Category: issues

“The move signaled new restrictions on journalists and artists, many of whom supported widespread protests against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.”

“The data our scientists and engineers provided to us demonstrate that the more arts and crafts a person masters, the greater their probability of becoming an inventor or innovator.”

“The arts are in trouble because there is simply not enough excellent art being created. I know that I am risking the wrath of the entire arts community, and I know I am also at risk of sounding like the classic old-timer…”

“The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on Wednesday on “targeting Web sites dedicated to stealing American intellectual property,” and the White House has pledged to propose a new law to address rampant piracy within the year. But writers and other creative workers should still be worried.”

“Cultural legacies aren’t always easy to assess, but in Vancouver a year after the Olympics, some are evident. City-owned theatres have been renovated; there’s more public art. Some commissions have already found life elsewhere, and some may yet.”

“Was Rocco Landesman really advocating the shutdown of temples of art, suggesting that subscription theaters be subject to the same economic laws as restaurants and shoe stores? Did he seriously mean to single out the art form in which he has made his name? Or was he playing devil’s advocate, knowingly lighting a fuse so that people would be compelled to respond?”

“Before they were famous, many of the biggest pop stars in the world believed that God wanted them to be famous, that this was his plan for them, just as it was his plan for the rest of us not to be famous. Conversely, many equally talented but slightly less famous musicians I’ve interviewed felt their success was accidental or undeserved–and soon after fell out of the limelight.”

“Among Arab states, Egypt was the first to make a concerted effort to co-opt its intellectual class, and it has set the standard ever since. Against the regime’s version of top-down culture, the protesters have created a defiantly popular egalitarian and confrontational culture of their own.”

Staff act as “marriage brokers, counsellors, experts and advice services. They are not all perfect but I will fight anyone who talks about them as if they were simply ATM machines for doling out dosh.”