“Ultimately the tension surrounding Brüno boils down to the worry that certain viewers won’t understand that the joke is on them and will leave the multiplex with their homophobia validated. ‘Some people in our community may like this movie, but many are not going to be O.K. with it’, said … [an official with] the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Russian Court Rules That South Park Does Not Incite Religious Hatred
“The June 2 ruling overturned a Sept. 8 warning by the Basmanny District prosecutor’s office that said a commission of experts had determined that the South Park episode ‘Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics’ was extremist in nature because it promoted ‘hatred between religions’.”
The Sokal-Social Text Debacle, Redux
“So kudos to Philip Davis, a graduate student in library and information science at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who revealed yesterday on The Scholarly Kitchen blog that he got a nonsensical computer-generated paper accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.”
‘Bring Them In For The Art And Have Them Leave With Science.’
At the second annual World Science Festival in New York this weekend, “the curious will have to make painful choices: [for instance,] attend an investigation of the effects of music on the brain with a performance by Bobby McFerrin, or join a quest for a long-lost mural by Leonardo Da Vinci at the Metropolitan Museum of Art?”
Rasta Thomas And His Bad Boys of Dance
“Thomas takes the refinement and technique of his ballet forbears … and mixes it up with pop, rock and hip-hop, unapologetically shoving ballet into the 21st century. […] Thomas’s eclectic program looks nothing like your grandmother’s night at the ballet. One number features blow-up dolls.”
The Piano Man Of Baghdad
“[Christopher] Garabedian plays every night at Al-Rif, a tony restaurant and one of the few doing business in Baghdad these days. […] Some [customers] come to listen to Garabedian’s medley of Western and Eastern tunes, including Iraqi traditional songs, that has earned him many admirers.”
‘World Cup Of Ballet’ Underway At Bolshoi
“Held every four years since 1969, this is the 11th International Moscow Ballet Competition and about 120 of the top aspiring ballet dancers from across the world are in competition for the gold medals.”
More Cuts At PBS
“The Public Broadcasting Service Thursday instituted new staff cutbacks, as well as temporary reductions in salaries and benefits. It is all part of trying to close a $3.4 million budget deficit in 2010, according to a PBS source, who said the cutbacks were announced at a staff meeting.”
Some Regional Theaters Move Back From The Brink
“They came close to the abyss yet somehow survived. It’s not that such groups as North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Mass.; the Magic Theatre in San Francisco; and About Face Theatre in Chicago have returned to rock-solid ground. But each has entered into a process that could enable its survival.”
New York Philharmonic Names New Chairman
“The investment banker Gary W. Parr has been a player in mopping up some of the biggest financial messes of the last year. Among his assignments, count Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Bernard L. Madoff. His next task takes place in a more artistic, if also financially challenged, realm.”