“[When] President Raúl Castro urged Cubans to increase productivity by starting small businesses, [baritone Ulises] Aquino answered the call. He cleaned up a vacant, trash-strewn lot in Havana and built a restaurant and cabaret, El Cabildo, where his Opera of the Street could finally have a home. It was a big hit. And true to socialist principles, Aquino split earnings among his 130 employees, held free children’s theater on weekends and kept his prices low. But it didn’t last a year.”
Category: issues
An Indigenous Culture With Virtually No Culture
“The Baining believe, quite correctly, that play is the natural activity of children, and precisely for that reason they do what they can to discourage or prevent it.”
Why Should We Learn Algebra?
“There are many defenses of algebra and the virtue of learning it. Most of them sound reasonable on first hearing; many of them I once accepted. But the more I examine them, the clearer it seems that they are largely or wholly wrong — unsupported by research or evidence, or based on wishful logic.”
An Underground University In Iran – For Baha’is
The Baha’i faith “has been under attack in Iran almost since its founding there in the mid-1800s … [and believers today] are not allowed to hold government positions, face property seizures and are routinely discriminated against and harassed,” including in university admissions. So beleaguered Baha’is have banded together to create a clandestine university of their own.
What Britain’s Olympics Opening Ceremonies Say About British Culture
“So what was projected, through this ceremony, of British artistic achievement? At the outset, it was all about the density of British literary brilliance.”
Data Can Increasingly Predict Success Of Creative Work
“Not that long ago such a pursuit would have been considered utter folly and best left to soothsayers and astrologers. Thanks to the sheer scale and quality of data that’s now becoming available, and to the development of better algorithms through events such as this, it is now not only quite feasible but rapidly becoming a way of doing business in many industries.”
Can You Make A Living In The Arts?
“Is it possible, in the current economic climate, for someone working in the creative arts to make a living from it? Unless you have the good fortune to be a Damien Hirst or a JK Rowling, the answer increasingly seems to be no.”
No, Not Everyone In London Is Happy With The Olympics, Says Writer Iain Sinclair
“When you’re close, it actually becomes an invaded city. We have armed helicopter gunships flying overhead to shoot down any planes that come within. And where are they going to crash? We’ve got surface-to-air missiles put on top of occupied blocks of flats. We’ve got more troops in place now than have been used in the whole of the Afghan campaign.”
Artists Need Day Jobs (No, It’s Not Surprising; Yes, It’s Hard On The Art)
“Is it possible, in the current economic climate, for someone working in the creative arts to make a living from it? Unless you have the good fortune to be a Damien Hirst or a JK Rowling, the answer increasingly seems to be no. For artists who are already faced with low job security and the absence of company benefits such as pensions or paid holidays, the impact of the global financial crisis has been keenly felt.”
The Internet’s Love For Cats Might Help Bring Down Dictatorships
“The site, crypto.cat, has a chunky, 8-bit sensibility, with a big-eyed binary cat in the corner. The visitor has the option to name, then enter a chat. There’s some explanatory text, but little else. It’s deceptively simple for a web app that can save lives, subvert governments and frustrate marketers.”