Category: issues

TicketMaster has voided thousands of tickets for Barbra Streisand’s upcoming tour. The tickets were purchased with stolen credit cards then resold over te internet. “Ten of her 19 concerts in October and November are affected, including dates in New York, Las Vegas and Chicago. Fans may be at risk if they did not buy their seats directly from Ticketmaster or venue box offices, the agency said.”

The city of Moscow is considering putting a shopping mall where a famous statue of Pushkin now sits. “If the city government gets its way, a four-storey shopping mall and traffic tunnel will soon be built on the square where Pushkin stands on his pedestal. PamPush – as the monument to the author is affectionately known to Muscovites – will survive, but protesters against the development warn that his square will be ruined. ‘Red Square may be the heart of the city, but Pushkinskaya is its soul’.”

The British government has decided to take up the issue of traffic at Stonehenge. “The National Trust warned last month that Stonehenge risked being stripped of its status as a world heritage site because of “second-rate” proposals to ease traffic congestion around it.”

As we have more access to more music, movies, books, etc, it becomes more difficult to sort your way through it all. Thus the rise of internet curators who recommend culture…

“They say that comedy is tragedy plus time. What they don’t say is how much time it takes to turn a massive death toll into a laugh riot,” Josh Levin writes, pondering the defiant humor that has thrived in New Orleans in the year since Hurricane Katrina. “So, what’s so funny about a devastating hurricane?”

“There is a widespread belief in what might be called cultural healing. We have faith that cities can be lightened and ventilated by a couple of museums and galleries, a theatre, an opera house. It can be done, I think – if you emulate the Victorians. Anyone who has visited London with children this summer will probably have experienced what is, surely, the most inspiring example anywhere of a museum and arts quarter that enriches city life: South Kensington.”

“There is today a deliberate reverence and respect about the west’s dealings with Islamic culture. If this new mood increases interest in Islamic art, that can only be a good thing. But despite the fact that we are now much more likely to know Muslims personally, our appreciation of their culture hasn’t gone as far as it might. If we have any interest at all, it is likely to be stuck at the level of museum culture – expressing wonder at beautiful antique objects in an enthusiastic but faintly uncomprehending way.”

“In a move that has shaken up the e-learning community, [a company named] Blackboard has been awarded a patent establishing its claims to some of the basic features of the software that powers online education.”

“Castro’s passing will certainly mean the end of an era, and may touch off a wave of nostalgia for Hemingway’s ‘Islands in the Stream’ Cuba. But it isn’t likely to release a wave of Cuban artists coming to this country, or have much impact on the dominant contemporary trends — at least in part because so many Cuban artists are already here.”

Those planning an approach to rebuilding New Orleans neighborhoods might take some lessons from a planned community in Denver. “It appears that people will accept modern design in an apartment or a loft or when affordability is the main consideration (since undecorated construction costs less). But when it comes to houses, most people prefer something more old-fashioned. A successfully rebuilt New Orleans—whoever plans it—is likely to be a similar mix, of edgy and traditional, of downtown plate glass and neighborhood picket fences.”