VOYEURS FOR VIOLENCE

New classes examining violence: “Starting in Violence 101, ‘Introduction to the Comparative Study of Violence,’ and on through ‘The Causes of Crime and Violence’ and ‘Violence in Film and History,’ students are encouraged to look at history, arts and sciences through a single lens: the infliction of injury and death.” But are such classes anything more than voyeuristic rubbernecking? – Salon

ARTS CUTS?

Whether in reaction to the Brooklyn Art Museum fiasco or to woo the state’s conservatives for the impending Senate election, New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is said to be ordering up cuts in the city’s arts budget. Arts funding defenders are gearing up. – Backstage

EARWORMS

Why is it that certain tunes – and bad tunes at that – get stuck in our heads? As a student of Freud’s put it: “Whatever secret message it carries, the incidental music accompanying our conscious thinking is never accidental.” – Feed

THE EXAMINED LIFE

The late writer Patrick O’Brian was famously private about his own life. O’Brian’s biographer Dean King, explains why he was drawn to write about the novelist: “I felt that by not telling the truth to reporters and to his live audiences in the United States during visits here, O’Brian forfeited the right to not have a closer look taken. There’s a right way and a wrong way to go about these things. My motive was not to bring down this man, it was simply to set the record straight, to present an accurate record of a great writer.” – The Idler