A must-read piece on the Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten in the The Independent.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Broadway on Pennsylvania Avenue
Monday's "In Performance at the White House" features stars from Broadway. From the LA Times:
The Tony-winning performers are actor-singers Nathan Lane (two Tonys), Audra McDonald (four Tonys), Idina Menzel, Tonya Pinkins and Karen Olivo (one each, for "Wicked," "Jelly's Last Jam" and "West Side Story," respectively), and pianist Marvin Hamlisch, a Tony winner for his score to "A Chorus Line." Working behind the scenes is Jerry Mitchell, Tony-winning choreographer (for the 2004 revival of "La Cage aux Folles"), who will guide 20 Washington, D.C., dance students in a segment from "Hairspray," another show he choreographed.
Also performing are Brian d'Arcy James ("Shrek: The Musical"), Chad Kimball ("Memphis") and Assata Alston, a 12-year-old from Queens, N.Y., who recently debuted at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
More Proof Schools Need Art Programs
The Creativity Crisis from Newsweek:
Overwhelmed by curriculum standards, American teachers warn there’s no room in the day for a creativity class. Kids are fortunate if they get an art class once or twice a week. But to scientists, this is a non sequitur, borne out of what University of Georgia’s Mark Runco calls “art bias.” The age-old belief that the arts have a special claim to creativity is unfounded. When scholars gave creativity tasks to both engineering majors and music majors, their scores laid down on an identical spectrum, with the same high averages and standard deviations. Inside their brains, the same thing was happening—ideas were being generated and evaluated on the fly.
Money for "Placemaking"
From the NEA website:
NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman Announces $3 Million in Grants From Mayors' Institute on City Design 25th Anniversary InitiativeHere is Judith H. Dobrzynski's take on the new initiative.
MICD25 supports creative placemaking projects that contribute toward the livability of communities and help transform sites into lively, beautiful, and sustainable places with the arts at their core. The grants range from $25,000 to $250,000 and are awarded to 21 communities ranging from Easton, Pennsylvania (population 26,000) to Los Angeles, California (population 9.8 million). This is the first grant program developed under Chairman Landesman's leadership.
Frame-Flipping
Well worth the full read. Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic on the NAACP condemnation of racism in the Tea Party movement:
The NAACP's announcement initially struck me in much the same the way. But some hours of considering this have proven to me that my initial skepticism says more about the broad American narrative of race and racism, then it does about the justness of the NAACP's charge.
I think it's worth, first, considering the record of American racism, and then the record of the Tea Party and its allies. Racism tends to attract attention when it's flagrant and filled with invective. But like all bigotry, the most potent component of racism is frame-flipping--positioning the bigot as the actual victim. So the gay do not simply want to marry, they want to convert our children into sin. The Jews do not merely want to be left in peace, they actually are plotting world take-over. And the blacks are not actually victims of American power, but beneficiaries of the war against hard-working whites. This is a respectable, more sensible, bigotry, one that does not seek to name-call, preferring instead change the subject and strawman. Thus segregation wasn't necessary to keep the niggers in line, it was necessary to protect the honor of white women.
Cry for the U.S., Argentina
Glenn Greenwald in Salon on Argentina's approval of gay marriage:
It's worthwhile now and then to take stock of the vast disparity between how we like to think of ourselves and reality. When a country with Argentina's history and background becomes but the latest country to legally recognize same-sex marriage -- largely as the result of a population which demanded it -- that disparity becomes quite clear.
Chart of the Day
Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight has an amazing chart on same-sex marriage and this:
Although the past year has been frustrating to liberals and libertarians on many levels, one exception is in the increasing willingness of governments around the world to recognize same-sex marriage, as Argentina determined to do yesterday. There are now about 250 million people worldwide living in jurisdictions which provide for marriage equity,
65th Anniversary of Trinity
Today is the 65th Anniversary of the testing of the first atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Greg Mitchell has a piece on the anniversary on his Media Fix blog at The Nation.
"Thank God for Slavery"
Judy Thomas' piece in the Kansas City Star on racism in the Tea Party movement is a MUST-READ.
For many tea partiers, racism is in the eye of the beholder.
Take Ron Wight, who stood with dozens of tea party activists at the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain in April, complaining about the Obama administration, its socialist agenda and being called a racist.
Those like him who complain about President Barack Obama are accused of racism, lamented the semi-retired music teacher from Lee’s Summit.
Then he added: “If I was a black man, I’d get down on my knees and thank God for slavery. Otherwise, I could be dying of AIDS now in Africa.”
Wight doesn’t consider that comment to be racist.
“I wish slavery had never happened,” he said. “But there are some black people alive today who have never suffered one day what the people who were black went through in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. Has somebody said something stupid or done something stupid? Yes, there have been incidents.
“But with everything that has been done in this country legally and socially for the black man, it’s almost like they’ve been given a great leg up.”
Too Sexy for My Public Radio
Mississippi Public Broadcasting cancels Fresh Air with Terry Gross. From Gawker:
Mississippi has modernized itself quite a bit lately. No longer are African-Americans required by law to wear chains, nor are women required to remain indoors. But Terry Gross's NPR show? Smut like that is still not allowed.
Rachel Maddow reports that the reason for the decision has to do with an interview with comedian Louis CK where he talks about having sex with his shirt on.
This is no shortage of outrage on Mississippi Public Broadcasting's Facebook page.
Palin Family Circus on Steroids
Yesterday was political theater Christmas! Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston announce their engagement - via the cover of US Weekly and a magazine spokesperson on the Today show. They don't tell Sarah Palin prior to announcement. And apparently they didn't tell Levi's sister Mercedes either. In her blog, Mercedes reacts to the surprise and then offers to be their wedding planner. Bristol reveals that they will marry in Alaska next month and the groom will wear "camo." Sarah and Todd Palin's press statement is more than a little chilly.
“Bristol at 19 is now a young adult. We obviously want what’s best for our children. Bristol believes in redemption and forgiveness to a degree most of us struggle to put in practice in our daily lives.”
UPDATE: Gawker has an exhaustive compendium called All the Trash Levi Johnston Has Talked About His Future Mother-in-Law.
Gay Marriage in DC
Yesterday, same-sex marriage in the nation's capitol was upheld:
In its decision, the Court of Appeals, D.C.’s highest court, decided 5-4 that the Council properly exercised its authority under the D.C. Charter in establishing the requirement that a proposed initiative may not authorize, or have the effect of authorizing, discrimination prohibited by the D.C. Human Rights Act. The Court ruled unanimously that the proposed initiative would in fact impermissibly permit discrimination against gays and lesbians in the District.
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