from artsjournal newsletter:

“Is the internet killing real critics?” [dailygorilla.com] – they say “yes”, I say “no”. Criticism, real criticism, has been dead since the early 90’s if not before. Now we have reviewers, which is entirely different. The proliferation of mainstream media and ad-revenue driven journalism, not to mention the culture of entertainment and distraction, the dismantling of arts education begun under Reagan and many, many other factors have led to a dearth of actual critics. It is not the internet’s fault or that of bloggers. 

“The Case Against an American Culture Secretary” [wjs.com]. interesting argument about the nature of the arts/artists and the relative merits of a centralized “Culture  Czar”. Still… it would be nice to find some kind of official, strategic way to re-introduce arts and culture into our society, increase education, art appreciation, literacy, etc.  Worth reading, for sure. And certainly will be a point of debate for the new administration.

and from the NY TIMES Sunday Magazine – “What Do Women Want?” – a fascinating and thought-provoking article on female desire and sexuality. I keep wondering, though, how we move past dyadic models for analyzing sexual arousal and behavior. The overarching idea of sexuality as a spectrum (the Kinsey scale) is old – but it seems like we haven’t made a lot of progress in devising new analytical tools for mapping that spectrum. But maybe I’m just not running with the right crowd!