“Now the Japanese language is being transformed by blogs, e-mail and keitai shosetsu, or cellphone novels. … So what do these changes mean for a language long defined by indirect locutions and long, leisurely sentences that drift from the top of the page? Is Japanese getting simpler, easier or just worse?”
Tag: 11.08.09
The ‘Bitter Tears’ Of Johnny Cash
How the country music legend, at the peak of his fame, took up the Native American cause, battled the music industry over his album of “Indian protest ballads” (which some DJs called “un-American”), and sang one of those ballads literally to Richard Nixon’s face.
Hollywood Rediscovers South Africa
With such films as Distruct 9, Disgrace (starring John Malkovich), Skin (with Sam Neill), and Clint Eastwood’s Invictus – and that’s just this fall – the U.S. film industry is finding South Africa a rich source of locations, stories, facilities and especially talent.
The Collapse Of Lollywood: Pakistan’s Film Industry In Ruins
“Back in the 1960s and ’70s, Lahore buzzed with movie shoots, red-carpet premieres and box-office hits. … Today, Pakistani cinema has all but vanished, a victim of the VCR, cable television, President Muhammad Zia ul-Haq’s Islamization of Pakistani society, and finally DVD piracy.”
Darcey Bussell, Now A Serene Sydney Housewife And Mum
Says Britain’s former prima ballerina assoluta: “I have relaxed. My husband never thought it was possible. … For me, it’s just trying to know who I am now that I am not a dancer, because I have only known myself as a dancer. So being a mum really isn’t such a bad thing. … I am enjoying it. So far.”
Does Information Really Want To Be Free?
A survey of 100 people on the street, opining on whether and how much they’d pay for digital music, news and books. Fourteen of them said they’d pay for subway musicians if they had to.
New In Chicago: World’s Tallest Woman-Designed Building
“Its white, wafer-thin balconies bulge outward, each slightly different from the other. They race around corners and shoot upward in fantastic, voluptuous stacks. This is a new vision of verticality, and it makes Aqua one of Chicago’s boldest — and best — skyscrapers in years.”
Art Experts Admit At Last: Great Nudes Are Sexy
“After well over a century of prim coverups, literal and metaphorical, of the sexual content of the greatest nudes in art, experts have been waking up to the erotic, even pornographic, potential.”
Reality? “Most Theatre Is Really Bad”
“We’ve got to get away from the idea that it’s good to go to the theatre,” says young playwright Mike Bartlett over lunch at London’s Royal Court theatre, where his new play is about to open. “It isn’t church. There’s nothing innately good about it. Most theatre is still really bad.”
UK Musicians Demand Reform of Small Club Music Regulations
“Government inaction over the exemption of small, live music venues from overbearing licensing laws is putting the future of the live music scene in jeopardy, the head of the UK’s music trade organisation has warned.”