Elia Kazan’s body of work says a lot about the costs of freedom in the 20th century.
In a recent posting by Steven Horwitz on the Coordination Problem weblog, the author shows how pop culture can shape history — or, rather, our recollection of it: As I’ve been writing about the myths surrounding the Hoover presidency the last week or so, it got me thinking about the question of where those myths came from and why they persist. Certainly a big part of the persistence has to do with the biases in the media, the punditry, and academia. The economic facts of…
20th Century Fox is planning to produce a musical based on the songs of the Beach Boys. Think Mamma Mia with hot rods, moon doggies, and bikinis. I’m all for it, of course. I vote for Mike Love as the villain. Story here.—STK
From Accuracy in Media, in a podcast Don Irvine talks with Dr. Benjamin Wiker, author of 10 Books Every Conservative Must Read: Plus Four Not to Miss and One Impostor; 10 Books That Screwed Up the World: And 5 Others That Didn’t Help; The Darwin Myth: The Life and Lies of Charles Darwin (reviewed here); and Answering the New Atheism: Dismantling Dawkins’ Case Against God. Audio only: 21 minutes 28 seconds. Some of the people he discusses include Plato, the Anti-Federalists, and Ayn Rand, who…
July is a time for patriotism in the United States, and much very good music has been written for the occasion, from John Philip Sousa through Aaron Copland to Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys and beyond. People across the political and social spectrum have written music to express their love for this nation. I didn’t grow up in a particularly patriotic family, however. Sure, we’d go to the fireworks show every other year or so, but most of the time we stayed home and…
On April 24 and 25, Mike Gallagher will be appearing at the Kentucky Repertory Theater in Love Letters with actress Sally Struthers.
Bill Whittle is a clever, erudite and indefatigable proponent ofliberty and limited government. His latest PJTV video, entitled “Support Your Local Tea Party: Vigilance & The Siren Song of the State,” is a must-see, especially if you’re on the fence about attending a Tax Day Tea Party near you. Whittle’s video and the political movement it endorses are incredibly important. At the 2 minute 30 second mark, however, note his list of fields “the enemies of freedom have … taken over.” “Things have gotten this…
“Heterosexism” is becoming the term of choice among Leftists dominating the Entertainment Industrial Complex. The Writers Guild of America gave its imprimatur to a group of Leftist True Believers at a panel titled “Flipping the Script: Beyond Homophobia in Black Hollywood.” “Homophobia,” however, doesn’t properly capture the “institutional bias that affects jobs and advancement,” according to Jasmine Love, a writer on “Moesha,” “The Division,” and “The District.” Apparently “heterosexism” hasn’t hurt her advancement, but logic is not the strong point of this movement. Examining the…
The acclaimed suspense novelist, screenwriter, and essayist Andrew Klavan notes that a group of Germans recently produced a musical about Barack Obama, called Hope: The Obama Musical Story. The first question I have is whether there has ever been a great musical with a colon in the title. The second concerns the overall wisdom of such a thing, aptly stated by Klavan: “If I were a German and found myself starting to idolize a charismatic political figure . . . I would stop. Quickly. Right…
Who would have thought it? One of my favorite presidents, Calvin Coolidge, is the subject of a one-man theatrical show, Calvin Coolidge: More Than Two Words, and one that apparently is quite sympathetic to this woefully underrated American statesman and leader. Those who can manage a trip to Swampscott, Massachusetts, on March 11 will have the great joy of seeing this fine American theatrically immortalized, while the rest of us will have to remain content to read the excellent article about the play…
The tastemaker who brought the world Jerry Springer: The Opera has announced the commissioning of an opera based on the life of the late Anna Nicole Smith. Smith is the notorious professional celebrity and gold-digger whose bizarre and sometimes tragic life ended in a drug overdose two years ago shortly after she gave birth to a daughter. The premiere is scheduled to take place in London, England, in 2011. —S. T. Karnick
AP has distributed a strongly positive review of Will Ferrell’s new Broadway show, You’re Welcome America. A Final Night With George W. Bush which opened February 5. I remain skeptical, and will be interested to see it when it appears on HBO next month. Do you think the media’s continual criticism of George W. Bush has run its course now that he’s out of office? Comment here.
Comedian Will Ferrell is going to the well one more time—some might say returning to his own vomit—in taking his once-amusing Saturday Night Live impression of President George W. Bush to the Broadway stage in an upcoming one-man show, Will Ferrell: You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W. Bush. Read more . . .
The theatrical drama The Screwtape Letters captures the brilliance of C. S. Lewis’s influential novel and even helps clarify some of the points the book makes. It’s a great success as a theatrical experience as well. TAC correspondent Mike D’Virgilio reviews The Screwtape Letters.
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