Tag: 05.09.04

Glass: FCC Crackdown Is Crazy

The FCC’s crack down on “obscenity” should worry us all, writes Ira Glass. The rules are so arbitrary, and the enforcement even more so. And, “what’s craziest about this new indecency witch hunt is that it’s based on the premise that just one exposure to filthy words will damage a child.” What kind of policy is this?

NYT Editor: The Tonys Are A Sham!

Why does anyone pay attention to the Tony Awards, asks Daniel Okrent? They are, he says “an artistically meaningless, blatantly commercial, shamefully exclusionary and culturally corrosive award competition. The awards are a real estate promotion, restricted as they are to shows put on in the 31 houses owned or controlled by the Shuberts, the Nederlanders and Jujamcyn, plus another nine thrown in by accident of geography or affinity to the idea of the Big Musical. Like the theaters, the voters themselves are to a large degree controlled by the Big Three and the touring company operators.”

Are Big Publishers Bribing Bookstores For Better Shelf Placement?

“Major publishers are spending thousands of pounds every month on ‘sweetener’ trips for the retail chains on our high streets, in a bid to influence retail buying strategy. The entertainment budgets involved, which can be as much as £40,000 per trip, are aimed at ensuring increased orders for their books.” Smaller independent publishers are protesting.

The Public Radio Dilemma – Ratings Or Service?

“For more than a decade now, a culture war has raged within public radio over whether public stations exist to serve the largest possible audience, or to serve smaller audiences whose desires are not fulfilled by commercial radio. The maximize-the-numbers crowd has won in most cities, accepting the view of public radio’s most influential consultant, David Giovannoni, that any station’s job is to attract the most listeners. Opponents argued that public radio should sound more like it did from the birth of FM through the 1980s, with a mix of news, talk, classical, jazz, folk and other kinds of music that you can’t otherwise hear on the radio. As government funding for public radio declined, Giovannoni won the day.”

The Culture Wars? Artists Get A Pass This Time

In a year when cultural warriors could have been attacking the National Endowment for the Arts, where’s their attention? On TV and obscenity. “It’s great to see huge media corporations in the hot seat instead of a handful of artists and an arts endowment that deserves more robust federal support. And it’s wonderful to see at least the rudiments of a public debate over a culture awash in images of sex and violence, not to mention spam e-mail.”

Changing Times, Changing Meaning

“Classics don’t change depending on the nightly news or the morning papers. Our perceptions change, not the playwrights’. Wartime, such as our own time, makes certain plays rattle around in your head a little differently. Often it’s a war that places the play in the writer’s head in the first place, getting the conversation going at gunpoint.”

Can Creative Architecture Lead To More Creative Science?

“To the delight of many architects and scientists, the lab-in-a-box is losing favor. In recent years, more science buildings have begun to feature flexible work spaces, large common areas, fancy atriums, irregular shapes, and other relative extravagances once unseen in the workaday laboratory. These changes are not just ornamental. Increasingly, they come from the drawing boards of architects who have been pondering how scientists think and work.”

NYCB – Another Week Of Celebrating Balanchine

Tobi Tobias awards NY City Ballet’s current rendition of Balanchine’s Liebeslieder Walzer best-in-show. “At the premiere of Liebeslieder, in 1960, they took the house lights down to half for the extended pause between the two sections. I remember sitting in the hushed twilight and thinking, This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I’ve had little cause to change my mind since, despite casts subsequent to the original one that were not quite as wonderful. To my mind, the company’s current rendition is the finest—the most coherent as an entity, and the most moving—since the ballet’s first season.”