“Sociologists, writers, lawyers and economists have begun to examine ugliness, suggesting that the subject has been marginalized in history and that discrimination against the unattractive, while difficult to document or prevent, is a quiet but widespread injustice.”
Tag: 10.30.08
Controversy Over Provocative Images Of Muslim Women
Windows and doors at a London gallery were smashed in response to an exhibit of paintings by British Muslim artist Sarah Maple. Among the images are a veiled woman holding a pig, Maple herself in a T-shirt saying “I love jihad,” and another veiled woman wearing a badge reading “I love orgasms.”
Making Sense of Stockhausen, One Year After His Return To Sirius
Philip Hensher: “It seems a tragic justification of the career of the author of Gruppen that it would lead, in the end, to a multi-million selling pop album called OK Computer. But such Lilliputian testaments were very much in the air in 2007 because, for the best part of 30 years, the people who understood what had made Stockhausen interesting in the first place were generally not willing to stand up for his whole career. Since the mid-1970s, the composer who had once ruled a vast swath of contemporary taste had turned into a curiosity.”
… Well, Björk Understands Him
“I remember sitting in [Stockhausen’s] studio in Cologne, surrounded by 12 speakers, him creating a current traveling up and down, swirling around us like the force of nature that electricity is, my insides pulsating to his noise… Now the 21st century has started, Karlheinz was right, things are great, we are communicating telepathically, of course (as he prophesied), and music schools have changed.”
Diaries Of A ‘French Anne Frank’
Hélène Berr, a Jewish student at the Sorbonne who stayed behind in occupied Paris to help rescue Jewish children, was captured and sent to Auschwitz in 1944. The wartime journal she wrote for her fiancé survived; it was published this year and is becoming a bestseller.
Afghanistan Tries To Stop The Cultural Carnage
“Afghanistan is stepping up an ambitious campaign to stop the looting of the country’s archaeological sites, with a programme to build museums, train archaeologists and repatriate the billions of dollars worth of stolen antiquities that have been spirited through its porous borders during the past seven years.”
Inside Clézio – Getting To Know The Work Of This Year’s Nobel Lit Winner
Few Americans had read the work of J.M.G. Le Clézio when it was announced he had won this year’s Nobel for literature. “More philosopher than deviser of intricate characters or plots, Mr. Le Clézio is like a post-Darwin Rousseau, decrying the ruination of indigenous cultures around the world, often through the eyes of a child. At the same time, he is fascinated by the callousness of nature. In more than one novel he descends below grass level to record the brutality of insects.
New Abu Dhabi Tower Goes For World Record As “Most Leaning”
The 35 storey gravity defying feature tower will lean westward 18 degrees, 4 times as far as the Leaning Tower of Pisa which currently leans 3.97 degrees.
Proposed Plan To Use Wireless Spectrum Could Hurt Broadway
Broadway’s entire operation now depends on wireless microphones. So a proposal to make unused spectrum pathways that exist between digital TV signals available to the telecommunications industry has the theatre industry worried. “A proliferation of wireless devices in overtaxed areas such as Times Square, which overlaps with the theatre district, could cause serious disruptions to live performances.”
Even Comic Books Are Weighing In On Presidential Campaign
While DC Comics won’t allow Superman and Batman to endorse, Image Comics’ Savage Dragon endorses Obama on a cover, two publishers have produced graphic novel-style candidate bios, and Bluewater Comics’ “Female Force” series has featured Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin.