AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Travel Guru Rick Steves Buys His Local Theatre
The effort secures the future of the more than 100-year-old facility and is just another investment by Steves in the local community over the past year. – KING 5
- Cyber Attack On Australian Book Distributor
A cyber attack on one of the country’s major publishing distributors has left bookshops and authors struggling to fill their shelves in the lead-up to their busiest trading period. – ABC Australia
- For Its Latest Production, Berlin’s “People’s Stage” Installed A Public Pool. It Became A Culture-War Flashpoint.
“In less than a month (at the Volksbühne), the pool has become a window to the rising power of right-wing online media outlets in Germany, underscored debates over who has the right to cool off in public, … and revealed fundamental changes in Berlin’s working class.” – The New York Times
- Ancient Gold Treasure In Spain Stolen In Four-Minute Raid
“Thieves in Spain have raided the Treasure of Villena – a stunning collection of bronze age gold artefacts that has been described as the most important prehistoric trove in Europe – in the latest high-profile smash-and-grab heist on the continent.” – The Guardian
- The Warehouse Where Amazon Takes Apart And Scans Books To Train Its AI: An Employee Speaks
“The employee worked at Amazon’s VGT3 warehouse, which is housed in the same facility as LAS8, where Amazon operates its print-on-demand business. … The Amazon employee I talked to described what that operation looks like from the warehouse floor.” – 404 Media
ISSUES
- Ancient Gold Treasure In Spain Stolen In Four-Minute Raid
“Thieves in Spain have raided the Treasure of Villena – a stunning collection of bronze age gold artefacts that has been described as the most important prehistoric trove in Europe – in the latest high-profile smash-and-grab heist on the continent.” – The Guardian
- LACMA Hit With Class-Action Lawsuit Over Data Breach
“A former employee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has filed a class action complaint against the institution over a 2025 data breach that he claims has compromised sensitive visitor and employee information, including Social Security numbers.” – ARTnews
- V&A Museum Workers Vote To Strike
A PCS ballot registered 95% in favour of industrial action. The union did not say how many workers would be striking. It called for better pay, a cross-site policy to close public spaces when temperatures reached 30C, and for V&A East Storehouse workers “to drink and carry water at work”. – BBC
- US State Department Wants To Sell Kehinde Wiley Painting: “Too Woke”
On Monday, the New York Times reported that the State Department wants to sell the painting. Campos said in her Instagram post that the “Trump Administration and under my leadership we are turning away from globalist and woke ideologies.” – ARTnews
- Why Labor Unrest Is Sweeping Through Britain’s Museum Sector
“Staff at the V&A voted overwhelmingly to strike; … (workers) at the British Museum, the Science Museum, British Library, and Tate, among others, have all walked out in recent years as unions … coordinate campaigns accusing institutions of mistreating their staff and letting wages fall behind the cost of living.” – Artnet
MEDIA
- Trump Administration Threatens To Demolish Kennedy Center If Renovations Don’t Proceed
“Without those efforts,” wrote administration attorneys in a court filing, “the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River.” – The Guardian
- Seaside Towns In Brittany Are Fed Up With Parisian Tourists
“The anger is running high across Finistère, where local populations swell to triple their normal size every summer, and heatwave conditions in the south of France have added to the influx this year. … Hostile messages have been scratched on car doors, and holidaymakers from Paris have had insults hurled at them on the street.” – The Telegraph (UK) (MSN)
- Report: Revenue Cratered At The Kennedy Center After Name Change
Ticket sales had already dropped in the10 months following Trump’s takeover, but both ticket sales and donations plunged after the Trump-led board of trustees voted in December to rename the center after him and put his name on the front of the building, according to the records. – Washington Post
- Historic LA Performing Center Reopens After 15-Year Renovation
After a 15-year renovation, South L.A.’s historic Vision Theatre Performing Arts Center is reopening, marking a major milestone for Leimert Park and a $40-million investment in Black arts and culture. – Los Angeles Times
- Elections Flip Control Of Florida School Board At Center Of Book Bans And Culture Wars
“Two Democratic-backed candidates beat out conservatives in Tuesday’s school board election in Sarasota, Florida, flipping the board’s majority. Helmed for the past year by a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, … the board is moving in a new direction, the winners said.” – The Washington Post (Yahoo!)
MUSIC
- Cyber Attack On Australian Book Distributor
A cyber attack on one of the country’s major publishing distributors has left bookshops and authors struggling to fill their shelves in the lead-up to their busiest trading period. – ABC Australia
- The Warehouse Where Amazon Takes Apart And Scans Books To Train Its AI: An Employee Speaks
“The employee worked at Amazon’s VGT3 warehouse, which is housed in the same facility as LAS8, where Amazon operates its print-on-demand business. … The Amazon employee I talked to described what that operation looks like from the warehouse floor.” – 404 Media
- Why Is So Much New Literary Fiction So Boring?
The question driving these opening pages is not: “What does it mean to live a good life?” or “What do we owe to people?” or “What can be saved from the ravages of time?” The question I hear is: “Have I impressed you yet?” – Devon Halliday
- HarperCollins Now Has A Manga Imprint, Kazé
“The publisher is rolling out the imprint in partnership with the existing Kazé publishers in France and Germany, which distribute manga for the European market and were acquired by HarperCollins last year. Kazé US will build on that brand for American readers of all ages.” – Publishers Weekly
- UK Publisher To Release Jason Arday’s Memoir Despite Questions About Its Veracity
Simon & Schuster UK made no comment beyond a statement from Arday’s family: “Jason was clear that he wanted his memoir to be published and it is only right that we honour his wishes. … We (will) allow the book to speak for itself and won’t comment further on its content.” – The Telegraph (UK) (Yahoo!)
PEOPLE
- Travel Guru Rick Steves Buys His Local Theatre
The effort secures the future of the more than 100-year-old facility and is just another investment by Steves in the local community over the past year. – KING 5
- Cyber Attack On Australian Book Distributor
A cyber attack on one of the country’s major publishing distributors has left bookshops and authors struggling to fill their shelves in the lead-up to their busiest trading period. – ABC Australia
- For Its Latest Production, Berlin’s “People’s Stage” Installed A Public Pool. It Became A Culture-War Flashpoint.
“In less than a month (at the Volksbühne), the pool has become a window to the rising power of right-wing online media outlets in Germany, underscored debates over who has the right to cool off in public, … and revealed fundamental changes in Berlin’s working class.” – The New York Times
- Ancient Gold Treasure In Spain Stolen In Four-Minute Raid
“Thieves in Spain have raided the Treasure of Villena – a stunning collection of bronze age gold artefacts that has been described as the most important prehistoric trove in Europe – in the latest high-profile smash-and-grab heist on the continent.” – The Guardian
- The Warehouse Where Amazon Takes Apart And Scans Books To Train Its AI: An Employee Speaks
“The employee worked at Amazon’s VGT3 warehouse, which is housed in the same facility as LAS8, where Amazon operates its print-on-demand business. … The Amazon employee I talked to described what that operation looks like from the warehouse floor.” – 404 Media
PEOPLE
- Travel Guru Rick Steves Buys His Local Theatre
The effort secures the future of the more than 100-year-old facility and is just another investment by Steves in the local community over the past year. – KING 5
- Cyber Attack On Australian Book Distributor
A cyber attack on one of the country’s major publishing distributors has left bookshops and authors struggling to fill their shelves in the lead-up to their busiest trading period. – ABC Australia
- For Its Latest Production, Berlin’s “People’s Stage” Installed A Public Pool. It Became A Culture-War Flashpoint.
“In less than a month (at the Volksbühne), the pool has become a window to the rising power of right-wing online media outlets in Germany, underscored debates over who has the right to cool off in public, … and revealed fundamental changes in Berlin’s working class.” – The New York Times
- Ancient Gold Treasure In Spain Stolen In Four-Minute Raid
“Thieves in Spain have raided the Treasure of Villena – a stunning collection of bronze age gold artefacts that has been described as the most important prehistoric trove in Europe – in the latest high-profile smash-and-grab heist on the continent.” – The Guardian
- The Warehouse Where Amazon Takes Apart And Scans Books To Train Its AI: An Employee Speaks
“The employee worked at Amazon’s VGT3 warehouse, which is housed in the same facility as LAS8, where Amazon operates its print-on-demand business. … The Amazon employee I talked to described what that operation looks like from the warehouse floor.” – 404 Media
THEATRE
VISUAL
- A Case For Limiting AI In Culture
If we fail to think through and delimit the role of AI in our lives, we risk undermining the intelligibility of our own guiding cultural concepts, and thus initiating a period in our own society of which it may someday be possible to say that “nothing happened.” – The Point
- The Worst Year Ever To Be Alive
A massive volcanic eruption in AD536 has led historians to describe it as the “worst year to be alive”. Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia were plunged into darkness for 18 months. Temperatures in the summer months fell by 1.5˚C to 2.5˚C, initiating one of the coldest decades in the past two millennia. – The Conversation
- Our Misconceptions Of What Consciousness Is
Perceiving, experiencing and thinking are inherently embodied activities. The body is not just a physical object, it is a living organism that is in constant flux. It is also part of the social, cultural and material world. – Nature
- The Warnings From The Digital Age That Should Inform The AI Age
The adoption and diffusion of such technologies led to wild-eyed speculation about their possible social and political consequences, a discussion that, characteristically, ricocheted between dreams of a technological utopia and fears of an artificial state. – The Guardian
- Is The Next Gen City A Marriage Of Tech And Nature?
If the Anthropocene began when the Industrial Revolution set industry against the living world, the Symbiocene imagines what should follow: interspecies democracy, life within Earth’s limits, and ecological reciprocity. – Aeon