“Cooper Union would have been better governed by a stinking pile of rotting horseflesh. Horses, dead or alive, don’t happily sign away the very thing they are being charged with protecting.
Tag: 09.02.15
Amsterdam Is Used To Living Below Sea Level. If Only New Orleans Could Learn To…
“New Orleans’s latest working relationship with the Dutch began in the weeks following Hurricane Katrina. After the storm, Dutch ambassador Boudewijn van Eenennaam and senior economist to the Netherlands Dale Morris knocked on Senator Landrieu’s door to offer their services.”
The Mysterious Origins Of Punctuation
“The comma, colon, semicolon and their siblings are integral parts of writing, pointing out grammatical structures and helping us transform letters into spoken words or mental images. We would be lost without them (or, at the very least, extremely confused), and yet the earliest readers and writers managed without it for thousands of years. What changed their minds?”
Black America, Please Stop Appropriating African Clothing And Tribal Marks
Zipporah Gene: “Black Twitter is littered with countless examples of the uproar that ensues when White people appropriate Black culture. Words such as fancy dress, mockery and profiteering are thrown around quite freely, but no one seems to realize that this selfsame violation is committed against us Africans – all under the guise of tribal fashion and connecting to The Motherland.”
‘I Got Death Threats For Not Liking A Sondheim Musical’: John Lahr On Being A Theater Critic
“People piss on theatre critics from a great height. But in the end, they are the record. You can’t replay this stuff. They are the only way we can find a way back. … If you’ve been really engaged and the artist realises that, and you still don’t like the work, well, they don’t love it – but they don’t feel offended.”
‘We’ve Made Every Possible Mistake’: The Director Of ‘Russian Ark’ On The Problem With Russia
Alexander Sokurov: “We can blame [Putin] for many things, but in reality it’s because there’s huge support from the people. It’s just like a ring, a circle, and the question for Russian society is how to get out of this vicious circle. But we haven’t been able to get out of this circle since the time of the Romanovs. … There is a way out of a crisis of any kind, but from the moral crisis – you can spend centuries getting out of the moral crisis, and that’s our problem.”
What Is America’s National Music Museum Doing In The Middle Of South Dakota?
“A six-hour drive east from Mount Rushmore, the galleries teem with masterpieces: precious early Italian strings; one of only two surviving bass saxophones made by their inventor, Adolphe Saxe; a portable 17th-century organ with hand-operated bellows; a Gibson Les Paul guitar with a shimmering gold finish; a radiant Javanese gamelan. Surrounded by such treasures, a visitor finds it apt that the museum was, from its founding in 1973 until 2002, called the Shrine to Music.”
The Tragedy Of Palmyra
“A second ancient temple at Palmyra has been razed, with a satellite image appearing to confirm the destruction of the Temple of Bel, previously one of the best-preserved parts of the ancient city. The revelation follows the release of images by Islamic State last week showing the Baalshamin temple had been blown up.”
How A Once Great School Was Run Aground
“The story here is narrowly about Cooper Union, and the way in which two presidents – George Campbell first, then Jamshed Bharucha – managed to bring a great institution to its knees, destroying its most precious and unique principle. More broadly, the report is an indictment of otiose trustees, egotistical technocrats, and a culture where university administrators gone wild can effectively railroad all stakeholders, including students, faculty, alumni, and even the attorney general’s office.”
Rules Of Engagement: The Line Between Audience Participation And Abuse
“The rules of engagement in theatre have changed, and now audience participation is everywhere. But artists have a responsibility to take care of those they pick on.”