The dilemma is “how to promote the ‘core values’ of Sesame Street, like optimism and tolerance, while at the same time portraying a version of local life realistic enough that broadcasters will show it … A central premise of each Sesame Street [international] co-production is that the show should be apolitical, but few of the writers seemed to think that made sense in a Palestinian context.”
Tag: 10.04.09
When Hollywood Dips Into The Children’s Bookshelf
“Respecting the source, traditionally, is not what Hollywood does to children’s books. … But why should the studios treat classic texts with kid gloves when they’re rewarded so well for ‘modernizing’ them?”
Delays Leave ‘Digital Black Hole’ In Britain’s Major Libraries
“Digital literature, online scientific research and internet journalism that should have been saved in the nation’s main libraries over the past five years may have been lost because ministers have failed to give them the legal power to copy and archive websites.”
Tracey Emin Bound For France Over UK Tax Rate?
“Tracey Emin, who already has a home across the Channel, said in an interview that she was ‘very seriously considering leaving Britain’, adding: ‘I’m simply not willing to pay tax at 50% … I reckon it would mean me paying about 65p in every pound with tax, National Insurance and so on.'”
Medieval Thinkers’ Liberal Idea Of God
“[They] understood faith primarily as a practice, rather than as a system – not as ‘something that people thought but something they did.’ Their God was not a being to be defined or a proposition to be tested, but an ultimate [and unknowable] reality to be approached through myth [and] ritual … And their religion was a set of skills, rather than a list of unalterable teachings.”
Bill T. Jones Renders Abe Lincoln Into Dance
“Lincoln was the only white man I was allowed to love unconditionally growing up. But he was also hiding in plain sight. Sure, he’s on the $5 bill. But who is he? There’s George Washington and Ben Franklin too, connections from third-grade social studies class … But as an adult, what does this man Lincoln have to do with me?”
Tony Roberts Falls Ill Onstage
The veteran actor, performing on Broadway in a revival of the George S. Kaufman-Edna Ferber comedy The Royal Family, began slurring his lines shortly after his entrance. The curtain was brought down and an ambulance was called; Roberts is now reported to be in stable condition.
Making Art From Debris Of The SoCal Wildfires
“With the heat of the embers still glowing from one of the worst wildfires in California history, it’s difficult to imagine anything beautiful coming out of such destruction.” The group ART from the Ashes “takes [as] its mission to help individuals, businesses and organizations affected by wildfires by transfiguring fire site debris into works of art.”
Napster-Style File-Sharing Comes To The World Of E-Books
“You can buy The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown, as an e-book for $9.99 at Amazon.com. Or you can don a pirate’s cap and snatch a free copy from another online user at RapidShare, Megaupload, Hotfile and other file-storage sites.” Will publishers suffer the piracy woes that have afflicted the music industry?
Schlemiels, Scholars, Wannabe WASPs And Basterds: Jewish Identity On Screen
“More than 60 years after the Nazi genocide and the founding of the state of Israel, … and more than a century into the Ashkenazi passage through the North American melting pot, the old puzzles persist … In novels, on television and especially, lately, on movie screens, fresh expositions of ancient dilemmas and anxieties quarrel and contend. Nothing is settled.”