April 17, 2007
Rap and Education
Mike O'Hare is distinctly unimpressed by rap. I'm not as hostile as he is--I can think of at least a handful of remarkably complex rap albums (in particular stuff from the late 1980s like Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest and Eric B. and Rakim) albums that I continue to listen to today. That said, there's a large amount of...
The Rap on Rap
Predictably, Imus' little contretemps raises questions about the relentless truly repulsive conventions of gangsta rap and its related forms. This AP story has some interesting quotes, from critics hostile to the misogynistic, violent stream of gangsta rap and from its defenders anxious to distinguish it from Imus' japes and jabs. The standard defense of this bilge is here offered by...
April 13, 2007
Acts and traits, rights and duties
Anything that gives us moral enlightenment from both Don Imus and Al Sharpton across a table from each other can't be all bad, right? Seriously, while Imus doesn't matter much, the whole episode gives us perspective on a pair of issues too often taken the wrong way. The first is a confusion of acts and traits, as in "anyone who...
January 03, 2007
Political art
Fernando Tesón has a post here and right above it at the Volokh Conspiracy attacking political art, condemning it as a "discourse failure" that tries to make its audience change its views without 'real' evidence. Plato was also a little nervous about this, as I recall. I think Tesón is trying on a sort of theatrical over-the-top positivist costume, because...
September 27, 2006
God help the minister...
...who messes with art, said Melbourne. The Deutsche Oper Berlin has cancelled performances of Mozart's Idomeneo because the production featured an added ending scene (to what music, one wonders) in which the severed heads of Christ, Mohammed, the Buddha, and Poseidon are placed on stools to show, um, something about how the founders of all religions have caused wars and...
August 01, 2006
Mel Gibson, Evil, and Art
Mel Gibson's little contretemps with the police has become a lot more interesting than it started out to be. It raises issues about how we should count traits, prejudice, and considered discourse in making moral judgments about people and, as Gibson is an artist (and not just an actor who speaks the lines of others), how the personality of the...
May 04, 2006
Bubble
In the last two years, two paintings have sold for about $100m each. Yesterday's Picasso went for $51K per square inch, more than the largest US bill ($100,000) ever printed. It is not copyrighted, so only the physical object was in the deal. What can prices like these mean? Suppose this capital asset were put to work sixteen hours per...
March 08, 2006
Culture Reality Check
Every now and then, a choice comes around that places you firmly in cultural context. The upcoming issue of Vanity Fair is one of those times. Are you more interested in this story or this story? It will say a great deal about you. We already know which side of the divide Andy is on....
November 22, 2005
Bravi, bravi...
On Sunday my wife and I heard a really splendid concert. The UC Alumni Chorus, a fine small pickup orchestra and organist, and the UC Men's and Women's Chorales teamed up to perform one of my long-time favorites and something I'd not heard before (the Poulenc Gloria and the Duruflé Requiem respectively--credits here). The performances were superb, with the ensemble...
November 18, 2005
Take Solace in Art
Anxious and nettled by national politics and crime in high places? The wise know at these times to be anxious and nettled instead by [the discontents of] art and culture, the most important sphere of public affairs. OK, not the most important, but still, consider health policy: surely very important...but if life isn't worth living, why bother to make...
