http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/art+culture/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Fri, 02 Jun 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2666/pow_shazaam_it_inoriteam/ Dr. Wang is the epitome of nearly every Asian stereotype etched into American consciousness. His skin has a bright yellow cast; his eyes are set in an exaggerated slant. He owns a laundromat, speaks with a ludicrous accent, drives poorly and is incredibly good at math. But Dr. Wang is more than just your garden-variety racial caricature. On "Minoriteam," he is a crusading, wheelchair-bound superhero with a 40-pound brain, who uses profits from his laundromat to head up an equally preposterous group of ethnic superheroes devoted to overthrowing their nemesis: the omnipresent White Shadow. "We use power of racial stereotype to destroy White Shadow," he cries out during one of the episodes. It's Dr. Wang's way of saying, perhaps, that… art and culture television race Akito Yoshikane Tue, 06 Jun 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2667/iraq_on_the_big_screen/ Who should define what a war is "about"? By any ethical standard, that right should fall to the besieged--those who were waged upon, the people with the most corpses and the least to gain from combat. Of course, in reality, an armed conflict's character is limned by the powerful, in whose mitts the media will, as we all know, contort, grind and dilute matters of truth to fit the message of the campaign. The cold facts about the Iraq ordeal--from lies and sword-rattling to tens of thousands of murdered civilians and an increasingly dedicated "insurgence" (a misapplied word carefully chosen by the think tanks, and reflexively used by nearly every public voice)--are visible from a modest height. But that's not… Iraq War Art and Culture Movies Akito Yoshikane Fri, 16 Jun 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2701/kal_black_like_me/ A new generation of Roma are insisting on rights and dignity, and an innovative Belgrade-based musical group is more than willing to be a voice of liberation for the lengo drom ahead. In the Romani language, lengo drom refers to the "long road." In the thousand years since the ancestors of today's Roma people left India, it has been a long road--as daring and far-flung an exodus as any people have managed to achieve. Today, with their nomadic lifestyle fading, Roma live in Israel, Brazil, Finland, the United States and the Roma "motherland," India. (In India and the Middle East, they are known as the Doma.) The greatest concentration of Romani families are in Serbia, Hungary, France, Macedonia, the Czech… Race Music Art and Culture Akito Yoshikane Fri, 30 Jun 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2705/perpetuating_the_yellow_peril/ At first glance, Jeff Adachi's Slanted Screen is an earnest documentary that covers familiar ground. The shameful depiction of minorities--in this case, Asian-American men--in television and film is hardly news. What makes the movie special, however, is that it offers a rare view of Hollywood from the inside. Apart from the occasional talking head, the interviewees are actors, producers, directors and screenwriters. Part of the movie's interest lies in their horror stories, which are likely to make even the most jaded viewer cringe. Producer Terence Chang--whose big-budget credits include Mission Impossible II, Face-Off and Broken Arrow--describes being told to change the race of the white villain in the script for the Chow Yun Fat vehicle, The Replacement Killers, and make… Race Gender Movies Art and Culture Akito Yoshikane Tue, 25 Jul 2006 05:00:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2743/jane_jacobs_reconsidered/ When Jane Jacobs died this past spring, the flood of obituaries carried with them a litany of praise. Jacobs, they said, had faced down the great, infamous builder Robert Moses, ended neighborhood-killing urban renewal policies, and transformed urban planning with her lyrical evocation of Greenwich Village's "intricate sidewalk ballet" in The Death and Life of Great American Cities. And yet, these sorts of tributes to a "legend"--while not undeserved--gloss over political and historical context, and drown questions of Jacobs' larger significance for postwar history in a readymade bath of piety and awe. So it is welcome that, after a fitting period of mourning and tribute, the first book-length treatment of Jacobs' life and work, Alice Sparberg Alexiou's Jane Jacobs: Urban… books art and culture architecture Akito Yoshikane Tue, 01 Aug 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2744/cmon_get_happy/ Toward the end of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Crack-Up," an essay about his personal decline during the Great Depression, he wrote, "The natural state of the sentient adult is a qualified unhappiness." Glancing at the headlines today, it's hard not to agree. Within the past six months, a spate of books on happiness has appeared in stores as if to remind us of our right to pursue it. Positive-psychology enthusiasts Daniel Gilbert and Jonathan Haidt arrived with Stumbling on Happiness and The Happiness Hypothesis, respectively. Former cell biologist-cum-Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, with Richard Gere's seal of approval, wrote Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill. And Darrin M. McMahon, an intellectual historian, produced the exhaustively researched and edifying… books religion and spirituality art and culture Akito Yoshikane Thu, 10 Aug 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2740/superheroes_invisibles_no_m/ On a pleasant June evening, I'm seated across the table from photographer Dulce Pinzón in a crowded Mexican restaurant in Brooklyn. Looking over the menu while trying to come up with a few reasonably articulate questions for an interview, I notice out of my right eye a broad-shouldered worker rushing by our table. He looks strangely familiar. "Is that ... Hombre Elástico?" Pinzón nods--it is Mr. Fantastic, the man of astounding intelligence and extreme malleability, leader of the Fantastic Four (and who, in Spanish-speaking countries, is known as the "Elastic Man"). Even without the three-foot-long forearms and the blue six-pack stomach, I remember his photo clearly, with his chubby cheeks and easy smile on display as he delivers a dish… art and culture immigration activism Akito Yoshikane Mon, 14 Aug 2006 05:00:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2729/narcissists_us/ "It seems like just yesterday I was at the White House staying in the Lincoln bedroom, and everything was wonderful." These were the words of former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland to a group of teenagers in early July. Rowland was trying to explain his downward trajectory from one of the Republican Party's favored political "stars" to standing in line for toilet paper in a federal prison. He described his "sense of entitlement" as a political persona. "Before you know it, you're doing things you never thought you'd do in the past. ... Then you send that message to others." The former governor no doubt got the message from those who influenced him in his rise to power, including the president… books art and culture politics Akito Yoshikane Wed, 16 Aug 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2780/why_hemingway_is_chick_lit/ "When women stop reading, the novel will be dead," declared Ian McEwan in the Guardian last year. The British novelist reached this rather dire conclusion after venturing into a nearby park in an attempt to give away free novels. The result? Only one "sensitive male soul" took up his offer, while every woman he approached was "eager and grateful" to do the same. Unscientific as McEwan's experiment may be, its thesis is borne out by a number of surveys conducted in Britain, the United States and Canada, where men account for a paltry 20 percent of the market for fiction. Unlike the gods of the literary establishment who remain predominantly male--both as writers and critics--their humble readers are overwhelmingly female.… art and culture books gender Akito Yoshikane Thu, 24 Aug 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2775/the_true_temptations_of_the_west/ The phrase "Third World poverty," conjures up CNN-inspired images of starving, fly-infested babies clutching at their emaciated parents. This is raw human desperation that even we, in the comfort of our First-World homes, can comprehend. But what's more difficult to imagine is the fate of the other hundreds of millions in these distant countries caught right in the cusp between such disaster and survival. They are truck drivers, street vendors, house-maids, unemployed college graduates, and farmers who lead precarious, desperate lives scratching and flailing against going under in a teeming mass of humanity. Theirs is a world where success is a small step up the social ladder, achieved against enormous odds and at great expense to one's soul. Except for… books art and culture s.e. Asia Akito Yoshikane Thu, 31 Aug 2006 06:27:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2804/pushing_back_against_ad_censorship/ A few months ago, MoveOn PAC decided to air a series of innovative ads against a group of vulnerable Republican members of Congress, tied to the various corruption scandals enveloping GOP-controlled Washington. They developed a striking image to serve as the ads' centerpiece: the "Caught Red-Handed" series features photos of a member of Congress in black-and-white, except for his or her hands, which are colored bright red. The visual, accompanied by a voiceover listing allegations, is memorable, and communicates the ad's central claim, making it highly unusual in a world of cookie-cutter, instantly forgettable campaign ads. The only problem came when MoveOn PAC went to buy time for their ads. As Joel Bleifuss recently reported in In These Times, though… media politics art and culture Akito Yoshikane Fri, 01 Sep 2006 05:00:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2782/plagiarists_catch_your_own_clue/ Plagiarism is on the rise--in journalism, by bestselling authors, on college campuses and online. But the one thing those of us victimized by it can't do is speak up. If we do, we are accused of "sour grapes." Occasionally, reporters who make things up (Jayson Blair) or copy from another newspaper (most recently New York Post reporter Andy Geller) do get fired or suspended for sheer fabrication or thievery. But increasingly, only the form of expression is protected: I can steal your ideas all I want as long as I put them in my own words. Educators are supposed to teach our students that intellectual theft is the worst crime they can commit in the academy, yet these same students… Art and Culture Books Akito Yoshikane Fri, 29 Sep 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2836/youtube_in_meworld/ Americans are hams. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? The country's motto should be "look at me, look at me!" It's too easy to dismiss such behavior as exhibitionism or acting out. Today large swaths of the populace feel nonexistent without an audience. This tendency to seek attention has accelerated with the recent explosion of social networking and video sharing Web sites. Ostensibly, these sites help us to connect with friends, families and the like-minded, but their names belie this. On MySpace and YouTube, making friends is secondary to generating a virtual fanbase, an online altar to yourself. Why has this compulsion to see and be seen overtaken so many of us? Anthropologist Thomas de Zengotita explores this question… technology television art and culture Akito Yoshikane Tue, 03 Oct 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2837/jesus_is_tragic/ Kids are cute. Documentaries confirm this, from the nerdy word-whizzes of Spellbound to the agile dancers of Mad Hot Ballroom. But in the new documentary Jesus Camp, children are terrifying symbols of the Christian Right's power to indoctrinate, manipulate and control. The film's creators, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, directed another kid-centered chronicle, The Boys of Baraka, which follows a group of inner city teenage boys from Baltimore as they spend a year at a school in Kenya. In Jesus Camp they venture to the American heartland for an eye-opening journey into the lives of Evangelical Christians, specifically their Jesus-loving spawn. Conservatives may hail the film as a celebration of their supremacy; for secular humanists, Democrats and the 49 percent… movies art and culture religion and spirituality Akito Yoshikane Fri, 20 Oct 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2838/history_we_can_use/ Standing in the kitchen of a rehabbed Manhattan tenement, a tour guide at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum tells visitors the story of the Baldizzis, a Sicilian-Catholic family who lived in the building from 1928 to 1935. Amid typical anecdotes of self-help in hard times, the guide discusses aspects of the immigrant family's experience that are usually glossed over in museums. Both parents came illegally to the United States. When Home Relief inspectors visited the apartment, the family would hide belongings that might make them ineligible for public aid. The father, a skilled cabinetmaker, found work through WPA programs until jobs in war industries became available. The experiences of the Baldizzis give visitors a chance to think about the… art and culture activism Akito Yoshikane Fri, 27 Oct 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2872/virginity_or_death_a_conversation_with_katha_pollitt/ In September, Nation columnist Katha Pollitt stopped by the offices of In These Times for a public discussion of her latest book, Virginity or Death! And Other Social and Political Issues of Our Time. While it's become commonplace to describe journalism as a "rough draft of history," this collection of Pollitt's columns rises to the level of history itself. From the start of Bush's first term through September 11 and the waxing and waning of the Iraq invasion in early '06, Pollitt offers a running chronicle of the issues of the day. She tackles each topic with humor and passion, always returning to the central role that women play in U.S. and international politics. "The solution is obvious," she writes… Art and Culture Gender Books Politics activism Akito Yoshikane Fri, 22 Dec 2006 05:00:01 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2943/dread_beats/ When I first heard Linton Kwesi Johnson's words, they came flowing through a nearly blown-out sound system in a Los Angeles punk club in the early '80s. I could barely hear him, but something about the intensity of his delivery--urgent, streetwise and intellectual--over a pulsing reggae beat made me take notice. Pressed up against the stage, I turned my small, 15-year-old frame around to watch as a handful of older punks begin to chant the lyrics, mimicking Johnson's thick, Jamaican Creole English: it woz in april nineteen eight wan doun inna di ghetto af Brixtan dat di babylan dem cauz such a frickshan dat it bring about a great insohreckshan an it spread all owevah di naeshan it woz truly… art culture race Akito Yoshikane Wed, 27 Dec 2006 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2963/art_basel_miami_beach_a_whitewash/ Since 2001, Samuel Keller, the aging arts wunderkind, has inspired the art world's most seminal and explosive art exposition, Art Basel Miami Beach.  What's more, the Swiss-born arts impresario seems to have cloned himself and is replicating at an alarming rate. Miami's sunny landscape is already resplendent with lush palms, stylized Deco palaces, pastels and pelicans. Now it is host to ubiquitous arts aficionados, all sporting the Keller look--stylishly understated, bare-pated and European. Basketball phenom Michael Jordan validated baldness for black men.  Now Keller has creatively flipped that script for the white male. At Basel, bald is beautiful.  Still, much remains to be done. I have been covering the festival since it launched five years ago. Lamentably, in all that time,… art culture europe Akito Yoshikane Thu, 22 Feb 2007 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3049/mardi_gras_flame/ The neighborhood where my cousins raised their children still looks like a ghost town, and everyone I know can count on their fingers two handfuls of people they know who have died since Katrina. But during this second Mardi Gras since the storm, the survivors are visible and they are holding on to their culture with the tenacity of pit bulls, with (and mostly without) government assistance. Pontchartrain Park, Gentilly and the 7th Ward are not the most devastated areas of New Orleans. (The Industrial Canal did not rush through their homes on the day after the hurricane with the force of a tsunami.) But they are areas that took anywhere from two feet to more than 10 feet of… art culture race Akito Yoshikane Thu, 10 May 2007 12:52:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3181/in_praise_of_pageantry/ This past January I spent a week in a chilly warehouse in Tacoma, Wash., making puppets with 20 other activists to support Army First Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse deployment to Iraq. We were creating a play to perform on Feb. 5 at the vigil outside the gates of Fort Lewis, Wash., where his court-martial--which would end in a mistrial--was being held. We spent hours painting, taping, cutting, gluing, eating and talking. For the characters in our play, we created a 15-foot-tall judge with a sculpted cardboard head and paper mâché hands, jurors and witnesses, and, for our finale, doves and suns to end with a vision of a beautiful future. But art and activism… activism art culture theory Akito Yoshikane