Contiguous

Palestine does have to be contiguous. Here's a pretty good reason why.

I think it's a great step that President Obama has said that they need to go back to the 1967 borders as a starting point, and promise the Palestinians a contiguous land. It's exactly what we need.

But much like his comments that Assad should have to go, we're left with the question: well, okay, what are you willing to do for it? The Palestinians have recently risked a lot: they've created a unity government to end their civil war (and therefore are no longer able to negotiate with Israel) and are planning on getting UN recognition in September.

So what is America actually planning on doing? Have we changed how far we're willing to push or apply pressure on Israel? Anything?

That's the problem with saying something correct and principled. It then obligates you to correct and principled action.

The Numbers Make Me Sad...

... part of an ongoing series where I point you in the direction of the actual data being generated about the arts.

First up, Ian Moss has his usual fantastic update on the latest news around the country... spoiler alert, it includes a 66% funding cut to Wisconsin's Art Council, Pennsylvania's is facing 68%, and Republicans are mocking the names of silly sounding grants again.

Secondly, Scott Walters is updating us on the imbalance between the amount of grants going to New York, Illinois, and Los Angeles versus the rest of the country (45-69, despite a population balance of 13.6-86.4). Of course, if you want to be really bleak about it, the grant imbalance becomes increasingly more moot every year as arts funding slowly gets cut across the board...

Archive Your Productions!

If you made any theater this past year, please take a moment to fill out a form about your production. Preserve it for the future.

(And if you want to see another archive, you should go watch some Orange Hats)

Things I Am Ambivalent About vol. 323

On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Museum named a new board chairman, Daniel Brodsky, managing director of the Brodsky Organization, a company that owns and manages apartments throughout Manhattan. As the board leader of a major NYC cultural destination, Brodsky understands the value of the arts to his city and his business.

When asked why CEOs of real estate companies are chairing the boards of many of the major NYC cultural institutions, Brodsky said in the New York Times that they were “’very concerned about the viability of the city,’ which cultural activity contributes to, ‘so there’s a logical reason for real estate people to be involved.’”

Courtesy ARTSblog.

Circle Rules Football gets the Wired Treatment

My friends at the Circle Rules Federation have got an article in Wired:

Circle Rules, as it’s usually called, was invented in 2006 by Greg Manley, a student at the Experimental Theater Wing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. For his senior independent project — equivalent to a thesis, but for actors — Manley waved aside writing his own play or producing his own show like his classmates. Instead, he spent his time churning out ideas for the development of a new sport.

The project stemmed from his personal view that all sport is theater: dramatic, theatrical, viewed by an audience of millions. Based on this perception, Manley began to envision the foundation of an entirely new activity, one that highlighted the theatricality and drama inherent in all sports

Circle Rules Football: New York City from Scott Riehs on Vimeo.

My favorite response from the Twitter feed?

"If you're a member of an adult kickball league, you've just been ironically outflanked."

Orange Hats: Queen of the May

I've done quite a few Orange Hats trips, but I have never seen an audience love a show the way they loved this show.

Depressing Arts Statistic of the Day

Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times:

The NEA found across-the-board drops in arts education, based on 18- to 24-year-olds' responses to a 2008 U.S. Census Bureau survey. Among children of a college graduate, 27% said they had never taken even one arts class, compared with 12% in 1982. For children of high school graduates, the number who'd never had any arts study rose from 30% nearly 30 years ago to 66% in 2008.

At least they acknowledge "the overall picture can appear bleak."

(h/t Arts Journal)