In a sane world, the new biopic of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey would have become a minor hit with a small moviegoing demographic, might have picked up a few Oscar nominations, and would have been basically ignored by everyone else. But the U.S. is no longer a sane world when it comes to sex, says Frank Rich, and the newly emboldened “moral values” crowd is chomping at the bit to impose their repressive views on anyone who dares to defy their will. Kinsey is the right’s newest target, but this battle isn’t about a movie or a long-dead scientist. It’s about a segment of the population that wants to take the country back to the bad old days when no one talked about sex, for any reason, ever, consequences be damned.
Tag: 11.12.04
Alice Munro Wins Second Giller Prize
“Created in 1994 by Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch in memory of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller, the 11-year-old prize honours novels or short story collections. Previous winners have included Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler, Rohinton Mistry and M.G. Vassanji, who was a jury member this year.”
Creative History
Evolution is no longer the last word on lerning about life in one Pennsylvania school district. “With a vote last month, a school board in a rural south-central Pennsylvania community is believed to have become the first in the nation to mandate the teaching of ‘intelligent design,’ which holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by an unspecified higher power.”
Entertainment Journos – Just Fans With Better Access?
Entertainment journalism isn’t really journalism at all, writes Geoff Pevere. “You have to wonder if the admittedly integrity-challenged dodge of ‘entertainment journalism’ hasn’t given up, bought fishnet stockings, miniskirt and stiletto heels and hung out the red light. When an actor walks into a room full of alleged professionals and is greeted by a shout, the jig is up. We’re just fans with better access.”
India To Bulldoze Lutyens’ Legacy
The architecture of Edwin Lutyens may be the only good thing that came of British colonialism in India, but “almost every Lutyens bungalow in private hands has gone, destroyed in the welter of demolitions that took place between 1980 and 2000. Now it has been announced that the same fate awaits the remaining 60% of the Lutyens buildings still owned by the government… The idea is to replace them with ‘ultra-modern day fuel-efficient apartment blocks’, which, if the mock-ups published in the Times of India are anything to go by, will resemble bland 1960s student housing projects of grey windowless concrete.”
Has The World Given Up On Scottish Opera?
The UK’s music world seems to have accepted that Scottish Opera will be going dark for at least a year next fall, under a bizarre bailout plan proposed by the Scottish Executive. Andrew Clark insists that the supposed rescue plan should not simply be accepted by the public, especially since the Executive’s real aim may be to dismantle the company completely. “The axe has already fallen on the chorus. What about the orchestra and ancillary staff? Are they going to hang around for a year to see if there is a company worth reviving when the trickle of subsidy resumes in mid-2006?”
Backing Away From Black
The Houston Symphony is trying out a new dress code for its female musicians, allowing the players to back away from the traditional all-black garb which was conceived as a way to be sure that no one player stood out from the pack. After complaints from musicians about the code, and some backstage discussions about potential changes, “management OK’d the idea and helped write guidelines so that no one showed up in ‘an Elizabeth Hurley outfit.'”
A Digital Update On Performance Art
“These projects take what conceptual artists did in the 1970s — projects such as sitting in a room for a year, or making one painting that depicts the day’s date every day for 40 years — and let computers do much of the work. It is not clear if these projects are meant to honour or mock the original art works, but then the original projects were often done in a spirit of great playfulness themselves, so it hardly matters.”
Australia’s First “Ring” (An Exercise In Excess?)
“State Opera South Australia’s $15.3 million production of Der Ring Des Nibelungen is Australia’s biggest and most ambitious theatrical undertaking, yet only 6000 people will get to see it. This production, Australia’s first, is a global diary note on the calendars of rich European and American Wagnerites wanting to see this watershed Australian foray into high German opera. Then, after 12 nights costing more than $1 million a night, it will be mothballed with no plans to perform it again. It is an exercise in excess.”
Extreme Makeover, Iraqi Style
A new Iraqi “reality” show “Labour And Materials, broadcast on Iraqi satellite channel Al Sharqiya, does not merely redecorate a room, but reconstructs entire properties destroyed in the ongoing conflict in the country. The programme makers select families whose homes have been made uninhabitable either during the war or since, and reconstruct it to the extent of supplying new furniture – and even shiny new kitchen gadgets – for free.”