Over the past week, there has been much in the British news about the proposed 25% government cut to arts funding, the UK Film Council being one of its recent victims. Among other reasons, supporters for government funding see the…
Inception is one of those films worth your money to see on the big screen. The filming and special effects were exhilarating, together with an equally mind-bending plot. Rather than analyze the technicalities of the film, summarise its plot, or…
Earlier this week I found out that Simon Cowell is being sued by a participant of Britain’s Got Talent for telling her she couldn’t sing. While Cowell’s style is not always kind or gentle, he certainly cannot be accused of…
This post follows from recent discussions we have been having on the kind of role that human artistry may or may not play in social transformation. Guernica is a painting that focuses these questions and even adds a religious dimension.…
Tim Lowly is an artist whose work I have admired for a long time. Here is some information that his website offers: Tim Lowly lives and works in Chicago. Among the bags that he carries: making art, making music, curating…
This past week, the New York Times ran an article on Christo’s most recently proposed work “Over the River,” in particular, the stir it has caused with the Bureau of Land Management. Recently, the bureau “issued what may be the…
Several years ago a friend of mine, coincidentally also named Ben, first made me aware that the Toy Story movies had theological significance. As I plan to see Toy Story 3 this weekend, I have revisited some of the ideas…
I recently watched Brick Lane, a film adaptation of the novel by Monica Ali. Set in the East End of London, the film (and the book) engages with important political and cultural themes of arranged marriage, immigration, extremist religion, revenge,…
In the beginning pages of his latest book Living in the End Times, Slavoj Žižek argues for the different between good taste and true taste. He writes: The only proof of taste is that one knows how to occasionally appreciate…