Category: today’s top story

“The wealthy, at some point, decided they didn’t have enough wealth,” says he. “They wanted more – a lot more. So they systematically set about to fleece the American people out of their hard-earned money. Now, why would they do this? That is what I seek to discover in this movie.” The yet-untitled film opens Oct. 2.

“An online survey of 1,000 adults who had given $1,000 or more to charity in 2007 — half of whom had donated $5,000 or more — found that more women than men act as their household’s primary decision maker in determining how much to donate to charity and which causes to support.”

“Perfectionists – that is, those who expressed ‘a strong motivation to be perfect’ and revealed a tendency toward ‘all or nothing thinking’ – were approximately 51% more likely to have died during the life of the study than those with more reasonable self-expectations. Those who were rated high on neuroticism … did even worse: Their risk of death nearly doubled compared with those with a more relaxed disposition.”

When The New York Times posted a request on its website, asking artists to say how the economy is affecting them, hundreds responded. “Perhaps most striking about the comments was the considerable number who were defiantly upbeat despite grim circumstances. … There was a determination to many of the messages, a conviction to push through this rough patch and make the most of it.”

“[F]or the first time in 37 years, there will be no major summer jazz festival in New York. Nor will there be related series in Miami or Chicago, as the concert company behind them is suffering a financial crisis.” Is it the fault of JVC for withdrawing sponsorship, or of a new impresario who expanded too fast?

“Charities across the country have been eyeing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provides billions of dollars to projects in areas like the arts, child care, health, homelessness, special education, and job training — a seeming oasis in a desert of economic hard times. … Others, however, worry that organizations are building up false hope, saying the stimulus money will bypass most of them and will not resolve the economic distress afflicting the nonprofit world as a whole.”

“For years, school systems across the nation dropped the arts to concentrate on getting struggling students to pass tests in reading and math. Yet now, a growing body of brain research suggests that teaching the arts may be good for students across all disciplines. … Much of the research into the arts has centered on music and the brain.”

“The fat years of the printed word are over. Even if books get dirt cheap, readers simply don’t have the time or motive to invest in them. The old cultivated readership is not as solid as it was. The safe library sale doesn’t exist any more. There’s been a loss of authority in the serious book.”

“Marc Strömberg is a 22-year-old graphic designer in Ume, Sweden, and his leg is still sore. He creates record sleeves and posters for bands, and in his spare time he runs his own magazine, Tare Lugnt. Instead of publishing the latest edition in traditional paper and ink, he has had issue three entirely tattooed onto his left leg. The leg has now been photographed, and large-scale prints are due to go on display in Göteborg and Stockholm this month.”

The nomination of Broadway producer Rocco Landesman to lead the NEA “was immediately read as a way to re-energize the agency” and comes at a time when “the economic turmoil has hit the nonprofit arts world extremely hard. Landesman’s reputation as a fighter, if not always a diplomatic one, pleased arts supporters in very different worlds.”