Work of Art

Miles plots and China Chow cries in Bravo's

This week's challenge paired off the remaining contestants to tackle a series of opposing themes -- male versus female, order versus chaos and heaven versus hell. Each pair had to create a conjoined work of art that would address one set of opposites -- but the pairings produced their own oppositions in the form of interpersonal disagreement and resentment.



Mark clashed with Peregrine on their heaven-versus-hell project. Peregrine wanted to use Mark's abdominal scar as the subject of their artwork, but Mark expressed reservations, only to back down from his objections in order to be a good sport.

But in art as in life, being a good sport doesn't necessarily count for much and shameless self-promoters rule the day.



Miles, who worked with Jaclyn on the male-versus-female assignment, revealed his manipulative and predatory side by quietly maneuvering his partner into taking off her clothes for her portion of the project. As shown in previous episodes, Jaclyn doesn't need much encouragement to strip, but her initial hesitation was sanded away by her partner's smooth insistence.

One artist gets naked (again), one judge cries (a first!)

One thing that’s making Work of Art better TV with each succeeding week is that the usual reality-TV rhythms rarely occur, and unexpected emotions arise. For instance: At the start of the hour, it sounded as though Miles was trying to manipulate Jaclyn into failing. Choosing his words carefully, he said to the camera that he hoped to persuade the frequent exhibitionist to “come up with something pretty [long pause] saucy.” A bit later, Miles was pondering “how I could get Jackie to add nudity to her piece,” and after she’d decided that doing a portrait of herself masturbating would illustrate “a woman gaining control,” Miles was gleefully congratulating himself as being “underhandedly genius.” The impression we got was that Miles assumed the judges would be tired of Jaclyn’s repeated use of her own naked form. But things changed later.



Miles and Jaclyn were the winners, but if Miles had hoped to come out of it the superior of the two, he failed: Jaclyn’s portrait was praised as well. With each week, the once-adorable Miles is looking more and more like a weasel. He blithely admitted he’d coveted the now-gone Ryan’s tar, and had told him it was “really hard” to work with, “so I could use it later.” And when he sucked up to guest judge McGinness (“I adore your black-light installations, man”), well — ick. I know, I know, it’s a competition, one must be ruthless; but that doesn’t mean I can’t separate the work and the game-strategy from a guy who’s increasingly shown to be unpleasant.


Source:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/07/opposites-dont-attract-and-china-chow-cries-in-bravos-work-of-art.html
http://watching-tv.ew.com/2010/07/29/work-of-art-season-1-episode-8/

Obama to deliver major education reform address

The president will discuss how his signature Race to the Top program and other initiatives are driving education reform across the country and focusing the nation on the goal of preparing students for college and careers, a statement from White House said.

Obama wants more accountability for teachers. The teachers unions contend that there is no universal metric that can reliably assess teacher performance, particularly in poor neighborhoods where students experience intense social dislocation. Part of the problem is that nothing seems to work: not charter schools, not tying teachers to student performance, not throwing money at schools, not even curricula reform. There are blips -- a voucher program works here, a charter school works there. Nothing seems to work everywhere. Performance measured in the short term doesn't tell people much about anything, but people grab on to numbers, and the government rewards states who show progress on the numbers, so... states do everything they can to get their numbers up.

"Now, I know some argue that during a recession, we should focus solely on economic issues," Obama says in prepared remarks released by the White House ahead of the address. "But education is an economic issue -- if not the economic issue of our time."

Not all of the finalists, however, will be awarded grants from the nearly $3.4 billion remaining in program, Duncan said, adding that President Obama has requested $1.35 billion for the program in the administration's fiscal 2011 budget.

Source:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/29/education.speech/?hpt=T2#fbid=9KwlUnOYIbJ

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/07/obama-insists-on-performance-standards-for-teachers/60586/

Comic-Con

Disneyland for Nerds

For most of the year, the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego is a hipstery boutique hotel, all darkly gleaming surfaces and pulsing music with a 1950s-themed coffee shop at street level. But every July the San Diego convention center—separated from the hotel by just a few lanes of traffic and a couple of trolley tracks—hosts Comic-Con International, and 150,000 avid fans of comic books, science fiction, horror, action figures, and anime show up looking for a place to get breakfast. So the Hard Rock Hotel's coffee shop transforms to accommodate them. Like last year, Syfy Channel covered almost every surface with posters and flat-screen monitors advertising its shows. There were new menus, renaming dishes after characters or actors from Syfy shows (Lou Diamond Flapjacks was my favorite—he plays a soldier in space on Stargate Universe). And the coffee shop got a new sign out front, too: Syfy renamed it Café Diem, after the restaurant in the show Eureka.

Cute? Sure. And the Café Diem was one of the more subtle remoldings of space at Comic-Con this year. One of the things that draws geeks like me to Comic-Con is the chance to engage deeply with alternate universes that we love—to talk to the people who draw our favorite comic books or star in our favorite movies—and feel more connected to them and our fellow fans. More and more, Hollywood money at the Con is fulfilling that desire with elaborate sets, rooms, and buildings remade to look like places that don't exist, but that we all feel like we know. They're pop-up theme park attractions tailored for an audience that obsesses over details, over the artifacts and trappings of genre fiction.

Zack Snyder's 'Sucker Punch' goes for grrrl power

Zack Snyder, perhaps best known as the director of the musclebound movie "300," is getting in touch with his feminine side with "Sucker Punch."

The movie, due out in March, is based on an original script that Snyder co-wrote with Steve Shibuya. The concept, which had been germinating for eight years, involves five girls who use their imaginations to escape an insane asylum, Snyder told the audience Saturday afternoon at Comic-Con.

As with "300," the movie features hyper-stylized fighting sequences in which the female characters -- Baby Doll, Amber, Sweetpea, Rocket and Blondie -- slash, hack and kick their way past horrific monsters and lecherous men. Snyder drenches the movie in a sepia tone similar to "300," but adds a splash of the burlesque, a dose of steampunk and a whiff of Nazi Germany to the movie's fantastical settings.

Source:


http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2010/07/comic-con-disneyland-for-nerds/60359/
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-comic-con-sucker-punch,0,3407204.story

When in Rome ... make time to relax

Forget about our plan to leisurely stroll through Rome's famous Borghese Gardens to get to the Borghese Gallery in time for our reservation to see the fabulous collections of paintings, sculptures, mosaics and bas-reliefs from the 15th to 18th centuries. Reservations typically are needed at this small gem of a museum.

Even for the experts, touring Europe doesn't always go as planned -- especially when they wake up late. So, instead of a leisurely walk (not to mention a much-needed cappuccino), my daughter Reggie and I race to a cab from the apartment we are renting to the museum where we get in line with all of the other tourists with reservations.

It was worth the effort and so was getting the English audiofone so we could hear an explanation of what we were seeing -- Bernini, Corregio, Titian, Raphael ... even without having had coffee first.

Afterward, we stroll through the park (the little kids in the family, we decide, would love the zoo here and the chance to run and jump). Rome is the first stop on Reggie's college graduation trip that will culminate with a weeklong hiking trip along the Amalfi Coast with the American company Backroads.

But first some culture and history at the Vatican for my history major. No matter how you try to engage kids at the Vatican (counting the dragons in the paintings, for example), confesses Monica Saab, an accredited Vatican tour guide, kids seem to most like seeing the dead popes in St. Peter's Basilica. (If you want to tour St. Peter's on your own, go late in the afternoon and avoid Wednesdays, unless you want to be there for Pope Benedict's audience.)

Some families prefer to have someone else sweat all the details when traveling to Italy, and they pay for the privilege with companies like Adventures by Disney, Abercrombie & Kent Family Holidays andTauck Bridgesfamily tours. These types of companies provide kid-friendly guides and unique activities -- after-hours tours of the Sistine Chapel, chats with "real" gladiators, making pasta and more. Exploritas (Elderhostel, which changed its name to www.exploritas.org), also offers some well-priced Italy tours designed especially for grandparents and grandkids.

Certainly such trips are easier -- I never had such a stress-free time as when exploring Vienna and Prague with Adventures by Disney with my youngest child and her friend, and you are sure to encounter other kids along the way so that you are not entertaining yours 24/7. But there is also something to be said for discovering a foreign city on your own with your kids, showing them that on vacation -- as in life -- things don't always go as planned and that as long as you work together, you can navigate just fine.

In Rome, I was glad to have a guide. We connected with Saab via Rita Clemens, a Minnesotan now living there and running a company that takes all the stress out of touring Italy for American families, albeit at a hefty price (www.customizeditaly.com).

The biggest mistakes American families make when touring Rome is trying to do too much, she tells us. "One thing a day is plenty," she says. And if you are cruising in Europe -- as many families are these days -- Clemens says for less than many cruise/land tours, she can customize a tour for your family and guarantee you get back to the ship in plenty of time. "And you won't be walking around in a group of 50 people," she says.

But even Rome' s most spectacular sites are no match for severe jet lag, we discover. We were supposed to spend four hours touring the Vatican; we last maybe half that. After a much-needed gelato break we make our way back to our apartment located on a tiny cobblestoned street called Via Del Gambero, a short walk from the Spanish Steps, for a nap.

Later that night, we meet up with Jill Kammer, who with her husband runs the company that rented us our apartment (cheaper and more space than a hotel! Cherubs above our bed!) She and her daughter Ava lead us to dinner in the Trastevere section of Rome across the Tiber River. Once an ancient working-class area it's now hip. (If you want to stay here, check out the Hotel Santa Maria.)

At Trattoria da Lucia, which has been here since 1938, a few tables are set out on the cobblestones and we feast on salad, pasta, and the most tender beef stew and freshest green beans. I never would have been able to find this tiny restaurant on my own. I'm glad we didn't have to.

The next day, we head to the Coliseum, one of Rome's top tourist attractions -- especially for families. Before hitting a place like this with kids, it helps, of course, if they understand what they are seeing. A book can help too -- like "National Geographic Investigates Ancient Rome," which was published three years ago and will answer a lot of questions that the kids and you will have -- like why Rome is called the Eternal City. (The book suggests it goes back to the Emperor Caligula, who ruled from 37 to 41 AD, who wanted to be worshipped as a god.) The book is also small enough to fit in a backpack.

Sometimes sightseeing with kids, especially when it is hot, can feel like a battle too. Flexibility, even when touring great sites, is key. On one trip to Rome with a 13-year-old niece, for example, we left the Forum to go shopping. The Forum will be there in a few years when she will appreciate it, I reasoned. Meanwhile, it wasn't worth both of us being miserable.

Clemens says, "If you are in the middle of the Coliseum and someone is hungry, go get a gelato!" The idea is to have fun, after all, not torture yourself. Spend time at a playground or park or the hotel pool, if you are lucky enough to have one. (Just Google Rome hotels with pools. I found more than 40. The deluxe Rome Cavalieri, part of the Waldorf Astoria collection, is on a hilltop in a park with a big pool and touts a free shuttle service to Rome's historic center. Got a soccer ball or a Frisbee?)

We even stop at a cat sanctuary -- that's right -- Romans, it seems, are crazy for cats and several years ago, all of the stray cats were picked up and brought to the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary, a no-kill shelter for homeless cats (of which Rome has many) set amid ancient Roman Ruins at Largo Argentina.

By the end of the day, we're so tired from sightseeing -- and full from lunch -- that we forgo dinner plans for cheese, bread and wine curled up on the couch in "our" apartment.

But we're leaving Rome tomorrow, I complain, and we didn't make it through half of my "must-sees." Even the best itineraries, I realize, need to accommodate kids, no matter what their ages.

"We'll be back," my daughter Reggie promises.

(For more on Eileen's travels visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow "taking the kids" on www.twitter.com, where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments.)

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/06/29/rome.italy.with.kids/index.html

Dubai kiss court case highlights culture clash

The locals wear long, all-covering robes. They pray five times a day in one of the city's many mosques. Each year, they celebrate Ramadan, fasting from dawn to dusk.

Many expatriates, instead, love to hang out at the beach, often in skimpy bathing suits making the most of the year-round sunshine. They go to beach-side cafes to drink and eat with friends, enjoying the tax-free lifestyle of the sunny sheikdom-by-the-sea.

Only rub is expatriates overwhelmingly outnumber locals -- by more than eight to one.

Welcome to Dubai, the tiny, sun-drenched, desert sheikdom where a whopping 85 percent of the population hail from somewhere else, demographics unheard of anywhere else in the world.

And although the unusual co-existence is largely peaceful, friction can bubble up, like in the recent case of a British couple facing up to a month in jail for kissing in public.

The couple, a British man living and working in Dubai, and a British female tourist visiting the Persian Gulf city-state, were arrested in November accused of kissing and touching each other intimately in public -- violations of law against public indecency -- and consuming alcohol. The couple have been granted bail pending appeal. A hearing is scheduled for April 4.

Dubai's foreign population has soared in recent years as expatriates, courted by the country, flocked to the booming emirate to work.

"It's one of the countries in the world which has had the most rapid structural transformation we've ever seen for an economy," said Nasser Saidi, chief economist of the Dubai International Financial Centre Authority. "If you look at it like that, you start to understand the dynamics of the economy, why you need to attract a vast population from across the world."

The population changes have challenged the now vastly outnumbered Emiratis, though, raising concerns among the local population that the breakneck modernization of the sheikdom threatens their deeply conservative social and religious identity.

The case is the third of its kind involving Britons in under two years. Expats who live in the emirate say authorities seem to be increasingly sensitive to such culture clashes.

"Expats need to know that no matter how modern and open-minded this country is, it's an Islamic country," said Heike Moeckel, a cultural consultant at Embrace Arabia, an Abu Dhabi-based, Emirati-owned company providing cultural training to expats and Emiratis alike.

Moeckel said "the amount of ignorance" by expats to Islamic traditions was the "biggest obstacle" in her work. She said there were beaches in Dubai where a local Emirati woman would not dare bring her children because of the dress code and behavior there, considered "completely inappropriate" by local people.

The British couple at the center of the current case were dining with friends at Bob's Easy Diner, one of a stretch of cafes on a popular strip behind the city's Jumeirah Beach, when an Emirati woman with her family reported their behavior to police.

"It's very easy to make an economy out of different kinds of people with different religious backgrounds and nationalities," Shahidul Haque, regional representative for the Middle East for the International Organization for Migration, told CNN. "But it's often very difficult to develop a social fabric with the same populations."

"That's a huge challenge for any country," Haque said, adding that incidents like the couple kissing "happen for social and economic reasons," rather because of religious differences.

The economy of Dubai, a once tiny pearling village with limited natural resources, was built by expatriate labor. And the high number of expats needs to be maintained to ensure growth, experts say.

Oil sales account for less than five percent of Dubai's economy now. The majority of its income comes from service industries, retail, trade and tourism.

Asked if the Dubai economy could continue to grow without its large expat population, chief economist Saidi replied no.

"It's clear they need them," he said. Saidi said that although the population of the emirate is very young and growing fast, it will take "a couple of generations to build up the skills needed."

Until such point, Dubai continues to need -- and court -- its foreign workers, despite culture clashes like the one with the British couple.

"The local labor market cannot provide" what is needed, Haque said. "You either have to depend on foreign labor, or reduce the economy."

"And no country wants to shrink their economy."

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/03/18/dubai.expats/index.html