These days the OED can list “bootylicious” and people barely blink. (Maybe they snicker.) “A half-century ago, when G. & C. Merriam Co. announced its new dictionary, Webster’s Third, there was an incredible outcry. It became known as ‘the permissive dictionary’ and provoked what was probably the greatest language controversy in American history.”
Tag: 10.27.12
QR Codes Meet Native Chilean Tapestries (And It Works!)
“Who knew ancient pictograms used by a Chilean tribe of hunters and gatherers would dovetail aesthetically with bar code graphics that store information for drivers licenses, plane tickets and hospital bracelets? Artist Guillermo Bert, that’s who.”
Food – The New Art?
“Foodism has taken on the sociological characteristics of what used to be known — in the days of the rising postwar middle class, when Mortimer Adler was peddling the Great Books and Leonard Bernstein was on television — as culture.”
Copyright Run Amok – Faulkner Estate Sues Woody Allen Movie Over Quote
Faulkner Literary Rights, the company that controls works by that Nobel Prize-winning author of “The Sound and the Fury” and “As I Lay Dying,” has filed a lawsuit over Mr. Allen’s 2011 film “Midnight in Paris” and what it says is that movie’s unauthorized use of a line from Faulkner’s book “Requiem for a Nun.”
Why People Distrust Theatre Of The Community
“Because everyone pretends that they know what good acting and good theater is, and because every actor thinks that their talent gives them reality on the stage (so long as there’s a good director and good blocking and good sets and lights and costumes) . . . and because everyone wants to pretend that there’s nothing special about James Cagney and Marlon Brando and all of the rest of the greats we once had . . . the community is suspicious of theater that professes to be alive. “
The Vatican’s A Real Country – The Venice Biennale Says So
“The Vatican is finally due to have its own pavilion at the next Venice Biennale (1 June-24 November 2013), after speculation and delays since the idea was first mooted in 2009.”
Print Lives! Well, The Older Items, Anyway
“The American Antiquarian Society houses the largest collection of materials printed in the United States. Its library has books, newspapers, letters, even board games dating from 1640 to 1876.”
Incorporating The Streaming World – And Pissing Everyone Off
“Everyone in the music business knows that is not the business we are in anymore, that a stream on Rhapsody or Spotify, or a download at iTunes or Amazon — all these different things — are a meaningful part of the fan experience. And to have genre charts that don’t reflect that? I can’t believe anyone would be arguing for that.”
Another Art Critic Quits In Disgust
“Dave Hickey, a curator, professor and author known for a passionate defence of beauty in his collection of essays The Invisible Dragon and his wide-ranging cultural criticism, is walking away from a world he says is calcified, self-reverential and a hostage to rich collectors who have no respect for what they are doing.”
The Circus, Minus Woman And Lions, Comes To Town
“It was a welcome relief from conflict and despair. The fairgrounds were packed with excited children in new cloths, women in glittery headscarves, others in black face veils, and men in suits and freshly pressed shirts. Families snacked on pumpkin seeds.”