American Architect Louis Kahn was a brilliant architect and a flawed man. Herbert Muschamp pronounces that a documentary of his life is a “wonder of a movie” That “should put a stop to the notion that architecture is a less creative form of practice than music, painting, literature or dance. I have never seen or read a more penetrating account of the inner life of an architect — or of architecture itself — than that presented in this movie.”
Tag: 11.09.03
Tuition Increases – Don’t Blame Colleges
Tuitions have been rising faster than the rate of inflation. So some in the US Congress want to limit increases somehow. But those increases haven’t been the result of higher-education spending sprees. “From New York to California it’s the same story. The proportion of public-college budgets supplied by the state has dropped precipitously. Someone has to pay for public colleges. Should state colleges take the heat when the legislatures purposely shift the burden from taxpayers onto students and their parents?”
Newark’s Performing Arts Center – No Cure For Urban Blight
In the mid-90s, Newark built a shiney new performing arts center in the middle of its blighted downtown with the hope of rejuvenating the area. Many cities have tried this. Terry Teachout reports after a visit this week that while the hall is a great place to attend performances, it seems to have done little to kick-start downtown. “Lincoln Center has its crippling flaws, God knows, but it did succeed in transforming New York’s Upper West Side almost beyond recognition. As of today, I’m still skeptical that NJPAC will do much more than make it possible for suburban New Jerseyites to see Miss Saigon without having to drive all the way into Manhattan. Somehow I doubt that’s what its founders had in mind.”
Rock Music And The Hungarian Revolution
“Rock music played lead in giving Hungarian baby boomers the resolve to bring down their communist state, says one of those reformers who today is a government official.”
Hating My McJob
McDonald’s is complaining to dictionary publisher Merriam Webster for adding a new word. The word is “mcjob”, defined as low-paying, dead-end work. “In an open letter to Merriam-Webster, McDonald’s CEO Jim Cantalupo said the term is “an inaccurate description of restaurant employment” and “a slap in the face to the 12 million men and women” who work in the restaurant industry.”
Pacifica Ballet Leader Quits
After 15 years, Molly Lynch quit as director of Southern California’s Ballet Pacifica in October. There have been rumors she was pressured to leave by the company’s board. “No one should overlook, however, that Lynch has laid down a terrific foundation on which to grow a bigger and artistically distinguished company, and it would be a waste of criminal proportions to throw it all away.”
When Pop Drives Theatre
“Back in the days of Rodgers and Hammerstein, there wasn’t much of a difference between showtunes and pop tunes. The songs sung from Broadway stages had a multigenerational appeal, received wide radio airplay and were the staples of Your Hit Parade. Today, that trend is reversed: Instead of Broadway driving pop music, it’s the other way around.”
Protest Planned For Israeli Dance Company
Palestinian supporters say they are planning to disrupt an appearance in Scotland by an Israeli dance company. “Last year, around 700 of us made sure Israel’s under 21 football team lost their game against Scotland. I think disrupting a ballet will be a piece of cake.”
Hollywood Needs To Change (Or Else)
Why are the entertainment companies so resistant to change? “The entertainment business prides itself on absorbing and exploiting virtually every youth culture trend. But when it comes to revamping its business model, Hollywood can be as resistant to change as Detroit automakers or the steel industry. When TV sets appeared in living rooms in the late 1940s, movie studios panicked, treating the new medium with the same disdain and distrust that executives today have for baby-faced Internet downloaders. How could we possibly survive, the old moguls moaned, trying to compete with something that is free? Hollywood survived and flourished in the new medium.”
College Aid: Rich Get Richer?
“The US government typically gives the wealthiest private universities, which often serve the smallest percentage of low-income students, significantly more financial aid money than their struggling counterparts with much greater shares of poor students.
Such disparities have been a sore point among universities for years, leftovers from an era when federal money was given to colleges on an individual, almost negotiable basis. Now, for the first time in more than two decades, the nation’s financial aid officers are calling for the imbalances to be wiped away, replaced by a system that steers financial aid toward the universities that poor students actually attend, rather than those with the biggest reputations.”