Philip K. Dick’s Gnostic Philosophy Explains The Modern World

New School philosophy professor Simon Critchley argues that Dick’s worldview not only “gives us what has arguably become the dominant mode of understanding of fiction in our time” (i.e., “the idea that reality is a pernicious illusion”), it also elucidates the doctrine of original sin, the movies of Lars von Trier, the paranoid style in American politics, and the roots of the modern culture wars.

Philadelphia Orchestra And Kimmel Center Agree On Reduced Rent

“In further progress toward a new lease agreement, leaders of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association and Kimmel Center Inc. have signed an amendment to their existing lease that reduces the base rent … the orchestra pays to the Kimmel, from about $2.5 million to $1.5 million annually. The rent will increase each year through 2017, to $1.74 million.”

UK’s Sky Arts Is The Real Thing – A Serious Arts Channel

Over the past 16 months or so, the satellite channel has revived The South Bank Show and aired live performances from English National Opera and the Royal Albert Hall as well as Simon Callow’s one-man show Being Shakespeare. “Coming up are Shakespeare plays from The Globe, without fear of getting rained on.” The channel has even engaged the likes of Daniel Radcliffe and Jon Hamm to do literary adaptations.

Bill To Protect Loaned Artwork From Seizure In US Runs Into Trouble In Senate

Loans to American museums have begun drying up (Russia has banned them altogether) because of fears that (despite existing law to the contrary) the loaned work could be seized pursuant to a lawsuit over whether the work was stolen or looted. The US House of Representatives quickly passed a law to clearly exempt museum loans from such seizure – except in Holocaust-related cases – but unanticipated objections have stalled the bill in the upper house.