Category: issues

“Since keeping one’s position and not retiring is likely to directly cause the unemployment/underemployment of young philosophers, is it wrong to postpone one’s retirement past a certain age? If so, at what age should one retire?”

“The Manifesto for Children’s Arts, published by charity Action for Children’s Arts, and the first of its kind, criticises the UK for failing to deliver Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child – which states that the government should ensure all children have access to cultural activities.”

Barack Obama may have trouble with white working-class voters, but he appears to have the rock star vote sewn up tight. A new star-studded rock video paying tribute to the senator is set to hit the internet next week, “an inspirational kind of musical expression that conveys an upbeat, positive tone reminiscent of earlier projects like the 1985 ”We Are the World” music video.”

“Against a backdrop of cutbacks, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts reduced by 12.6 percent its funding for arts organizations, programs and projects on Tuesday… It could have been worse, [though.] Through a statewide lobbying campaign, arts leaders joined with educators and businessmen to convince legislators to restore more than half of the 27 percent funding cut in the budget that Gov. Jon S. Corzine submitted earlier this year.”

“The autumn programme of 16 ballets and operas will be shown in at least 112 cinemas, including the Empire Leicester Square, the Vue and Odeon multiplex chains, and independent venues on the Continent. For the price of a cinema ticket, audiences will be able to watch live shows in ‘full surround sound’ as they are being performed in the opera house in Covent Garden, where tickets can cost £195 each.”

“The death-care industry remains such a strong bastion of quiet conformity partly because the reformers of the baby-boom generation haven’t started dying yet. The boomers have insisted on variety and individuality at every threshold of their lives: sex, marriage, parenthood. In their wide demographic wake. But the boomers are myopic reformers. Generally speaking, they have only just begun to think about death, so have only just begun to pressure cemeteries and funeral homes for change.”

But in the City of Angels, at least, “there is no solid proof that $4.50-a-gallon regular is driving culture lovers en masse to buses and trains – or that it’s discouraging many from going to concerts, plays and museums.”

“It’s been more than 10 years since Greece was granted the right to host the Olympics, which cost the tiny Balkan nation in excess of nine billion euros, more than double the original budget. The Games’ dubious legacy — and a warning to future hosts — is that today, 21 of 22 venues remain shuttered, locked and empty, costing taxpayers millions of euros in annual maintenance fees.”

“Despite the constant wailing in the media over the decline in the number of Venetians living in Venice–down to 60,000 from 150,000 in the 1950s–the regional government of the Veneto, which has considerable autonomy, has proposed a regional law that that would allow hundreds of private dwellings to be turned into hotel accommodation.”

“Today, to France’s worry, Paris is no longer the place to be. To the rest of the world, the city – for all its beauty – has become a backwater in many cultural areas. Its temples to the arts are indeed filled. But the worshippers these days are consumers, not creators. They are mainly foreign tourists who come to see the eternal Mona Lisa, post-modern American artists, the French Impressionists and Moliere. The city chemistry that produced rawness, dynamism, change and challenge seems absent.”