Category: issues

“What probably most people forget is that 77 of the world’s countries or territories have never won a single medal. If they weren’t for the most part poor, one might consider them the lucky ones–free from the arms race that has consumed the would-be champions.”

“The mentally retarded protagonist of John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice And Men was drawn into controversy surrounding Tuesday’s execution of a Beaumont killer after the author’s son blasted a Texas court for mentioning the character in a guideline-setting death penalty ruling.”

“Approximately 2.9 million took part in a mass bell-ringing session on the opening day of the games. A further 9.6 million visited free events like Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend and the Tate Modern’s oil tanks. Figures collated from venues showed another 2.5 million people had been to paid-for events.”

“The fact that the events had been initiated by art outsiders, rather than artists, musicians or writers–and the fact that all entries had to be sport-themed–also led many of the most prominent potential entrants to decide the competitions were not worth their time.”

“Cultural experiences from living abroad have wide-reaching benefits on students’ creativity, including the facilitation of complex cognitive processes that promote creative thinking,” the researchers write in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology.

“In a new interview this week with the French magazine, Le Nouvel Observateur (French), the new French minister of culture slammed Hadopi, France’s controversial anti-piracy regime, and seemed to indicate that it will be shut down.”

At the National Musuem of Mali in Bamako, “there’s no one around, not a visitor in sight. And that, says the museum’s chief researcher, Fatou Toure Sako, is demoralizing. She says television images showing Islamists destroying some of Mali’s most important historical sites breaks her heart and brings tears to her eyes. They include revered, centuries-old Sufi saints’ mausoleums in Timbuktu and the great door of the Sidya Yahya mosque.”

“The number awarded each year has been reduced by a quarter, while plans to grant plaques to dozens of famous names – which had already been given initial approval – have been scrapped, among them Graham Chapman, the Monty Python comedian, Sir Barnes Wallace, the scientist who invented the ‘bouncing bomb’ used by the RAF during the ‘Dambusters’ raid and Jacqueline du Pré, the cellist.”

“The Southbank Centre should not be like everywhere else. It should be a place apart, where you can breathe a different kind of air and see the city in a different way. Its raised walkways give you a new perspective on the river, and its rugged 1960s architecture, like a craggy rock formation, creates a different sense of time to central London’s frenetic streets. These concrete structures have been much criticised but even though they have been minimally cared-for over several decades they still have nobility and – something increasingly precious because it is getting rarer – the provision of space and surface that is open, free, unprogrammed, unconsumed by branding and marketing.”

“As Chicago ponders its evolving cultural plan, it’s worth remembering that its influence does not stop at Howard Street or Austin Avenue or at Jack’s Lounge down on South Halsted Street. Some soothing rhetoric is sorely needed about the crucial unity of Chicagoland, it being impossible for Chicago to thrive without the ‘land,’ especially in the cultural sector.”