The Iraq war has plummeted in popularity, but the war movie “300” is a hit. “The problem is that our popular culture doesn’t want to talk about the consequences of war. We have reality TV but it doesn’t serve up in-depth coverage of the three struggles that are going very badly for the United States: the raging war in Iraq, the chronic war in Afghanistan and the still-diplomatic war with Iran over that state’s nuclear ambitions. War in the abstract is entertaining, though.”
Tag: 03.13.07
Bush Theatre Names New Artistic Director
“The board of directors of the 35-year-old Bush Theater in London announced the appointment of Josie Rourke as artistic director. … She replaces Mike Bradwell in April.”
Joffrey School Director Edith d’Addario, 84
“Edith d’Addario, for 43 years the director of the Joffrey Ballet School in Greenwich Village, died on March 4 in Brooklyn.”
Social Agenda Meets Elegance On Maltzan’s Skid Row
Even as he designs a gargantuan glass house for Michael Ovitz, architect Michael Maltzan is remaking bits of Los Angeles’ skid row — not for gentrifying interlopers but for the homeless people who live there. “Here architecture is used as a tool not only for aesthetic upliftment, but also to forge both a strong sense of community and a visual presence for the poor in a city that often seems to have forgotten them.”
Lethem Gets Creative With Film-Option Offer
Jonathan Lethem “will option his new novel ‘You Don’t Love Me Yet’ on May 15 to a filmmaker who agrees to give him 2 percent of the movie’s budget as a fee. … In an unprecedented move, Lethem wants the filmmaker to release ‘ancillary’ rights — such as the right to distribute the novel on the Internet or make a stage play based on it — to the public domain five years after the film’s debut.”
Who Are You Calling A Philistine?
“In recent years, excavations in Israel established that the Philistines had fine pottery, handsome architecture and cosmopolitan tastes. If anything, they were more refined than the shepherds and farmers in the nearby hills, the Israelites, who slandered them in biblical chapter and verse and rendered their name a synonym for boorish, uncultured people. Archaeologists have now found that not only were Philistines cultured, they were also literate….”
Why We Laugh When Nothing’s Funny
“Laughter, a topic that stymied philosophers for 2,000 years, is finally yielding to science.” Researchers say that “most laughter has little to do with humor. It’s an instinctual survival tool for social animals, not an intellectual response to wit. It’s not about getting the joke. It’s about getting along.”
London: I’m The King Of The World!
“The world loves a long weekend in New York but, these days, prefers to make its home in London. New York has the nostalgia, London the future. New York defines the metropolitan, London the cosmopolitan.”