Carlin Romano: “Its departures from solid historical facts… lie within the normal ambit of historical fiction. Its sympathies tilt completely toward Muhammad and Aisha. Controversial aspects – Aisha’s possible flirtatiousness and fibbing, her jealousy, her sharp tongue… all stem from Islamic history itself. Only a Muslim who rejected Muhammad’s lifelong insistence that he was a man like other men could find The Jewel of Medina objectionable or anti-Islam.”
Tag: 10.16.08
Colombian Artists Respond to Latin America’s Longest War
From velvet mice with red-bulb eyes to bubbles of blood on a tile wall to paintings of desaparecidos that fade away as they dry, exhibitions in Colombia reveal “a resurgence of contemporary arts in the country” – new work in which “violence permeates and transforms everything.”
Wiki-ing Truth-In-Media
“But what if there were a device that objectively flagged questionable elements in online news articles, poking and parsing words and phrases, and letting you contribute your own critiques? Well, a Seattle company called SpinSpotter has produced a piece of software – a free download that works within a Web browser – that tries to do just that.”
English Architecture Was Multi-Culti Before Multi-Culti Was Cool
“Nowadays, a Norman Foster building in Hong Kong looks just like a Norman Foster building in Canary Wharf – neither British nor Chinese, just nationless steel and glass in both places. […] We were much more open to influences from abroad two centuries ago, taking styles from all round the world and modifying them to suit our cool home climate.”
Bush On Broadway
Comedian Will Ferrell, known among other things for his signature portrayals of President Bush on Saturday Night Live, will take his mimicry to Broadway next year with a one-man show entitled, “You’re Welcome America. A Final Night With George W Bush.”
Preserving Berlin’s Living Symbol Of Division
“For decades the Berlin Wall was the physical symbol of the Cold War “Iron Curtain” between East and West. But since it was breached in 1989, one remaining part of the wall has taken on a new role, as a 1.3km art gallery. Age and graffiti have taken their toll on the art, however, and a 2.2m euro project is now under way to restore it.”
NYC Schools Lag in Arts Ed (But They’re Getting Better)
The 2nd annual Arts in Schools report finds that 8% of city elementary schools met state requirements for arts instruction last school year up from 4% the previous year. Middle schools rose from 29% to 46%.
Historically-Informed Performance Meets the Weimar Republic
Max Raabe and the Palast-Orchester “have been re-creating not only the music but the very sound of the 1930s. That is: They don’t just sing old hits… [they] actually get the hard-edged, metallic sound familiar from recordings of the period.”
Bollywood Takes On the Credit Crisis
Characters in the new film EMI (for Equated Monthly Installments) “include a DJ who defaults on more than a dozen credit cards to impress his girlfriends, a man who takes a loan to send his son abroad to study and a socialite who charges her indulgences to her credit cards.”
Seeking New Literary Talent in the Arab World
“Western publishers are launching a drive to tap the Arab world for new stars, hoping to bridge the language gap with more than 200 million native Arabic speakers – and make money from selling books.”