The US State Department has enlisted writers to write about the virtues of America in a propaganda effort. “Regardless of whether you buy into this kind of cultural marketing, it’s clear that the State Department chose the wrong medium. American book publishers can tell you that American men between 18 and 30 don’t read a lot of books. The Arab street reads even fewer—just one book, mostly: the Quran. The United States should have followed the lead of Arab governments, which know that music is the region’s most powerful form of expression. That’s why they use it for propaganda—and also why they ban so much of it.”
Tag: 01.09.03
Cleaning Up – NY State Expunges Ethnic References In Exam Lit Examples
It appears the state of New York is still “sanitizing” literary excerpts for its state high school regents exam. “State education officials had been doctoring the literary reading samples on state tests to make sure nothing offensive was included. It didn’t matter if it was Anton Chekhov or Isaac Bashevis Singer, state bureaucrats removed references to race, religion, ethnicity, sex, nudity and even alcohol. ‘Jews’ and ‘gentiles’ were excised from Singer. An Annie Dillard excerpt about growing up white in a black area was purged of racial references.”
It’s All Been Done
“In a post-postmodernist culture swamped in sequels, self-reference, adaptation, irony, parody, reality TV, digital sampling and the thud-beat of rap, newness has become a novelty item, a dated curio from another age.” But does the reliance on old ideas necessarily mean artists aren’t creating original work? According to Steven Winn, that’s exactly what it means, and the art world is the worse for the lack of creative originality.
Never Saw It Coming
“People who make, teach and exhibit film in Pittsburgh were stunned yesterday by the Carnegie Museum of Art’s announcement that it was eliminating its venerated film and video department as a way to save money.” Even an organization which some viewed as a competitor to the Carnegie series was shocked by the move, insisting that the two series had the same mission – to bring top-quality international film to the Steel City.
Demolish Or Restore? Philly Looks To L.A.
In Los Angeles, a number of decaying old movie palaces are being restored, thanks in large part to a private investor with a passion for old films. And the redevelopment has another big city 3,000 miles away paying attention. In Philadelphia, where downtown is bustling and decrepit old buildings are being torn down at a record rate to make way for new structures, time is running out on the one remaining classic movie palace in town. But will the city consider a one-screen throwback worth saving?
Jazz Police, I Hear You Calling
Jazz aficionados bow to no one in their ability to turn rapidly snobbish when confronted with a corner of the jazz world which does not square with their own vision of the genre. The infighting has reared its head in Toronto this month, with the International Association for Jazz Education holding its annual conference there. Upset at being shut out of the conference, a consortium of some of the city’s more innovative (read: non-mainstream) jazz musicians have organized their own gathering. That’s all well and good, says Carl Wilson, but the rhetoric coming out of the alternative gathering is a bit over the line. “We’re against music teachers now?”
More Rhetoric, No Progress in Colorado Springs
The tension is continuing to build at the Colorado Springs Symphony, where the musicians have labeled their management’s talk of a bankruptcy filing as “blackmail,” and the music director has threatened to resign if Chapter 11 becomes reality. None of the involved parties denies that the CSS is in real fiscal trouble, but it’s a matter of perception: orchestra execs contend they are doing their best in a bad economy, while the musicians claim that management created the problem and is now trying to avoid culpability.
Who’s Next? Arts Groups Have No Idea.
A startling new report from an Illinois group reveals a near-total lack of planning on the part of arts organizations nationwide for replacing their top executives. “Three out of four non-profit arts organizations report having no succession plans, even though nearly three-quarters of their aging top managers say they plan to quit within five years.” And while it may be true that arts groups don’t have the budgets to carefully groom successors from within, as is the norm in the corporate world, the recent rash of hasty executive departures from orchestras and museums points up the lack of foresight.
More Arts Programming? With These Ratings?
Okay – so all the critics are complaining about the BBC’s lack of arts programming. But over on BBC4, the so-called culture channel, there appears to be nobody home… “While the main terrestrial channels calculate their audiences in the millions, BBC4 has to talk in thousands, tens of thousands and – if they are lucky – occasionally hundreds of thousands.” With ratings like these, how do you justify more of this programming?
Learning About The Holocaust From Films
“Unfortunately we live in an age where people learn their history from feature films. This has not served our memories well. It may be too much to ask film makers to tell the most complete, unwholesome aspects of a story. But it’s worse when they focus instead on a more palatable, yet unrepresentative slice. The risk is in misleading the audience, trivializing the horror, and reducing the madness into something mundane.”