Category: issues

Reynold Levy’s They Told Me Not to Take That Job: Tumult, Betrayal, Heroics, and the Transformation of Lincoln Center “may not quite reach you’ll-never-eat-lunch-in-this-town-again levels but could make for some awkward encounters.”

“His search for a sewage pipe, which began in 2000, became one family’s tale of obsession and discovery. He found a subterranean world tracing back before the birth of Jesus: a Messapian tomb, a Roman granary, a Franciscan chapel and even etchings from the Knights Templar. His trattoria instead became a museum, where relics still turn up today.”

“When you say I can watch something online for free or for a modest amount, or pay $100 to go to a live performance, that’s become a very difficult choice for a lot of people,” Kaiser says. For most in the post-great recession era of income stagnation and a shrinking middle class, it’s no choice at all.”

“The ban was imposed to prevent the city from becoming victim to property owners who would rather rent their apartments for €700 per week to tourists rather than offer them to normal residents for much less. The law is also meant to show that city officials in Berlin are taking the fight against gentrification seriously.”

“Where for decades or even centuries, philosophy has focused on our representations and descriptions of the world, on human consciousness and cultural systems, many are now turning to the external features of the world that constitute the content of our experiences and the context of our social practices.”

“The punch lines of [Adrienne Truscott’s] jokes are never the victims themselves. Instead she is aiming at the targets like the onstage antics of Mr. Tosh and the sexual assault accusations leveled against Bill Cosby, as well as politicians like Todd Akin, who made an infamous comment about ‘legitimate rape.'”

“‘Why don’t universities make this a mandatory part of the curriculum?’ asked one performing arts student during one of my workshops. ‘Academic narcissism.’ I said without a beat.”

“Satire punches up, against authority of all kinds, the little guy against the powerful. Great French satirists like Molière and Daumier always punched up. … Ridiculing the non-privileged is almost never funny — it’s just mean. By punching downward, by attacking a powerless, disenfranchised minority with crude, vulgar drawings closer to graffiti than cartoons, Charlie wandered into the realm of hate speech.”

“Many view the battle against the vacation rentals as being decisive in the effort to wrestle a piece of Berlin back from speculators and tourists.” But the battle is not going well.