88 titles, from Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine to Toni Morrison, Randy Shilts and César Chávez.
Tag: 06.21.12
Performing The Scottish Play – In Scots
“At most English schools you have to study Shakespeare, and sometimes I didn’t understand a bloody word of it. It’s actually easier to understand in Scots. It really adds to a lot of excitement in the whole thing, it makes it more real, in a strange way.”
A Language Dies Every 14 Days
“The Earth’s population of seven billion people speaks roughly 7,000 languages…Seventy-eight percent of the world’s population speaks the 85 largest languages, while the 3,500 smallest languages share a mere 8.25 million speakers. Thus, while English has 328 million first-language speakers, and Mandarin 845 million, Tuvan speakers in Russia number just 235,000. Within the next century, linguists think, nearly half of the world’s current stock of languages may disappear.”
Prominent Canadian Writers Petition Government For Understanding Canada
A group of prominent Canadian authors and academics, including Margaret Atwood, Rudy Wiebe and David Staines, the University of Ottawa literature professor who helped found the Giller Prize, are calling on the Harper government to “create a system to replace” Understanding Canada, a program started in 2008 to fund international Canadian studies.
The New Indian Cinema: Sex, Crime, And Censorship
“[There’s] a movement towards exposing the hypocrisies of Indian society about sex, drugs, development and injustice. And it’s a movement that is not going unnoticed.”
Rembrandt Drawing Found In Scottish Attic
“The sketch came to light after the owner found it in a wardrobe and contacted Christie’s. Even from initial photographs, their experts were sure it was by the 17th-century Dutch master.”
Chinese Authorities Invent New Charges (Bigamy?) Against Ai Weiwei
“Chinese police told dissident artist Ai Weiwei on Thursday he could face bigamy and pornography charges and barred him from travel, despite lifting strict bail conditions imposed after his detention.”
Clive James Says He’s ‘Getting Near The End’
“The Australian star, best known for his ITV show Clive James on Television, but also a prolific novelist, poet and cultural critic and commentator, was diagnosed with leukaemia, kidney failure and lung disease in 2010.” In an interview on BBC Radio 4, he said, “I don’t want to cast a gloom, an air of doom, over the programme but I’m a man who is approaching his terminus.”
Sonny Rollins Owns 2012 Jazz Awards
“Tenor sax legend Sonny Rollins was a triple winner Wednesday at the annual Jazz Awards, garnering musician of the year honors for the second straight year” as well as best tenor saxophonist and best jazz recording.
When Jeff Daniels Was Ready To Quit Acting
Not long before landing the lead in Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO series The Newsroom, Daniels was about to leave his profession. Major studios weren’t casting him; independent producers couldn’t afford him. “I was tired of being the guy they’d tell, ‘Look, we’d love to have your 55 films of experience and< we have no money,'”