“Rejection has often functioned as a crucible, helping to forge some of the most extraordinary artistic movements, from impressionism to punk. A reject has less to lose and doesn’t have to behave in the way the group dictates.” - The Guardian (UK)

“The old gives way to the new. But that also marks a clear transformation in culinary programming from emphasizing the development of proficiency to encouraging consumption, and the fade-out of the shared cultural exploration Food Network once chaperoned.” - Salon

The Aztec empire did not fall because it lacked capability. It collapsed because it accumulated too many adversaries who resented its dominance. This is a historical episode the US president, Donald Trump, should take notice of as his rift with traditional US allies deepens. - The Conversation

A great human artist, we’d like to believe, amplifies and defends the exceptionalist spirit of our species but, in an echo of the anxieties that haunted early photography, a demonised version of AI threatens to steal away our souls. - Aeon

Perceptual psychologists have long studied what happens when people stare at uniform fields of colour without visual edges or contrasts. Sometimes, experiencing this kind of sensory deprivation can result in something known as the Ganzfeld effect: a response to a uniform field that causes the brain’s pattern recognition to work harder. - Psyche

 A machine will never possess the level of interpersonal skills needed to manage a team, to engage in civil discourse with individuals from different cultures and backgrounds, or to resolve messy human conflicts that resist logic. Judgment will never be AI’s strength. - US News

“Family members of the three men said they fear for their loved ones’ safety and are concerned the moves to solitary confinement are a form of retaliation for outspokenness about problems within the prison system.” - The Guardian (UK)

“Mehdi Mahmoudian, the Oscar-nominated co-screenwriter of Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident, was arrested in Tehran yesterday after signing a statement condemning the actions of Iran‘s supreme leader, Ali Khameni, during the recent violent crackdown on government protesters.” - The Hollywood Reporter

Trump wrote on Truth Social that “he would shut it down this summer, on July 4, arguing that a dramatic step was necessary to safeguard one of Washington’s most treasured cultural institutions.” - The New York Times

“I have determined that The Trump Kennedy Center, if temporarily closed for Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding, can be, without question, the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. - Washington Post

Portland’s mayor and city council “will decide eventually what to do with the city-owned performing arts center after a series of public meetings. But in the meantime, its fate is being analyzed by three city-appointed groups that are not meeting publicly.” - Oregon ArtsWatch

“In a statement the board said it had been ‘unable to achieve a sustainable financial position’ and was entering liquidation.” - BBC

Created to commemorate the company’s 50th anniversary, Complications in Sue opens Wednesday with 10 composers commissioned to write eight-minute scenes. These collectively encompass the century-long life of a mythical everywoman named Sue. - Philadelphia Inquirer

The news comes as the Philharmonic is embroiled in a legal dispute with the Scottish Rite over payments related to renovations of the historic building. - Texas Public Radio

How did America’s greatest operatic institution get to the point of needing Saudi money to cover its $330 million annual operating budget? Ticket sales account for less than a third of that. - New York Post

“Sondheim, who died in 2021 at the age of 91, was also just a damn fine tunesmith, turning out songs that, in context or out, pop style or classical, slip easily into your ears en route to your soul.” - The New York Times

“The breakout single, ‘Golden,’ which spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, nominated for song of the year, the first time a Netflix production has been nominated in one of the Grammys’ big four categories.” - Los Angeles Times

“Ma has won Grammys across multiple classical categories including Best Chamber Music Performance, Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with orchestra), Best Classical Crossover Album, and Best World Music Album for his work with the Silkroad Ensemble.” - Forbes

A South African artist is suing the arts minister after he blocked her from representing the country at the Venice Biennale, having called her work addressing Israel’s killing of Palestinians in Gaza “highly divisive”. - The Guardian

Trump has grown attached to the idea of a 250-foot-tall structure overlooking the Potomac River, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe his comments, a scale that has alarmed some architectural experts who initially supported the idea of an arch but expected a far smaller one. - Washington...

It was the unlikely, but ultimately successful, host of the 2022 soccer World Cup. Its Grand Prix has become a Formula One fixture. And this week it will premiere a new event from Art Basel, the world’s biggest, most prestigious art fair franchise. - The New York Times

The “report,” encouraged in an email after a meeting among many galleries, would be to New York’s 311 system. Then the mostly immigrant vendors would be entered into a system that shares info with many different law enforcement operations. - Hyperallergic

The story of this plan “has gone from urban legend to proven fact in a series of chapters that have been unfolding over almost a decade,” with this episode coming to light from a letter found at a Madrid flea market. - El País English

“Italy’s culture minister and the diocese of Rome have launched investigations after claims were made that an angel in a landmark church in Rome was restored in the likeness of the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.” - The Guardian (UK)

I gave the students time to read both pieces, and then asked for their comments. To my surprise, the majority told me the AI version was better. They said it was better argued, more clearly structured, more ambitious in scope, and, this was the real kick in the guts, a few even told me...

“The labor group’s staff union (WGSU), which includes attorneys, research analysts and other positions, claims that ‘management has dismissed staff’s needs and engaged in bad faith surface bargaining with no intent to reach a fair contract.’” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

“I hadn’t investigated this term in depth, but I understood it to mean ‘a short story that is meandering, plotless, and slight — full of middle-class people discussing their relentlessly banal problems.’ … But they were also good!” Those characteristics were deliberately shaped by the different preferences of two key editors. - Woman of...

The occasion is a moment to ask how a novel that mourns addiction and venerates humility and patience became a glib cultural punch line, routinely subjected to the word “performative” in its most damning sense. - The New Yorker

Greg Ketter became a social media phenomenon over the weekend, when MS Now aired a video of him pacing half a block away from where Alex J. Pretti had been murdered by agents an hour earlier, cursing the 50-100 armed ICE agents keeping the crowd back. - Publishers Weekly

“Constellations – also jokingly dubbed ‘Not Writers’ Week’ – is being put on by “a loose coalition” of writers and publishers and the support of not-for-profit Writers SA, with dozens of free events to be staged from 28 February to 5 March.” - The Guardian

“Despite the presence of stars Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan, it’s Reeves, who de Araújo discovered at a Richmond District farmer’s market on Clement Street, who captured the hearts of festival viewers.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

“Art is here to be a guide to construct new modes of understanding, communicating, and believing. In this moment of collective reckoning, Black cinematic history remains a prism of possibility that reflects the times and illuminates the possibilities of our beings.” - Black Film Archive

Whether you want to watch SCTV, Schitt’s Creek, After Hours, or the many Christopher Guest mockumentaries that she made great, it’s out there. (And for physical media, your library probably has DVDs or Blu-Rays as well.) - Vulture

“A horror about mythical Welsh fairies had filming relocated to north Yorkshire after crew found out about strict non-smoking rules on sets in Wales.” The government did suggest specialized, adapted e-cigarettes might work, but the film's director wasn’t interested. - BBC

“While Sundance can surprise as well as delight, attendees often seem happy just to be there. … While the applause tends to be overgenerous, this sense of excitement is crucial to the Sundance gestalt. It also helped lift the gloom.” - The New York Times

“The sweetest, spiciest and most shocking Sundance stories are ones you don’t hear at Q&As inside the Eccles or Egyptian. … Who better to rewind the times than a group of filmmakers who had their lives changed by what went down during America’s most consequential gathering of independent film insiders?” - The Hollywood Reporter

“Before I started my dancing, I wasn’t really close to my culture. I was really into the Western stuff. … Then as I got into dancing, I kind of learned how beautiful my culture is and how important and meaningful it is to me.” - The New York Times

Sokhoeun Sok came to the US in 2005 to teach traditional Khmer dance and is now a naturalized citizen. For now, she “is focusing on what she can control: each bend of the wrist, extension of the arm and kick of the heel” executed by her students. - The New York Times

For such a large city, L.A. has been a difficult environment for classical dance; before this company, no ballet troupe there had lasted for more than nine years. Artistic director Melissa Barak and executive director Julia Rivera talk with a reporter about how Los Angeles Ballet has lasted and where it’s headed. - Pointe...

The Switzerland-based ballet competition, known for launching the careers of many star dancers, takes place next week. Here executive and artistic director Kathryn Bradney explains to a reporter how the 90-odd contestants are selected, how the weeklong event is structured, and how the important part comes the day afterward. - Pointe Magazine

When CBS Sunday Morning visited, its crew found young dance students silently meditating. Two former students say, however, that they were allowed limited contact with family, berated by teachers, physically pushed to the point of injury, and forbidden to seek medical attention. - CBS News

It’s part of an effort by the Royal Winnipeg, Canada’s oldest professional ballet company, to foster meaningful reconciliation with the country’s Indigenous people — echoing a broader national goal that has been pursued for decades. - The New York Times

“Since the gargantuan success of Hamilton, … Broadway productions have leaned in to liberal identity politics as their state ideology, favoring ‘message musicals’ (like the women’s suffrage show Suffs) and casting stunts (an all-female 1776) that marry liberal identity politics with the genre’s emotional sincerity.” - The Paris Review

“The worst moment has a name here — le flop. It's the part everyone dreads, when you can feel your red nose begin to droop as the dead air fills the room. But it's also where the real work begins.” - NPR

“There’s so much political resonance with the text — we’ve heard so many amazing, divergent responses in terms of how the piece speaks to today’s slippery political reality — but we didn’t want to play into that too much.” - Culturebot

On Broadway, musicals generally have not recouped their costs in recent years. But The Outsiders is different. - The New York Times

“At Palo Alto Players, the initiative is part of a broader effort to lower barriers to getting to the theater — one (Managing Director Elizabeth) Santana credits with putting the company in ‘a state of growth,’ a rarity in a Bay Area theater scene reeling from closed companies and abridged lineups.” - San Francisco Chronicle...

“TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is partnering with the city of Palo Alto on a new venue at a familiar location. The municipality and the Tony-winning theater company announced plans to redevelop (its) existing theater … and build a new one next to it, forming a performing arts complex of 40,000 square feet.” - San Francisco...

“When Mr. Wilson landed the role of Lamont, he was only in his mid-20s, a theater veteran but a newcomer to the screen. The show was a hit” — and Wilson, playing the straight man to Redd Foxx’s cantankerous star, was also a hit. - The New York Times

“Though Big Hollywood roles didn't follow Home Alone's success, O'Hara would find her groove with the crew of improv pros brought together by Guest for a series of mockumentaries that began with 1996's Waiting for Guffman.” - CBC

“Lemon was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, where he had been covering the Grammy Awards, his attorney said. It is unclear what charge or charges Lemon is facing in the Jan. 18 protest. The arrest came after a magistrate judge last week rejected prosecutors’ initial bid to charge the journalist.” - AP

Over the course of his 38-year reign, he aged from a famously handsome monarch into an overweight, volatile despot. Various explanations, from syphilis to scurvy to psychopathy, have been proposed over the centuries, yet these diagnoses often tell us more about the preoccupations of the time than about Henry himself. - History Today

The dissident artist, who in 2011 had his passport confiscated and spent 81 days in prison, left when his documents were returned in 2015 and has lived in Europe since. Last month he took the risk of re-detention to visit — and things went smoothly. What had he missed most while away? Speaking Chinese....

The claim that Emilia Bassano Lanier was Shakespeare’s “Dark Lady” is now familiar; even the argument that she — a published poet under her own name — was the real writer of Shakespeare’s works has been made before. Historian Irene Coslet is now arguing that Bassano Lanier was both Jewish and Black. - The...