The recent flap that ensued in Canada when a former First Nations activist went on a rambling, semi-coherent, anti-Semitic rant points up a larger problem among the nation’s public figures, says John Gray. Why can’t anyone in government speak with any degree of profundity or even a basic grasp of what makes for stirring oratory? “What I find not only boring but dangerous is not the lack of imagination, nor art, nor insight, nor even intelligence — but the absence of specifics. When Canadian public figures speak, I literally do not know what the hell they are talking about.”
Tag: 12.31.02
Defending The Film Cleaners
Not many in the film world have stepped forward to defend the companies being sued by Hollywood for marketing “clean” versions of movies with all the sex, violence, and foul language removed. But one critic thinks the Directors’Guild, which initiated the lawsuit, is being awfully hypocritical, since its members have been releasing edited versions of their work for decades: “Those alternates are used not just on airplanes, but also for broadcast television and overseas release. If the DGA is so concerned about artistic integrity, it should work to make those personally supervised versions available to families who want to see them.”
You’ve Got To Spend It To Make It
A respected figure in British theatre, Peter Longman is imploring the government to invest more than £1 billion in the country’s theatre companies, in order to correct what most in the business have viewed as a long and dangerous slide in public monetary support. Longman is not alone in his call for increased public investment, but the word “billion” has the theatre world talking, and government officials stunned.
TV Station Under Fire For Controversial Documentary
Britain’s Channel 4 is being criticized for its plans to air a controversial documentary on Chinese performance artists. Among the controversial scenes are one “showing a performance artist eating the flesh of a dead baby” and “a man drinking wine that has had an amputated penis marinaded in it.” The station defends its plans: “The programme will be controversial and will shock some viewers but a warning will be given before it goes out on air.”
London Theatres Falling Down
“The physical condition of London’s theatreland, a unique treasury of mainly Victorian and Edwardian theatres, is beginning to cause anguish among the people who earn their living there. One estimate is that the buildings need well over £200m spent to bring them up to the modern standards that audiences increasingly expect, and to faintly humane working conditions for staff.”
Brazilian Pop Star Takes Government Culture Job
When Brazil’s new government takes office on Wednesday, its culture portfolio will be held by one of the country’s biggest pop stars for the last 35 years, the singer-songwriter and guitarist Gilberto Gil.” The appointment, to say the least, is controversial. “The challenger of the establishment will now experience things from the other side.”
Guggenheim Drops Lower Manhattan Plan
In a three-paragraph e-mail message, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation announced that it had withdrawn its proposal to build a polymorphous, 400-foot-tall building designed by Frank Gehry on Piers 9, 13 and 14, south of the Brooklyn Bridge in Lower Manhattan.” The plan would have cost $950 million, and the museum admits that was an unrealistic goal.
British Museum Puzzled Over Missing Goblet
“Archivists at the British Museum are scratching their heads after learning that the biggest hoard of Roman treasure ever found in Britain comprised 35 pieces – not 34, as has been believed for the past 60 years – and that the goblet that is missing could be worth more than £1 million.” The discovery was made when a 94-year-old man who had worked on cleaning one of the goblets came to visit the museum and discovered it was missing.