Between new technological gadgets, increasing job demands, and balancing work and family, Americans today are more stressed out than ever before. Our anxious culture is hardly a creativity-friendly environment. Read more...

Several weeks ago, Ethiopian painter Qes Adamu Tesfaw flew on an airplane for the very first time in his life at the age of 75. It would have been great, except that the flight from Ethiopia to Germany and then on to LAX was 27 hours long, and Tesfaw had a fear of flying. Read more...

MIA “Arular” XL/Beggars US Pop music hasn’t seen an artist quite like MIA before. Part of it is the storybook child-of-globalization biography that has publicists everywhere drooling: Maya Arulpragasam, born to members of the Sri Lankan rebel group Tamil Tigers, forced to flee to London as a refugee, an art school graduate with a professed love for everything from her local grime scene and New York hip-hop to Brazilian baile funk and Puerto Rican Reggaeton. Read more...

If you typed the words “necrophiliacs” and “scrunchies” into a Google search, they’d produce a Googlewhack. For the majority of the world, the term Googlewhack, which refers to a Google search that yields one and only one result, means absolutely nothing. Read more...

Comedian Kathy Griffin has never been shy about speaking her mind. In fact, it’s been her irreverent sense of humor and love of celebrity gossip that’s kept her in the public eye, even if only in the peripheral. Read more...

Jessye Norman Royce Hall April 2, 8 p.m. Just because you’re on spring break doesn’t mean that you have to settle for mindless dance rhythms at parties when it comes to music. Read more...

Odalan Bali Royce Hall March 26, 8 p.m. This night of traditional Balinese music and dance features a 25-member ensemble in addition to onstage dancers. If nothing else, the stage at Royce will be crowded. Read more...