RESEARCHING THE ARTS: Just in case you missed Jerome’s story posted last night, SMU is creating the country’s biggest arts database. The mission is to collect data from arts organizations, analyze it and then use those findings to make those arts group more effective. If you need further proof that this is A Big Deal, nytimes.com even posted on it.

PROPS FOR PEROT: The Perot Museum of Nature and Science has been open since early December, but it’s taken a while for some of the national media to weigh in. Last week we linked to the Wall Street Journal‘s assessment. And now Bloomberg offers its two cents. “Thom Mayne of the Los Angeles firm Morphosis Architects wants to inspire curiosity about science, the natural world and technology. And he succeeds. The Perot’s architecture evokes wonder, the way ancient ruins, animal skeletons or petroglyphs do,” James S. Russell writes. “A lot of people wish wilfully spectacular architecture like the Perot’s would die off. Mayne, who recently received the American Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal, shows us what it can do at its best.” That’s a review worth waiting for.

POPERA: You may not think that the Venn diagram for opera and pop culture has much intersection. But Dallas Opera general director and CEO Keith Cerny says there are plenty of operatic highlights from movies and television through the years. And to prove his point, he lists his favorites in his latest Off the Cuff column on theaterjones.com. Incidentally, his favorite pop opera moment – What’s Opera, Doc? – has a connection to the DO’s just-announced season.