Category: issues

“Adults in the West were also more likely to report physical symptoms of stress, including headache (West, 53 percent; East, 42 percent); upset stomach (West, 41 percent; East, 32 percent); tightness in chest (West, 21 percent, East 15 percent); faintness or dizziness (West 18, percent; East, 11 percent).”

“Enrollments in language courses have been steadily climbing since 1998 and language enrollments, in raw numbers, are at their highest since the MLA’s 1960 survey. Yet, the report notes that the number of language course enrollments per 100 student enrollments is, at 8.6, about half the ratio in 1960.”

“Scholars have been complaining about too many books and journals since Francis Bacon’s (1561-1626) day. The sifting problem, per se, is not new. What is new is the declining availability of indicators to determine what’s real, what’s true, what’s valuable, and what will still be there the next time we look.”

“in an age where markets are more and more fragmented, the notion of a mainstream seems quaint and outmoded. In fact, the notion of seven million people doing the exact same thing feels almost nostalgic. Remember when Elvis had 50 million fans who couldn’t be wrong? But even having that many fans has its limits in the market place.”

The deal for America’s 20 largest cities would allow media companies to own newspapers and broadcast outlets in the same city. “The ‘relatively minor’ rule change would help bolster the newspaper industry by allowing owners in the top markets to buy a TV or radio station, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said.”

“The revitalized entertainment district will be known as Le Quartier des Spectacles. The goal is to improve the area that already plays host to a number of prominent events, including the popular Montreal International Jazz Festival and the annual Just for Laughs Comedy Festival.”

“Has racial conflict become amusement? Is the conversation about racism mere entertainment, dialogue rendered for show, inflammatory words tossed back and forth over a racial divide to excite an audience?”

‘Often, societal concerns over language and nudity are in direct conflict with artistic prerogatives. This can lead to heavily sugarcoated entertainment for kids, and afternoons of agony for the parents who suffer through these shows.”

Performa 07 is New York’s 20-day biennial of performance art. It’s “a celebration of transience, a paean to you-had-to-be-there, a deep and exhilarating bow to we-have-only-now. Conditions for burning are right: a market clogged with knickknacks and cash. How appropriate, then, that so many pieces pay particular attention to the intersection between performance art and dance.”

“The Sydney Symphony receives nearly $9 million each year. That is more funding than goes to all of Australia’s visual artists, or all of the nation’s writers and publishers, or all the dancers, or all the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, or all the community art practitioners. My problem is not that we still fund classical European culture, it’s just that we fund so bloody much of it and so very little of everything else.”