“Some of the country’s 8,847 Roman Catholic schools have become refuges for Muslims seeking what an overburdened, secularist public sector often lacks: spirituality, an environment in which good manners count alongside mathematics, and higher academic standards.”
Tag: 09.30.08
It’s About Time Somebody Noticed
Half a dozen unsung heroes were honored this week in London: the translators who make the literature of other tongues accessible to English-speakers. “Translation is an extraordinarily isolating practice,” said one of the winners. “I call it a vocation because it’s so badly paid… I’ve probably only met half a dozen translators in my life. We work in small darkened rooms.”
Piano Towers Won’t Rise In San Francisco Skyline
“After a week of saturation press coverage, it’s no secret that the California Academy of Sciences has reopened in San Francisco in a masterful new home designed by Renzo Piano. But if you’re waiting for a Bay Area sequel from the Italian architect” — and you might be, given a project begun in 2006 — “here’s a tip: Don’t hold your breath.”
The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Purpose In Life
On a difficult day for the city of Philadelphia, its orchestra proved its own relevance simply by “doing what only an orchestra can do at times like this,” Peter Dobrin writes. “I’ve no idea whether music was a salve for anyone in that crowd. But as a metaphor for how everyone and everything in a city is linked, the symphony orchestra is supremely able to demonstrate in art what is so hard to describe in life.”
Lots Of Collectors, Too Many Fairs In China
“This year’s Guangzhou Triennial, the city’s third attempt to lure the art world, is a fair too far. Never mind that it runs at the same time as the triennials in Nanjing and Yokohama or the Taipei and Singapore Biennales. Those it could probably cope with. But Beijing and Shanghai have also just held flagship art shows. Even in the nation’s gravity-defying contemporary art market, there are only so many collectors to go round.”
Teaching Children The Joylessness Of Reading
“During the summer, children were excited about reading because, freed from school requirements, they decided what to read. Being able to choose their favorite author, genre or topic seemed to empower them to read more. Now with school back in session, finding a book again involves navigating through a labyrinth of point values and reading levels. How did it come to this? “
How To Tell A Pollock? A University Does Its Homework
An Azusa Pacific University trustee’s offer to donate a cache of paintings could mean a lot of cash for the school — maybe. “The good news was that the works were said to have been made by Jackson Pollock, the Abstract Expressionist known for his ‘drip and splash’ style. The bad news: This was yet another batch of undocumented paintings attributed to the artist.”
NYC Preservationist Margot Gayle Dies At 100
“Margot Gayle, who marshaled shrewdness, gentility and spunk to save the Victorian cast-iron buildings of New York — using a little magnet as a demonstration device — in a crusade that led to the preservation of historic SoHo, died Sunday at her home in Manhattan. … Ms. Gayle’s crowning achievement was helping to win the establishment of the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District, encompassing 26 blocks in what was originally an industrial quarter known as Hell’s Hundred Acres.”
As Vilar Fraud Trial Begins, Tales Of Deceit Unspool
“Alberto W. Vilar, the opera lover and disgraced patron of the arts, took center stage in a federal courtroom on Monday, when his trial for securities fraud opened with a prosecutor describing him as a lying fraudster who finagled money out of clients. Defense lawyers gave a contrasting view, portraying him as a top-rated investment adviser who made millions for big pension funds and individuals and returned ‘every penny’ to his clients.”
Bulgarian Poet Konstantin Pavlov Dies At 75
“Konstantin Pavlov, a poet and screenwriter who became one of Bulgaria’s most prominent intellectuals with his rare defiance of the country’s Communist regime, died on Sunday. He was 75.”