“Deep-seated attachments to the post are a product of centuries of public engagement.Complaints about services in its early stages of development were, in fact, indicators of its importance. In our own time, the Post Office remains a unique social institution that binds people together locally while enabling them to communicate much further afield.”
Category: issues
More Protests Over Vancouver Olympics’ Unfriendly Art Policies
“The artistic director of Salt Lake City’s 2002 Olympic Winter Games Arts Festival has sent an open letter to VANOC head John Furlong, urging him to withdraw a clause from artists’ contracts that prohibits negative comments about the Games and Olympic sponsors.”
Palestinians Try To Block Israel’s Museum Of Tolerance (And They May Have A Point)
“A group of Palestinians descended from 15 of Jerusalem’s oldest Arab families lodged a protest with the UN today in a fresh effort to prevent the construction of a ‘Museum of Tolerance’ on the site of an ancient Muslim cemetery.”
1,500-Year-Old Street Uncovered In Jerusalem
“Archaeologists said on Wednesday they have found a 1,500-year-old Jerusalem road that was once a bustling thoroughfare used by throngs of Christian pilgrims and which is depicted on a famed mosaic map of the Holy Land.”
Teabaggers Protest Captain America Comic
Marvel Comics has “said it would amend a recent issue of [the] comic-book series after it upset members of the Tea Party movement.” In that issue, “the hero and his ally the Falcon find themselves at a rally where protesters hold signs that read ‘Tea Bag the Libs Before They Tea Bag You!’ and ‘Stop the Socialists!'”
In Dissent, Vancouver Poet Laureate Won’t Read At Games
Among his complaints: “a neglect of literary events in the Cultural Olympiad; deep cuts to arts funding in B.C.; [a] ‘muzzle clause'” for Cultural Olympiad artists; “the ‘grilling’ of U.S. journalist Amy Goodman at the Canadian border; and a Vancouver Public Library memo instructing staff to favour Olympic sponsors.”
Maybe Marketers Should Market More Thriftily
“Take English National Opera, which is now presenting about a half of the number of performances it did twenty years ago…. Today you can hardly move round Central London without seeing ENO’s posters and publicity material,” much of which is lavish.
A Quest For Indian-Pakistani Peace Through The Arts
“Two of the biggest media groups in Pakistan and India have orchestrated an attempt at a peace initiative called Quest for Peace. The goal is to bring the two nations together through music, literature; and other cultural and business interactions.”
Lincoln Center Eatery’s Daunting Task: Juggling VIP Egos
“There are 12 constituencies with 500 board members,” says Reynold Levy, president of Lincoln Center, considering the campus’s forthcoming dining spot. “They have spouses, children and parents. There are corporate sponsors, foundation benefactors, donors. They will want every courtesy extended to them at the restaurant.”
Once Upon A Time, Artists Won Olympic Medals
“Most of the world has forgotten, but when the ancient Olympics were revived at the start of the last century, it was taken for granted that if sport was the first pillar of the event, culture was the second.”