“Archaeology is demolishing another sacred belief: that human history over the past million years has been a long tale of progress. In particular, recent discoveries suggest that the adoption of agriculture, supposedly our most decisive step toward a better life, was in many ways a catastrophe from which we have never recovered. With agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism, that curse our existence.”
Tag: 06.28.05
Narrowing Free Speech On US Campuses
A US federal court ruling this week threatens free speech on college campuses. “Seventh Circuit ruled by a 7-4 majority that administrators at public colleges have total control over subsidized student newspapers. But the scope of the decision is breathtaking, since the reasoning of the case applies to any student organization receiving student fees. Student newspapers, speakers and even campus protests could now be subject to the whim of administrative approval.”
David Dubal Goes Comparison Shopping
David Dubal is back on radio, spinning his musical comparisons. “While much of classical radio these days seems to consist of little more than DJs dispensing tuneful wallpaper, on any given Wednesday evening, “Reflections From the Keyboard” invites the listener to deepen his or her musical experience. “Where else, within a six-minute span, can you hear a movement of Schumann’s ‘Carnival’ played by Rachmaninoff, Cortot, Hess, Arrau, Godowsky and Michelangeli?”
Danish Really Modern (A New Opera House)
Tobi Tobias comes back from Copenhagen’s Bournonville Festival with vivid impressions of the city’s new Opera House. “The Opera is masterly in its command of space and light and typically Danish in its harmonious juxtaposition of materials: glass (miles of it, it would seem), stone (in subdued shades of grey and sand that give it an eerie lightness), steely metal, and lovingly treated wood. The interior of the building continually echoes the curved shape of the façade. At the hub of the public space is a gigantic bowed form clad in glowing maple veneer. Fantasy suggests it’s the work of a violin maker operating on a Brobdingnagian scale.”
Carey: UK Shuts Out Foreign Lit
The chairman of the International Man Booker Prize jury John Carey says that “foreign literature was “neglected” in the UK, and to an outsider the British publishing industry could “seem like a conspiracy intent on depriving … readers of the majority of the good books written in languages other than their own”.
Novelist Historian Shelby Foote, 88
“The Mississippi native and longtime Memphis resident wrote a stirring, three-volume, 3,000-page history of the Civil War, as well as six novels.”
Proms On Trafalgar Big Screen
For the first time, the First Night at the Proms will be telecast live in Trafalgar Square. “A big screen will be erected, beaming live footage from the concert at the Royal Albert Hall.”
Met Plans Mozart On A Diet
The Metropolitan Opera is planning a reduced 90-minute version of Mozart’s “Magic Flute”. “The short version (the full version runs more than three hours with intermission) is a test of what could become a new way of attracting audiences, said Joseph Volpe, the opera house’s general manager. The performances, to take place in the winter holidays of the 2006-7 season, will be aimed at both children and adults.”
“Mambo” Cancels Broadway Plans
“The Mambo Kings” won’t be going to Broadway after all. Producers canceled a planned opening in August. The “lavish” $12 million show was critically panned in a tryout engagement in San Francisco that ended June 19.
Met Opera Signs Deals With Musicians, Singers…
The Metropolitan Opera has new contracts with the unions that represent musicians, singers and dancers. “Both are five-year contracts that freeze wages for two years, then provide for a 4 percent increase in the third year and 2 percent increases in the fourth and fifth years.”