Category: issues

Louisville’s 50-year-old Fund for the Arts set a record this year, raising $8 million to be divvied up between the area’s cultural organizations. For a city Louisville’s size, that’s no chump change. But “significant as the fund is, it’s by no means innocuous. Every few years, it seems, controversy arises about whether the fund is pursuing the proper goals and bolstering the proper groups.”

A new government survey assesses American spending habits, and names Minneapolis/St. Paul as the metro area in which residents spend the most per capita on entertainment, including arts, music, movies, restaurants, and general “going out” expenses. “Compared with 10 years ago, our spending on what economists class as luxuries, including eating out and alcohol, is zooming.”

“As more members of the generation born after World War II enter their 60s, and the effects of age conspire with years of hearing abuse, a number find themselves jacking up the volume on their televisions, cringing at boisterous parties and shouting “What?” into their cellphones. About one in six boomers have hearing loss.”

A British commission on racial equality is calling for a Tintin comic book to be banned from UK bookstores over complaints that it is transparently racist. The graphic novel, entitled “Tintin in the Congo,” includes stereotypical caricatures of Africans, who frequently speak in embarrassingly imbecilic style. Tintin’s author, Herge, “continued to revise his books after their publication, and admitted embarrassment over some of the views they expressed.”

Al Qaida threatens reprisals against the UK for awarding a knighthood to Salman Rushdie. “Ayman al-Zawahiri, deliverer of most recent al-Qaida messages, accused Britain of defying the Muslim world by honouring the author of The Satanic Verses, who was deemed to have insulted Islam.”

The leader of Canada’s opposition Liberal party, Stéphane Dion, has been meeting with cultural leaders lately in an attempt to shore up support for the party in the next federal election. Banking on the Canadian public’s traditional support for arts subsidies, Dion is guaranteeing that “a Liberal government would reverse the Conservative government’s $11.8-million cut to cultural diplomacy, and add another $11-million to promote and tour Canadian artists abroad.”

“An interesting by-product of New Labour’s insistence on cultural ‘inclusivity’ has been the emergence of a thrusting new breed of arts administrator determined to ensure that venues/festivals/events are open to all.”

“‘Ratatouille’ puts itself forward as an egalitarian fable, with a recurring motto, ‘anyone can cook,’ that’s embodied in Remy and the pack of rats that help him pull together a climactic feast. But it’s in one sense a defense of discrimination: of a discriminating palate. … When Remy is told that ‘food is fuel’ and instructed to ‘shut up and eat your garbage,’ these are statements not merely of ignorance but of apostasy.”

Artists build a bandshell out of old cars, doors and junk in San Francisco. “It took four months to construct the piece: Sixty-five car hoods were plucked from Bay Area junkyards; the steel beams were extracted from a closed winery in Napa; the French doors that form the stage were lifted from a shuttered school near Stanford. The group set up a Web site to book stage times for anyone who wanted to perform, at no cost. As of last week, all the slots had been booked through the summer.”

“Let’s call it Excessive Ovation Syndrome (EOS for short). Those suffering from it stand and applaud at performances that aren’t good enough to deserve such enthusiasm. In extreme cases, they shout “Bravo!” during events that are best forgotten. The more people pay for tickets, the more susceptible they are to EOS, because ovations confirm that their money was well spent.”