Wednesday, June 27, 2007

“… we’ve relinquished … imagination to the marketplace.”

Well worth a read to remind us of the importance of the arts—all of them—to our lives and society, these remarks by Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, at Stanford University's commencement. A snip:

The loss of recognition for artists, thinkers, and scientists has impoverished our culture in innumerable ways, but let me mention one. When virtually all of a culture's celebrated figures are in sports or entertainment, how few possible role models we offer the young.

There are so many other ways to lead a successful and meaningful life that are not denominated by money or fame. Adult life begins in a child's imagination, and we've relinquished that imagination to the marketplace.

Friday, July 17, 1998

NewHoo debut

Sign of the Times? Spotted on a Methodist church in the Central West End: "Sun Worship 11 am"

I'm Re-reading Sedaris: "Snowball just leads elves on, elves and Santas. He is playing a dangerous game." — from "Santaland Diaries"

The Daily Instigator Watch continues. ("Not as late as Windows 98")

...and The Loser Chronicles seem to have gone AWOL. Any sightings?

A new weblog appears, nice looking and substantive (although not recently updated). Say hello to Pigs and Fishes. [Heads up from Robot Wisdom]

Apple Computer is doing just fine, thankyouverymuch, with 3rd quarter profits that have even former naysayers ceasing their search for adjective synonyms for "beleaguered." Meanwhile, it looks like Tom Hanks is gonna play Steve Jobs in the movie! [Daily Variety]

The proprietor of the impressive Obscure Store & Reading Room has an equally impressive account of his observations at the Jeffrey Dahmer trial. [Obscure Store]

An Internet Directory to Watch: The volunteer-built NewHoo. (Editors wanted!)

A concise and cogent debriefing of the recent Supreme Court decency in the arts ruling, by a writer who clearly "gets" Karen Finley. [Kansas City Star]

Build your own supercomputer, for fun and profit. [Lotus.dev, heads up from my buddy Chris]

Assume the missionary position with these wacky tracts. [Brunching Shuttlecocks]

And speaking of the missionary position (ahem!), have you heard the brouhaha about Our First Time? Smells like a really slick publicity stunt: Two "teens" plan to lose their virginity live on the Internet.

• Media Falls Hard For "First Time" Sex Site [TechWeb]
• Their First Time? [Brunching Shuttlecocks]