|
Art Anti-Gallery
Re Alaina Mabaso’s review of Homeskooled Gallery’s “Art Anti-Gallery” at the Fringe—
Gosh, this was fun to read! And provocative: “Whose art is it, anyway?”
What is it we writers/artists need to protect? Will someone read my stuff and make money on it? Make more money than I do or any at all? Take credit for it some other way? Worse, ignore it?
What the devil are we doing when we “make art”? What’s the point of doing it if no one ever sees it?
I do not bake cakes for myself— although, now that I think of it, I do sing for the pleasure of my own voice hitting the right notes and to recite the words of the songs I remember. Perhaps the music is the poetry I had learned long ago.
Reed Stevens
Campbell, Calif.
September 21, 2011
Homeskooled, indeed. The trouble with Modernism`s free license for any or everything is that it appeals to the lowest possible denoms.
The sciences have common sense ground rules. The arts today encourage the goofy and mindless with their immunity of impunity. Anything went, absurdly. Broad-mindless critics encourage such inanities.
Patrick D. Hazard
Weimar, Germany
September 21, 2011
Alaina Mabaso replies: I would hate to see where the sciences would be if all researchers followed the “common sense ground rules” of their day. Doctors would probably still be bleeding most medical patients, and refusing to perform heart surgery, and aviators would be unable to fly planes above mach 1, much less visit the moon. No art— however “goofy” or lacking in boundaries— is inane or mindless when it engages you to think about the role of art itself.
Pig Iron’s Twelfth Night
Re Marshall Ledger’s review of Pig Iron’s Twelfth Night—
I resisted attending this production because I dislike mod dress updates of Shakespeare and anything anywhere that might be called a “laff riot,” But persuaded by friends and reviews, I saw it on its last day.
This wonderful production made me regret that it hadn’t been here when I needed it while teaching Shakespeare at a university for many years. I’ve never seen a production with such verve in combination with respect for the text. Nor had I ever seen a woman playing the part of a man pulling it off so convincingly. And ah, yes, that delightful music. We could of course read the body language, but we could even hear the lines.
Bravo and Happy Landings with Pig Iron’s next project.
Mary E. Hazard
Center City/ Philadelphia
September 21, 2011
John Jasperse’s Canyon
Re Jonathan Stein’s review of John Jasperse’s Canyon—
In a strange way, the pennants seemed to be an explorer’s marking the edge of the new reality/conscious discovered. The pennants changed position as the reality shifted, changed ground. A great unsteadying experience.
Mari Shaw
Center City/ Philadelphia
September 21, 2011
Drive spoiled?
Re Jake Blumgart’s review of Drive—
Nice spoiler. Not all of us want to know the twist in the movie before we see it. It’s one thing to reveal it in the review, which you can choose to read or not. But by putting it in the tag, you pretty much guarantee that no one will miss it.
Bad form, Dan. Very bad form.
Judy Weightman
East Falls/ Philadelphia
September 21, 2011
Frank Furness
Re “Our debt to Frank Furness,” by George Wilhelm—
Mr. Wilhelm should venture two blocks west and south of Drexel University’s Peck Center to the spot where a Furness building houses Penn’s Fisher Fine Arts Library. That great red hulk turns its back on 34th Street, making it even more of a find. Enter the reading space with its provision for natural light in the days before electricity was installed, brilliantly restored— and comfortably refurnished— by Venturi-Scott Brown in the 1990s for a truly uplifting experience, as great architecture should be.
Dilys Winegrad
Penn Valley, Pa.
September 25, 20111
Editor’s note: The writer is the former director of the Arthur Ross Gallery, housed in the Fisher Fine Arts Library building.
9/11, ten years after
Re “Ten years after: What price vengeance?” by Robert Zaller—
It must be great to be so “eyes wide shut” liberal as Robert Zaller. You’re certain you’re always right, and everyone else is always wrong and you’re so convinced what a nasty place this USA is. Nothing at all like it was when liberals ran the shop.
While I fully recognize that every one of our responses and reactions to 9/11 didn’t represent our “best and brightest,” we don’t have a daily parade of Americans strapping bombs to themselves and each other in our streets and schools and places of worship.
But that seems to elude the Zallers, Krugmans and members of the editorial board in a certain Manhattan newspaper office.
We don’t always get it right, but we do so far more often than any of the places we’ve allegedly destroyed since 9/11. “Destroyed?” Have any of the aforementioned genius journalists read the histories of these places? They were destroyed, by each other and themselves, centuries before America was a gleam in the eyes of our Founders.
Even with its foibles, America still represents the best hope for a planet in peace. It really wouldn’t hurt to express that publicly every now and then, especially on a day when so many sought comfort while mourning lives and a lifestyle lost forever.
Paul Decker
Bryn Mawr, Pa.
September 14, 2011
Editor’s comment: As an unrepentant Marxist, Professor Zaller despises liberals (and the New York Times) as much as you do. On that score, at least, I suspect you and he would get along famously.
Does sport build character?
Re “What I learned on a football field,” by Dan Rottenberg (Editor’s Notebook)—
Defeat in measured appropriate doses might help build character among students at schools of the clubbable elite sort like Penn. Sports were a diversion for all of you, as you had viable options in choosing a life path. Sports helped you to relieve stress and build relationships that would be useful to your careers later on. Whether you succeeded at sports or not really didn’t matter in the long term.
Perhaps the sports personalities you have cited were ill behaved because they had fewer life options than the average Penn graduate. Losing in sport for them could not be an option, as that would lead to public loss of face and livelihood.
Americans don’t mind a sports hero who cusses or cheats on his wife, but they do mind a loser. In this way, our sports heroes are like modern-day gladiators.
Sports are not the only means that can be used to build loyalty and responsibility with young people. As one whose role has been “art mom” rather than a soccer mom, I would argue that participation in a school play or a group mural helps to build character and community too.
Indeed, think how much “losing” and “character building” an artist must face before the success of public recognition is achieved… if that ever comes at all.
Victoria C. Skelly
Wayne, Pa.
September 7, 2011
Dream on, Dan. Those days are long gone except perhaps in your treasured Ivy League.
Every time someone mentions “student athletes,” I cringe first and then laugh.
The NCAA is the ultimate enabler of all that is wrong with college sports, and the athletic directors and presidents of every Division I program are criminals at worst, pimps at best. Miami, Ohio State, on and on— did any “student athlete” at any of these disgraced programs learn anything other than to take everything you can and then get the hell out of Dodge?
When did you stop closely reading the sports section? It took an epidemic of concussions, dementia and death that finally couldn’t be ignored until the NFL, NCAA, high schools and even grade schools admitted the existence of concussions.
You sure you didn’t get your bell rung once too often at Penn?
Bob Ingram
Burleigh, N.J.
September 7, 2011
I enjoyed your article, particularly your coach’s remarks. But I wonder if socio-economic factors may have had more to do with your success (and your teammates’) in life than your losing record.
To validate your thesis, you may need to compare your teams with Penn’s Ivy League championship team of 1959. Or the 1963 Penn basketball team led by John Wideman, later a novelist.
Bob Levin
Berkeley, Calif.
September 8, 2011
T. Coraghessan Boyles’ short story, “56-0,” says it all. It’s in his collected short stories as well as his Without A Hero collection. If you haven’t read it, you should. Best sports story ending ever!
Joseph Glantz
Levittown, Pa.
September 10, 2011
Editor’s comment: Don’t forget Irwin Shaw’s 1940 short story, “The 80-yard Run,” and Jason Miller’s 1972 play, That Championship Season, both about youthful sports heroes forced to confront the emptiness and failure of their adult lives.
Dan’s experiences regarding character building are all very well. But in a wider context it seems to me that the American obsession with sport has much to do with the dire state of education in this country, and the deterioration in the country’s reputation and prosperity that in part results from it.
Walk past any American high school, and what you will see on some kind of illuminated sign suggests a sports team with a sideline in education. On such signs you only read proclamations like “Home of the Knights"— never “Home of the Scholars.” And when a young person is involved in something newsworthy, or, sadly, dies, the description always features “athlete,” never “literature enthusiast” or anything like that.
Years ago, living in Philadelphia, I watched a news bulletin about the proposal to build another school in a suburb where population was increasing. The mother of a student there, interviewed on TV, was asked what she thought about the plan. She replied, “Oh, that’s great— that means we can have three great football teams instead of two.” I would have been less surprised and saddened if a man had said that. But a woman?
Until this skewed set of priorities is corrected, American education will continue to go to hell in a handbasket.
Bernard Jacobson
Bremerton, Wash.
September 15, 2011
In the ’60s, when I played high school football and was recruited by several Ivy League schools, it was considered a great honor to be regarded as a student athlete. I was mentored by great Penn athletes like Bob Mlkvy, who went on to become a great medical professional, and John B. Kelly Jr., who encouraged me to matriculate at Penn and involve myself in rowing. Great men, no matter the sport, were role models and recruiting giants because of their character and their ability to convey that nature and attract youth to emulate them.
Joe Paterno may never coach another national championship team, but he has the distinction of recruiting student athletes and developing great men.
Successful amateur programs should be judged by the ability to civilize the beast and create an oasis out of the jungle.
How often do you reflect on the ’hood that was Penn back in the ’60s to the Society Hill that it is today? How easy it is to get great student athletes to commit to attending Penn with the demographics and opportunities it offers today?
It doesn’t hurt to have families like the Perelmans kicking in and sharing the wealth.
Jason Brando
Center City/ Philadelphia
September 22, 2011
...And what about soccer?
Tom Purdom’s review of The Ball is Round captures the essence of a 900-page book on soccer and makes it almost as exciting as the game. It shows how and why Americans didn’t join most of the world in playing soccer and makes one think we should still join in.
William L. Clovis
Center City
August 27, 2011
Well hit, Mr. Purdom! One has to wonder: If the British had managed to squash the American Revolution, would we be playing soccer, too, and not football and baseball as we know them?
I once carried the first aid kit for a young soccer team at Albany State College for Teachers in 1958 (we had an Italian ringer on the team!) and I still wonder: Who would willingly play a game where you hit the ball with your head??
Sanford Meschkow
Wynnewood, Pa.
August 27, 2011
Tom Purdom replies: We might still be shunning soccer even if George III’s hirelings had defeated our noble patriotic volunteers. India didn’t leave the empire until after World War II, but the big attraction there today is cricket, not soccer. Of the English-speaking countries that still consider Queen Elizabeth II their sovereign, Australia has its own brand of football, Canada chose ice hockey, and New Zealand favors rugby.
As a youthful baseball nut, I find the European obsession with soccer totally irrational. If I couldn’t catch ESPN snatches of American baseball and football on German TV, I’d go temporarily insane during their “football” playoffs. Down with Arnold’s stiff upper limbs and British imperial detritus.
Patrick D. Hazard
Weimar, Germany
September 2, 2011
The Help: Racism or meanness?
While The Help is flawed and perhaps overly simplistic in certain ways, the mere fact that the film has engendered widespread discussion and criticism, such as Alaina Mabaso’s, means that it has already succeeded. As the highest-grossing film of the last several weeks, The Help has brought the topic of racism to the fore more than any other event or work of art since then-candidate Obama’s noted Philadelphia speech— his “Beer Summit” notwithstanding.
While Mabaso concentrates on Hilly’s equal-opportunity misanthropy in discussing the supposed lack of seriousness of her racism, I think she misses the more important point of how easily the other women unthinkingly follow Hilly. Not to overuse the Nazi trope but since Mabaso brought it up in her review, it’s the fact that so many ordinary Germans stood by and then ultimately participated in the Nazi horrors that indicted the evil of that society. So, too, here.
No film or book can really capture the total reality of something so complex as racism— or even the racism of one small segment of society in time. But I think The Help made a case for one plausible reality, while recognizing the audience’s intelligence to understand that it was softened and its rough edges smoothed out in order to make a popular entertainment. That is a tolerable trade-off in order to have the conversations we’re now having.
Stephen Perloff
Langhorne, Pa.
September 7, 2011
The Orchestra vs. the Phillies
Re “The Orchestra vs. the Phillies,” by Clarence Faulcon—
What the Phillies have done is win. So how can the Orchestra do this? They have tried many of the items listed in the study Clarence Faulcon cited, so I guess “winning” means something else.
Perhaps the egregious ways revenue is generated by “add-ons” to ticket prices via Ticket Philadelphia’s “service fees” might be a place to begin reform.
I, a loyal fan, subscriber and donor, used to buy extra tickets only when I could get to the box office, but now even that charges a fee. If I purchase six tickets to one concert using my credit card (one transaction), I am scalped for a service fee for each ticket.
While I haven’t quit the concerts because of these fees, I have come close to doing so. Perhaps policies such as these cause “trialists” to become quitters. After all, the Orchestra doesn’t have Stub Hub!
Mary L. Silverstein
Chestnut Hill/ Philadelphia
September 7, 2011
The Arsonists
Re Gresham Riley’s review of The Arsonists—
I talked to a woman the day after she saw this play. She said she laughed throughout the performance but later that night got shivers as the deeper layers sank in. Max Frisch intended that.
When we, as audience members, encounter a multi-layered work by a multi-layered genius, we only have the intellect or temperament to understand and appreciate half of the work at one time. Frisch wrote a comedy/tragedy. We might see just the humor. Or we might see the play’s deeper message and regard the humor as a trivialization of it.
Every scene of The Arsonists is peppered with lines like “Explain the joke to me” or “Some jokes travel, others don’t” or “Why are you laughing?”
It’s not Rod Serling who comes to my mind but James Whale, another multi-layered genius who directed the original Frankenstein movie with Boris Karloff. When people told Whale that they enjoyed his movie, he would ask if they laughed during it. He claimed that he actually intended the movie to be funny but he knew full well that most people would see it only as a horror movie.
Tom Dura
Fishtown/ Philadelphia
September 10, 2011
America without Texas
Re “Where would we be without Texas?” by Dan Rottenberg (Editor’s Notebook)—
Thanks for one of the few (sort of) positive pieces on Texas written by a Yankee in a long time. Yes, there is oil (pronounced “awl") and plutocrats with lots of “cash money.” And, of course, there are right-of-right politicians like Rick “Goodhair” Perry. (Kinky Friedman wants his ashes scattered in Perry’s mane.)
But there is much more. Dan Rottenberg’s essay misses some important elements of life there: the spirit and sense of place (the pride of being a Texan is infectious); the hard-working millions who scratch out livings along the border and elsewhere; people having happy lives in the (dwindling number of) small towns (places with one traffic light and one Dairy Queen); the artists, writers, and musicians who bring joy to the rest of the world.
Also, it is important to remember that there are great progressive populist voices, hardy folks like Jim Hightower and the scribes of the Texas Observer.
These are the real Texans, and more of your readers would be happy and surprised to know some of them.
Norman Glickman
Princeton N.J.
August 31,2011
It is true that the 26 million Texas citizens are hardworking and productive, mostly at minimum wages. It is also true that Van Cliburn played well in 1958. If I may correct one point, it is no longer true that Texas executes more people than the rest of the Union combined, although it still contributes its share. I trust Governor Perry will work to rectify this when it is brought to his attention.
I have enjoyed the hospitality of a distinguished research center in Texas. I have published in the Texas Review. I have met a former Texas prosecutor who traveled all the way to Philadelphia to express his remorse to death penalty exonerees. I have also seen a man with arms silently upraised on a Texas street, awaiting the Rapture.
I think we can all agree that Texas is— well, not Oklahoma.
Robert Zaller
Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
August 30, 2011
Here in Vermont, we tell a story about a Big Texan who was driving his Big American Car along a back road. He stopped at an old farmhouse where the farmer was sitting on his porch.
"Hey, old timer, how much land you got here?” the Texan asked
"About 150 acres, give or take,” the Vermont farmer replied.
"Why, where I come from,” the Big Texan sneered, “I can get in my car in the morning, drive all day, and never leave my land.”
"Yup," replied the Vermont farmer, “I had a car like that once. I got rid of it.”
Bob Rottenberg
Brattleboro, Vt.
August 31, 2011
Where would college football be without President Nixon’s anointment of Texas in 1969 as national champion even though Penn State was also undefeated? “I’d like to know,” coach Joe Paterno later asked Penn State graduates, “how could the President know so little about Watergate in 1973 and so much about college football in 1969?”
Legend has it that Dallas, Texas was named after George Mifflin Dallas— a former mayor of Philadelphia, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and vice-president under James Polk. Though it’s also thought it may have been named after his brother or his father — both from downtown Philly.
Joseph Glantz
Levittown, Pa.
September 1, 2011
Valentina Lisitsa
Re “The greatest pianist you never heard of,” by Dan Coren (January 2011)—
I have yet to be disappointed with any piece played by Valentina Lisitsa. Her YouTube site is a wealth of fantastic performances and insightful commentary, including historical background, which she often provides. She even responds to many fan comments.
I’m looking forward to her album coming out in October with Hilary Hahn playing the Ives Violin Sonatas Which can be pre-ordered on Amazon.
By the way, I hear she also plays a mean game of chess!
Mark S. Van Vlack
Middletown, N.Y.
September 17, 2011
Antioch College revival
Re “The demise of Antioch College,” by Ralph Keyes (August 2007)—
It is true that the unexamined life is oft worthless. A liberal or conservative extreme mindset begets sorrow, misery and death— physically, intellectually or both.
I take great hope, though, in the in the folks who are trying to resurrect Antioch into an example of the best of the real liberal arts tradition: the honest and protected exercise of the questioning human mind.
T.J. McGinty
Colorado Springs, Colo.
September 20, 2011
Struggles of jazz
Re “Who will rescue jazz?” by Armen Pandola—
There seem to be two schools of thought about jazz performance. One consists of artists who welcome the opportunity to perform in concert, where patrons are not drinking alcohol, cash registers are not ringing and audiences are not talking during a quiet bass solo. The other group (which also includes many performers) seems to enjoy the informal atmosphere of a club, where you can eat and drink without offending the performer.
Surely the cost has something to do with one’s preference. In high-priced New York clubs, there seems to be an unwritten rule that you don’t talk during a performance. Many jazz musicians would like the same respect paid to their art.
While many bemoan the lack of jazz jam sessions, the truth is that many musicians are earning no more than they did 20 years ago, so they’ve been forced to take jobs outside of music to survive. Perhaps they lack the energy or the resources to travel to attend these late-night weekday sessions where the stench of cigarette smoke still prevails.
Richard Harner, who is mentioned in Armen Pandola’s article, is a retired neurologist, so unlike many jazz musicians he can afford to take gigs at rates other musicians wouldn’t accept.
Musicians are not unlike other working people in that they want better working conditions and pay for their efforts. Sure, it’s great to go play your instrument, but it’s tiresome going to a place of business that serves alcohol and sometimes asks the musicians who are “sitting in” to also pay a cover charge!
The notion of a jam session or jazz workshop where young musicians can learn and gain experience is still vital. However it’s understandable in this economic climate that the arts would be the first to be sacrificed, given the choice of paying for your mortgage, rent, food for your family or gas for your vehicle.
Robert Stone
Bryn Mawr, Pa.
August 28, 2011
Editor’s note: The writer is a jazz musician.
I have maintained the Phillyjazz.org website since 1995. Compared to the jazz scene when I returned to Philadelphia in the early ’80s, it has never really come back to where it should be.
As Armen Pandola indicated in his article, bebop became a very esoteric form of jazz appreciated mostly by musicians or highly educated and sophisticated listeners. It’s funny though, that some masters like Cannonball Adderley and Art Blakey managed to bridge the gap between physical and intellectual jazz. Philadelphia musicians know how to do that as well.
Jan R Klincewicz
Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
August 28, 2011
A friend of mine who knows more about jazz than I will know in five lifetimes claims that good jazz died when the long-play records came out.
Prior to that, the jazz musicians had to say in three minutes what they wanted to say. With the long-play records, he says, the performer can go on for seeming hours making noise but not saying anything.
Andrew Kevorkian
West Philadelphia
August 31, 2011
We have been playing jazz at the 23rd Street Cafe every Tuesday night for over 21 years, 7:30 to 11:30pm James Witherite and Richard Harner will often perform. Please come and bring your friends. We guarantee your enjoyment!
Hal Rutenberg
Villanova, Pa.
August 28, 2011
Parkour
Re “Welcome to the urban world of Parkour,” by Jim Rutter—
Parkour is older than your article suggests. It was originated about a century ago by the former French naval officer Georges Hébert. During a visit to Africa, he was impressed by the physical development and skills of indigenous tribes that he met. “Their bodies were splendid,” he noted, “flexible, nimble, skillful, enduring, and resistant but yet they had no other tutor in gymnastics but their lives in nature.”
Hébert set up a méthode naturelle session consisting of ten fundamental groups— walking, running, jumping, quadrupedal movement, climbing, balancing, throwing, lifting, self-defense and swimming— which are part of three main forces: Energetic or virile sense, moral sense and physical sense.
During World War I and World War II, Hébert’s teaching continued to expand, becoming the standard system of French military education and training. Thus, Hébert was one of the proponents of parcours, an obstacle course that is standard in military training and led to the development of civilian fitness trails and confidence courses.
Roger Garrison
Arden, Del.
August 31, 2011
Civil War re-enactors
Re “Those Civil War re-enactments,” by Jackie Atkins—
I know a couple of guys who do this, and folks more knowledgeable about this defining moment in America you will not find. One sells paint, the other does something with computers. They read everything that comes out about the Civil War, and are more conversant with the complexities and contradictions of our country than anyone I’ve ever met.
Far from entertainers or pranksters, they engage history with sweat and knowledge, giving them that curious combination of pride and humility common to those who work very hard at something. Their re-enactments show— in as imperfect a way, perhaps, as reading a book shows— what happened, and what the terrible cost was. I respect that, and them.
Kile Smith
Fox Chase/ Philadelphia
August 31, 2011
Editor’s comment: I concur. In the course of researching my most recent book— about the opening of the West between the Mexican and Civil Wars— I discovered that amateur historians are often much more dedicated and passionate about their chosen subjects than professionals.
King Memorial
Re “The King Memorial fiasco,” by Robert Zaller—
I have not seen the King Memorial, other than photos, so can hardly respond regarding its artistic merits. I do wonder, however, how African-Americans feel about it. I think that is what is most important. It is a monument to their struggle, their leader of peace. Of course, ultimately, it is a monument for all Americans who care deeply about peace and justice. But to be honest, it must speak to those King spoke for and to most directly. I would like to see an essay from someone besides another Caucasian— albeit caring— like myself.
Amy Small-McKinney
Blue Bell, Pa.
August 31, 2011
Zaller’s connecting the greediness of King’s heirs with the sad but possibly temporary triumph of the American cashocracy is exemplary. But we are all de facto heirs of King’s priceless idealism, a heritage we can affirm every day by emulating him. Did you know that the famous wit Dorothy Parker (”Men don’t make passes/ At girls who wear glasses”) was arrested and fined for rioting against the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti? And that she left her modest $20,000 “fortune” to Martin Luther King, and her future royalties to the NAACP?
My point is that every one of us can “vote” daily to our allegiance for King’s egalitarianism.
Patrick D. Hazard
Weimar, Germany
August 29, 2011
Evening with Miles Davis
“My evening with Miles Davis,” by Bob Ingram (July 2010), was very well written but a real letdown. I was expecting, via the title, to hear about a fascinating conversation with Davis. Just a drug story?
Pax Riddle
Phoenixville, Pa.
August 28, 2011
Bob Ingram replies: Yes, just another drug story, but it does provide some insight into Miles Davis. Read his autobio if you want inside stuff— some bullshit, but when he talks about music, dead on.
Rape and apology
I read the responses to your column on rape and Lara Logan as well as your subsequent apology, and I do not quite get what you apologized for.
What happened to Lara Logan was horrible, but she bears some responsibility for wading into a crazed mob, with a bit of cleavage showing, I might add (judging from the “60 Minutes” report I watched). Her outfit wasn’t close to the photo that accompanied your original piece, but it was still quite reckless, given the kind of mob she was about to wade into.
Her shtick was always the ballsy war reporter hottie. It brought her fame and wealth, I suppose, and was good for her employer, but risky business.
But this complaint is not just a woman thing: I also think the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was irresponsible for going off to meet with a group of Islamists in Pakistan, thus risking his life and depriving his young wife and unborn child a husband and father.
Ronald James
Wynnewood, Pa.
August 30, 2011
Editor’s comment: Good journalists, like soldiers, police officers and firefighters, understand that at some point they may need to put their lives on the line.
Ronald James replies: Soldiers and cops are armed and trained to operate in dangerous situations and are therefore equipped to defend themselves. Both Daniel Pearl and Lara Logan were helpless but perfectly willing victims.
♦
Respond to this Article
|
