The arts today

In a very idle moment I picked up the Thursday arts section of The New York Times to see what was up these days — I hadn’t looked at it for quite a while — and found 5 stories:

• “Holbrook’s Half Century as [Mark] Twain,” about an old chestnut still going strong after 50 years.
• “Race Peers Out Of Masks,” a performance by the Classical Theater of Harlem of Jean Genet’s The Blacks.
• “In a Children’s Opera, a Holocaust Connection,” a performance of a children’s opera composed in 1938 and described as “pleasantly innocuous.” It’s apparently mostly of note because it was initially performed by Jewish children in Nazi-occupied Prague and they all got gassed.
• “It’s All About Hottitude And Tweaking ‘Reality’,” an account, with color photo, of ABC’s show “Are You Hot? The Search for America’s Sexiest People.”
• “Cool Heads, Wet Noses, Beady Eyes On the Prize,” an account of a dog show.

So on a random day we have a living fossil, two victim shows, a sex show that’s so lowbrow that (as the Times cheerfully notes) it’s immune to scandal, and some dogs. Who says there’s a problem with the life of the mind in America today? Diversity is our strength!
Posted by Jim Kalb at February 15, 2003 12:52 PM | Send