MOST RECENT AJBLOGS

Dr. Leslie B. Dunner talks about engaging composers of color

- Aaron Dworkin

“Philip Guston Now”…(but not quite yet)

- CultureGrrl

Stadtgelichter Nr. 15 A Serious Poetry Journal from Europe’s Playground

- Jan Herman

Alan Lomax and Cantometrics: Revisiting a Landmark Data Source in Ethnomusicology

- Sunil Iyengar

A Theatre Love Letter: Tracy Turnblad’s Vertical Bed in the Opening Number of Hairspray…On Doubleness, Performance, and Lacan

- Katie Birenboim


 

DANCE

Ukraine Ballet Comes To US

- NPR

Was This Antarctica’s First-Ever Professional Outdoor Dance Performance?

- Buenos Aires Herald

Meet The Hottest Talents In Dance Who Don’t Go Onstage

- The Guardian

Dance As Political Tool

- Washington Post

Ukraine’s Ballet-In-Exile Gets Settled In The Hague

- The New York Times

Even Now, Dance Company Auditions Aren’t Like They Were Before COVID

- Dance Magazine

Coaching Balanchine And Robbins In New York

- The New York Times

IDEAS

Apple’s ‘Failed’ Lisa Computer Shaped Everything We Do On Screen

- Verge

How Different Cultures Process Grief

- The Conversation

Our Need For Constant Entertainment Has Ruined Everything

- The Atlantic

How People Romanticize Their Childhoods

- American Scholar

We Think Of Skeptics As Unhappy People. The Ancients Believed Skepticism Was The Way To Happiness

- Aeon

The Baby Boomers Changed Everything. What Happens When They’re Gone?

- Washington Post

Why We’re Missing Memories From The Pandemic

- The Walrus

A Successful Life? Freedom From Anxiety

- The Guardian

Saudi Arabia Plays With Building A Dystopian City

- Prospect

Creativity In The Age Of “Synthetic Media”

- Shelly Palmer

How Technology Makes Us More Human

- The Atlantic

The Design Transformation Of Playgrounds

- Fast Company



 

ISSUES

Brexit Has Cost The Arts In Britain $200 Million In Funding

- The National (Scotland)

Chicago Budgets $11 Million In New Arts Funding

- MSN (Chicago Tribune)

Facial Recognition Is Here To Stay At Entertainment Venues

- Wired

ChatGPT Reaches 100 Million Users – Fastest-Growing Digital Service In History

- Reuters

California’s Next Proposed Budget Cuts $1.2 Billion From Arts Education. That’s Not Quite As Dire As It Sounds.

- EdSource

How The Humble Tote Bag Became A Status Symbol

- The Walrus

Australia’s New Cultural Policy Stokes Optimism

- ArtsHub

Three Years After A Fire, The Museum of Chinese In America May Be In Better Shape Than Ever

- CNN

The NYC Housing You Have To Audition For

- The New York Times

Australia’s Labor Government Announces A $300 Million National Cultural Policy

- The Guardian

When People Want To Identify Themselves With A Favorite Artist (And, Oh Yes, Buy The Merch)

- The New York Times

A Vast Mayan Kingdom Discovered In Guatemala

- The Wall Street Journal

The Drag-Queen-Story-Hour Culture Wars Have Spread To Britain’s Museums

- ARTnews

Artists Believe Copyright Benefits Them. But Corporations Are The Biggest Beneficiaries

- The Conversation



 

MEDIA

How (And Why) Film Creatives Bow At The Altar Of Groundhog Day

- The Guardian (UK)

How Americans Lost Confidence In Journalism

- The New Yorker

“Enshittification” — How TikTok Is, Inevitably, Ruining Itself (And Us)

- Pluralistic

Hollywood Glommed Onto Documentaries. That’s A Problem — Several Problems, Actually.

- New York Magazine

Germany’s “All Quiet On The Western Front” Has Nine Oscar Nominations.  The Germans Hate It.

- Slate

Study: Public Radio’s Important Role In Local News

- Inside Radio

LA’s Public Radio Station KPPC Rebrands After A Website It Acquired

- Variety

Considering “Schoolhouse Rock” at 50

- The New York Times

The Academy Decides Not To Rescind Andrea Risenorough’s Best Actress Oscar Nomination

- The Hollywood Reporter

Using Subtitles While Watching TV? You’re Not Alone

- The Guardian



 

MUSIC

How Thelonius Monk Changed Music

- The Baffler

Monterey Jazz Festival Head Steps Down After 30 Years

- San Francisco Chronicle

Her Uncle Writes Plays, And She Turns Them Into Operas

- Musical America

Tracking Study: Women Still Remain Under-represented In The Music Industry

- The Guardian

Evicted From The Kimmel Center. The Philly Pops Find A New Concert Hall

- The Philadelphia Inquirer

Why Pop Stars Are Selling Their Back Catalogs

- The Conversation

San Francisco Symphony Contract Talks Escalate

- San Francisco Classical Voice

Movie Music In The Concert Hall Is A Hit

- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

California’s Three Major Orchestras And Their Conductors Are Starting A Statewide Festival Of New Music

- The New York Times

Pasadena Symphony’s Ex-Music Director, Fired For Refusing Vaccine, Sues For Religious Discrimination

- Pasadena Now

Last Week A Plan To Close The Vancouver Folk Music Festival. This Week A Plan To Save It?

- Toronto Star

A Nun From 900 Years Ago Had A Profound Influence On Music (And Does Today)

- The New Yorker

France’s National Opera Of The Rhine Cancels Productions

- Le Monde

The Race To Rescue Music Lost After The Holocaust

- NPR



 

PEOPLE

Remember The Guy Who Streaked At The Oscars?  He Did A Hell Of A Lot More Than Run Around Naked.

- The New Yorker

Meet The Most Media-Friendly Of Maria Von Trapp’s Great-Grandchildren

- New York Magazine

Filmmaker Jafar Panahi Declares Hunger Strike To Protest His Unlawful Imprisonment In Tehran

- IndieWire

Donatello Was The First (More-Or-Less) Openly Gay Artist In Western History

- The Guardian

Singer Reflects On 12-Year Career Break And Body Shaming

- The New York Times

Arthur Miller, Reconsidered

- American Theatre

Artist Alfred Leslie, America’s Leading Ex-Abstract Expressionist, Is Dead Of COVID At 95

- The New York Times

Director Alice Diop’s Film Was Overlooked For The Oscars, But She’s Moving On

- The Guardian (UK)

Actor Annie Wersching Of 24, Runaways And This Is Us Has Died At 45

- Los Angeles Times

Alan Cumming Hands Back His OBE

- BBC



 

THEATRE

UK Playwrights Protest Low Pay, Working Conditions

- The Guardian

As A Black Man Running The Pasadena Playhouse For 20 Years, George Epps Has Seen Real Progress — Fragile, But Real

- Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

Lost Play By “The Spanish Shakespeare” Identified By AI

- CNN

Tony Award Voters Won’t Have To See Every Show In A Category To Cast A Ballot

- The Hollywood Reporter

Lorraine Hansberry’s Other Play Gets Its First New York Revival In 50 Years

- The New York Times

A Fascinating Window Into The Public Theater

- American Theatre

On Broadway, It Really Is The Best of Times And Worst Of Times

- Variety



 

VISUAL

The Rift Within Art Criticism Reflects, In Part, The Shrinking Job Market

- The New York Times

It Would Have Been America’s Biggest Solar Farm.  It Was Killed For The Sake Of Land Art

- Los Angeles Times

A Statue Of A Roman Emperor Pretending To Be Hercules Is Discovered In A Sewer (How’s That For A Metaphor?)

- Reuters

Museums Begin To Rethink Their Expensive Climate Control Practices

- The New York Times

You Know What Led To Impressionism?  Smog, That’s What.

- Hyperallergic

Why We’re Fascinated By Unbuilt Buildings

- The Conversation

Russian Culture Ministry Orders Tretyakov Gallery To Conform To “Spiritual And Moral Values”

- ARTnews

Tate Modern Neighbors Win Suit Over Museum’s Viewing Platform

- BBC

They Misspelled Poor Georgia O’Keeffe’s Name On The Wall Of The New Terminal At Grand Central Station

- ARTnews

Oh No: Joe Rogan Listeners Head To The East River In Search Of Mammoth Tusks?

- The New York Times

He Bought A Chandelier In An Antique Shop For $309.  Turns Out It’s a $3 Million Giacometti.

- CNN

UK Museum Workers Announce A Strike

- ARTnews

New Photos Show Damage To Dallas Museum Of Art From June Break-In

- Dallas Morning News

The Heirs Of A Man Who Sold A Picasso To Flee The Nazis Would Like The Painting Back

- The New York Times

The Eerie Experience Of Visiting Peru’s Terrorism Museum As A Constitutional Crisis Unfolds

- Hyperallergic

The Case Of The Vermont Law School’s Covered Murals Goes To Federal Court

- WCAX (Burlington)

Wait ‘Til The Construction Dust Settles To Believe This One

- The Observer (UK)



 

WORDS

What Literary Criticism Is (And Isn’t) For

- The New York Times

Why Are People Bullying Librarians?

- The Nation

Translating Franz Kafka’s Diaries Was A Total Head Trip

- The New York Times

Colleen Hoover Sold Tons Of Books. Then She Published A Coloring Book And It Unraveled

- Slate

How Wikipedia Distorts Indigenous History

- Slate

The People Who Have Been Marking Dickens’ Birthday Every Year Since 1905

- Toronto Star

Are The Language Wars Alienating Rather Than Including?

- The New York Times

Gawker Is Closing Down.  Yes, Again.

- Variety

Book Twitter’s Crucial Role In Publishing  — And What Could Happen If Twitter Goes Bust

- Esquire

Henry Louis Gates Jr. On What Makes An African-American Work Of Literature A “Classic”

- Literary Hub

Penguin Random House CEO Steps Down

- The Wall Street Journal

HarperCollins To Lay Off 5 Percent Of Its North American Staff As Strike Continues

- Publishers Weekly

The Rise (Again) Of Barnes & Noble

- The New York Times

Marie Kondo Never Told People To Give Everything Up

- Nprhttps://www.npr.org/2023/01/29/1152149068/marie-kondo-revealed-shes-kind-of-given-up-on-being-so-tidy-people-freaked-out