In the U.S., “atheists are less charitable than their God-fearing counterparts: They donate less blood, for example, and are less likely to offer change to homeless people on the street.” Yet “the Danes and the Swedes [are] probably the most godless people on Earth. They don’t go to church or pray in the privacy of their own homes; they don’t believe in God or heaven or hell. But, by any reasonable standard, they’re nice to one another. They have a famously expansive welfare and health care service. They have a strong commitment to social equality.”
Tag: 11.07.08
Looking Gingerly At Turkey’s Secular Saint
Bitter controversy has broken out over a documentary about Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who created modern Turkey from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. The filmmaker says: “I wanted to present Mustafa Kemal in a more intimate, affectionate light. All those statues, busts and flags have created a chief devoid of human qualities.” One critic thunders: “Atatürk raised up a people about to be excised from world history, and here he is presented as a drunken debaucher. Would you accept such a portrait of Churchill?”
‘100 Years Of Queer Theater’
A festival at San Francisco’s Theatre Rhinoceros presents a series of short plays with gay or queer themes from the entire span of the 20th century – from a 1907 Russian “mini-musical” through Tennessee Williams and Joe Orton to a Tony Kushner one-act from 1998. The selection “poses some fascinating then-and-now questions about how gay life is seen in a culture that keeps rotating the lens to sharpen the view, blur it or blot it out altogether.”
Movie-Makers Increasingly Go For Amateur Actors
“New digital camera technology, in which take after take with inexperienced actors doesn’t waste expensive film, has given a push to the trend. And some productions using amateur talent have won critical acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival and elsewhere, fostering more funds and creative development for these types of project.”
A Country Music Artist Reinventing The Relationship With Fans
Taylor Swift’s career has been “noteworthy for what happens once the songs are finished. She has aggressively used online social networks to stay connected with her young audience in a way that, while typical for rock and hip-hop artists, is proving to be revolutionary in country music. As she vigilantly narrates her own story and erases barriers between her and her fans, she is helping country reach a new audience.”
“Unfilmable” Rushdie Novel To Be Filmed
“Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie’s panoramic 1981 allegory of the birth of modern India, is heading for the big screen. Deepa Mehta is to direct and co-write the adaptation with the author, and the film is expected to start production in 2010… Rushdie’s novel, which has been selected twice as the best-ever Booker prize winner, is widely regarded as one of the premier literary works of the latter half of the 20th century and is required reading on most university syllabuses.”
Squatter Art Gets Brazen In London
A group of anarchist artists have taken over an unoccupied townhouse in London’s posh Mayfair neighborhood, and announced their intention to mount an art installation inside. Meanwhile, the building’s owners appear not to have noticed, and the artists say they won’t be leaving unless they’re officially evicted.
Adults-Only Screenings? Not So Fast.
“When I saw that the Vue chain of cinemas had banned children from certain performances, such as the new James Bond film, at first I had some sympathy with the decision.” But not for long — and not only because young adults tend to be more obnoxious than kids at the movies. “It’s by going to [things with their parents], over time, that children learn how to behave properly. And it’s by leaving their children behind that adults learn how to behave badly.”
At The End Of The Day, A List Of Annoying Expressions
“Not all University of Oxford researchers are uptight and humorless, ‘irregardless’ of what you might think. In fact, a bunch of them compiled a list of the Top 10 Most Irritating Expressions in the English language — just because we needed one.”
In This Economy, Bold Artistry May Be Ticket To Survival
Announcing its citywide “Ring” festival this week amid the general financial cataclysm, “L.A. Opera may very well be motivated by desperation. But it is also L.A. Opera’s leap of artistic imagination with this production that has provided it with the stimulus to think big. … The Pasadena Symphony and Pacific Opera, on the contrary, represent failures of imagination.”