May 20

On Point addresses the startling and upsetting series of attacks on schoolchildren in China over the past two months:

http://www.onpointradio.org/2010/05/interpreting-chinas

Here is a timeline of the six attacks (March 23, April 28, 29, and 30, May 12 and 16):

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/05/12/china.school.attack.timeline/index.html

Marc Bousquet and Megan McArdle take on the unbelievable blindness of the American professoriat with respect to the heinous labor practices in their own institutions:

American faculty aren't leftists; they're liberals, deeply influenced by market ideology and fantasies about meritocratic education outcomes (wonderfully unencumbered by data). They work in institutions that manufacture and legitimate steep economic inequalities that hamper the progress of other egalitarian commitments....[Their] commitments to equality are relatively clear in matters of ethnicity and gender, but hopelessly confused when it comes to class and workplace issues generally.
 
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/The-Worst-Paid-High-School/24127/

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/05/why-does-academia-treat-its-workforce-so-badly/56829/

The other day, I mentioned Josh Brolin's serious approach to choosing the films he appears in and the directors he works with. Another of like mind is the star of the Star Trek reboot, Chris Pine, who is taking on serious roles on stage, including an upcoming part in Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant of Inishmore:

“I’m going to struggle and try my best to search out the roles that are a little more interesting and not based on how good your tan looks and how coiffed your hair is,” Pine said....So [he] has been studying the log of such...captains of his industry as Paul Newman. Pine’s other American idols? “George Clooney, for the conversation about commerce and art. Daniel Day-Lewis for his almost monkish pursuit of protecting artistic integrity, which I’m in sheer awe of. I would certainly love to be held in the kind of esteem he is. Sean Penn and Gary Oldman, I’ve had an acting crush on for years."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/05/chris-pine-to-star-in-the-lieutenant-of-inishmore-at-the-mark-taper-forum.html

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/06/star-treks-chris-pine-boldly-goes-in-search-of-challenging-roles-.html 

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/06/review-farragut-north-at-the-geffen-playhouse.html

Let me say this in the most whole-hearted way: I applaud Chris Pine, I applaud Josh Brolin, for taking their craft seriously and for having a real sense of responsibility toward it. I believe that most gifted actors share their passion, and I think it is incumbent on us as audience members to support their efforts to work on challenging and interesting projects. Bravo, gentlemen.

If you were waiting patiently for a sense of occasion to manifest itself at Cannes 2010, Olivier Assayas is here to oblige you with his 5 1/2 hour biopic of Carlos the Jackal:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/revolutionary-militant-as-thug/

http://blogs.indiewire.com/toddmccarthy/archives/carlos1/ 

http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/latest-reviews/carlos/5014221.article

I learned long ago not to underestimate Assayas; I didn't much like Late August, Early September the first time I saw it -- but talk about films that bloom in the mind!

RIP: Hank Jones. In honor of the great jazz pianist's death, Leonard Lopate has re-posted a December 2005 interview from his New York radio show. I love to hear Jones at age 85 affirming the importance of daily practice. It reminds me of the story of the young Curt Flood observing his fellow St. Louis Cardinal and baseball elder statesman Stan Musial in the late Fifties. Flood realized that if this immortal still took extra batting practice every day, how could he hope to prosper on less effort?

http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/articles/web-extras/2010/may/18/hank-jones/

Painter Ron Ehrlich is in the main line of color-inspired modernists:

http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=38143

http://www.stephenhallergallery.com/Pages/ehrlich.html

Among notables born on this date are novelists Honore de Balzac, Hector Malot, and Sigrid Undset, playwright Wolfgang Borchert, philosopher John Stuart Mill, architect William Thornton, baseball player Sadaharu Oh, rock singer Joe Cocker, pop singers Cher and Iz, and actors James Stewart, Dave Thomas, Anthony Zerbe, and Timothy Olyphant. I had no idea who Iz (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole) is until a friend came back from Hawaii with a stack of Iz CDs. I was glad to be educated: Iz, who died way too young in 1997 at age 38, is hugely important to Hawaiians. He had a delicate, poetic gift as both a singer and a ukulele player, and it is a terrible shame that he was afflicted by the morbid obesity that eventually killed him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Kamakawiwo%27ole

http://iz.honoluluadvertiser.com/story_activist.html

http://archives.starbulletin.com/2006/08/15/features/story01.html