“After a disastrous attempt to climb K2, former US Army medic Greg Mortenson had to be nursed back to health by the inhabitants of a remote and impoverished Pakistani village. He vowed to repay them by building a local school, and has now built more than 60 in similar areas across south Asia.”
Tag: 02.16.08
Terry Teachout On Artistic Self-Importance:
I’d like to put forward Teachout’s First Law of Artistic Dynamics: “The best way to make a bad work of art is to try to make a great one.” That law was inspired at least as much by Orson Welles as by Leonard Bernstein.
How Fiction Works. Really?
“Someone who’d never read a novel would come away from James Wood’s criticism with little awareness that writers tell stories as well as brood over characters “like God over the face of the waters”. Seemingly uninterested in non-literary history, he comes back again and again to style.”
Abu Dhabi License Plate Sells For $14 Million (No Art Involved)
“An Abu Dhabi license plate sold for 52.2 million dirhams ($14 million) at auction today, setting a world record and demonstrating the exceptional personal wealth in the United Arab Emirates’ largest sheikhdom.”
Working Disabilities Into Theatre Roles
“According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 18 percent of Americans — over 51 million people — have some level of disability. Yet, according to a 2005 SAG report titled “The Employment of Performers with Disabilities in the Entertainment Industry,” less than 2 percent of TV characters display a disability, and only 0.5 percent have speaking roles.”
Profile Of Swiss Art Thief
“Against popular conception there is no such thing as a cliché or full-time art thief. There are only thieves who have stolen art and sometimes more than once. Sometimes organized crime syndicates will hire thieves who are low on the totem pole to steal art.”