“It’s really not about whether a certain piece of music has the “it” ingredient that will improve someone’s mental faculties. Rather, listening in and of itself improves those faculties, and it also does a whole lot much more–it makes us better people.”
Tag: 03.18.13
Author Submits Published New Yorker Story To Lit Pubs, Gets Rejected
“This poor story, like the sly dude chosen by the dance-floor starlet, thought he had it all. Here he was convinced that he could effortlessly charm the panties off of any university-based handout with “Review” in the title. What the hell happened?”
Russian Orthodox Creationists Picket Moscow’s Darwin Museum
“Footage released by Orthodox activist group Bozhaya Volya, or God’s Will, showed activists unfurling a banner reading ‘God created the world’ on the building’s façade while others threw leaflets bearing creationist slogans into the lobby of a popular destination for school trips and family outings in the capital. ‘God created kittens!’ read one leaflet visible in the video.”
How Can The Minnesota Orchestra Lockout Keep Dragging On Like This?
Frank Almond: “But what I find most amazing is that this is Minneapolis, a city with a supposedly literate, highly-educated, culturally aware populace, and an economy that (while not ideal) is certainly able to sustain (and has sustained) major cultural institutions for decades. … Could anyone have possibly imagined that the MOA Board and arts community would toss it away?”
Persepolis Barred (Messily) From Chicago Public School Classrooms
The school district’s administration sent out a memo asking that Marjane Satrapi’s award-winning graphic memoir be removed entirely from one middle school – and, predictably, anti-censorship protests ensued. The clarifications the district sent out in response, while backing away from any outright ban, may have made things worse.
For Putin’s Regime, Has The Bolshoi Ballet Become More Trouble Than It’s Worth?
“But from the state’s point of view, the Bolshoi has become a Soviet agent that has largely outlived its usefulness – it’s still important within the Russian cultural landscape, and a fine place to take visiting dignitaries, but the Cold War prerogative to showcase it as high cultural achievement is gone.”
Lilly Poetry Prize, Worth $100K, To Marie Ponsot
“Poet Marie Ponsot will be awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize in June, it was announced Monday. The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, which comes with an award of $100,000, is given to a poet for lifetime achievement. Ponsot’s career began in the 1950s; her book True Minds was the first thing City Lights published after Allen Ginsberg’s Howl.”
In 2013, Romance Novels Are Feminist
“Despite a major shift in the genre in the late 1980s and early 1990s that saw the near-disappearance of rape and the emergence of much stronger, more modern heroines, the idea remains that feminists and romance readers exist on opposite ends of the spectrum. This is not the case.”
Why Are There So Few Female Magicians?
It’s not just because it’s hard to hide a rabbit in a little black dress. There’s some real historical baggage here.
Revise Copyright Law? We Should Be Careful
“No one can doubt that creators in the U.S. have contributed a wealth of new ideas and expression — whether in the form of music, films, books, visual art or scholarly research — in the three decades since the last general revision of the Copyright Act. This is, in no small part, thanks to the fair and ethical treatment of authors and creators.”