AJBlogs

That shift from content value to traffic value is what has destroyed the business model for nearly everything we're talking about. I'm calling it a manifesto because that's what it needs to be. Not a lament. Not a white paper, but a declaration of what is needed.

This week there’s a question that connects nearly every story. Who gets to decide what’s real? A viral AI-generated video of Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt is racking up views. Neither actor consented or was paid. SAG-AFTRA is furious. Lawsuits await. Meanwhile, Tracey Emin is telling young artists to buy

Among them were novelist, naturalist, fisherman, CIA spy.

Can we please stop glorifying nonprofit arts organizations that do not live up to their charitable responsibilities?

Do you remember January 6?

“As the repertoire ages, as the world changes, we will have ever fewer Fischers and Honecks, and ever more Dueñasas, Lims, and Chos. The outcome seems to me unpredictable. It could be a refreshment and it could be a dilution.“ A dozen years ago, Ivan Fischer came to Carnegie Hall

My weekly essay reflecting on arts stories of the past week.

In the space of a week, we have lost two significant and iconic American institutions. But the shuttering of the Kennedy Center and the decimation of the Washington Post are neither isolated nor unrelated.

I'd like to say I've gone fishing ... ice fishing, given the weather ... but in truth all I'm doing is taking a break.

Olga Neuwirth has composed an opera, “Monster’s Paradise”, with a libretto written by her and Elfriede Jelinek. You can see in the photo above, what it’s about. It is premiering at the Hamburg Opera, before going to Zurich and Vienna, and on their website there’s a two-minute video that gives

At home we watch a lot of BBC-produced television. Some of it is very good, some of it is very silly, but we are entertained enough. Anyone who has seen older and newer episodes of shows will pick up on the fact that productions at the BBC have made an

As a sequel to my NPR show on Donald Trump’s incursions at the Kennedy Center, the NEH, and the NEA, here’s something Jimmy Kimmel said on TV the other night: Trump says he’s closing the Kennedy center for roughly two years, so it can be rebuilt into the finest performing

Are nonprofit arts leaders simply more susceptible to groupthink, even to their own detriment?

Is the Kennedy Center really closing because of renovations? Or is it to save face from audience and artist protests?

Existential crises have a way of forcing clarity. Whether the arts and the larger creative world are in crisis I leave for you to decide. But with weekly news of financial and organizational meltdowns, political pressures and an almost primordial angst about threats of AI, some things may be becoming