AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Suit: Kennedy Center Knew Closure Estimate Was Wrong
Good Morning,
The Kennedy Center’s board voted to close the building for two years after being told phased renovation would double the cost. A lawsuit filed Friday says officials had a revised estimate, about $41 million more, and never showed it to the board (CNN).
Archive of Our Own, the important fan fiction site with 11 million users, is down after a security incident and may take four weeks to restore. Fans are sharing Google Docs of saved stories (Wired).
Before Trump’s Dubuque rally, the White House advance team hung a tarp over the city’s 2020 “Solidarity” mural, ten raised fists. The city, which owns the building, hadn’t approved it and had it removed (KCRG).
A Times essay says predictive algorithms are making culture the same everywhere (The New York Times). Searches for CD players at John Lewis, the UK retailer, are up 96% since July (The Guardian).
All of our stories below.
- Why Hasn’t MoMA Kicked A Disgraced Epstein Buddy Off Its Board?
“Leon Black’s board position at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is one of the starkest examples of institutional ignorance — a head-in-the-sand, look-the-other-way mentality that will inevitably give abuse of power a dark corner to grow and fester in.” – Hyperallergic
- Solidarity Mural In Iowa, Covered By Blue Tarp In Advance Of Trump Visit, Ordered By The City To Be Uncovered
A spokesperson from the building’s management company: “The goal of the White House in covering the mural was to provide exterior branding and put up a U.S. flag.” But the city had not authorized any exterior modifications. – Des Moines Register (MSN)
- Algos Are Ruining Music, Young People Say
Hence: CDs are making a dramatic comeback. – The Guardian (UK)
- The La Brea Tar Pits Renovation Requires Packing, Moving, And Unpacking 3.5 Million Fossils
“Buried in the bones are clues about how plants and animals lived and died. Understanding why some of those species became extinct could help us.” – The New York Times
ISSUES
- The La Brea Tar Pits Renovation Requires Packing, Moving, And Unpacking 3.5 Million Fossils
“Buried in the bones are clues about how plants and animals lived and died. Understanding why some of those species became extinct could help us.” – The New York Times
- The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Gets A Whole New Look
“While the music never stops and its doors didn’t close, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is undergoing the largest renovation and expansion since it was built in 1995 — a $195 million, nine-year effort.” – The New York Times
- American Pavillion At The Venice Biennale Is $1M Short. Art Transport Now A Problem
Despite months of controversy, the United States managed to get Alma Allen‘s enormous sculptures to Venice for this year’s Biennale. Getting them home, however, is proving more difficult. – ARTnews
- House Republicans Demand Details Of Smithsonian Museum Curation
“The Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency is concerned that the Smithsonian Institution (Smithsonian) does not properly review proposed exhibits in its museums,” says a letter to outgoing Smithsonian secretary Lonnie Bunch III, penned by subcommittee chairman Tim Burchett of Tennessee along with Georgia’s Brian Jack. – ARTnews
- Inside The Books Of The Mega-Galleries
Even for the biggest blue-chip galleries, selling art is a tough business. – Artnet
MEDIA
- Solidarity Mural In Iowa, Covered By Blue Tarp In Advance Of Trump Visit, Ordered By The City To Be Uncovered
A spokesperson from the building’s management company: “The goal of the White House in covering the mural was to provide exterior branding and put up a U.S. flag.” But the city had not authorized any exterior modifications. – Des Moines Register (MSN)
- You Don’t Know What The Algorithms Are Doing To Us Until You Walk Away
“Here’s the thing about spending a month off grid and overseas: … You are more relaxed than you have ever been, and you have forgotten the way nearly every news story of the past decade grabs hold of your heart and squeezes, twists, strangles. That constant, low-level dread.” – Slate
- As AI Infiltrates Scholarly Writing, The Value Of A Journal Article Is Collapsing
“Unfortunately, the scholars submitting papers aren’t the only ones using AI. So are many of their peer reviewers. One recent peer review that my journal received—from a senior scholar—read like an unedited cut-and-paste job from an LLM.” – The Atlantic
- Dems Cite Internal Pressure To Cover Decline Under Trump In Lawsuit Over Kennedy Center
“‘Defendants are shuttering the Kennedy Center to hide the ongoing mismanagement of this once vibrant institution and to placate its current chairman,’ they wrote in the filing.” – The New York Times
- The Kennedy Center’s Perplexing Choice Of Architect For $257M Renovations
The firm — which employs just 50 people, including eight architects, according to an industry database — generally does work that is a fraction of the scale and expense of the job. One if its most ambitious projects, according to its online portfolio, was a high school renovation completed in 2016 that cost about $40 million. – Washington Post
MUSIC
- How To Write Fictional AI In An Age Of Tech Bros
“Silicon Valley has become adept at repurposing science fiction as building blocks of its fantastical hype machine. When authors try to imagine a future in which machines have thoughts and feelings, their work instantly seems to get woven into a tapestry of bullshit.” – Happy Dancing
- The Queen Of Fairy Smut, With A New Book And Loads Of Merch, Rises Again
“Maas hysteria gripped the Bell House in the hours before the book dropped. Fans traded conspiracy theories about future plot twists, got temporary tattoos and face paint, drank themed cocktails, posed for photos behind a giant cauldron and bought branded candles, bag charms and other memorabilia.” – The New York Times
- This Is How Users Are Dealing With AO3 Going Down
It’s … intense. “Fans are compiling Google Docs of links to downloaded stories, touting them as ‘survival guides’ for the ‘AO3 apocalypse’ and organizing them by fictional character pairings, or ships.” – Wired
- Horror Books And Bookstores Are Proliferating
Horror book sales are up 39 percent this year over last, according to Circana BookScan. The market is growing: 5.1 million books were sold in 2025, up from 3.2 million in 2021. – The New York Times
- Meet The People Who Choose The Poems In New York Subway Cars
Anyone who has taken the subway has likely come across Poetry in Motion, which pairs poems with artwork. … Tina Vaz, the head of the MTA’s Arts & Design team, and Matt Brogan, the executive director of the Poetry Society of America, are the big decision makers behind the Poetry in Motion program. – Literary Hub
PEOPLE
- Suit: Kennedy Center Knew Closure Estimate Was Wrong
Good Morning,
The Kennedy Center’s board voted to close the building for two years after being told phased renovation would double the cost. A lawsuit filed Friday says officials had a revised estimate, about $41 million more, and never showed it to the board (CNN).
Archive of Our Own, the important fan fiction site with 11 million users, is down after a security incident and may take four weeks to restore. Fans are sharing Google Docs of saved stories (Wired).
Before Trump’s Dubuque rally, the White House advance team hung a tarp over the city’s 2020 “Solidarity” mural, ten raised fists. The city, which owns the building, hadn’t approved it and had it removed (KCRG).
A Times essay says predictive algorithms are making culture the same everywhere (The New York Times). Searches for CD players at John Lewis, the UK retailer, are up 96% since July (The Guardian).
All of our stories below.
- Why Hasn’t MoMA Kicked A Disgraced Epstein Buddy Off Its Board?
“Leon Black’s board position at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is one of the starkest examples of institutional ignorance — a head-in-the-sand, look-the-other-way mentality that will inevitably give abuse of power a dark corner to grow and fester in.” – Hyperallergic
- Solidarity Mural In Iowa, Covered By Blue Tarp In Advance Of Trump Visit, Ordered By The City To Be Uncovered
A spokesperson from the building’s management company: “The goal of the White House in covering the mural was to provide exterior branding and put up a U.S. flag.” But the city had not authorized any exterior modifications. – Des Moines Register (MSN)
- Algos Are Ruining Music, Young People Say
Hence: CDs are making a dramatic comeback. – The Guardian (UK)
- The La Brea Tar Pits Renovation Requires Packing, Moving, And Unpacking 3.5 Million Fossils
“Buried in the bones are clues about how plants and animals lived and died. Understanding why some of those species became extinct could help us.” – The New York Times
PEOPLE
- Suit: Kennedy Center Knew Closure Estimate Was Wrong
Good Morning,
The Kennedy Center’s board voted to close the building for two years after being told phased renovation would double the cost. A lawsuit filed Friday says officials had a revised estimate, about $41 million more, and never showed it to the board (CNN).
Archive of Our Own, the important fan fiction site with 11 million users, is down after a security incident and may take four weeks to restore. Fans are sharing Google Docs of saved stories (Wired).
Before Trump’s Dubuque rally, the White House advance team hung a tarp over the city’s 2020 “Solidarity” mural, ten raised fists. The city, which owns the building, hadn’t approved it and had it removed (KCRG).
A Times essay says predictive algorithms are making culture the same everywhere (The New York Times). Searches for CD players at John Lewis, the UK retailer, are up 96% since July (The Guardian).
All of our stories below.
- Why Hasn’t MoMA Kicked A Disgraced Epstein Buddy Off Its Board?
“Leon Black’s board position at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is one of the starkest examples of institutional ignorance — a head-in-the-sand, look-the-other-way mentality that will inevitably give abuse of power a dark corner to grow and fester in.” – Hyperallergic
- Solidarity Mural In Iowa, Covered By Blue Tarp In Advance Of Trump Visit, Ordered By The City To Be Uncovered
A spokesperson from the building’s management company: “The goal of the White House in covering the mural was to provide exterior branding and put up a U.S. flag.” But the city had not authorized any exterior modifications. – Des Moines Register (MSN)
- Algos Are Ruining Music, Young People Say
Hence: CDs are making a dramatic comeback. – The Guardian (UK)
- The La Brea Tar Pits Renovation Requires Packing, Moving, And Unpacking 3.5 Million Fossils
“Buried in the bones are clues about how plants and animals lived and died. Understanding why some of those species became extinct could help us.” – The New York Times
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Predictive Algorithms Are Flattening Culture Everywhere In The World
“At ‘temperature zero,’ the [large language] model always chooses the most likely next token and gives the same answer every time” – down to the music and menus in every restaurant or pub. – The New York Times
- Why We Like To Be Scared
“Because of horror’s position as a sandbox for misfortune, consumers tend to reward horror films that reflect their generation’s anxieties.” – Time
- Major Culture Shift: Private Equity Is Buying Up Small Businesses
Deal by deal, ownership is being extracted from the thousands of communities where businesses were built to the handful of cities where capital is already concentrated. – The New York Times
- How Our Brains Cope With Uncertainty
Systems fail; unanticipated difficulties occur; things break or rot. To cope with this reality, philosophical and religious traditions such as Buddhism and Stoicism have long focused on transience, unpredictability, and the inevitability of change and loss. – Scientific American
- Don’t Forget: Technology That Serves Creativity
We live in a golden age of digital creativity. Forget A.I.: you, yourself, can record an album from your sofa, or curate a photo-essay on the train. In that spirit, here are some of my favorite creative digital tools. – The New Yorker