Editorials
521 results
Page 46
J.D. Salinger and the cult of the recluse
For whom J.D. Salinger's bell tolls
Why are we so indulgent toward our society's gifted hermits? If Salinger or Glenn Gould suddenly decides to stop doing what he's doing, why do we let them off the hook? Didn't these allegedly great minds ever read John Donne, or St. Luke?
Editorials
4 minute read
China: Threatening, or threatened?
Perpetually threatened China
Americans may hate or fear China's rising economic power. But most of us have bought into the notion that China's leaders really know what they're doing. China's leaders themselves, I suspect, know otherwise.
Editorials
4 minute read
Peggy Amsterdam: A '60s woman
A '60s girl who grew up
Peggy Amsterdam galvanized Philadelphia's organized arts community in the first decade of our century, as her obituaries duly noted. But where did this remarkable woman come from? That is the most interesting question of all.
Editorials
5 minute read
Up (too) close to Eagles heroes
My afternoon with Leonard Tose, or: Macho sports whiners of yesteryear
Our contributor Bob Ingram recently attacked the current corporatized Philadelphia Eagles management, expressing his preference for the flesh-and-blood blue-collar owners and coaches of yesteryear. But has Ingram actually met any of his heroes? I have, and therein lies a lesson.
Editorials
6 minute read
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The Pew grants: Method or madness?
What the Pew's new guidelines tell us about very large foundations
The grant process recently adopted by the Pew Fellowships in the Arts could be an ingenious experiment in building artists' character through adversity. More likely it betrays a profound ignorance of what art and artists are all about.
Editorials
3 minute read
Religion: Good or evil?
Lest we forget: A few kind words for sexism, feudalism, homophobia and slavery
Is religion a force for good or evil in the world? Maybe that's the wrong question. In a constantly evolving world, yesterday's force for good often becomes today's obstacle to progress.
Editorials
4 minute read
Sport and theater: Vive la difference
Sport is sport, and theater is theater, and never the twain should meet
Jim Rutter suggests that theater companies could boost their audiences as well as their relevance by integrating sport and drama. As Samuel Goldwyn famously put it, include me out.
Editorials
3 minute read
Obama's Nobel
A few words about prizes, Obama's Nobel and the ‘death' of decadent old Europe
Did Obama deserve his Nobel Prize? The more germane question, it seems to me, is: Why do we place such value on prizes, which after all are only popularity contests? Especially when something genuinely revolutionary is taking place in supposedly “decadent” Europe.
Editorials
5 minute read
Modern dance: The agony and the agony
Is anybody happy?
Miscellaneous ruminations about the angst of modern dancers, the coyness of Inquirer film critic Carrie Rickey, and the convolutions of architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable.
Editorials
3 minute read
Bill Sommerfield: Washington's alter ego
The man who thought he was George Washington
The impresarios Bill and Pam Sommerfield developed a new theatrical niche: Their performers weren't merely historical actors; they were self-taught scholars who researched their characters so thoroughly that they became those characters. In the process they inspired future generations of Americans to pay more attention to the past, if only for the sheer fun of it.
Editorials
5 minute read