Category: issues

“The arts-festival portion of the 2010 Olympics risks sliding into a squabble over free speech, as artists who signed on to be part of the Cultural Olympiad learn of a clause in their contracts that prohibits negative comments about the Games and its corporate sponsors.”

“A new two-volume history of Russia’s turbulent 20th century is being hailed inside and outside the country as a landmark contribution to the swirling debate over Russia’s past and national identity. … [The] books try to rise above ideologically charged clashes over Russia’s historical memory [and] are critical both of czarist and Communist Russia.”

New research suggests that mandatory uniforms “make students look sharper and create a safer environment, but they can’t raise a school’s achievement level.”

Robert A. Lederman “was arrested 41 times during the Giuliani administration, in part because he liked to bait the mayor. … In 2001, both state and federal courts ruled that New York City could not require permits for artists in parks,” a point Lederman made before he was arrested Saturday on the High Line for vending without a permit.

They’re serious. Says one of the magazine’s editors: “The Internet can be considered the first weapon of mass construction … What happened in Iran after the latest election, and the role the Web played in spreading information that would otherwise have been censored, are only the newest examples of how the internet can become a weapon of global hope.”

“Rita Marcalo is an artist doing what artists are supposed to do: creating work that is surprising, challenging, transgressive and exciting. … [She] is drawing attention to the fact that on YouTube (and elsewhere) it’s easy to find mobile-phone footage of people having fits – mostly taken without their consent. Curious, isn’t it, that controversy should arise when a person with epilepsy consents to being filmed?”

“According to an online petition entitled “When the Night Quietly Dies,” which was organized by a group from the techno and electronic music scene, the City of Lights is in danger of becoming the “European Capital of Sleep.” Among the complaints listed in the petition are the closure of leading bars, strict rules on noise and smoking regulations.”

The Independent offers a debate on the question, with entries from, among others, theatre director Simon McBurney, novelist Lionel Shriver, Serpentine Gallery director Julia Peyton-Jones, and nine thoughtful readers. (Says Shriver, “This assignment is a formula for sounding like a prat.”)

On Friday, “an assortment of academics, federal bureaucrats, and staffers from private think tanks and research organizations will assemble in Washington, and in cyberspace at www.nea.gov.” The forum is an attempt “to broaden and improve the statistical evidence” that what artists do “is not just fluff and filigree, but part of the dollars-and-cents fiber of the country.”

“Bloggers are wondering just that this week as Charles Spencer, the Telegraph‘s chief theatre critic, kicked the discussion off … ‘The critic’s obligations can be summed up very briefly,’ he writes. ‘Arrive sober, stay awake, stay to the end and don’t take a bribe unless it is big enough to allow you to retire in comfort for the rest of your life’.” Is that really all?