Category: culture
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(Wo)mano a (wo)mano
As I watched last night’s premiere of NBC’s new Bionic Woman, I was reminded of a lecture I sat through in undergrad, in which one of my film professors distilled the plot of Wizard of Oz into a simple and true statement: “The film is, at heart, the story of two women fighting over a…
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One in four did not read a book in 2006
WASHINGTON – There it sits on your night stand, that book you’ve meant to read for who knows how long but haven’t yet cracked open. Tonight, as you feel its stare from beneath that teetering pile of magazines, know one thing — you are not alone. One in four adults say they read no books…
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Effigy Poetics
Thanks to all who linked to the TIME magazine article about why poetry sucks and doesn’t meet anyone’s needs. After reading it, I feel like I am now a part of a very hoity-toity circle of airbags—like the Marketing Department in Dilbert but with bigger vocabularies. Blaming poets for poetry sucking seems like the right…
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The Other Art
Last night in my Art & Public Policy class, we talked a bit about how “the arts” are trying to cultivate larger audiences, gain more funding, and be more successful in general. And I started wondering if it’s effective for the arts to lump themselves into that ubuiquitous category THE ARTS. For example, there are…
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Art in the Abstract: a Concern
This semester I’m taking (and really enjoying) a class for my degree called Art and Public Policy, which focuses on the ways in which the public and private sectors fund, legislate, support, appreciate, and mobilize art in America. Our articles and discussions are always interesting and complex, but one thing I’m already struggling with is…
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Back from the Lone Star
Chew on this: The Washington Post’s Style Invitational asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year’s winners: 1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows…
Charles Jensen | Writer 