“To have withstood the special hatred and ridicule, unprecedented in my opinion, leveled in our time at a public figure who was not a mass murderer; and to have managed to keep her convictions attached to fervent ideals and ideas – wrongheaded or misguided as we might see them now … I see that as evidence of some kind of greatness, worthy for the argument of history to settle.”
Tag: 04.08.13
Cultural? Our Age Of Anxiety
“Depression has become a mass illness. Within a given year, one in 10 Americans today will have a mood disorder, the great majority of them major depression.”
Was America’s Regional Theatre Boom Just A Bubble?
“The regional theater boom, as it spread across the country, was largely a manifestation of the funds that flowed from The Great Society policies of president Lyndon B. Johnson. Never before in the history of the United States had such large quantities of cash been unleashed on the arts – and, unfortunately, never since. Among the ruthless realities for our theater is that our current economically harsh conditions merely represent a return to the norm.”
Have America’s Playwrights Despaired Of Life As An Artist?
“What does it say that the playwrights who have been through it, and arguably made it to the other side, that these artists are writing about the failure of art and more specifically the failure of the artist?”
These Are The Jokes That Got Bassem Youssef Arrested
“Youssef is charged with insulting Morsi and showing contempt toward Islam, but he didn’t tell [CNN] which lines caused the biggest stir. So we went through and offer translations and explanations of 10 of his more provocative clips.”
Camp And Innocence
“An individual baby – yours, your co-worker’s, etc. – is a truly innocent thing, right? … But the abstract idea of ‘babies,’ on the other hand, is a very different story. Though you would be hard-pressed to find camp pleasure in a real-life baby perambulating down the sidewalk, when that same baby is featured in a toilet paper commercial flying about with wings and a hard-hat, all bets are off.”
Is San Francisco Symphony Strike Not Settled After All?
“When is an agreement not an agreement? The short answer: if it’s not ratified. The long story, of course, is more complicated.”
Body Language, Lost In Translation?
“What does science have to say about body language? Is there anything more in it than entertainment value? If so, which movements and gestures speak volumes and which are red herrings? And, knowing this, can we actually alter our own body language to manipulate how others perceive us?”
The Forces Conspiring Against Authors
“This may sound like a minor problem; authors already contend with an enormous domestic market for secondhand books. But it is the latest example of how the global electronic marketplace is rapidly depleting authors’ income streams. It seems almost every player — publishers, search engines, libraries, pirates and even some scholars — is vying for position at authors’ expense.”
Advertisers Now Adding Digitally-created Product Placements In TV And Movies
“For example beverages are placed as open cans or bottles with glasses containing the beverage alongside – that way they look like they are being consumed. The technology is capable of placing or replacing moving objects and even replacing products being handled by actors like mobile phones.”