“You might say that the teen weepie picture is cathartic of all these adolescent anxieties, but theorists are increasingly dubious about whether or not catharsis exists, at least where tears are concerned. Do you actually purge emotions when you cry over art?”
Tag: 06.16.14
S.C. Legislature To Colleges: If You’re Gonna Teach Lesbianism, We’ll Make You Teach ‘American Ideals’
After having assigned, respectively, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home and the anthology Out Loud: The Best of Rainbow Radio, “the College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina-Upstate will have to spend $52,000 and $17,000, respectively, to teach the U.S. Constitution and other founding documents, ‘including the study of and devotion to American institutions and ideals’.”
‘Pain In The Arts’: John Tusa’s Advice To The Cultural Sector
The former managing director of the BBC World Service and the Barbican Arts Centre “urges them to stop adopting the political jargon that distorts what art is, to refuse to reduce ticket prices to seduce a new public, and to stop moaning.”
Why Movies Are Still Bad At Presenting Strong Female Characters
“Action movies are all about wish-fulfillment. Does she fulfill any wishes for herself, rather than for other characters? When female characters are routinely “strong” enough to manage that, maybe they’ll make the “Strong Female Characters” term meaningful enough that it isn’t so often said sarcastically.”
Australia’s Cinematic Dystopias Are Not Like Other Nations’ Cinematic Dystopias
“When Americans make films about a world in which the only law is the gun, they tend towards the romantic – for example, almost every western … Everybody else’s dystopias, from The Matrix to 1984, are those in which the powers that be are all-pervasive. Our dystopias are those in which they cannot or will not help us.”
Turmoil At North Miami Museum Of Contemporary Art
“The dispute between the city and the museum, which has landed in court, erupted when the museum’s trustees proposed a merger with the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach. Museum of Contemporary Art officials said they are considering leaving North Miami, with the 600-piece collection, because it has outgrown its tiny home in the heart of the downtown business district.”
How The Internet Is Hurting The Art Of Reading
When we do read, “there are more breaks, ever more frequent stops and restarts, more input from elsewhere, fewer refuges where the mind can settle. It is not simply that one is interrupted; it is that one is actually inclined to interruption. Hence more and more energy is required to stay in contact with a book, particularly something long and complex.”
Two Royal Ballet Dancers Boycott Russia Tour Over Anti-Gay Laws
A Royal Ballet statement said: “Out of the 96-strong dancers in The Royal Ballet, just two dancers have chosen not to go on tour to Moscow for political reasons.”
The Biology Of Art Appreciation
“Viewing paintings engages a number of different regions of the brain, suggesting art appreciation is a natural biological process, according to the report in the June issue of the journal Brain and Cognition.”
Threats To Free Public TV In The US?
“Public broadcasting officials worry that universities and states, including New Jersey, that hold public station licenses but are not primarily broadcasters may decide to give up some or all of their spectrum and use the proceeds for other needs, such as unfunded pension liabilities.”