No More Performing, But Plenty Of Entertaining: A Q&A With Thomas Quasthoff

The baritone singer has retired from performing, but that doesn’t mean he’s lost what even he calls his big mouth. “Believing in God? Well, you know, too many bad things happen in the world for that to be possible. I believe that man is a faulty design. Human beings have truly misunderstood that sentence in the Bible, the one about man subduing the world. But I do believe in art.”

A Year After Jenin Freedom Theatre Director’s Murder…

In an era where artist-celebrities assume the role of human rights icons through stints as UN “good will ambassadors”, photo-op tours of disaster stricken areas and pronouncements of disgust with the war criminal of the week, Mer-Khamis was an artist in the truest sense of the word. He used his considerable gifts as an actor, filmmaker and theatre director both to represent suffering and injustice in unique ways and to offer a glimpse of a different future. He was, in fact, a cultural terrorist. And the world needs more of them.”

Philosophy Is Philosophy (Not A Science)

“Numerous philosophers have come to believe, in concert with the prejudices of our age, that only science holds the potential to solve persistent philosophical mysteries as the nature of truth, life, mind, meaning, justice, the good and the beautiful. Thus, myriad contemporary philosophers are perfectly willing to offer themselves up as intellectual servants or ushers of scientific progress.”

California Arts Council Could Lose Right To Fund-Raise Via Tax Returns

“Beginning last year, filers could donate to the state’s chronically underfunded arts grant-making agency by checking off a box on their tax return, then adding the amount they wanted to contribute to their payment or subtracting it from their refund.” That box could disappear if the CAC raises less than $250,000 with it this year.

‘Cellist Of Sarajevo’ Plays Again In City 20 Years After Siege

“Twenty years ago, as mortar shells began raining down on Sarajevo, killing his friends and neighbors, Vedran Smajlovic did what he knew best to help the city: he played his cello at funerals, in bomb shelters and in the streets.” This week, to mark the 20th anniversary of the Serbs’ siege of the city, Smajlovic performed there for the first time since the end of the war.