Category: issues

“To a degree I have some sympathy with the resentment, marshalled in a cluster of recent anti-boomer books. Individually, we may not have been the authors of today’s flux, uncertainty and lack of social and cultural anchors, but we were at the scene of the crime.”

“The buzz is about the recent departures of two top arts executives after short stints on the job – one from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra , the second from the AT&T Performing Arts Center, the parent organization over the two new halls. What kind of trouble lurks behind the facades in the Dallas Arts District?”

“The sections of downtown that are thriving — along Spring Street near 5th Street, in the Arts District, on the edges of Little Tokyo — are precisely the ones that have happily sidestepped the burden of trying to be the cultural, financial or architectural epicenter of Los Angeles. They are finding vitality as pockets of adventurous and experimental culture, and they are gaining traction because of their peripheral nature, not in spite of it.”

“While the hiring of arts teachers has indeed inched up, spending on arts supplies, such as musical instruments, theater costumes, crayons and construction paper, decreased by 68 percent, or $7.2 million, since the start of the 2006-2007 school year. Spending on partnerships with cultural institutions has fallen by 31 percent.”

“[Ireland’s] Garda Fraud Squad has been called in to investigate an alleged misappropriation of funds at Cork Opera House, totalling €63,000.” The multipurpose venue in Ireland’s second city “recently decided to close down for the summer, in a bid to save money, following annual losses of more than €300,000.”

“Reality shows that exalt indolent, loud-mouthed exhibitionists may seem like almost biblical retribution for our materialistic, celebrity-obsessed age. But actually, these kinds of series are an extension of a time-honored form of entertainment, one that reaches back to the era of landed gentry, debutantes and social seasons in places like Newport, R.I., or the French Riviera.”

“I still believe in the mystery of celebrity. I think less is more. But some of the (celebrities at conventions), you wonder what the lure is — they show up so often everyone who wants their autograph in that city probably has it. Why go?”

“More people are showing up at eye appointments complaining of headaches, fatigue, blurred vision and neck pain–all symptoms of computer-vision syndrome (CVS), which affects some 90% of the people who spent three hours or more at day at a computer.”

“The Valley Performing Arts Center at Cal State Northridge is about to fill a void in the San Fernando Valley, which heretofore has lacked a major hall for concerts, opera, dance and Broadway musicals. … The gala opening is Jan. 29, 2011, followed on Feb. 5 by the first regular performance.”

Parents in some Arab countries now insist that their children be educated in English or French. Teachers fret about “Facebook Arabic” (i.e., using the Latin alphabet online). Yet “Arabic is, after all, the language of 300 million people, a language of literature and culture, politics and scholarship.” The problem is that, “[in] a very basic sense, there is no such thing as Arabic.”