“A new report, based on interviews with young people across Britain, suggests that more and more white youths now see black street culture as their only credible influence in the UK. And, what’s more, the predominance of black culture has even led to the formation of a fledgling hybrid language – ‘Blinglish’.”
Blog
In The UK: Bribing Students To Take Math?
There’s been a big drop in students enrolling in math classes in UK and in the number of teachers to teach it. How to entice more into the math game? Maybe the government should make tuition for maths free. Or even pay students to take it up?
Keeping Cuba Out Of The USA
“Over the past few months, the State Department has cracked down on Cuban visitors – specifically artists – seeking to enter the United States. Since November, every Cuban musician who applied for a visa — 151 in all — has been turned down, including the five Grammy nominees invited to the recent awards’ ceremony. The State Department denies a specific policy against musicians, although officials appear to have raised the bar for performers who want to tour the United States.”
The Paralysis Of Choice
“A few decades of research has made it clear that most people are terrible choosers—they don’t know what they want, and the prospect of deciding often causes not just jitters but something like anguish. The evidence is all around us, from restaurant-goers’ complaints that “the menu is too long” to Michael Jackson’s face. The phenomenon isn’t new…”
A Critic’s Place…(Hmnnn…)
“Like it or not, and most critics don’t, people turn to theater critics more for consumer advice than for wit, wisdom, perspective, or any of the other lofty reasons that are taught in Criticism 101. As time and money become more scrunched, readers are less interested in how Samuel Beckett may have influenced David Mamet or whether August Wilson ever read Eugene O’Neill than whether they should shell out up to a hundred bucks for a theater ticket.”
The Metropolitan’s Big New Expansion
The Metropolitan Museum is embarking on a $155 million project that will expand the museum’s exhibition space. “The project, along the south end of the building, will expose the windows facing Central Park for the first time in 50 years. The remodeling is part of a 10-year-old plan aimed at using every inch of the museum’s existing space in Central Park.”
Betting On The ENO
The English National Opera is about to move back into its newly renovated home. But the company has been plagued with problems in the past two years. And even getting back into its home has proven problematic.
The Getty’s Coveted Titain
The Getty has “pulled off one of the most spectacular Old Master painting purchases in history. Titian’s magnificent Portrait of Alfonso d’Avalos is now hanging in the Californian museum. Yet until recently the portrait was on show at the Louvre in Paris, which had hoped to add it to its permanent collection. The French museum, not renowned for letting important pictures slip through its fingers, had the opportunity to buy the Titian at a preferential rate but decided not to do so.” The Getty paid $70 million, making the Titian the second-most expensive Old Master in history.
Harry Potter For Adults
An 800-page novel about magicians looks to be a blockbuster. First0time writer Susanna Clarke has written “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which has already been sold to a dozen countries and attracted interest from Hollywood, looks set to make her a millionaire and has enabled her to quit the day job to become a full-time writer.”
The Writer’s Ego Revealed (Thanks To Amazon)
Amazon’s technical glitch that revealed the real names of reviewers on the website last week confirmed the behavior of ego-driven writers. “Those less inclined to fume about unethical behaviour point to the long history of literary fakery, which takes in everything from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to the Hitler Diaries. In the rabidly competitive and cliquey world of American publishing, they say, Amazon is not just a website that sells books – it is a well known battleground of the backbiting literati.”