Artificial intelligence will bring us heaven on earth or kill us all. It is the most important invention in human history or a scam. - The Nation

The few jobs today that are tangibly useful—say, social workers and science teachers—pay far less than the mass of uninspiring administrative and middle-management roles that prop them up. As a result, many opt for the paycheck, even if that means resigning oneself to working a job that doesn’t really need to be done. - The Point

If ‘language is one of the keys to individual autonomy’, the central challenge in a linguistic landscape being flattened and standardized by AI is to ‘continue to believe in language learning as a tool of emancipation and liberation’. - Eurozine

A Texas novelist discovers the hard way that authorial intent is no match for America's hunger for mythology. Sometimes the culture writes the ending, whether you like it or not. — The American Scholar

A Danish writer discovers what Instagram influencers fear most: that maybe there's no authentic self to brand after all. Thank goodness for Austrian modernists who made existential fragmentation fashionable. — Aeon

Largely ignored by academic philosophers, the “Dark Enlightenment” movement and Yarvin have curried favor and influence with tech executives in recent years. A software engineer by training, Yarvin has become a kind of official philosopher for tech leaders like PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel and Mosaic founder Marc Andreessen. — Time

According to a recent study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, about 60 are closing on average each year; that number could double in any given year if the bottom falls out of enrollment. - The Atlantic

One person familiar with the cuts said much of the programming department’s work has been either terminated or redirected toward campus rentals, for which venue fees have to be paid up front. - Washington Post

Fixing education is never that simple. If states really want to replicate our success, they need to understand that what Mississippi did wasn’t a miracle at all. - The Atlantic

“As the country’s economic malaise deepens, officials are eager for the economic boost of increased tourism, even as local communities find themselves entirely unprepared for what a small army of foreign visitors means for their communities.” - AP

South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has announced a series of high-profile appointments across its leading arts institutions, led by the naming of conductor and cellist Chang Han-na as the new president and chief executive of the Seoul Arts Center. - Moto Perpetuo

“A federal court granted the administration’s request to withdraw its appeal of a federal judge’s earlier ruling that struck down Trump’s attempt last year to dismantle the agency” by executive order. However, the fiscal 2027 budget which the White House is submitting to Congress includes no funding for IMLS. - Publishers Weekly

“Each time I tune in—which is every day now—it feels as if someone cooler than me is handing me a mixtape made with care, exactly how finding new music should feel. I’m pleasantly surprised by what I’m listening to instead of frustrated and bored.” - Slate

"Moran is among a growing number of musicians who have been targeted on music streaming platforms by what appear to be AI bots masquerading as the real artists.” - The Guardian (UK)

Long before Apple claimed to revolutionize music consumption, scrappy Canadian start-ups were quietly building the streaming future. Turns out maple syrup wasn't the only sweet innovation flowing north of the border. — The Walrus

The heart of the case before the jury involves accusations that Live Nation has pressured artists to use the company’s promotions arm to play at its amphitheaters, and has also forced venues — sometimes with threats — to sign exclusive deals with Ticketmaster or risk losing access to Live Nation’s popular tours. - The...

He realised how powerful music could be in spreading his new doctrine, that it could “incite people to do good and to teach them”. He’s one of several figures to whom the phrase: “Why should the devil have all the best tunes?” has been credited. He almost certainly didn’t say it, but he should...

“The Dallas Symphony Orchestra is adding $50 million to its endowment fund, thanks to donors matching a $25 million challenge grant from the O'Donnell Foundation. … The DSO's O'Donnell match comes three months after the Dallas Opera completed its own $25 million challenge from the Dallas foundation.” - The Dallas Morning News (MSN)

A raffle in France is offering the chance to win a portrait by Pablo Picasso for the price of a €100 (£87) ticket, with proceeds going to Alzheimer’s research. - The Guardian

It is highly unlikely that the Greek police will proactively search for fakes and forgeries. The expertise to identify fraud is held in the art world, and police will continue to rely on tip-offs from experts. - The Conversation

But “the Basque government, headed by Imanol Pradales of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), has made the transfer of Picasso’s painting a matter of regional pride." - El País English ...

Tech bros “are a class that shuns human interaction, with its serendipities, annoyances and joys. It represents friction. Learning to make art is also friction. Never mind the fact that friction is the basis of all pleasure.” - The Guardian (UK)

“Museums are educating visitors to a more accurate telling of Western history by showcasing the role Black people played in everyday life across territories that would later become states.” - The New York Times

“It is a new direction for scanner photography, a method more often associated with punk Xerox aesthetics and second-wave feminist art than with the human caress.” - The New York Times

Our current age of comics is one in which comics can be consumed through global digital platforms like Marvel Unlimited, Webtoons, Shonen Jump and so on, all without readers and fans ever purchasing a paper copy. - The Conversation

“It is good that we know what to avoid, but we don’t really know what to do either. We’re uncomfortable, and so what we tend to do is decorously fade to black, and rejoin our characters when they are finished. The next day, if possible.” - The Guardian (UK)

Helen DeWitt’s life was simply too busy, and intense, for her to do what the $175,00 Windham-Campbell Writing Prize required, she says. - The New York Times

Literary ridicule used to sting politicians into shame. Now they don't read books, don't care about cultural criticism, and certainly don't lose sleep over clever wordplay. Writers are shadowboxing with ghosts. — New York Review of Books

As traditional literary criticism gasps its last, so goes reasoned public discourse. David Bell chronicles how digital age killed the gatekeepers—and maybe critical thinking itself. — Liberties Journal

Because the cells that make up the mind are material, they can degrade or die. When neurons degrade, starve, or die, the essential connections our minds make to our muscles start to sputter. - LA Review of Books

“‘It has to resonate and feel authentic to the time,’ says one expert. ‘This generation really sees stereotypes pretty quickly … they’ll see inappropriate behavior quickly, and they will call it out.’” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

“Is the Online Streaming Act worth all the hassle it's getting from the United States? CBC's The House spoke to experts about why this bill has generated so much controversy and whether Canada should stay firm in the face of U.S. pressure.” - CBC

“The many awards for Paddington were perhaps unsurprising given that the show earned rave reviews when it opened and has played to sellout crowds ever since.” - The New York Times

“The vastness of space is humbling to behold. But it can undoubtedly make even the most sober-minded astronauts go a little stir crazy.” - The Atlantic

“For power users, this sort of thing can’t help but read as needling, even petty platform quirks. For Apple and Netflix, it’s business as usual.” - Vulture

Julia Louis-Dreyfuss “won six of seven seasons of the political satire Veep, losing only in its final season. This near sweep remains one of the most impressive runs in television history.” - Variety

The Artistic Health and Wellness Student Center, which opened in September, is a $4.7 million expansion of the school, the training ground for New York City Ballet. - The New York Times

This season, the Martha Graham Dance Company celebrates 100 years, and for better and worse, her early works are back in fashion. - The New York Times

In Lowell, Mass., a center of America's Cambodian diaspora, the Angkor Dance Troupe has worked hard to preserve the dance traditions nearly wiped out by the Khmer Rouge. Yet the company also wants to expand the repertory and reach a wider community; adapting the Tchaikovsky classic seemed an ideal option. - WBUR (Boston)

“You’ll never say you didn’t hear them coming.” - AP

The company hadn’t produced its beloved staging of the Stravinsky ballet, with sets and costumes by Geoffrey Holder, since it went on hiatus in 2004 due to financial problems. DTH was resurrected in 2013, but until now it didn’t have enough dancers available to perform the piece. - The New York Times

“Nearly 50 years since that first performance in 1978, Meryl Tankard is getting the Kontakthof band back together. Now a choreographer, she has assembled nine of the dancers (including herself) and adapted the piece to synchronise with black-and-white footage of their younger selves projected onto a giant screen behind them.” - The Times (UK)

Send in the clowns. - Oregon ArtsWatch

Under their new leadership, Victory Gardens has hosted a writers’ workshop, a showcase of new works in collaboration with New Musical Chicago, and a staged reading of An Ocean Away, a documentary play by Belarusian playwright Andrei Kureichik about the effects of war on Ukrainians and diaspora communities. - American Theatre

“Roundabout Theater Company moved into the building in 1998 and kept its disco-era name. Now Roundabout has a $100 million plan for the first full-scale renovation of the building. The project would bring back a permanent stage, which the building hasn’t had since its disco days, and an orchestra pit.” - The New York...

“Scott Guggenheim, who with his wife Shannon Guggenheim owns 3Below Theaters, cited an ongoing landlord dispute as one major factor in what he called a ‘difficult’ decision. ... ‘There were … specific issues — particularly around construction, signage, and commitments — that were not fully realized,' he told the Chronicle.” - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo!)

“Evan Yionoulis, who has been dean and director of The Juilliard School’s drama division since 2018, will take over the post at Yale starting July 1. She succeeds James Bundy, who has been in the role for close to 25 years and announced his retirement last year.” - The Hollywood Reporter

For almost three decades, the ambitious, history-centered company had to make do with the second-floor of a 110-year-old church building in Lake View — along with dodgy electrical wiring, no elevator, toilets that didn’t always work and no central air conditioning. - WBEZ

Bhosle, who recorded more than 12,000 songs, became her country’s pre-eminent exponent of playback singing – recording tracks that were then lip-synced on film by actors. She also boldly embraced cabaret and western-influenced melodies to forge a distinctive musical identity. - The Guardian

Hilde Limondjian, who spent more than four decades bringing music to the auditorium — and the galleries — of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, died on Jan. 24. She was 89. - The New York Times

André Malraux went on to fight in the WWII resistance, write celebrated novels, get nominated repeatedly for the Nobel Prize, and serve as de Gaulle’s culture minister. In his 20s, however, he and his wife decided they could get rich quick by going to Cambodia and stealing ancient statuary. - Smithsonian Magazine

Bambaataa and the parties where he DJ'ed swelled in popularity throughout the decade and well into the 1980s, when he released a series of electro tracks that helped shaped the burgeoning hip-hop and electro-funk music movements. - NPR

“Combs’s lawyers repeated claims they made before the trial judge, including an assertion that Combs’ films of sexual encounters between his girlfriends and male sex workers amounted to ‘amateur pornography’ and (were) protected by the First Amendment.” - AP

“In those days, you might as well say: ‘And by the way, I love cock,’” he said about his 1996 interview to promote The Birdcage. “But I wasn’t ready; I wasn’t brave enough. I was a character actor. I wasn’t thinking I was going to become a leading man.” - The Guardian