The challenge universities are confronting is not just the law but also their own rhetoric. Many universities at the center of the ongoing police crackdowns have long sought to portray themselves as bastions of activism and free thought. - The Atlantic

Even if we are fated to anxiety by our very nature, we needn’t be anxious about being anxious. Contra those who would abolish every form of friction or frustration, he insists that anxiety is a way of honoring who and what we are. - Washington Post

For years, we have heard a litany of reasons why our capacity to pay attention is disturbingly on the wane. Technology hounds us. Modern life, forever quicker and more scattered, drives concentration away. For just as long, concerns of this variety could be put aside. - The New Yorker

If a computer can write like a person, what does that say about the nature of our own creativity? What, if anything, sets us apart? And if AI does indeed supplant human writing, what will humans—both readers and writers—lose? - The New Republic

When it comes to how you would ideally plan your days, the research suggests that people differ, with some more drawn to clock time and some more to event time. - Psyche

Here on my screen was the distillation of a peculiar American illness: namely, that we have a profound and dangerous inclination to confuse art with moral instruction, and vice versa. - The New York Times

"Don’t worry, this sudden cardiac arrest is not in vein. The Giant Heart will reopen in November as the centerpiece of a new, permanent exhibit about the human body, … one of six (such) exhibits that are planned to replace 12 existing ones." - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

In New York, the neighborhood restaurant doesn’t have much room for neighbors anymore... Reservations are scooped up fourteen days in advance by residents of SoHo, Aspen, and East Hampton, who likely saw the place on some list, or while doomscrolling TikTok or Eater. - The New Yorker

Unfortunately, it’s not only large-scale music festivals that are copping severe losses, as many other vital players within the performing arts are battling rising costs in a funding environment that is simply not keeping pace with the price hikes associated with presenting arts events. - ArtsHub

"On average, organizations retained their full-time staff through pandemic shutdowns. Average staff size has grown over the last two years (2022 to 2023) through the addition of permanent part-time positions. Payroll has also increased over the period analyzed, outpacing inflation by 11%." - SMU DataArts

Last year, 125 grassroots music venues closed permanently and 1,293 pubs shut their doors across Britain. According to the Night Time Industries Association, more than 3,000 pubs, clubs and venues have closed down in London alone since the pandemic began in March 2020. - The Guardian

 I don’t know whether the Sphere is the future of live music—it’s very expensive, both to build and attend, and the venue’s path to profitability isn’t clear at all. But I do know this: The Sphere is a mountain. - The Atlantic

Max Brod, the friend who disregarded Kafka's dying request to burn all of his writings, heavily bowdlerized the author's personal journals before he published them. A new, complete edition "reveals Kafka warts and all – as a sexual, troubled, sometimes self-loathing, literary experimenter and a man knowingly compromised." - The Guardian

Opera, too, is no stranger to intersections of camp and politics, and some of Eurovision’s campest entries have been sung by opera singers. - Van

The superstar conductor, currently of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and soon to be of the New York one, spent spring break week with a specially assembled orchestra of 95 students from public schools across New York City, and reporter Javier Hernández was there. - The New York Times

"The orchestra’s associate principal trumpet, Matthew Muckey, and the principal oboist, Liang Wang, are each suing the Philharmonic and the musicians’ union Local 802 after being ousted for the second time in four years." - New York Post

Kim Noltemy’s appointment comes at a pivotal time for the L.A. Phil, which must find someone to take the reins as the organization’s music and artistic director when Gustavo Dudamel leaves for the New York Philharmonic in 2026. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)

There has long been a disconnect between how music critics and Swifties consume Taylor Swift’s work, but never before has that split been so pronounced. - The New Yorker

"President Joe Biden has cancelled $6.1 billion in loans taken out by students at the Art Institutes, the network of for-profit colleges that shuttered in September 2023, … (at which point its remaining campuses were) in Miami, Atlanta, Tampa, Virginia Beach, … Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio." - Artnet

"'Victorious Youth,' a life-sized bronze dating from 300 B.C. to 100 B.C., … was pulled from the sea in 1964 by Italian fishermen and then exported out of Italy illegally. (It) was purchased by the Getty in 1977 for $4 million and has been on display there ever since." - AP

Researchers from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) unearthed the monument while excavating a prehistoric site in the eastern commune of Marliens. - Smithsonian

If the union made scant material progress, the strike looks mainly like a huge strategic error on the AGO’s part. -- The Globe & Mail

"Two people were arrested on Sunday morning at the entrance of the Musée d’Orsay for being suspected of attempting to damage classified property. … When they were arrested, they were 'in possession of a white liquid – glue and a viscous whitish mixture – and were wearing" t-shirts of an environmental activist group. -...

"The Art Gallery of Ontario, which closed to the public on March 26 as more than 400 unionized workers went on strike, (reopened) on April 30. The employees, whose ranks included curators, archivists, designers, researchers, technicians, and front desk staff, … had sought wage increases and protection for part-time workers." - Artforum

A book’s demand, condition, publishing history, whether it is signed or inscribed, and even the timing of when a book enters the market are all factors that affect its value. - The Atlantic

"Since 2022, more than 170 books valued at more than $2.6 million ... have vanished from (national and university libraries across Europe). The books are worth tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars each. In most cases, the originals were replaced with high-quality copies that mimicked even their foxing." - The New York Times

"According to the report (commissioned by HarperCollins), 74% of YA readers were adults, and 28% were over the age of 28. The research suggests this is due to behavioural changes described as 'emerging adulthood': young people growing up more slowly and delaying 'adult' life." - The Guardian

"Inspired by the existing Albatross Books, (Allen) Lane’s nascent company wanted an animal for (a) mascot. Many years (later), designer Edward Young explained that after a couple hours of fruitless brainstorming, 'we were in despair. Then suddenly the secretary’s voice piped up from behind the partition. ‘What about penguins?''" - JSTOR Daily

"Less than a week after canceling its 2024 Literary Awards ceremony following months of mounting criticism over the organization's response to the crisis in Gaza, PEN America has also canceled what would have been the 20th edition of its World Voices Festival" after the withdrawal of many participants. - Publishers Weekly

Did you know Ernest Hemingway came up with the word for byline (though he spelled it by-line). "Signed articles could occasionally be found before 1926, but they were not the standard practice they would become a century later." - The Smart Set

“Our editorial model is to publish not nearly as many stories as many of our peers but to every now and then, as best as we can, publish stories that lots and lots of people talk about." - Press-Gazette

Last year WNYC cancelled the popular podcast and laid off its staff, which actually planned out a sort of funeral. But Slate picked up Death, Sex & Money and relaunched it last month. In a Q&A, host Anna Sale talks about the move and what she's been learning from it. - Columbia Journalism Review

"Funding of public radio has long had critics in conservative circles, but the recent controversy involving allegations of political bias at NPR is giving new energy to the effort to cut off taxpayer dollars. Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have opened an investigation into (the organization)." - Inside Radio

"After (a 2020) border skirmish, the Indian government banned the app. … As the app's 150 million US users swipe through videos in limbo, the story of India’s TikTok ban shows that users are quick to adapt, but also that when TikTok dies, much of its culture dies with it." - BBC

He loved cinema all his life and wrote some genuinely great film criticism. Yet, says one Baldwin scholar, he "craved an Oscar almost as much as he did a Pulitzer" and pitched a number of ideas to directors. Some filmmakers approached Baldwin themselves; Fassbinder suggested filming Giovanni's Room. - The Guardian

Back in the day, a TV was a TV, a commercial was a commercial, and a computer was a computer. They have now been mixed into an unholy brew by the internet and by opportunistic corporations, which have developed “automatic content recognition” systems. - The Atlantic

The technique uses a wave-like visualization of model dancers, enabling learners to anticipate and execute dance moves without prior rehearsal. - Neuroscience News

"That commingling has Atlanta’s stalwart skaters concerned about keeping their distinctly energetic and percussive style alive. They say Atlanta’s newer skaters, who have wide access to regional variants, increasingly practice a hybridized type of skating that’s not rooted in any one tradition." - The New York Times

"Briony’s idea of being able to rewrite someone’s life for the better is, for any sensible brain, a ridiculous notion. Yet there's scientific evidence that we feel our experiences differently according to the stories we tell about them. … Whether we change the truth through stories we tell is a very relevant topic." -...

The £40,000 Rose International Dance Prize, administered by Sadler's Wells in London, will be awarded biennially starting in February 2025. As with the Turner, all of the finalists (four have been named for this cycle) will be on view (for two weeks at Sadler's Wells) before the winner is announced. - BBC

Brazilian dancer and choreographer Daniela Cardim, who performed with the Dutch National Ballet before retiring from the stage in 2010, will take the helm at the Phoenix-based company on July 1. She succeeds Ib Andersen, who served as artistic director for 24 years. - Phoenix Business Journal

A new ballet so popular it got an extra seven performances at the end of the season. Big — and younger — crowds. Conga lines in the lobby at after-parties. In her first four months of programming, Rojo has transformed the vibe at War Memorial Opera House. - The San Francisco Standard

The Sherman, Texas school board finalized a separation agreement with former superintendent Tyson Bennett, who had forbidden a high school production of Oklahoma! that included a transgender student in the cast. The cancellation was reversed after heavy pushback from students and parents. - The Dallas Morning News (MSN)

Well, turns out there's a history of very bad things happening during productions of "the Scottish play" going all the way back to Shakespeare's own company in 1606. Actors getting injured or killed onstage. Theaters burning down. Massive audience brawls. The 1849 Shakespeare riots in New York? Yep, over Macbeth. - Mental Floss

"The 37-year old’s directorial debut is the result of a three-force collaboration: the dance is by Peck himself to Stevens’s introspective coming-of-age album with a narrative written by playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury. A group of singers perform the album’s songs while dancers express Sibblies Drury’s storyline without uttering any lines." - The Guardian

The Tony nominations, announced in New York on Tuesday morning, paint a portrait of another year of transition on Broadway. - Los Angeles Times

With a season packed to the brim with late openers vying for awards attention, the 2024 Tony nominations were full of unexpected twists and turns. Here are the 10 biggest snubs and surprises. - Variety

"The musical Hell’s Kitchen, fueled by Alicia Keys songs, and the play Stereophonic, about a ‘70s rock band at the edge of stardom, each earned a leading 13 Tony Award nominations Tuesday, a list that also saw a record number of women nominated for best director." - AP

“I arrived in New York at a time when the most beautiful paintings being shown in the city were on wheels,” Haring wrote. This was 1978. His infatuation with the graffiti enveloping the city’s trains and buildings was hardly anomalous. - BookForum

When he’d auditioned for a British TV adaptation of David Copperfield, it was less out of great hope or ambition than because he’d been having a rough time at school and his parents (his father was a literary agent; his mother, a casting agent) thought that the experience of auditioning might boost his confidence.  -...

"Called the 'dean of American post-modernists' and 'the most meta of American meta-fictional writers,' Auster blended history, politics, genre experiments, existential quests and self-conscious references to writers and writing. ... Starting in the 1970s, Auster completed more than 30 books, translated into dozens of languages." - AP

The document, carbonized by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE and deciphered using advanced imaging techniques, recounts the last evening of the philosopher's life and reveals his burial place as well as the point when he was sold into slavery. - The Guardian

"A trial will start in October 'for sexual assaults likely to have been committed in September 2021' against 'two victims, on the set of the film The Green Shutters,' the statement said. It did not name the alleged victims." - AP

Did you know that? She’s happy if you don’t. - Irish Times