Research has found that we actually harbor an aversion to creators and creativity; subconsciously, we see creativity as noxious and disruptive, and as a recent study demonstrated, this bias can potentially discourage us from undertaking an innovative project or hiring a creative employee. - The New York Times
Here's the deal: "Being very different from the mainstream is really, really bad for your likelihood of initially making a hit when you’re not well known. But once you have a hit, novelty suddenly becomes a huge asset that is likely to sustain your success." - The Atlantic
May 2022 sees the latest technological advances in musical immortality when Abba return to the live stage after a 40-year absence. But this time they return as humanoids – the digital hologram “twins” of the original global phenomenon. - The Conversation
"Far from being sweet and adorable, rabbits in the margins and illuminated letters of these texts ... are frequently shown wielding swords, axes, and bows and arrows as they fight against — and sometimes kill — those who often hunted them." - Mental Floss
This week, the Russian dissident leader's Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project released an extensive report on the conductor's wealth and its sources. Here's an English-language summary of the findings — including, the report alleges, "large-scale fraudulent misappropriation of charitable funds." - Van
In the past, even when political tensions between nations grew ugly, artistic endeavors rose above the din. But Putin’s murderous actions are the playbook of Hitler, not the Cold War. He has now made it impossible for the Met to work with his artistic cronies or those cultural entities he subsidizes. - Playbill
At first blush, it might seem obvious. But history is full of failed, unfinished or underperforming scratch-built city projects, in California and elsewhere, and more are in the pipeline. - Bloomberg
Several well-controlled studies showing that academic training in preschool or in kindergarten, while improving test scores in the short term, causes long-term harm. - Psychology Today
Police in other cities have been recorded playing copyrighted music in an effort to prevent videos of them from hitting YouTube and other social media sites, which can remove content containing unauthorized materials. - Washington Post
"Obscenity might seem a trivial side note in such a horrific conflict, but understanding it is a way of understanding language, and language has played a big part both in Moscow's professed motivations for this invasion and in Kyiv's defiant response." - The Guardian
"Santoya Fields said it wasn't an illness that led to her being unable to take the stage; it was the impact of what she described as an unsafe workplace and a lack of organizational support." - The Washington Post
History writing is based on the faith that events, despite appearances, don’t happen higgledy-piggledy—that although individuals can act irrationally, change can be explained rationally. - The New Yorker
It’s about the shattering of all that had seemed solid, the scattering of people who had been a community. It’s a metaphor for what is happening not only between red and blue, but within the left and within the right, as well as within universities, companies, professional associations, museums, and even families. - The Atlantic
Can you really reach a larger audience by getting on a background jazz playlist than taking home the most coveted Grammy? I hate to share the bad news, my friends, but the world has changed. - Ted Gioia
After two years' closure, and with both storage/maintenance of the collection and staff salaries desperately underfunded, five of the museum's 13 display rooms have reopened. Employees and volunteers are working to get the impressive collection (e.g., Picasso, Chagall, Dalí, Calder, Botero) back in shape. - The New York Times
From the Horatio Alger stories which launched the genre to memoirs by billionaires and even to Fifty Shades of Grey and other "billionaire romance" books (an actual category at Amazon), rags-to-riches narratives demonstrate that financial success is not, in fact, due to hard work alone. - The New York Times Magazine
Wealthy Russian businessmen, many of whom are now sanctioned, have donated between $372 million and $435 million to more than 200 nonprofits in the US in the last two decades. The findings are laid out in a database created in 2020. - Hyperallergic
By his count, it is actually 37 more languages, with at least 24 he speaks well enough to carry on lengthy conversations. He can read and write in eight alphabets and scripts. He can tell stories in Italian and Finnish and American Sign Language. - Washington Post
Virtue signalling is more nuanced and more interesting than the picture painted by conventional wisdom and political rhetoric. As it turns out, there are bad and good things about virtue signalling – but probably not for the reasons you think. - Aeon
It's now an elaborate, rarefied classical art form, but kabuki got its start in the red-light district across the river from Kyoto in 1603, and several of the genre's important conventions were introduced as ways to curb all the vice tied up with kabuki in its early years. - Apollo
