All This Fuss Over English National Opera. What Fun!

I can’t help feeling we’ve been here before, and repeatedly, in the past – and not just with ENO, either, but with so many of our opera houses. The management-level soap opera that surrounds it all is always great gossipy fun, but whoever resigns, stays, joins, is fired, insulted, or otherwise slandered, Charlotte I think puts her finger on the bigger story, which is really about the cultural function of opera in the country.

The Peculiar History Of The Unicorn

“Today, the unicorn is a decidedly more magical, gentle creature, running around on rainbows and inspiring millions with regular appearances in My Little Pony and the occasional acid trip and in North Korea, apparently. I’d recommend against heading over to Pyongyang to find one, though. Maybe just stick to the acid.”

Obama Budget Proposal Calls For Slight Increase In NEA, NEH Funding

“President Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal 2016 calls for slight increases in federal funding for cultural institutions, including the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. But the proposed increases wouldn’t come close to reversing the cuts experienced by those groups during the previous five years.”