Why are Americans still debating evolution almost 150 years after Darwin posited it? “A scientific-religious issue is being argued in courts and school boards, as if they ever could settle one’s faith in God or what hominid line led to homo sapiens. Which is why Americans are still fighting about this while the rest of the scientific world has moved on. In this political struggle, Darwinians have relied on the courts to bar the unconstitutional use of tax money to teach religion. But in doing so, they have fueled widespread (and often Southern, regional) resentments against “elitist experts” and “activist judges.” Creationists, meanwhile, tend to appeal to school boards and the public, knowing they can sway a popular vote.
Tag: 09.04.05
d’Offay In Talks To Sell His Collection
“Scotland’s gallery bosses are in talks to buy one of the world’s most spectacular collections of modern art. Art chiefs are hoping to clinch famous works by leading figures such as Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst in a deal with London-based collector Anthony d’Offay. His £100m collection features more than 700 works that he has gathered during a 40-year career. Officials at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh and Glasgow City Council have been in joint talks with the art dealer in a bid to agree a deal. And a new gallery to rival London’s Tate Modern could be built in Edinburgh to house the collection.”
Levine Skipping BSO Auditions
Auditioning for the Boston Symphony can be the most grueling five minutes of a musician’s career, not to mention the most expensive (orchestras don’t pay for your plane ticket or hotel room.) One slip-up, one mental lapse, and all your preparation can be for nought as you’re dismissed from behind a screen with a cursory “Thank you.” Not only that, the BSO’s music director, who ought to be the final authority on all hiring decisions, has taken to not showing up for auditions, which has many of the orchestra’s musicians upset, and candidates wondering whom they’re supposed to be trying to impress.
Critics Circulate Embarrassing Recording To Get Back At Author
French author Michel Houellebecq tired to head off potential bad reviews by witholding copies of his new book from some of France’s most eminent literary critics. The critics weren’t too happy. “Now they appear to have struck back by circulating an embarrassing rap album featuring the tuneless voice of the controversial author in an apparent effort to dent his reputation as the bête noire of contemporary French writing.”
Have We Lost The Striving For Getting Better?
“Simply put, the arts of museum, concert hall, opera house, theater and library have smaller audiences than they once did because growing older no longer means growing up.” Once, we had a drive to “imrpove ourselves” and one of the ways we did this was through the arts. “Whatever it was that prompted such aspiration is absent today. “Bettering yourself” is now primarily understood in terms of money and power. People routinely change the work they do when it denies them comfort or fun, so the idea that anything higher could be gained from leisure-as-work is alien. Staying young no longer only means being idealistic and adventurous or looking like you’re under 30. It can mean a kind of arrested development.”
Rebuilding New Orleans (But How?)
A thirty-year-old book reported that “of all the cities that had been flooded, burned, sacked, leveled by earthquake, buried in lava, or in some way or another destroyed worldwide between 1100 and 1800, only a few dozen had been permanently abandoned. Cities, in other words, tend to get rebuilt no matter what.We’ve been assured that New Orleans will, too. But, after what promises to be a Herculean clean-up operation, what will the new New Orleans look like? How much will it resemble its antediluvian self?”
A List of Damaged New Orleans Landmarks
Compiled as of Sunday…
Has Cleveland Orchestra Got The Wrong Conductor?
Anthony Holden compares orchestras he heard at this summer’s Proms and finds the mighty Cleveland Orchestra coming up wanting. “Like a pedigree dog on an over-tight leash, this is a dazzling orchestra with an uptight conductor. Devotees of this mightiest of masses found much to disappoint, from the underwhelming Cleveland chorus to the less than inspirational conducting of Franz Welser-Most (known to our own LPO, with whom he had an unhappy six years in the 1990s, as ‘Frankly, Worse Than Most’). His orchestra is one of the world’s finest, its strings boasting as much sheen as the Berlin’s, its wind players capable of sonic miracles. So why is Welser-Most so “bloodless”?
Can California Afford Movie Tax Breaks?
The California legislature is considering a bill that would give tax breaks to the movie industry and cost the state too much. “Opponents in Sacramento, citing data that shows entertainment jobs have increased compared to other industries, claim the state can’t afford to lose the $50 million needed to fund the program, especially, they say, because Schwarzenegger’s 2004–05 budget dramatically cut funds for schools and social services.
Ave. Q – Twice A Night On The Strip
Avenue Q is about to open in its permanent home in Las Vegas. “While the theater, stage and puppets will probably impress, the show’s success rests on the two Las Vegas casts that will perform twice a night, five days a week. Finding the right mix of actors who can dance, sing and work the puppets was an enormous challenge. It took a nationwide casting search more than a year to complete both companies.”