Not all generalizations are wrong. “Lawyers, philosophers and others have long pondered the legal and moral distinctions among discrimination, stereotyping and statistical probabilities, but they have not reached broad agreement. Beyond suspicions about rounding up the usual suspects, how do we know whether generalizations are based on sound empirical information or are a jumble of pop culture shorthand and bad science? What kinds of broad judgments are right and what kinds are wrong? How are categories constructed in the first place?”
Tag: 12.13.03
Italians Stage TV Viewers’ Strike
A TV viewers’ strike was organized over the weekend in Italy. “Television is one of the principal causes of dullness and isolation, and is a drain on precious commodity of human time” say the organizers. We want to say to people that there are better ways of spending their free time than to stay home staring at television. “The strike’s organisers have arranged discounts at a range of venues for people who bring their remote controls with them. Organisers say they are expecting around 400,000 people to join the strike against what they call Trash TV.”
Frozen In Time – When Literary Estates Say Hands Off
Are protectors of literary estates too protective of the work they watch over? “In a theatrical age where the director is king and the quickest way to make your mark and your reputation is to let your ego run rampant on an established text, it is perhaps not surprising that estates and literary executors feel bound to protect the reputations of those who can no longer protect themselves. Unfortunately, these guardians often behave like ferocious guard dogs and are in danger of deterring directors and theatre companies from tackling classic works in new ways and keeping those texts alive.”
Evolving Palate – When Critical Tastes Expand
Wouldn’t you expect a critic to narrow in tastes as the years go on? Surprisingly not, observes Terry Teaachout. “One of the most surprising things that has happened to me in recent years is that I now like far more music, as well as a wider range of interpretative styles, than I did as a young man. This is not at all what I expected to happen as I grew older.”
The Rise Of Miami Beach
“At first glance, Art Basel Miami Beach may seem an incongruous group of words. But this bizarre-sounding conjunction of ice-cool Swiss business and hot-blooded Latino glamour is fast becoming the biggest event in the art-world calendar. Now in its second year, the ABMB sees a massive influx of collectors, dealers and global operators converging on the luxury, art-filled hotels of South Beach… While the Florida climate is clearly an attraction, what has made Miami the art world’s most magnetic new destination is its impressive infrastructure.”
Rigler, Classic Arts Showcase Founder, 88
Lloyd Rigler founded Classic Arts Showcase, an “eclectic television service that distributes performing arts films at no cost to public television stations. His Classic Arts Showcase, started in 1994, shows archival and contemporary film clips from all over the world, made available via satellite to an estimated 50 million homes. With its scenes from opera, ballet and early television, it has been called MTV for classical music fans.”
Big Art = Big Box Office
Modern sculpture has become big box office. Not just any sculpture though. The great big oversized sculpture found recently in the enormous turbine room at Tate Modern. “None of these works are necessarily great art. They have nothing much to do with Moore or Donatello. They are made not of bronze or marble but of ignoble materials such as plastic and neon. But they fit triumphantly into the 21st-century urban scene.”
Won’t The Real Slim Shady Please Report To The FBI?
You may have missed it, what with the capture of Saddam Hussein and all the recent suicide bombings in Iraq, but rapper Eminem recently threatened the life of the President of the United States. Sort of. A line from an unfinished song off a bootleg recording of an Eminem concert reportedly includes the following: “I don’t rap for dead presidents. I’d rather see the president dead.” Of course, Eminem is just a pop musician in a frankly thuggish corner of the music industry, and he clearly isn’t planning an assasination attempt, so the Secret Service isn’t taking it seriously or responding to silly questions about it. Only, wait. Actually, they are.
Are Film Defections Hurting Theater?
As more veterans of the theatrical stage defect to Hollywood, establishing lucrative film careers, many in the theater world are lamenting the trend. But are stage actors really damaged goods the minute they appear on film? “Is [Judi] Dench less convincing as the Countess of Rossillion in All’s Well That Ends Well than, say, Peggy Ashcroft was, because the latter had avoided playing James Bond’s boss? Do [Ian] McKellen’s decades of speaking the greatest verse ever written help or hinder him and us when he starts spouting piffle about pixies chasing rings?”
You’ve Got Literature!
“Cybersnoops, aspiring Web detectives and electronic voyeurs searching for a new kind of fix might find it in an emerging form of e-book fiction with a twist: the digital epistolary novel, or DEN. Created by Greatamericannovel.com, a DEN reveals its story line through a series of simulated e-mails, Web pages and instant messages.”