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- Trump’s White House Excoriates The Smithsonian National Museum Of American History
“The White House condemned the [museum] for what it said was a failure to celebrate the nation’s heritage, arguing it had become a political tool intent on denigrating the American story.” No First Amendment red flags here at all. – The New York Times
- How AI Is Changing Human Language
Supposed AI tells – “are also characteristic of human writing, which, after all, the large language models (LLMs) that produce them were trained on.” – The Guardian (UK)
- That’s Right, Actor And Director Olivia Wilde Took That Last Name To Honor Oscar
She’s from the US, but her family (like a whole lot of people in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and other diaspora landing spots) also claim Ireland. – Irish Times
- Can Anyone Save Wikipedia?
Elon Musk and a MAGA army, not to mention AI, not to mention (other) authoritarian governments, are sure coming for the little nonprofit that could. – The New York Times
- Go Ahead, Touch The Art
Good Morning,
The V&A’s new East Storehouse lets visitors order objects up from the collection and actually handle them (The New York Times). Museums have traditionally erected barriers between people and things; now one of the world’s great collections is betting on removing them.
It’s not alone in rediscovering that authentic presence is the asset. Americans are falling back in love with independent cinemas (The Guardian) — thriving not by competing with streaming but by selling what streaming can’t do, a room full of strangers. Mexico’s World Cup run is reviving mariachi (NPR) — “People are drinking. They’re happy. They’re paying for music.” And Wales’s Green Man festival has spent ten years training refugees for real careers (The Guardian), a music festival can double as civic infrastructure.
My AJ Chronicles essay this week takes a look at some of the culture that is working well and what they have in common. Some trends emerge
All of our stories below.
Doug
- American Classical Music at 250 – Take Two: The BAM ExperimentThe “New World” Symphony visual presentation created by Peter Bogdanoff for the Brooklyn Philharmonic’s 1994 Dvorak festival. Building on
- Turkish Comedian Imprisoned For Insulting Erdogan
“A Turkish court on Friday ordered a comedian jailed pending trial on charges of insulting religious values and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after his stand‑up routine included references to him as a ‘dictator.’” (This is what the some might call Erdogan “not beating the charges.”) – Seattle Times (AP)
- Take A Deep Breath: Music Fans Vs Music Critics Discourse Surfaces Again
“America’s obsession with celebrity has morphed into this really weird, parasocial thing, where people feel incentivized to be deputized defenders of that person and are there to attack anybody who says anything at least a little bit negative about them.” – Washington Post
- The Men’s Team World Cup Run May Be Helping Revive Mexico’s Mariachi Traditions
“People are drinking. They’re happy. They’re paying for music.” – NPR
- What’s Going On With Theatre Leadership Isn’t Exactly Hidden Or Mysterious
“Call it what you want: colonialism, toxic workplace culture, oppression, patriarchy, the result is the same: power in the hands of a few who extract all the benefit they can from the many while trying to convince us that we should be thankful for the honor of the extraction.” – Amy Wratchford
- While ‘ER’ Made Noah Wyle’s Career, It Probably Also Stifled Him
The actor, currently famous thanks to his project The Pitt, says he “missed out on roles in Saving Private Ryan and Good Night, and Good Luck because he couldn’t get out of filming” ER. – Variety
- The MAGA-Reviled Smithsonian Museums Saved Many Lives On The Fourth
Did someone hit a big flashing “irony” button for our timeline? – The New York Times
- After Some Grim Times, The US Is Back In Love With Independent Cinemas
You can thank the young ones: there’s “a gen Z-led wave fueling a fresh resurgence of indie movie houses.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Fifty Years Ago, The NEA Funded Orchestras Celebrating The Nation’s Big Anniversary
In 1976, “the centerpiece was the National Endowment for the Arts Bicentennial Orchestra Commissioning Project. That funded America’s six top orchestras to each commission a major work that all six would play.” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
- The Green Man Music Festival In Wales Does A Lot More Than Simply Entertain
Javid from Afghanistan “said the festival in the idyllic Bannau Brycheiniog national park had been his first ever experience of a music concert. Under the Taliban, he said, ‘There is no music, and it’s banned to listen to any music.’” – The Guardian (UK)
- The Empty, Vacuous Promises Of The New LACMA
“There is nothing emancipatory, nor original, about creating a luxury venue that privileges sensibility over scholarship, allure over accessibility, and fine dining over gallery square footage.” – E-Flux
- All The Burning TV Questions That Wednesday’s Emmy Nominations Should Answer
“I still don’t think anyone actually likes Euphoria, but it’s big and expensive and full of movie stars, and at this moment in time Hollywood needs all three of those things to remain viable.” – Vulture
- Everything Digital We’ve ‘Bought’ Is Actually Rented
And Sony’s email to Playstation UK customers was simply a reminder of that uncomfortable, horrifying fact. – Wired
- The Most American Movie Of All Is Quite Bleak
There Will Be Blood “both celebrates American cinema and inverts it.” – The New York Times
- Pride And Pain: The United States At 250 As Seen In Its Performing Arts Scene
“Who are ‘our people,’ broadly defined? Can we even talk about a common American experience or identity, to which we can all attach a full-throated patriotism? We might look to the example of New York City’s Lincoln Center.” – American Theatre
- If You Need Some Incredible Photographs, Not Only Of Space, NASA Probably Has Them
But how to search them up? Google won’t help as much (if at all) anymore, but there are ways. – Wired
- Hollywood’s Output Has Always Been About Defining The USA
But now? “More and more, the space of American cinema is defined by one word: fantasy. … The fantasy worlds where our movies increasingly take place add up, in both philosophy and sensation, to a kind of abstract no-man’s land.” – Variety
- Ordering Up, And Then Touching, The Objects At The V&A East Storehouse
“When you open these cardboard frames up and look at the edges of the paper and see they’re stained and old, you can really picture Beatrix Potter’s hand. … It’s such a privilege to be this close and be trusted.” – The New York Times
- The Fanfiction Community Is At Internal War Over Generative AI
“Fandom communities are still mostly relying on vibes. Most fanfics aren’t judged by a tool like the AO3 skin, but by tells’ that could include anything from specific sentence structures — like the notorious ‘it’s not X, it’s Y’ — to overuse of flowery metaphors.” – The Verge (Archive Today)
- AJ Chronicles: So What’s Working in this Arts Bear Market?
When you look across the culture at what is gaining traction, some common themes emerge. - Sidney Jackson talks about the unique role of Chicago Sinfonietta
Sidney Jackson, President & CEO of Chicago Sinfonietta, talks about their unique role and impact regionally and nationally.
- The First Great American Symphony? George F. Bristow’s “Niagara”
Doug Shadle: “As I listened to the symphony — a strange yet monumental work with a choral finale eclipsing Beethoven’s Ninth in scope — the sonic confluences that have given shape and vibrancy to our national culture for 250 years rushed at me for over an hour.” – Early Music America
- Cleared Commonwealth Prize-winner Explains His Writing Process
In a phone interview on Tuesday afternoon, Jamir Nazir told me that he feels vindicated—and relieved. “Look, I didn’t use it!” he said about AI. Now that he has won the prize, Nazir said, he is free at last to explain his process and clear his name. – The Atlantic
- How Noah Webster Pushed (And Pushed Some More) To Americanize The English Language
“Though it was much maligned during its initial years, The American Spelling Book had a profound pedagogical effect throughout the young nation. … ‘There iz no alternativ,’ implored Webster in 1790, … ‘Every possible reezon that could ever be offered for altering the spelling of wurds, stil exists in full force.’” – Literary Hub
- The Movies Smartphones Make That Hollywood Can’t
Over the last 15 years, as a filmmaker and professor of digital arts, I have seen extraordinary shorts and features made on smartphones. Many were created by early career filmmakers who would have struggled to access industry funding without a smartphone and a minimal crew. – The Conversation
- Spotify Removes Half-Million Streams After Suspicious Kalshi Activity
Spotify has removed more than 500,000 registered streams from Malcolm Todd‘s Earrings, after the song’s rise to No. 1 on the platform’s daily US chart was tied to bets placed on the prediction market Kalshi. – MusicBusinessWorldwide
- Pondering The Statue Of Liberty As An Art Object
Financed by public subscription, powered by photography and P.R., the Statue of Liberty is now so identified with her adopted home that she has all but melted into symbol. – The New York Times
- Anna Deavere Smith’s Latest Theater Piece Is About Her Own Great-Great-Grandfather
“’Basil Biggs’ premieres this month in Philadelphia, written for the nation’s 250th anniversary. The title character is her great-great-grandfather, a free Black man who became a … conductor of the Underground Railroad … and prominent figure at Gettysburg” who made Lincoln’s speech there possible. – NPR
- Vijay Gupta: Classical Music Needs A New Why
“My teachers made it clear that music was sacred. But after I got into the LA Philharmonic at 19, playing the most celebrated music with the most celebrated musicians of our time, the sacred was hard to find. I started asking inconvenient questions: was the concert hall the only sacred space?” – The Strad
- The Two Versions Of Who We Really Are
Jean-Paul Sartre, for instance, insists that for humans ‘existence precedes essence’. We do not have an essence until we give ourselves an essence. In short, ‘man first exists: he materialises in the world, encounters himself, and only afterward defines himself.’ I define myself. – Psyche
