Category: issues

“Most of the people I know don’t have regular jobs. They’re writers, actors, musicians, artists, photographers and filmmakers. They also are middle-class taxpayers who carry mortgages and send their kids to public school. They’re used to hard times. … But this is different.”

“Former Walt Disney Co. chief executive Michael Eisner and his family’s Eisner Foundation are giving $1.25 million to a program at California Institute of the Arts that brings arts instruction to Los Angeles schoolchildren. The grant, to be paid in $250,000 installments over the coming five years, is the largest ever received by CalArts’ Community Arts Partnership, university officials said, and is the first grant the Eisner Foundation has made to an arts institution.”

“Unlike their counterparts in the corporate world, the majority of nonprofits in New York City are actually planning to increase salaries this year for their staffers, or at least keep them the same, according to the annual salary survey by Professionals for Nonprofits, a recruitment firm.”

If there’s a job title of the decade, “whisperer” has to be a contender. More than a decade after “The Horse Whisperer” appeared on movie screens, and four years after the debuts of “The Dog Whisperer” and “The Ghost Whisperer” on TV, “whispering” is still gaining steam among a huge range of consultants and instructors who promise subtle yet authoritative transformation in pretty much every aspect of life.

“The city of Escondido [just north of San Diego] is bailing out the insolvent California Center for the Arts, Escondido even as the City Council struggles to close a widening budget gap to provide city services. The downtown center has lost money almost every year since it opened in 1994.”

Said the actress (and former NEA chair) of the Louisiana governor (and Republican spokesmodel): “Well what he doesn’t understand is that $50 million goes directly … as a grant to organizations which employ people. It’s quick and it’s a system that works beautifully and it’s done within a year.”

“[The] compelling new documentary Robert Blecker Wants Me Dead, … which follows the relationship between Robert Blecker, a vociferous, hyperactive proponent of the death penalty, and Daryl Holton, a death row inmate in Tennessee, attempts to isolate capital punishment’s ethical core from the mille feuille layers of nuance that surround the practice.”

“In the end, after days of controversy that reverberated in India, the lot sold for $1.8 million to Vijay Mallya, an Indian liquor and airline magnate who owns the company that makes Kingfisher beer.” Such was the happy ending to an eventful afternoon that included attempts by the Indian government to intervene and by the current owner to stop the sale.

“‘Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for another act. Now, it is a girl, so be nice because she could be a bit … well, crap.’ No, it’s not a comedy routine, but a true introduction I’ve been given on stage before my act. It’s an attitude female standups have come to expect from insecure, chauvinistic hacks with little talent. But from Germaine Greer? Whatever happened to sisterhood?”

“Being inventive comes in handy in a bad economy, and creative people are finding solutions to sluggish times. They are taking on every project that comes along. Or they’re becoming more discriminating by honing a specialty niche.”