New Orleans – History To Build On

“Deep racial and class divisions aside, New Orleans is one of the few places in America that, in the best sense, looks its age. Though it is unusually vulnerable to natural disaster, nearly all of its neighborhoods have managed to avoid the urban renewal and crass commercial projects that have taken their toll elsewhere. This is partly due to the intractable poverty here, which has made great sections of New Orleans unattractive to national developers, and partly to a long-standing preservation movement. Katrina, in other words, has managed to do to this city what a wrecking ball never could.”

America On Top (In Universities)

“Since the second world war Europe has progressively surrendered its lead in higher education to the United States. America boasts 17 of the world’s top 20 universities, according to a widely used global ranking by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. American universities currently employ 70% of the world’s Nobel prize-winners, 30% of the world’s output of articles on science and engineering, and 44% of the most frequently cited articles. No wonder developing countries now look to America rather than Europe for a model for higher education. Why have European universities declined so precipitously in recent decades?”

Reinventing The Modern (Ancient) University

Global competition is forcing some of the world’s most venerable and tradition-bound universities to rethink what they do. “These tradition-loving (or -creating) institutions are currently enduring a thunderstorm of changes so fundamental that some say the very idea of the university is being challenged. Universities are experimenting with new ways of funding (most notably through student fees), forging partnerships with private companies and engaging in mergers and acquisitions. Such changes are tugging at the ivy’s roots.”

Surprise – You’re Not On The Booker List

Some of the UK’s biggest heavyweight writers have failed to make this year’s Booker list. “Ian McEwan’s tale of an extraordinary day in the life of brain surgeon Henry Perowne, has widely been seen as a shoo-in for the shortlist from the date of its publication. And he was joint favourite with Julian Barnes at the longlist stage to take home the gong for the second time. Instead, he has become the shortlist’s most high-profile casualty – although with previous winners Salman Rushdie and JM Coetzee also failing to make the cut, he is in very good company.”

Imagining The New New Orleans

Benjamin Forgey says that, given the cost and time sure to be involved, it is not unreasonable for some to be questioning whether New Orleans ought to be rebuilt. But he also says that there are several very clear reasons that it must be. “New Orleans… is a national issue because it is a national treasure. Simple as that. Actually — because of its history, its unique blending of cultures, especially in architecture and music, and its unending sociability — the city is an international treasure… The big question, then, is how to do the job. Getting the money and repairing the infrastructure are the easy parts, at least in theory. But who will do the thinking, the conceptualizing of a rebuilt New Orleans? And what, precisely, will be rebuilt? Who will live there, who will visit and what will be its economic engine?”

Toronto On Top

Everyone’s been predicting it for years, of course, but it now seems to be a fact that the Toronto International Film Festival, which kicks off this week, has established itself as the most important event of its kind in North America. Mark Caro says that TIFF has achieved that perfect blend of celebrity glitter and outsider ambition, functioning simultaneously as Hollywood’s sneak preview clearinghouse and as the most promising location for unknown filmmakers to display their wares.

Think Of It As A Tip For The Bricklayers

Tickets to Toronto International Film Festival screenings have a little something extra built in this year: a surcharge of $1 to $5, with the money earmarked for TIFF’s building fund, which already has $175 million of the $211 million needed to construct a new home for the festival. “By tacking on an involuntary contribution towards bricks and mortar, the festival is taking a less familiar path among arts organizations where capital cost fundraising is a separate matter from the continuing relationship they cultivate with their audience.”

Tilting At The Advertising Windmill

Everyone knows by now that today’s children are subjected to more advertising than any previous generation in human history, and furthermore, that a disturbing percentage of that advertising is aimed squarely at them. But despite frequent warnings by experts about the effect such a barrage of commercialism can have on kids, there has been little public effort to stop, or even scale back, the volume of ads dumped on the average child. Enter the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, a “Boston-based coalition of parents, educators, health-care specialists, and advocacy groups” dedicated to wiping out youth-targeted advertising. A bit Quixotic? Maybe. But as the CCFC’s leader puts it: “Who won David vs. Goliath?”

California Film Subsidy Bill Tabled

A bill backed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, which would have provided $50 million in tax breaks to film companies that keep their productions in California, is apparently dead for the year after state legislators objected. “Hollywood lobbyists have argued that the state’s dominance in entertainment production is in danger because of pressure from Louisiana, New Mexico, Illinois and other states with generous tax-incentive packages, as well as from countries like Canada and Romania with favorable currency and labor rates.” The devastation of Hurricane Katrina, of course, took Louisiana out of the mix for the time being, and many in Mr. Schwarzenegger’s own party questioned such a large subsidy being given to a single industry.