Fair Week in NYC!
Our guide to this week’s many fairs, what to see Upstate, and master printmakers and virtuosos.
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“So, at about 14, I became the team’s...
“So, at about 14, I became the team’s unofficial basketball musician ,” writes Theocharis Papatrechas. “A big shot earned a triumphant snare drum roll with a resolving crash. And if someone missed badly — an airball — I’d drop in a ‘du-ba-dum’”.
Archaeologists Discover Mummy Buried With Lines From Homer’s Iliad
Found in Egypt, the papyrus confirms that Homer was everywhere in the ancient Mediterranean.
How Dayanita Singh Organized a Major Show in Venice Without Institutional Funding
Unmoored from the anchors of deep pockets that often hinder imagination, the artist brought her images of archival documents to an unusual venue in the Italian city.
Maia Chao Performs the Museum
She approaches the museum less as a neutral space than as a structure that quietly trains behavior and participation.
The World Press Freedom Index at Global 25-Year Low
Since Reporters Without Borders started tracking their World Press Freedom Index 25 years ago, the global rating has never been lower than the 2026 score . From a summary of their analysis : For the first time in the history of the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) World Press
Rare Early Basquiat Works Return to Brooklyn After HBCU Tour
“Our Friend, Jean,” an intimate collection from the precipice of the artist’s career explosion, is going on view at The Bishop Gallery starting this weekend.
In ‘Door to Life,’ Pacita Abad Evokes Traditional Yemeni Architecture
Pacita Abad ruminated over the immutable significance of cultural practices—and their value—despite periods of upheaval. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The
Hundreds Lambast Trump’s $7.5M Plan to Whitewash Eisenhower Building
"Don't even think about it," wrote one of over 2,000 concerned citizens, architects, and preservationists who warned of permanent damage to the structure.
The Banal Horror of Jimmy Fallon
"Under the sterile blue lights of his studio, Fallon laughs endlessly at the same pseudo-jokes, rubs elbows with Trump and Sam Altman, and ushers in the death of culture."
Sounds of the 60s: the IBM 1401 (punchcard collation,...
Sounds of the 60s: the IBM 1401 (punchcard collation, reel-to-reel recorder, etc). These aren’t the sounds of my computing childhood but I imagine they’re nostalgic for some of you.
Beer With a Painter: Keith Mayerson
“I wanted to rip the mask off the signifier and just deal with the signified,” said the cartoonist-turned-painter who depicts a cosmology of American identity and activism.
Jamelle Bouie thinks Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is...
Jamelle Bouie thinks Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is positioning herself for a 2028 presidential run. “Yeah, she’s running.”
ChatGPT Gave Me Chilling Advice—as I Simulated Planning a Mass Shooting
"I asked about imitating the Uvalde attacker, defending against police gunfire, and more—everything short of directly stating intent to kill."
Bespoke Glass Studio’s Sculptures Challenge Traditional Conventions of Stained Glass
"One of my personal obsessions is trying to convince people to hang glass on the wall instead of in the window." Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article
Being Fed Content
From an interview (gift link) with Don Hertzfeldt, creator of World of Tomorrow : Not to sound like a curmudgeon, but when I was a teenager, I took the train to go to the record store to find rare stuff. Spotify is way more convenient, but that wasn’t the point. The point was
Study: “A few weeks of X’s algorithm can...
Study: “A few weeks of X’s algorithm can make you more right‑wing – and it doesn’t wear off quickly.” People using the “For You” feed were more likely to favor GOP policies, less likely to want Trump prosecuted, and were more pro-Russia (vs Ukraine).
Maine College of Art & Design Presents the 2026 MFA Thesis Exhibition
This exhibition showcases the culmination of the graduate candidates' work in the Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art program at MECA&D.
Can You See the World When You Close Your Eyes?
Aphantasia (the inability to visualize) is one of those things that I find endlessly fascinating; I’ve written about it a few times since 2016 , most recently in response to Larissa MacFarquhar’s 2025 piece for the New Yorker: Some People Can’t See Mental Images. The
Bubbles, Algae, and Plastics Go Haute Couture in ‘Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses’
The show opening at the Brooklyn Museum this week reaffirms Iris van Herpen’s one-of-a-kind approach to sustainable, sculptural fashion. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7
We’re Diversifying the University by Hiring More...
We’re Diversifying the University by Hiring More Crackpots . “For too long, the university has ignored the wisdom of the donor class and hired based on academic excellence. Regrettably, this has led to the underrepresentation of discredited viewpoints…”
I Work in Hollywood. Everyone Who Used to Make TV Is Now Secretly Training AI
"For screenwriters like me—and job seekers all over—AI gig work is the new waiting tables."
Digg has (sorta) relaunched (again) and instead of an...
Digg has (sorta) relaunched (again) and instead of an underwhelming Reddit clone, it’s now just scraping noted fascist cesspool “X” for AI news and telling us that Sam Altman is influential in AI? This is embarrassing. It’ll probably be a huge success.
How NASA Built Artemis II’s Fault-Tolerant...
How NASA Built Artemis II’s Fault-Tolerant Computer . “Every subsystem must be designed to survive cosmic-ray bit flips, radiation-induced latch-ups, and hardware faults without a single second of downtime.” (A: An extreme level of redundancy.)
The Clippening
"'Clippers' cut up podcasts, videos, and events into infinite shorter versions. How long can they ride the algorithms?"
WTF Is an “A-Corp”?
Hyperallergic wins a journalism award, hilarious new protest art against Trump, and should you start an Artist Corporation?
‘This Was Our Life’: A Reading List on Multigenerational Caregiving
Five stories on the overwhelming, profound art of caring for other people.
Beneath our human shallows
We need a new imagination for the whole Earth, linking the power of the deep planet with the vitality of the surface - by James Dinneen Read on Aeon
Early rejections
Long after the fact, these are the best kind. They remind us of how far we’ve come. They’re proof that not giving up was a good idea. They are fuel for the next thing. But, at the time, they’re pretty hard to live with. All we can do is remind ourselves that it’s an unskippable
When the Nobel Prize Committee Rejected The Lord of the Rings: Tolkien “Has Not Measured Up to Storytelling of the Highest Quality” (1961)
When J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books appeared in the mid-1950s, they were met with very mixed reviews, an unsurprising reception given that nothing like them had been written for adult readers since Edmund Spenser’s epic 16th century English poem The Faerie Queene,
How John Coltrane Introduced the World to His Radical Sound with His Recording of “My Favorite Things” (1961)
John Coltrane released “more significant works” than his 1960 “My Favorite Things,” says Robin Washington in a PRX documentary on the classic reworking of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway hit. “A Love Supreme” is often cited as the zenith of the saxophonist’s career. “But if
Ridgewood’s Thriving Art Scene Steps Out of Bushwick’s Shadow
Ridgewood Open Studios drew hundreds to explore hidden alcoves in converted factories, basement spaces teeming with sculptures, and printmaking workshops in playgrounds.
