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Survey: Most Americans Think Higher Education Is Headed In The Wrong Direction

A solid majority of all adults (61 percent) believe that higher education is headed in the wrong direction, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. But that view is much more likely to be held by Republicans or those who lean Republican than by Democrats or those who lean Democrat. While both Republicans and Democrats express skepticism about higher education, they do so for different reasons — Democrats are more concerned about tuition rates, and Republicans are more concerned about their perceptions of campus politics.

How Affluence Is Killing Our Greatest Cities

By trying to improve our cities, we have only succeeded in making them empty simulacra of what was. To bring this about we have signed on to political scams and mindless development schemes that are so exclusive they are more destructive than all they were supposed to improve. The urban crisis of affluence exemplifies our wider crisis: we now live in an America where we believe that we no longer have any ability to control the systems we live under.

There Are Three Movies About The Demise Of Gawker In The Works – What Do Ex-Gawker Staffers Think Of Them?

“It’s unclear how many of the projects, if any, will end up panning out, but drafts of the first two have been going around the film and media worlds for a few months now. … But what do the people who lived through the whole ordeal think? We decided to ask the Gawker diaspora, a cadre of writers who were never shy about sharing their opinions, what they thought about the idea of a movie about the demise of their beloved site.”

What ‘M*A*S*H’ – The Book, The Film, The TV Series – Taught Us Then And Teaches Us Now

“Rationality has lost its currency. The people in charge are dolts — masters of manipulation making testosterone-fueled, incendiary moves on the world stage. Patriotism has soured into ugly, gun-loving nationalism, with brown people and foreigners the targets of a nonsensical, hateful rage. … Each morning seems to bring some fresh hell, a reminder that the nightmare is real, and that there is no end in sight. Salvation is found in small, personal connections, in wry humor, and in the forlorn hope that intelligence and decency will ultimately prevail. That’s one way to describe the basic plot of MAS*H.”

An Actress Accuses French Director Luc Besson Of Rape, But France Hasn’t Quite Joined The Me Too Movement

France, you have a problem. “Eeveral forces have kept #MeToo and its French counterpart, #BalanceTonPorc, or ‘Expose Your Pig,’ from having the same impact in France that it has had in the United States. In France, if an accused man is not convicted of a crime, it is relatively easy for him to sue his accuser for defamation. … Other reasons are cultural.”

Bayreuth’s First American Director Gives A Wagner Opera A Feminist – And Maybe Sort Of Happy – Ending

Or was it more ambiguous? Director and MacArthur genius grant recipient Yuval Sharon: “All of these various ideas resonate with each other, or clash with each other, or sometimes don’t get told all the way to the end. … I love things that aren’t closed, because then the audience has such power and freedom to discover things for themselves.”

Watching Musical Theatre From The Orchestra Pit Can Be Illuminating

Take the touring company of An American in Paris: “In between big song-and-dance numbers like ‘Fidgety Feet,’ ‘But Not for Me’ and ‘I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise,’ the musicians checked their phones, perused a paperback or prepped their instruments until their next cue to play. As the show moved toward its finale, I appreciated that if I was going to spend the evening perched in proximity to a piano, I couldn’t ask for anything more than for the pianist to be playing Gershwin.”