Cool cool: A “new law of nature” upends everything we thought we knew about time, evolution, and (perhaps) life in the rest of the universe. - Wired

“What began as a story about transcending cultural boundaries through sports has turned into a symbol of just how little China and the U.S. understand each other—and how little interest they have in trying.” - The Atlantic

Try this 40-year-old kids’ movie. Beneath The Goonies’ "awkward stereotypes and slapstick humor from 1985 lies powerful messaging about what it means to belong, to resist, and to imagine abundance in the face of systemic scarcity.” - Salon

You can tell what a culture values by who it labels a genius—and also what it is prepared to tolerate. The Renaissance had its great artists. The Romantics lionized androgynous, tubercular poets. Today we are in thrall to tech innovators and brilliant jerks in Silicon Valley. - The Atlantic

The prospect of speaking dolphin or whale is irresistible. And it seems that they are just as enthusiastic. In November last year, scientists in Alaska recorded an acoustic “conversation” with a humpback whale called Twain, in which they exchanged a call-and-response form known as “whup/throp” with the animal over a 20-minute period. - The Guardian

The college wage premium is still high, which means that it’s still beneficial to get a degree. But for whom, exactly? - The Atlantic (MSN)

“Late Thursday, the two attorneys sent a strongly worded letter to Paramount’s chairworman and controlling shareholder Shari Redstone and other board members arguing that a Trump settlement would cause ‘catastrophic’ harm to the embattled media company.” - Los Angeles Times (AOL)

“Rising visitor numbers to the UNESCO site … have placed the archaeological park’s three entrances under growing strain. Now guides who make a living leading tours of Pompeii’s ancient homes, eateries and brothels say the introduction of named tickets and visitor caps is aggravating bottlenecks.” - The Art Newspaper

“The non-binding opinion from the court’s advocate general … represents a comprehensive demolition of the arguments made by the Hungarian government defending its so-called child protection law, passed in 2021. … The opinion does not bind the court but ECJ judges follow the advocate general in most cases.” - The Guardian

More than half of the bachelor's degrees offered at Indiana's public colleges and universities could be eliminated under an eleventh-hour provision slipped into the state budget requiring strict quotas on program size. - Indianapolis Star

The findings reveal a sector at a crossroads, where organizations that can afford to modernize are pulling ahead, while those that can’t fear being left behind entirely. - Chronicle of Philanthropy

“Sales of subscriptions for the coming season … are down by about $1.6 million, or roughly 36%, compared with last year.” A current staff member told the Post, “We feel (it) necessary to show that mismanagement by the new leadership is becoming a real problem for the health of the organization.” - The Washington...

The Last of Us composer Gustavo Santaolalla: "I think the fact that we kept the sonic fabric — that we didn’t do an orchestral score for the series — has been instrumental in keeping those fans of the games fans of the series, too.” - The Verge (Internet Archive)

Aristo Sham won the gold, with U.S. pianist Evren Ozel taking the bronze. - Dallas Morning News

Fraudsters are flooding Spotify, Apple Music and the rest with AI-generated tracks, to try and hoover up the royalties generated by people listening to them. These tracks are cheap, quick and easy to make, with Deezer estimating that over 20,000 fully AI-created tracks – that’s 18% of new tracks – were being ingested into its platform...

County jails are incubators for hip-hop, especially in Broward county, which cultivated “legends like Kodak Black and YNW Melly … but the diversity of voices on Bending the Bars is a natural extension of the eclectic mix of detainees that can be found in almost any urban jail”. - The Guardian

“Arizona Opera took its search for a new leader international only to find the ideal candidate a few miles from its downtown Phoenix headquarters. The … company named Brian DeMaris, the artistic director of Arizona State University’s music theater and opera program, on Thursday to be its president and general manager.” - Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)

Like the qwerty keyboard, sitting through a three-or-more-hour performance in a language we don’t understand is a peculiar cultural phenomenon we accept only because it’s often the only option we’re given. It’s happenstance. And it’s a big part of what keeps opera from reaching more people. - The New York Times

Step back, incorporate sound, and start making opera, of course. - The Guardian (UK)

“People were repressed into silence during the dictatorship and they couldn’t talk about the tragedies in their lives for 40 years. And it’s even complicated in democracy. … You get these voices saying: ‘Come on! What do you want to remember all that for?’” - The Guardian (UK)

Even as technology opens new doors, the daily realities of operating a gallery have never been more daunting. - Hyperallergic

 Importers will be required to identify an object’s country of origin and the date it left the country, as well as the hands the work has passed through, to secure a license. - ARTnews

Feeling baffled by a work of art is similar to the experience of many chemistry learners. In both scenarios, viewers might ask themselves: What am I looking at, where should I look and what does it mean? - The Conversation

It was one of the city’s oldest art schools when it went bankrupt in 2022. The campus — and its famous Diego Rivera fresco — were purchased by a foundation backed by Laurene Powell Jobs; it will reopen as the California Academy of Studio Arts, offering year-long fellowships for emerging artists. - San Francisco...

“I’m still very alert to the inequality in the world, and also inequality in my industry. I am not there to endorse the status quo. I’m there to bring other people with me and to open the doors, always, to great talent.” - The Guardian (UK)

We’re talking actual arsenic: "In recent years, many libraries have prevented access to all suspect green books as a precaution." - The Guardian (UK)

“I understood the didactic logic of forcing the reader to intellectually and emotionally live through those brutal moments, but the personal distance nagged at me. ... I did not want such images to monopolize my creative output.” - LitHub

Performance, after the cataclysm, is a common theme in science fiction books and shows. That includes, in one of the genre's most literary forms, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven. But why? - Reactor

Since 2021, the Sunshine State has led the country in advancing the “parental rights” agenda. Contrary to its name, this agenda has used fuzzy, coded language to manufacture moral panic, and to deliver control over what students can read and learn. - PEN America

“Many of the grants were meant to partially reimburse nonprofit publishers for projects they’ve already paid for and completed, leaving them with surprise shortfalls. And while most expect to be able to cover the immediate deficits, they worry about what the move augurs for the future of the literary arts.” - Publishers Weekly

Javier Bardem: "This is a job, and you just do the job as good as you can with your own limitations. You put everything into it when they say, ‘Action,’ and when you’re out, you just leave it behind. Otherwise, it’s too much.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

And that’s thanks to us, the great unwashed movie audience: He "explained that he found himself too distracted by the chat and mobile-phone disturbance from the audience to concentrate on the film.” - The Guardian (UK)

“There’s a crazy number across the entire continent: less than about 3,000 cinemas, actual cinemas,” said the actor. “I would love to be able to tackle some of that, because I believe that the cinema experience that we all have gone through should be experienced by a new generation.” - Variety

The Lords, who are looking for more protections for artists from AI, rejected the latest amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill on Monday. Peers backed calls for greater transparency after musicians such as Sir Elton John warned of the threat to creative industries. - BBC

The former conservative media star and sore-loser Arizona candidate for governor and senator, who now heads the agency overseeing VOA, says Trump had directed her “to reduce the performance of its statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.” - AP

“The film-makers set out to deliver a sensory bombardment that would mimic the experience of addiction. But they ended up doing much more, touching off serious debates about the free will of the addict, the line between compassionate observation and exploitative voyeurism, and the toxic siren call of the American Dream itself.” - BBC

“It’s never been about me. It should never have been about me. It should have been about a broader understanding that people from Black and brown communities are interested and want to be in these spaces. They just need to see themselves.” - The New York Times

For decades she has been Taylor's star dancer, muse, buddy, rehearsal director, and choreographic reconstructor.  (He was never particularly interested in the details of reviving his older works.) Even now, she speaks lucidly and clearly, with her signature blunt forcefulness, about her work both over the decades and today. - The Brooklyn Rail

“Compounding recent major cuts to arts funding, the footwear the ballet world relies on could be just one more unanticipated casualty of the current president’s economic policy. Pointe shoes, it turns out, are political objects as much as they are aesthetic.” - Cascade PBS

Last month, Studio 303 publicly joined the BDS boycott, including “all cultural and academic products that normalize the State of Israel." That includes Gaga, developed by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin — who has said, “If the act of cancellation would have helped the Palestinians’ cause I would boycott my own show.” - Jewish Telegraphic...

She was a member of the innovative Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and was among the last group of dancers to be trained by the legendary choreographer. Toogood also began teaching at his invitation. - Sydney Morning Herald

“When Rauschenberg was breaking out as one of the most influential artists in the world, that influence extended into American dance” through his collaborations with Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown. “And it flowed in the opposite direction, too, as he folded his theatrical work back into his solo practice.” - The New York Times

“Singing robots. Undead frenemies. A dead train robber, and a dying cave explorer. A fumbling group of spies, and a bumbling group of pirates. Also: Hamilton.” - The New York Times

The Muny seats 11,000 people, in a bug-prone, humidity-drenched St. Louis outdoor theatre. It’s getting a Tony tonight. - The New York Times

"The pressures that deformed the news in Murrow’s day have only grown more intense, and its defenses weaker. The last line of protection is those people sitting in the dark, watching George Clooney remind them what they have to do.” - Slate

 “Obviously, I’m very neurotic. I’m always trying to understand what’s happening and why. My friends every day talk about what they’re anxious about, and yet no one’s asking for the theater to address that anxiety — but that’s what it’s supposed to do.” - Washington Post

“There have been many efforts to adapt Baldwin’s works since he died in 1987, nearly all unsanctioned or unsuccessful in earning approval from his estate. … Giovanni’s Room in particular has been attempted several times” (including an abortive screenplay by Baldwin himself) — making this world premiere in Philadelphia an event. - The Philadelphia Inquirer...

 Every year, I run a statistical model based on precursor awards, which categories a show is nominated in, blended critic predictions, and betting markets to project the odds that each nominee will emerge victorious in every category. - The Hollywood Reporter

Some of her PR tactics were terrific even by today’s standards, and she achieved a level of fame in America that’s astonishing, then or now, for an avant-garde writer, let alone an expatriate. That fame got her just about everything but the one thing she really wanted. - Prospect (UK)

“Unlike many of his contemporaries, the poet collected an ‘abundance of photographs’ of himself. And like many people today who snap and post thousands of selfies, Whitman, who lived during the birth of commercial photography, used portraits to craft a version of the self that wasn’t necessarily grounded in reality.” - The Conversation

Joanna Miller expresses great admiration for the skills of the Disney Company’s animatronics team. But she argues that "two minutes with the robot will do much more harm than good to Grampa's legacy. They will remember the robot, and not the man.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

The novelist, five-time memoirist, and co-author of the pioneering 1977 book The Joy of Gay Sex “was a major influence on modern gay literature, with LGBTQ+ writing prizes named after him and authors including Garth Greenwell, Édouard Louis, Ocean Vuong, Brandon Taylor and Alexander Chee all noting his importance.” - The Guardian

“Before the proliferation of A.I. music generators, before the emergence of Spotify and the iPod, before Brian Eno had coined the term ‘generative music,’ Mr. Cope had already figured out how to program a computer to write classical music” in the styles of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and other composers. - The New York Times

“Writing in The Village Voice in 2015 about a series of performances … in the East Village, Richard Gehr noted that, ‘having mastered the instrument in virtually all of its classical, modern, jazz and international manifestations,’ Mr. Klucevsek ‘has extended it into another dimension altogether.’” - The New York Times