During the administration of Mayor Richard Daley fils, Chicago experienced an upswing in both film production and the city’s cinematic image. Yet now, with the Batman franchise having decamped for Pittsburgh, Chicago’s boosters are worried that the city’s filmic renaissance is over. Could the new mayor – whose brother is one of Hollywood’s most powerful agents – get the momentum going again?
Tag: 05.28.11
Italy’s Largest Bank Becomes An Art Patron
As UniCredit has expanded through Europe, the bank has tried to become a leader in contemporary European art, with an active acquisitions and connissioning program (which includes loans to museums), a new €150,000 prize connected to the Venice Biennale, and a busy exhibition space at a flagship UniCredit branch in central Milan.
Gil Scott-Heron, 62, Singer, Poet And Activist
“Scott-Heron’s music reflected something of the militancy and self-assertiveness of such theorists and polemicists as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael. Over the course of some 20 albums he produced a series of sardonic and biting commentaries on ghetto life and racial injustice, including ‘Whitey’s On The Moon’, ‘Home Is Where The Hatred Is’, … ‘Johannesburg’,” and his most famous piece, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”.
Is Canada Getting Too Many Literary Prizes?
“[W]hile most [observers] celebrate their effect in drawing attention to all manner of literary endeavours – and raising sales – other observers are beginning to worry about the cumulative effect of competitive spectacles that inevitably identify far more losers than winners.”
Looking For The Source Of Consciousness? You Won’t Find It In The Brain
Alva Noë: “We haven’t found it there, and we won’t. Not because consciousness happens somewhere else, in the soul, say, or in the environment, or in the collective. But because consciousness isn’t something that happens; it is something we do or make. … Looking for consciousness in the brain is like looking for dance in the legs.”
Are Articles Now The Goal Of Journalism – Or A Luxury By-Product?
Jeff Jarvis looks at journalists’ live-blogging and tweeting their reporting from recent news hot spots – the Missouri tornado site, the Arab Spring uprisings, the Canadian election campaign and South by Southwest – and suggests that more reporters’ time should be spent simply gathering and uploading information. Rewrite editors can create an article from the raw material later – if necessary.
The Many Lives Of Jesus Christ Superstar
The original rock opera isn’t the 1970s relic some of us may think: Superstar has been resurrected in one form or another numerous times since its debut as a concept album some 41 years ago.
Did Mao Not Actually Write The Little Red Book?
“Lately there has been a flurry of rumours online that some of Mao’s writings were not written by Mao himself, but by his secretary, Hu Qiaomu, and others. They say two reports detailing the ghostwriters’ activities were filed with the Central Committee in 1993 and in 1995.”
Whistler’s Mother? When And How Did Artworks Start Getting Titles?
“Giving a name to a work of art is, historically, a relatively recent phenomenon, and it is even more recent that artists provide the title. … No one knows when titles by artists became standard practice,” though it certainly wasn’t common during, for instance, the Italian or Dutch Golden Ages.