“Film in Khmer culture acts as an emotional release for all the hidden things these young people were never told about their history, their families, or their country. Cinema in Cambodia – the medium itself – is metaphor. It stands in for historical memory. It makes it tolerable. And unnecessary.”
Tag: 03.19.12
A “Surprise Performance” Of Arts Education
“Star performers don’t generally become involved in the operations of major arts organizations, but about a year after the CSO and Music Director Riccardo Muti named Ma as creative consultant in December 2009, the Lyric gave Fleming the same title. Yo Yo Ma and Renee Fleming have sought to help their respective organizations reach out into the broader communities, but otherwise their work hadn’t overlapped any more than the CSO’s and Lyric’s efforts have in recent years.”
‘Crush The Working Class,’ Says Maggie Thatcher In Russian Iron Lady
“The pirated Russian translation of the film, voiced over in a monotone by one man, depicts Thatcher as a bloodthirsty, Hitler-admiring leader, whose fondest desire is to destroy the working class. While some of her critics might say this is an accurate representation of her plans, even her fiercest enemy would concede the Russian version takes it too far.”
We Do Judge Books By Their Covers
Dennis Loy Johnson of Melville House: “I recently read a survey that said 39% or 40% of people who bought books on Amazon looked at them in a bookstore first. They could know everything about the book online short of having seen it, but still the physical object had enough meaning to them to want to see it first.”
Deteriorating Brutalist Landmark In Upstate New York May Be Razed
“Beefy piers hold up three stories of long boxcar shapes that look as if they had been frozen in the process of chugging past one another. Massive plate-glass windows fill the staggered, sliced-off ends. … The Orange County Government Center, by the once-famed architect Paul Rudolph,” is now so leaky it can’t be used; the county executive finds it a troublesome money pit and wants to replace it completely.
Is God Is A Testable Hypothesis?
“The gods worshipped by billions either exist or they do not. And those gods, if they exist, must have observable consequences. Thus, the question of their existence is a legitimate scientific issue that has profound import to humanity. We can consider the existence of God to be a scientific hypothesis and look for the empirical evidence that would follow.”
Science Will Not Loosen Religion’s Hold On People
“The fears and trepidation of so many believers – and the jubilant anticipation of so many critics of religion – that science will eventually displace religion are wrong-headed on many counts. … Not everyone is religious, but religious ideas and actions spontaneously and inevitably arise in human populations. Second, [the skeptics] underestimate the creativity and imaginativeness of theology.”
Hollywood’s Problem With IMDb? Too Much Information (Of The Wrong Kind)
“Over the past 15 years, the Internet Movie Database, or IMDb, has become an increasingly popular source for biographical data, with profiles of more than four million Hollywood types. But many aren’t exactly thrilled about its accuracy – or its revelatory powers.” Actors’ ages are a particular sore spot.
San Francisco Lyric Opera Back In Action After Three-Year Hiatus
The company, first formed in 1996 by San Francisco Opera choristers who wanted their own turns at center stage, had to suspend operations in 2009. Now SFLO, with a new focus on chamber opera, is relaunching with a staged version of David Lang’s the little match girl passion.
Recession? Not In Art. Sotheby’s London 2011 Sales Nearly Hit £1 Billion
“Sotheby’s in London’s upmarket New Bond Street sold nearly £1bn of fine art in its sales during 2011, according to results filed at Companies House. And with global sales of fine art estimated to have hit £35.8bn last year, it appears Britain is taking a significant chunk.”