“As austerity sweeps Europe, artistic and cultural institutions have been among the first to face cuts, with theatres, opera houses, orchestras, galleries and educational programmes all facing existential threats as their budgets and public subsidies are slashed. But as far as audiences are concerned, things couldn’t be better.”
Tag: 07.27.12
An Underground University In Iran – For Baha’is
The Baha’i faith “has been under attack in Iran almost since its founding there in the mid-1800s … [and believers today] are not allowed to hold government positions, face property seizures and are routinely discriminated against and harassed,” including in university admissions. So beleaguered Baha’is have banded together to create a clandestine university of their own.
What Music Can And Can’t Do
“There has been a pernicious fallacy that music sets up moods and can be used for the control of the masses, a tenet that equates the arts with government and/or religion. Again, the arts can enhance the methods used to shape the thinking and actions of groups of people, but cannot be equated as a method for doing so.”
The Drama Of The 8×10 Film Camera
“Alec Soth says: ‘One of the qualities of this camera is that because you are under a dark cloth, [the subjects] don’t see you and they don’t see you looking right into their eyes. … They become less self-concious, in a strange way, than if I’m holding a camera to my face.'”
How Does That Book Read? Depends On The Country Where You Buy It
“For some writers, a completed book is a discrete, inviolable object. For others, the urge to reread their work with the proverbial red pen is too strong. The prose needs to be trimmed here; a transition snags there. Subsequent iterations can offer a different resolution or style.”
Did You Spot All Of The Film References In The Opening Ceremony?
If not, The New Yorker‘s Anthony Lane is happy to help.
Neologisms That Simply Make (Double) Sense
“Confusionist: One who takes comfort or finds truth in the complex, the nuanced, the sloppy. Synonyms: Grayshader. Fenceposter. Betwixtee.”
What Inspires Alison Bechdel, Creator Of Bestselling Graphic Novel Memoirs?
“What book had the greatest impact on you? What book made you want to write?
Harriet the Spy in both cases. As a kid I just thought it made me want to be a spy. But now I see that it’s an excruciatingly accurate depiction of the compulsion to write (and draw — Louise Fitzhugh illustrated the book herself), and the toll that this exacts on one’s life.”
Massachusetts’ Statehouse Keeps Losing Its Art. Where Has It All Gone?
“More than any other state, Massachusetts has a heritage that runs deep, from the Sons of Liberty to John Singleton Copley and a host of other American masters. But this heritage has been slowly, quietly ransacked. Over the years, countless items have disappeared — and unlike the Cod and the Charter, most have never been seen again.”
How To Save An Indie Bookstore: Is It Even Possible?
Kepler Books in Menlo Park, Calif., may be dying, or have died and already been saved once – but how exactly can the community come together to fix the problems of indie bookstores in ways that are “innovative” while also pleasing traditionalists? The first of a three-part series.