Sergei Polunin’s Problem With Ballet? The Discipline

“The stage, that’s the only time I enjoy really. I don’t enjoy my working, killing myself during the day for eight hours. … You perform twice in a whole month but for the whole month you rehearse. Which is the really boring part. I hate that part. … I don’t believe you have to do classes to be good. … What I hate the most is waking up in the morning.”

Struggling Stockton, Calif. Finds Solace In New Orchestral Score

The city, whose government is nearing bankruptcy, has so many problems that it topped last year’s Forbes list of America’s most miserable cities. The Stockton Symphony’s commission of a new piece by composer Avner Dorman – and the local workshops and tryouts Dorman held as part of the process – are starting to break down some barriers between the beleaguered residents.

Where Rom-Coms Meet Social Media (Indonesia, That’s Where)

“It’s You’ve Got Mail for the social-media era, but this time the tech-enabled romantic comedy takes place in Jakarta rather than New York’s Upper West Side. A new Indonesian film, titled #republiktwitter, tells a love story designed to strike a chord in this social-media-obsessed country: How to find romance and social justice in 140 characters or less.”

Jonathan Franzen: Twitter Is “Irresponsible Medium”

“Twitter is unspeakably irritating. Twitter stands for everything I oppose,” said Franzen, according to Attenberg. “It’s hard to cite facts or create an argument in 140 characters … It’s like if Kafka had decided to make a video semaphoring The Metamorphosis. Or it’s like writing a novel without the letter ‘P’… It’s the ultimate irresponsible medium. People I care about are readers … particularly serious readers and writers, these are my people. And we do not like to yak about ourselves.”