Category: issues

“In the late 1970s, the historian Christopher Lasch famously described America as a culture of narcissism. Today we might well be called a nation of dysregulation. The signs that something is amiss in our inner mechanisms of control and restraint are everywhere.”

“They should focus on an argument which will be found far more compelling: punish the arts disproportionately and you will bring down upon you the hell of the opinion-forming media, the chattering classes and the urban liberal intelligentsia. Cutting the arts, in other words, can be guaranteed to earn you a lousy press and lose votes – and there’s nothing politicians dread more than that.”

“Thousands queued for the opening of the Harry Potter theme park, where they were greeted by the films’ stars, including Daniel Radcliffe.”

“How do you market an Asian-American star? African-Americans are foundational to U.S. popular culture, and for Latinos there’s the adjective ‘Latin’ music that’s used to describe a variety of musical forms. But Asians are still seen as foreign or alien to mainstream America.”

“If the minister of education said our teachers were crap, that minister would be fired. If the minister of energy said that the oilsands were crap, you can bet that minister would be sitting on the backbenches faster than the minister of culture and community spirit can think of something stupid to say.”

“[Stephen] Daldry will be in overall creative charge of ceremonies while [Danny] Boyle will be artistic director of the opening ceremony itself. … Unlike the £70m budget granted to the Chinese film director Zhang Yimou for the 2008 Beijing games, the London team will have a total of £40m for all four ceremonies.”

“Buffett, 79, and the Gateses have been assembling billionaires at private meetings to drum up support for their challenge,” which asks “rich Americans to give at least half of their wealth to charity.” Said Michael Bloomberg: “I am a big believer in giving it all away and have always said that the best financial planning ends with bouncing the check to the undertaker.”

“Revenues increased 22 percent from 2009 to 2010 … [Management] set a $2.67 million target for ticket sales but pulled in about $2.73 million. … Spoleto finished in 2008 with a $372,000 deficit – the first in 13 years – and an $89,000 deficit last year. Organizers hope to wrap up 2010 in the black.”

The Gaillard Municipal Auditorium, a 2,730-seat cavern that opened in 1968, has acoustics so poor that the Spoleto Festival USA won’t even sell seats in some sections. Beginning in August 2012, “the space will be rebuilt with a brand new seating arrangement that includes tiers of box seats. The number of seats in the house will be reduced to about 1,800, making the auditorium … more intimate.”

The title of Sam Lipsyte’s “The Ask” “is American fund-raiser-speak for the quarry: the banker, the rich widow, the beneficiary of a will…. Mr Hunt might be interested in The Ask because he has said he wants to import American-style philanthropy to help mitigate against autumn’s government cuts in what he describes as ‘a horrible period for arts and cultural funding’.”