Category: issues

“It has become fashionable these days to emphasize, even to celebrate, the assimilation of bohemian ideals to capitalist realities. The ‘bourgeois bohemian’ is becoming a stock figure in social criticism, or what passes for it. Trendy boutiques and lame attempts at politically correct purchasing have become the stuff of neo-conservative satire. The implicit message of such gloating is always the same: bohemia has disappeared into up-market fashion. And one would be hard pressed to deny that this new pop-sociological cliche has a basis in reality.” – The New Republic 08/14/00

“We are repeatedly told that it is the biggest in the world, the largest arts festival of any kind, an artistically overstuffed August when, for three weeks, Edinburgh becomes the mother of all festivals – Official, Fringe, Film, Book, TV and now Club. But for too long, the Fringe has been inordinately concerned with size. Like an adolescent boy – and, for that matter, most males – it is obsessed with being the largest. But who’s counting? And does it matter?” – New Statesman 08/14/00

• “The Delaware Arden should be mythical because it sounds like a place that’s too good to be true. It has an odd but equitable tax scheme, community spirit out of a Jimmy Stewart movie, and a lot of artists. This isn’t surprising, because Arden was founded 100 years ago by a sculptor and an architect who were trying to invent a more perfect form of society. They didn’t quite succeed, but their legacy is an enclave that even today is home to more than an average complement of creative people – artists, artisans, writers and aesthetes of every stripe.” – Philadelphia Inquirer 08/13/00

“Conceptual art, performance art and hard abstraction still often dominate the art magazines. But in New York, there is a feast of representational art this summer. I decided to check it out to see if there was anything in these exhibits that would give me a clue as to what is afoot.” – Washington Post

A longtime critic of the entertainment industry, U.S. Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman on Sunday accused Hollywood of corrupting the nation’s children and the culture at large. He singled out Walt Disney Co. as particularly lax morally and warned that Washington could impose “legal restrictions” if the industry doesn’t impose some of its own. “Look, I love the movies. I love music, but there is still too much violence, too much sex, too much incivility in entertainment.” – Yahoo! News (Reuters) 08/13/00 

• AND BURNING BRIDGES?  “Two days after Al Gore’s Lieberman announcement, a lot of people in [Hollywood] were absolutely reeling. Was Joe Lieberman one of ours or was he not? Is a milestone civil rights breakthrough worth the price of a Silver Sewer award?” – Salon 08/14/00

— stolen by Russia’s Red Army after World War II and since kept in Armenia’s Academy of Sciences were returned to Germany this week. Armenia first returned war booty to Germany in 1998 with a huge shipment of antiques. Germany’s culture minister is confident the remaining artifacts will be returned shortly. – Russia Today (Reuters) 08/10/00

“In the arts world, passions can run pretty deep. But passions have carved a Grand Canyon-size divide among warring factions of artists fighting for control of the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center on the Lower East Side. And the fight could end up in a death grip, with all the artists being kicked out of the castlelike building.” – New York Times

“There are three people truly disliked by Hollywood. John McCain, conservative moralist William Bennett and Joe Lieberman. That’s because each has sought the spotlight to further his own career by picking on an easy target — the pop culture spewed out by television, movies, music and video games. Most of the culture-war cackling from these three heats up during an election year. It’s a no-brainer for politicians: TV equals filth. We need guidelines — like ratings, a V-chip and content concessions from Hollywood producers. That Lieberman is now in the running to become vice president is not good for those who oppose censorship.” – San Francisco Examiner 08/10/00

Movie critic Stanley Kauffmann finds his opinion has changed after 40 years. “The plain, discomfiting fact is that every one of us who has watched plays and films or read books or listened to music or looked at painting and architecture is, in some measure, self-deceived. Filed away in the recesses of our minds are thousands of opinions that we have accumulated through our lives, and they make us think that we know what we think on all those subjects. We do not. All we know is what we once thought, and any earlier view of a work, if tested, might be hugely different from what we would think now.” – The New Republic 08/10/00

In the 1960s, hippy artists from Britain were invited to revive a ghost hill town in Italy. They restored its houses and rebuilt the water and sewage system and made the town a going concern. “But a promise that they could make their homes was never put in writing.” Now the Italian government wants the town back … – BBC 08/09/00