Thursday, May 23, 2019

Art of War: Watch Game Of Thrones Season 8 Without Foxtel

“A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety.”
— Ansel Adams

 "Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee
And I'll forgive Thy great big one on me.”


Labor’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, has warned Bill Shorten not to damage the party’s hard-won unity as she throws her support behind leftwinger Anthony Albanese to lead the opposition to the next election.

As the party embarks on an internal leadership contest that will see MPs and party members choose between Albanese and the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen,Wong issued a thinly veiled warning to Shorten to stay out of the process.


NSW Labor leader hopefuls jostling for support as nominations open




Adam Chodorow (Arizona State), Lost in Translation, 97 Taxes 171 (Mar. 2019):
Today’s tax code contains a dizzying array of loss-limiting provisions, serving a wide range of purposes. Some are normative, such as the ban on deducting personal losses, but the vast majority are designed to prevent taxpayers from manipulating the tax rules to gain advantages tax authorities did not intend. These anti-abuse provisions can add significant complexity to the law and are often over- or under-inclusive, sometimes both at the same time. Most articles considering loss limiting provisions focus on only one or two provisions in isolation. This article takes a more comprehensive approach with two key goals.


IN NEW YORK, SCRAPPY LOCAL NEWSPAPER STRUGGLES FOR SURVIVAL: NY Times Editor Dean Baquet Predicts Doom For Local Newspapers: Most Will ‘Die’ in Next Five Years. Note this comment from Baquet:
During his speech before the INMA, Baquet said the “power as a news organization rests in the fact that people know we try to get it right and that we’re not advocating.”
“The story we did about Donald Trump’s taxes, the two stories we’ve done, my honest belief is that, even if you don’t like us, you believe those stories. I think if those stories had appeared in the Nation, which is an openly left publication that I happen to admire, it would not have had the same impact. One of my jobs is to protect the view that, if you like us or not, we try to be fair and we try to get it right and we’re not influenced by political perspective.”










The Endless Discussions Of Game Of Thrones Won’t Stop Tomorrow

AUDIENCE, MEDIAPosted:  


The show, which has earned a lot more viewers in its contentious final season, “was a mass-market hit for the era of no social consensus. … It divided its audience from start to finish, right down to the matter of what a happy ending would even constitute. It gave its intense fandom multiple angles to debate as well as to enjoy: whether it kept faith with the popular novels it was based on; whether it reveled in brutality in the name of critiquing it; whether it well-served its female characters or exploited them; and whether it lost control of its story as it sprinted to the finish.” –The New York Times

 WIRED: 3D-printed guns are back, and this time they are unstoppable. “A decentralised network of gun-printing advocates is mobilising online, they’re anonymously sharing blueprints, advice and building a community. There’s no easy way they can be halted.”



Sara Nelson’s Art of War New Republic  
How Silicon Valley’s successes are fueled by an underclass of ‘ghost workers’ The Verge

Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, just like Austria, have never been part of Eastern Europe. From the very beginning they have taken part in the great adventure of Western civilization, with its Gothic, its Renaissance, its Reformation - a movement that has its cradle precisely in this region. It was there, in Central Europe, that modern culture found its greatest impulses: psychoanalysis, dodecaphony, Bartok's music, Kafka's and Musil's new aesthetics of the novel. The postwar annexation of Central Europe (or at least its major part) by Russian civilization caused Western culture to lose its vital centre of gravity. It is the most significant event in the history of the West in our century, and we cannot dismiss the possibility that the end of Central Europe marked the beginning of the end for Europe as a whole.

... France: for centuries it was the centre of the world and nowadays it is suffering from the lack of great historical events. This is why it revels in radical ideological postures. It is the lyrical, neurotic expectation of some great deed of its own, which is not coming, however, and will never come.

I learned the value of humour during the time of Stalinist terror. I was twenty then. I could always recognize a person who was not a Stalinist, a person hom I needn't fear, by the way he smiled. A sense of humour was a trustworthy sign of recognition. Ever since, I have been terrified by a world that is losing its sense of humour.

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer to everything.

Kundera, interviewed by Philip Roth















After Firing Two Museum Directors, Czech Culture Minister Gets Fired Himself



“A former mayor of Olomouc, [minister Antonín] Staněk made headlines several weeks back when he fired the director of the National Gallery in Prague, Jiří Fajt, and the head of Olomouc’s Museum of Art, Michal Soukup, accusing them of improper management. The domestic arts scene rose up almost in unison against the sackings.” (And then there was a disastrous interview last week.) – Radio Praha


What Does It Mean That Jeff Koons’ Bunny Just Sold For $91 Million? Anything?



Why ‘Game Of Thrones’ Has Been Good For British Theatre


It’s the same reason thatLaw and Orderis good for New York theater, only more so — GoT has arguably pulled some new audiences to see, for example, some Christopher Marlowe and Sam Shepard. – The Stage

The Non-Performing Musicians’ Agent: Is It Fraud, Incompetence Or Unrealistic Hopes?

“The combination of necessary professional arrogance, high hopes, and even bigger disappointment has allowed conspiracy theories to gain currency among the musicians who feel cheated by Evangelista.”  – Vanity 

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