“The future-predicting technology that drives the premise of the sci-fi blockbuster Minority Report is silly at best. And when the film hit theaters in 2002, the gadgets seemed pretty unrealistic, too. But eerily enough the slew of dreamed-up gizmos showed off throughout John Anderton’s daring escape are hardening into reality.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Michael Crichton, Public Intellectual
“Mr. Crichton was fundamentally a novelist of ideas — a public intellectual who wrote potboilers. He took on big subjects, such as bioengineering and climate change. He wasn’t afraid of slowing down the action to teach a scientific concept. When he wanted his readers to understand something, he would devote a couple of paragraphs to explaining it.”
Researchers: Novelists Best Academics In Explaining World
“Fiction – including poetry – should be taken just as seriously as facts-based research, according to the team from Manchester University and the London School of Economics (LSE). Novels should be required reading because fiction ‘does not compromise on complexity, politics or readability in the way that academic literature sometimes does,’ said Dr Dennis Rodgers from Manchester University’s Brooks World Poverty Institute.”
Arts Group Sues Milwaukee Over Naked Boys
“A gay arts group has sued the city of Milwaukee in federal court for violating its free speech rights three years ago when officials shut down a musical revue featuring nudity. The city temporarily shut down performances of ‘Naked Boys Singing!’ in August 2005 while it considered the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center’s application for a theater permit. The group later received a permit and reopened the show.”
Your Tax Dollars At Work: FBI Tracked Mailer For 15 Years
“In the summer of 1962, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was scanning his morning Washington Post when an item on Page A15 caught his eye. Norman Mailer’s most recent article in Esquire magazine had mocked Jacqueline Kennedy for, among other things, being excessively soft-spoken for a first lady. Hoover scribbled a note: ‘Let me have memo on Norman Mailer.'”
Irony Lives: Kennedy Center Bleeps Carlin At Twain Prize
“The late George Carlin, whose sense of irony was world class, would have appreciated last night’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor ceremony at the Kennedy Center, though it’s not clear which rich irony he would have liked most. Surely, he would have gotten a kick about being too dead to pick up the prize himself, as more than one presenter noted.”
A Philanthropy Plays Matchmaker For Artists And Donors
“United States Artists’ Fellowships have been compared with the MacArthur Foundation’s ‘genius’ awards, which this year gave 25 artists $500,000 each, and the Guggenheim Fellowships, which this year gave out 190 grants in the United States and Canada, with an average award of $43,200. But what sets these fellowships apart from these larger, more established award programs is the way the group plays matchmaker between donors and artists.”
As Holidays Near, Publishing Industry Grows Anxious
“Like many businesses across the retail sector, the publishing industry has been hit by a raft of doom and gloom in the past few weeks”: layoffs, decreased earnings, predictions of a bad holiday season. And even if books turn out to be a popular holiday gift this year, what happens in January?
Even MoMA’s Prefab Housing Was Overpriced
“With both the housing and art-bubble markets deflating fast, perhaps it’s no surprise that MoMA’s ‘Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling’ didn’t do so well as real estate. The architects were allowed to sell their dream houses after the show closed October 26, and Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev expressed interest in buying all five. But that fell through.”
If City Opera = Kmart, Who Can Be Its Martha Stewart?
Like a couture designer who likes the challenge of creating a clothing line for Kmart, Gerard Mortier might have enjoyed running an opera company on a shoestring — if he were a completely different person, argues James Jorden, editor of the opera blog Parterre.com.