AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- Why Academic History Matters
Academic history matters. It matters for honing critical engagement, for challenging all-encompassing technological vapidity, for strengthening individuality. It matters because it shows us that process cannot be separated from what we produce. – History Today
- FCC Says It Could Earn Billions From New Wireless Spectrum Auctions
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said Wednesday that a series of upcoming wireless spectrum auctions over the next couple of years could generate more than $100 billion in proceeds. – Reuters
- What Happens To Warner Bros. If The Paramount Merger Falls Apart?
“To be clear, the deal collapsing wouldn’t be fatal to Warner Bros. Discovery. CEO David Zaslav would walk away with a $7 billion break-up fee that could offer additional flexibility as an independent company. But experts who spoke to TheWrap are skeptical that management would continue to go it alone long-term.” – TheWrap (MSN)
- American Music at 250 – Take 9: Can an Orchestra Still Embody the Soul of a City? Gustavo Dudamel and the New York Philharmonic
The current issue of “The New York Review of Books” includes my essay on state of American orchestras
- Spaceship Lucas: LA’s New Museum Of Narrative Art
It is a Goliath of a building, 700 feet long with 300,000 square feet of space. In terms of massiveness, visual impact and sheer joyous bravado, it offers as much spectacle as any of his films. But it is not so much its size that amazes, but its uncanny shape. – The Wall Street Journal
ISSUES
- Spaceship Lucas: LA’s New Museum Of Narrative Art
It is a Goliath of a building, 700 feet long with 300,000 square feet of space. In terms of massiveness, visual impact and sheer joyous bravado, it offers as much spectacle as any of his films. But it is not so much its size that amazes, but its uncanny shape. – The Wall Street Journal
- The Problem With Museum Wall Texts – And How To Fix Them
Good texts take time. The field of visitor studies even recommends workshopping texts with an audience. Curators working on relentless deadlines don’t have that kind of luxury. Yet the particular genre of bad text I am thinking of, paradoxically, seems worst at the most elite levels of the industry. – Artnet
- Russia’s Most Famous Medieval Icon Has Suffered Exactly The Damage Conservators Warned About
In 2023, on Putin’s personal orders, the 15th-century icon of the Trinity by Andrei Rublev, Russia’s most revered icon painter, was moved from Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery and is now at the Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery. Conservators said that, without museum-quality climate controls, the piece could be severely damaged. Well, guess what’s happened. – Meduza (Moscow/Riga)
- Is It Time To Privatize The Smithsonian?
The surest way for the Smithsonian to free itself from the unwanted attentions of the current administration or any future one would be to adopt a business model that doesn’t involve government funding. – The Wall Street Journal
- Louvre Looks To Asia For Donors To Help Fund Its Very Expensive Renovation
The overhaul, badly needed to ease overcrowding, remedy deferred maintenance, and improve security, is expected to cost well over €1 billion (US$1.2 billion). Christophe Leribault, who became the museum’s director in February, went to Tokyo and Hong Kong to talk about the necessity of the project. – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
MEDIA
- Why Academic History Matters
Academic history matters. It matters for honing critical engagement, for challenging all-encompassing technological vapidity, for strengthening individuality. It matters because it shows us that process cannot be separated from what we produce. – History Today
- Trump’s Shakedown Of The Kennedy Center
“Trump is taking the Center hostage and threatening to in effect kill it unless he gets his way.” The president is counting on the board’s civic spirit and affection for the institution—neither of which he evidently possesses—to strong-arm it into giving him what the law and courts would not allow. – The Atlantic
- Trump Administration Wants To Put Up Signs Accusing The Smithsonian Of Bias
The Trump administration is currently preparing temporary signs that will accuse the National Museum of American History of ideological bias, according to a letter I obtained sent by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. – The Atlantic
- Trump Says Kennedy Center Will Be “Ripped Down” If He Can’t Put His Name On It
“I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition. Because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down,” he told reporters. He said the previous day that he won’t spend congressionally-designated money for the center’s renovation unless the building bears his name. – ABC News
- What It Was Like Inside The Kennedy Center On Its Last Day Open
“More than half of each floor had been closed. The gift shop was papered over. The box office was open, but there were no tickets to upcoming performances to sell. … A group of young students were shuffling through one last tour. … Security guards were stationed by areas already cordoned off with red tape and ‘Do Not Enter’ signs.” – The Washington Post (MSN)
MUSIC
- Barnes & Noble Buys Another Distressed Indie Bookseller
Joseph-Beth Booksellers, which has two locations in metro Cincinnati, is the third independent retail business that B&N has acquired in three years. The chain bought Denver’s Tattered Cover in 2024 and the Bay Area’s Books Inc. last year; both companies had filed for bankruptcy. – Publishers Weekly
- 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
PEOPLE
- Why Academic History Matters
Academic history matters. It matters for honing critical engagement, for challenging all-encompassing technological vapidity, for strengthening individuality. It matters because it shows us that process cannot be separated from what we produce. – History Today
- FCC Says It Could Earn Billions From New Wireless Spectrum Auctions
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said Wednesday that a series of upcoming wireless spectrum auctions over the next couple of years could generate more than $100 billion in proceeds. – Reuters
- What Happens To Warner Bros. If The Paramount Merger Falls Apart?
“To be clear, the deal collapsing wouldn’t be fatal to Warner Bros. Discovery. CEO David Zaslav would walk away with a $7 billion break-up fee that could offer additional flexibility as an independent company. But experts who spoke to TheWrap are skeptical that management would continue to go it alone long-term.” – TheWrap (MSN)
- American Music at 250 – Take 9: Can an Orchestra Still Embody the Soul of a City? Gustavo Dudamel and the New York Philharmonic
The current issue of “The New York Review of Books” includes my essay on state of American orchestras
- Spaceship Lucas: LA’s New Museum Of Narrative Art
It is a Goliath of a building, 700 feet long with 300,000 square feet of space. In terms of massiveness, visual impact and sheer joyous bravado, it offers as much spectacle as any of his films. But it is not so much its size that amazes, but its uncanny shape. – The Wall Street Journal
PEOPLE
- Why Academic History Matters
Academic history matters. It matters for honing critical engagement, for challenging all-encompassing technological vapidity, for strengthening individuality. It matters because it shows us that process cannot be separated from what we produce. – History Today
- FCC Says It Could Earn Billions From New Wireless Spectrum Auctions
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said Wednesday that a series of upcoming wireless spectrum auctions over the next couple of years could generate more than $100 billion in proceeds. – Reuters
- What Happens To Warner Bros. If The Paramount Merger Falls Apart?
“To be clear, the deal collapsing wouldn’t be fatal to Warner Bros. Discovery. CEO David Zaslav would walk away with a $7 billion break-up fee that could offer additional flexibility as an independent company. But experts who spoke to TheWrap are skeptical that management would continue to go it alone long-term.” – TheWrap (MSN)
- American Music at 250 – Take 9: Can an Orchestra Still Embody the Soul of a City? Gustavo Dudamel and the New York Philharmonic
The current issue of “The New York Review of Books” includes my essay on state of American orchestras
- Spaceship Lucas: LA’s New Museum Of Narrative Art
It is a Goliath of a building, 700 feet long with 300,000 square feet of space. In terms of massiveness, visual impact and sheer joyous bravado, it offers as much spectacle as any of his films. But it is not so much its size that amazes, but its uncanny shape. – The Wall Street Journal
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Doomsday Days: The Growing Awareness Of AI Dangers
Jacob Coxon, the engineer who recently resigned from Anthropic to protest its safety policies, says A.I. could “kill us all by the end of the decade.” But if A.I. is so outrageously dangerous, why should we accept modest proposals to “pace” its development? Why not call in the Turing cops, and pull the plug? – The New Yorker
- How Threats Of A Dismal Future Are Shaping Gen Z
Their perception is that jobs that feel meaningful are being slashed by government or stolen by AI. As a result, she reported, members of Gen Z may just need to find meaning in their hobbies and interests outside of work and pursue jobs that allow them to fully check out at the end of the day. – 3 Quarks Daily
- Why Italianness Is A State Of Mind
Descendants of Italian migrants generally express an intense pride in their heritage, and many continue to live by its sociocultural tenets in spite of decades, or more, of absence. It is as if time away from Italy, and geographical distance, only amplify a yearning for it. – Aeon
- Study: Why Our Brains Mix Up Memories
Scientists already know that confusing memories happens more often than forgetting them altogether. What’s less clear is how the brain gets confused. – The Conversation
- 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