish hatred, and the government would have new grounds to deport visitors under a wide-ranging plan put forward by Australia’s antisemitism envoy.” – The Guardian
- How Italian Towns Selling Houses For €1 Changes Culture
The campaigns seemed to me to have been largely successful – some towns had sold all their listed properties. By attracting international buyers to a house that “costs less than a cup of coffee”, as one piece put it, some of Italy’s most remote towns now had new life circulating through them. – The Guardian
MUSIC
- Just Whom Is Spotify’s New Time-Limited Audiobook Subscription For? Not Enough Time For The Whole Book.
The 30-hour limit won’t get you through titles like George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones or Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings, for example. You could listen to two or three smaller novels instead, but if you want to re-listen to them in the future, you’ll have to sacrifice those hours again. – The Verge
- The Most Dangerous Book In America?
“What has been labeled the ‘bible of the racist right’ has influenced American culture in a way only fiction can. … There is no exaggeration in saying that The Turner Diaries and books like it have played a part in spreading hateful ideas that now even influence government policy.” – The Atlantic (MSN)
- Canada’s Giller Prize Will Close Down This Year Without New Sponsor Or Government Funding
“The annual $100,000 prize for fiction ended its 20-year partnership with lead sponsor Scotiabank earlier this year. At that time, Giller Foundation executive director Elana Rabinovitch did not comment on the financial effect the loss of the lead sponsor would have on the prize’s future.” – Quill & Quire
- Woody Allen Is Now A Novelist
Since the 1970s, Allen has written several books of short stories and essays, as well as a memoir, Apropos of Nothing, published in 2020, but this is his first novel. What’s With Baum, to be released later this year by Swift Press, is about a middle-aged Jewish journalist-turned-novelist ‘consumed with anxiety about everything under the sun.” – The Guardian
- India’s Nationalist Government Is Pushing Hindi To Replace English. Non-Hindi-Speaking States Are Pushing Back Hard.
It’s the latest outbreak of a recurring argument: the central government in Delhi (in Hindi-speaking north-central India) pushes for Hindi in place of the British colonizers’ tongue, while other states argue that with English, every region is on an equal footing and Hindi won’t crowd out their own languages. – Deutsche Welle
PEOPLE
- Lauding Lauder: The Consummate Museum Benefactor Dies at 92
I’ve been unpardonably remiss about this (having been uncharacteristically off-blog for two months). But I must belatedly add my voice
- What Happens When You Expose Octopuses To Art?
The Japanese artist Shimabuku wanted to find out — so he started making artworks for them. – CNN
- The Power Of Gossip And Spiritual Ease
I was able to differentiate between types of gossip through this association: the kind that aims to bring a rival low, that tries to set the record straight about some unfairly maligned individual, or that is akin to a secret stock tip and meant to benefit a shrewd listener. Every subject was fair game. – The Walrus
- Just Whom Is Spotify’s New Time-Limited Audiobook Subscription For? Not Enough Time For The Whole Book.
The 30-hour limit won’t get you through titles like George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones or Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings, for example. You could listen to two or three smaller novels instead, but if you want to re-listen to them in the future, you’ll have to sacrifice those hours again. – The Verge
- Yale Art Gallery Withdraws Grant Applications After NEA Anti-DEI Rules
The Yale Art Gallery, the renowned university museum in New Haven, Connecticut, has withdrawn two federal grant applications for an African art exhibition after rejecting the new, anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) stipulations introduced by the Trump administration. – ARTnews
PEOPLE
- Lauding Lauder: The Consummate Museum Benefactor Dies at 92
I’ve been unpardonably remiss about this (having been uncharacteristically off-blog for two months). But I must belatedly add my voice
- What Happens When You Expose Octopuses To Art?
The Japanese artist Shimabuku wanted to find out — so he started making artworks for them. – CNN
- The Power Of Gossip And Spiritual Ease
I was able to differentiate between types of gossip through this association: the kind that aims to bring a rival low, that tries to set the record straight about some unfairly maligned individual, or that is akin to a secret stock tip and meant to benefit a shrewd listener. Every subject was fair game. – The Walrus
- Just Whom Is Spotify’s New Time-Limited Audiobook Subscription For? Not Enough Time For The Whole Book.
The 30-hour limit won’t get you through titles like George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones or Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings, for example. You could listen to two or three smaller novels instead, but if you want to re-listen to them in the future, you’ll have to sacrifice those hours again. – The Verge
- Yale Art Gallery Withdraws Grant Applications After NEA Anti-DEI Rules
The Yale Art Gallery, the renowned university museum in New Haven, Connecticut, has withdrawn two federal grant applications for an African art exhibition after rejecting the new, anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) stipulations introduced by the Trump administration. – ARTnews
THEATRE
VISUAL
- The Power Of Gossip And Spiritual Ease
I was able to differentiate between types of gossip through this association: the kind that aims to bring a rival low, that tries to set the record straight about some unfairly maligned individual, or that is akin to a secret stock tip and meant to benefit a shrewd listener. Every subject was fair game. – The Walrus
- Why Liberal Arts Education Is Really In Decline At American Universities
The tragedy of the contemporary academy is that even when traditional liberal learning clearly wins with students and donors, it loses with those in power. – The New York Times
- How Misinformation Infects A Community
Social connections establish pathways of influence that can facilitate the spread of germs, mental illness and even behaviors. We can be profoundly influenced by others within our social networks, for better or for worse. – The Conversation
- AI Companions Are Getting Really Good. But We Lose Something Creatively Important
Solitude is the engine of independent thought—a usual precondition for real creativity. It gives us a chance to commune with nature, or, if we’re feeling ambitious, to pursue some kind of spiritual transcendence. – The New Yorker
- Why We Choose To Ignore Useful Information Right In Front Of Us
If the saying ‘knowledge is power’ is true, then most people hold an indefinite amount of power in their pockets. And, in this light, it’s curious that someone would choose to relinquish that power by avoiding information. – Psyche
