AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Dancing while the bombs fall
Good Morning,
Alexei Ratmansky and his wife Tatiana went to Kyiv to make ballets with the Ukrainian National Ballet during one of the worst stretches of the war, rehearsing between runs to the bomb shelter (The New York Times).
The Kennedy Center board voted to shut the building indefinitely after a phone call from the President that one member described to CNN in terms we can’t print (The New Republic). The resolution itself cites “certain fiscal collapse within weeks” (Washington Post). Kyiv dances through air raids; the national cultural center closes over a board meeting.
Two stories about what buildings are for. Japan has 77,000 temples, and 17,000 of them no longer have a resident priest — the structures outlived the practice, and the question now is what a sacred space becomes next (Deutsche Welle). And Josh Goldblum on why museums increasingly have difficulty presenting complexity (Josh Goldblum).
A look inside how Washington’s theatres assembled their 2026–27 season partly by sharing productions across companies — a constraint turned into collaboration (Washington City Paper).
Burning Man is 40, and so are the Burners: 40% over 40 last year, 10% in their twenties (The Guardian). The counterculture is having a demographic problem like everyone else.
All of our stories below.
- Ed Sheeran Tour In Shambles After Supporting Musicians Pull Out After Macklemore Ouster
- Trump Calls In To Kennedy Center Board Meeting, Rants, And Board Votes To Shut Down Indefinitely
An unnamed board member described Trump’s phone call as “fucking crazy” to CNN, while another source told the news outlet that Trump screamed throughout the call. – The New Republic
- Nearly Intact Pre-Inca Tomb Discovered, Complete With Funerary Treasure
The burial chamber was found at Chan Chan, once the capital of the Chimú people, whose culture flourished on what’s now Peru’s northern coast from the early 10th century CE to 1470. Because the tomb was never looted, researchers will be able to learn more about Chimú society than ever before. – Smithsonian Magazine
- Bookstores Warn Of Threats To Publishers Of Left-Wing Literature
The criminalization of left-wing literature and those who publish or distribute it, the booksellers said, should also concern mainstream bookstores, which should be able to carry “a broad range of viewpoints without fear of government scrutiny or interference. – Publishers Weekly
ISSUES
- Nearly Intact Pre-Inca Tomb Discovered, Complete With Funerary Treasure
The burial chamber was found at Chan Chan, once the capital of the Chimú people, whose culture flourished on what’s now Peru’s northern coast from the early 10th century CE to 1470. Because the tomb was never looted, researchers will be able to learn more about Chimú society than ever before. – Smithsonian Magazine
- Lawsuit Alleges International Racket In Fake Andy Warhols
“(A family of art collectors) is suing more than a half-dozen individuals and companies across Florida, Philadelphia and Peru, whom they claim served as ‘suppliers, fake authenticators and distributors’ in an elaborate and far-reaching forgery scheme.” – The Wall Street Journal (MSN)
- Why It’s Increasingly Difficult For Museums To Tackle Complicated Topics
Donors underwrite celebration. Nobody endows a wing to say “it’s complicated.” That’s why the critical museum barely exists as a category. I’d rather build a Howard Zinn People’s History Museum than rehash a heroic retelling of our glorious past, but I have no idea how that gets funded. – Josh Goldblum
- George Lucas’ New Temple To Storytelling
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which opens this month in Exposition Park, just south of downtown Los Angeles, is a swooping, brain-beggaring, super-sexy, twin-bodied leviathan of a megastructure, white as the gown of Princess Leia, half spaceship, half cetacean, all curves, Shangri-la for skateboarders if they could ever get inside. – The Atlantic
- David Salle On Museum Politics
Is it possible to make qualitative judgements in an unbiased way? Maybe not. Some people feel that the whole idea of making judgements is just another form of cultural oppression. On one level, aesthetic preferences are all cultural. Take for one example the preference for consonant music over dissonant—it’s cultural, not intrinsic. – Artnet
MEDIA
- Trump Calls In To Kennedy Center Board Meeting, Rants, And Board Votes To Shut Down Indefinitely
An unnamed board member described Trump’s phone call as “fucking crazy” to CNN, while another source told the news outlet that Trump screamed throughout the call. – The New Republic
- Burning Man Is Now Middle-Aged — In More Ways Than One
It’s not just that the festival itself has been happening for 40 years, or that people have been complaining that it’s not what it used to be for decades. It’s that Burners themselves are older, with 40% of them over 40 last year and only 10% of them in their 20s. – The Guardian
- How To Repurpose All Those Centuries-Old Japanese Temples?
There are around 77,000 temples across the country, but as many as 17,000 no longer have a full-time resident priest as congregations have shrunk — particularly in rural districts experiencing rapid depopulation — and financial pressures have taken their toll. – Deutsche Welle
- England Gives Local Governments Power To Levy Hotel Taxes
Scotland was the first to allow this: the law passed two years ago, and the first “visitor levies” were collected this summer in Edinburgh. Welsh localities will have the authority to charge this tax starting next year. Andy Burnham’s government just announced plans to extend this power to English local governments. – The Independent (UK)
- Read The Proposed Kennedy Center Resolution To Shut Down
With certain fiscal collapse within weeks, the board seeks to determine what recognition and acknowledgement will comply with the Court’s decisions in Beatty v. Trump et al. and with its statutory obligations, and wishes to explore additional options to present that recognition in a concrete and public fashion. – Washington Post
MUSIC
- Bookstores Warn Of Threats To Publishers Of Left-Wing Literature
The criminalization of left-wing literature and those who publish or distribute it, the booksellers said, should also concern mainstream bookstores, which should be able to carry “a broad range of viewpoints without fear of government scrutiny or interference. – Publishers Weekly
- Writers Are Going To Extreme Lengths To Prove Their Work Is Human
As AI-generated writing floods the internet, more people are trying to detect which creators are using such tools to spin up copy. That means writers penning all their own work—and people who acknowledge using chatbots for help—are trying to master something they never worried about before: how to sound human. – The Wall Street Journal
- Alabama Moves To Force Its Public Libraries To Keep Books About Trans Issues Away From Young People
“Under the amended administrative code, books that discuss gender-transition procedures or ‘gender ideology,’ or that ‘promote’ the existence of more than two biological genders, must be removed from youth sections and relocated to sections for adults.” Noncompliant libraries will lose their state funding. – The Advocate
- Four Million Books Were Published In The US Last Year. 3.5M Of Them Were Self-Published
U.S. title output reached roughly four million in 2025, up about 32 percent in a single year, and around 3.5 million of those were self-published titles with ISBNs, up nearly 39 percent on the year before. Self-published books outnumbered traditionally published ones by more than five to one. – Rachel Alterberry
- That Time When Russian Printers Went On Strike Over Commas
“At the time, printers were paid by the letter set, but this didn’t include punctuation.” The workers were not having it. – LitHub
PEOPLE
- Dancing while the bombs fall
Good Morning,
Alexei Ratmansky and his wife Tatiana went to Kyiv to make ballets with the Ukrainian National Ballet during one of the worst stretches of the war, rehearsing between runs to the bomb shelter (The New York Times).
The Kennedy Center board voted to shut the building indefinitely after a phone call from the President that one member described to CNN in terms we can’t print (The New Republic). The resolution itself cites “certain fiscal collapse within weeks” (Washington Post). Kyiv dances through air raids; the national cultural center closes over a board meeting.
Two stories about what buildings are for. Japan has 77,000 temples, and 17,000 of them no longer have a resident priest — the structures outlived the practice, and the question now is what a sacred space becomes next (Deutsche Welle). And Josh Goldblum on why museums increasingly have difficulty presenting complexity (Josh Goldblum).
A look inside how Washington’s theatres assembled their 2026–27 season partly by sharing productions across companies — a constraint turned into collaboration (Washington City Paper).
Burning Man is 40, and so are the Burners: 40% over 40 last year, 10% in their twenties (The Guardian). The counterculture is having a demographic problem like everyone else.
All of our stories below.
- Ed Sheeran Tour In Shambles After Supporting Musicians Pull Out After Macklemore Ouster
- Trump Calls In To Kennedy Center Board Meeting, Rants, And Board Votes To Shut Down Indefinitely
An unnamed board member described Trump’s phone call as “fucking crazy” to CNN, while another source told the news outlet that Trump screamed throughout the call. – The New Republic
- Nearly Intact Pre-Inca Tomb Discovered, Complete With Funerary Treasure
The burial chamber was found at Chan Chan, once the capital of the Chimú people, whose culture flourished on what’s now Peru’s northern coast from the early 10th century CE to 1470. Because the tomb was never looted, researchers will be able to learn more about Chimú society than ever before. – Smithsonian Magazine
- Bookstores Warn Of Threats To Publishers Of Left-Wing Literature
The criminalization of left-wing literature and those who publish or distribute it, the booksellers said, should also concern mainstream bookstores, which should be able to carry “a broad range of viewpoints without fear of government scrutiny or interference. – Publishers Weekly
PEOPLE
- Dancing while the bombs fall
Good Morning,
Alexei Ratmansky and his wife Tatiana went to Kyiv to make ballets with the Ukrainian National Ballet during one of the worst stretches of the war, rehearsing between runs to the bomb shelter (The New York Times).
The Kennedy Center board voted to shut the building indefinitely after a phone call from the President that one member described to CNN in terms we can’t print (The New Republic). The resolution itself cites “certain fiscal collapse within weeks” (Washington Post). Kyiv dances through air raids; the national cultural center closes over a board meeting.
Two stories about what buildings are for. Japan has 77,000 temples, and 17,000 of them no longer have a resident priest — the structures outlived the practice, and the question now is what a sacred space becomes next (Deutsche Welle). And Josh Goldblum on why museums increasingly have difficulty presenting complexity (Josh Goldblum).
A look inside how Washington’s theatres assembled their 2026–27 season partly by sharing productions across companies — a constraint turned into collaboration (Washington City Paper).
Burning Man is 40, and so are the Burners: 40% over 40 last year, 10% in their twenties (The Guardian). The counterculture is having a demographic problem like everyone else.
All of our stories below.
- Ed Sheeran Tour In Shambles After Supporting Musicians Pull Out After Macklemore Ouster
- Trump Calls In To Kennedy Center Board Meeting, Rants, And Board Votes To Shut Down Indefinitely
An unnamed board member described Trump’s phone call as “fucking crazy” to CNN, while another source told the news outlet that Trump screamed throughout the call. – The New Republic
- Nearly Intact Pre-Inca Tomb Discovered, Complete With Funerary Treasure
The burial chamber was found at Chan Chan, once the capital of the Chimú people, whose culture flourished on what’s now Peru’s northern coast from the early 10th century CE to 1470. Because the tomb was never looted, researchers will be able to learn more about Chimú society than ever before. – Smithsonian Magazine
- Bookstores Warn Of Threats To Publishers Of Left-Wing Literature
The criminalization of left-wing literature and those who publish or distribute it, the booksellers said, should also concern mainstream bookstores, which should be able to carry “a broad range of viewpoints without fear of government scrutiny or interference. – Publishers Weekly
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Angela Duckworth Takes On Will Power
High-profile authors are obviously under pressure to offer novel frameworks, but rarely do these second acts feel like an about-face. Duckworth insists that “Situated” is not a reversal but an expansion of her earlier research; as an account of individual success, grit is “necessary but not sufficient,” and must be complemented by the larger picture. – The New Yorker
- What Hollywood Has Done To Our Ideas Of Sex In Ancient Egypt
A lot of sexual positions are “practically only for the gods,” not for regular people, or even non-deified monarchs. – El País English
- Is Talk Of Extinction Simply Meant To Distract Us From The True Threats Of AI?
Timnit Gebru: Sometimes “I read quotes to people about artificial intelligence that I’ve gathered in my research, and I ask, What decade was this statement made in? Sometimes people get it right, but a lot of times they do not, because it all sounds the same.” – Wired
- Cockroach Milk, Underpants Soil Testing, A Scientific Definition Of Kissing: The 2026 Ig Nobel Prizes
“Winning work highlighted during the 36th annual award ceremony” (which was in Zurich this year rather than Boston) “included hilarious research on the aerodynamics of nose blowing, gently stepping on venomous snakes, confirming that teenagers do indeed smell worse than babies and other side-splitting scientific undertakings.” – Smithsonian Magazine
- Flock’s Vision Of Surveillance Everywhere
Flock was reported to have a valuation of more than eight billion dollars, with its biggest investor being the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Around forty per cent of the United States’ law-enforcement agencies now have contracts with the company, and a reported hundred and thirty thousand cameras monitor roads in every state but Alaska. – The New Yorker