“More than a month after controversy erupted over Corona del Mar High School’s reported cancellation — then rescheduling — of a production of ‘Rent,’ the American Civil Liberties Union sued school officials Wednesday for fostering a ‘sexist’ and ‘homophobic’ atmosphere. “
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Online Peril: Overexposing Ourselves To Beliefs Like Ours
“When we go online, each of us is our own editor, our own gatekeeper. We select the kind of news and opinions that we care most about. … The danger is that this self-selected ‘news’ acts as a narcotic, lulling us into a self-confident stupor through which we will perceive in blacks and whites a world that typically unfolds in grays.”
Google’s E-Book Library Finds An Outlet In Sony’s Reader
“Aiming to outdo Amazon.com and recapture the crown for the most digital titles in an e-book library, Sony is announcing Thursday a deal with Google to make a half million copyright-free books available for its Reader device, a rival to the Amazon Kindle.”
Fairey’s Obama Posters Voted Design Of The Year
“The ‘Hope’ series of Barack Obama campaign posters, used in the runup to his election as U.S. president in November, was voted the design of the year in a U.K. competition. Created by the artist Shepard Fairey, the posters beat 90 runners-up in the Brit Insurance Design of the Year 2009 contest organized by London’s Design Museum.”
Kelman, Llosa, Naipaul, Oates Make Man Booker Shortlist
“Glaswegian author James Kelman is the UK’s contender in this year’s race for the Man Booker international prize, a clash of the world’s literary titans that pits such giants as the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa against Australia’s Booker prize-winning Peter Carey and the Nobel laureate VS Naipaul. … Well-known names on the shortlist include Canadian short story writer Alice Munro and American authors EL Doctorow and Joyce Carol Oates.”
In Funding Contest, ‘Frill’ Perception Hurts Arts Groups
“Museums, theaters and operas, already reeling from the recession, are having a tough time attracting support amid perceptions that vital services like soup kitchens and homeless shelters should receive funds first. Arts organization are retrenching, and in some cases closing, as a result of fewer sales of tickets and merchandise, arts leaders say. They’re also seeing fewer donations from individuals and corporations, and cutbacks in government funding.”
Mourning Natasha Richardson
“Whenever an actor dies unexpectedly in the midst of a fruitful career, it’s impossible not to mourn the future possibilities that have been suddenly and cruelly foreclosed. Natasha Richardson, who died Wednesday after suffering a head injury in a skiing accident Monday, was only 45 and should have had more opportunities to show us the range of her talent, which was always surprising. One could say she made a career of overturning expectations about what she could and could not do.”
Free Museums Should Ask More Firmly For Donations
“Has free admission to our national museums and galleries become a luxury we can’t afford? … I don’t, on balance, propose that museum charges should be reintroduced – they are clearly a force for the general social good, and there are few enough of those around nowadays. But I do wonder whether institutions might be a little more aggressive about asking us to chip in.”
Wyoming Arts Council Asks $290K In NEA Stimulus Funds
In Wyoming, “[t]he job of preserving jobs has fallen in part to a small state agency that normally specializes in promoting the arts: The Wyoming Arts Council. The council has applied for $290,000 in National Endowment for the Arts funding through the federal stimulus act. … Already the Wyoming Arts Council receives more NEA funding per capita than any other statewide arts agency,” amounting to “about $1.30 for each man, woman and child in Wyoming.”
Das Kapital! To Chinese Producers, Marx Is Musical Material
“You’ve read the book, attended the seminars and pondered the accumulation of surplus value – now see the musical. Chinese producers are attempting to transform Das Kapital from a hefty treatise on political economy into a popular stage show, complete with catchy tunes and nifty footwork.”