“The volcano. Nature has devised the perfect metaphor for the burden of unionhood, forcing Europeans to recognize, like it or not, that they are bound together, a family of nations, albeit with Iceland as the exceptional and slightly alarming cousin at the end of the dining room table who still believes in elves.”
Tag: 04.25.10
Translators, Crucial But Forgotten
“There is complicity between globalisation and individualism; we can all watch any film, read any book, wherever made or written, and have the same experience. What a turn-off to be reminded that in fact we need an expert to mediate; what the Chinese get is a mediated version of me; what I’m reading is a mediated Dostoevsky.”
Mr. President, Please Look Like You’re Enjoying The Music
“I think the strongest message the White House could send to our nation about classical music is that it’s actually enjoyable. There’s a certain gravitas associated with the office of the president, but music should represent a way to break free of that. There’s no better way to send a signal about the benefits of classical music than to show Obama having fun listening to it.”
With Dance At The White House, We Could All Loosen Up
“I’m envisioning Michelle Obama, a dance fan in her Chicago years, as the White House impresario. She and new White House social secretary Julianna Smoot could start with the modern-dance classics: the Graham company performing ‘Appalachian Spring,’ with a live orchestra playing the shimmering Copland score.”
What If The White House Regularly Premiered Plays?
“The spotlight that needs to be intensified is on dramatic writing, and on the practitioners who can make American drama a real force in the world again. It’s embarrassing that many embassies in Washington are more aggressive about showcasing their nations’ plays and players than is the hometown administration.”
Legacy Of The Big Dig: A Design Disaster (But It’s Fixable)
“[I]t’s as if we had decided, when we tore down the overhead green-painted Central Artery, that we would memorialize it on the ground. We’d make another big green disruption through the heart of the city. So what’s the solution for the Greenway? My answer is simple. Make it a neighborhood.”
Why Hollywood Is Fighting Movie Futures Exchanges
“For the first time, people with no stake in a film could be rewarded financially if it bombs. And futures contracts that sell poorly threaten to become self-fulfilling prophecies, as the news media spreads the word that ‘the market’ expects a film to tank.”
Inside Wikipedia’s Food Fights
“Wikipedia seems like a utopia come true — global knowledge compiled by everyone, administered, amended and corrected by everyone, serving the philosophy that knowledge shouldn’t be a good to be sold, it should be something freely available to all. The miracle of Wikipedia, though, is how all that bickering can actually give rise to knowledge.”
Russian Art – The New Black
“Last year it was Chinese and Indian art that was on the up – and sales are still strong as an auction in Hong Kong saw earlier this month. The multi-million pound herd of buyers who stampede around the world in pursuit of the art market’s “next big thing” is rushing this weekend to buy into what they hope will be the latest bubble: Russian art.”
Aspen Music Festival Turmoil
“About the only thing everyone at the Aspen Music Festival and School seems to agree on is that the respected 61-year-old organization is in crisis. The music director abruptly quit earlier this month, the executive head could be next out the door, and both the board and the faculty are divided on the future.”