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George Carlin, Splenetic Comedian, Dies at 71 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com

Where would we be if not for George and his seven words you can't say on television?

Paying tribute to Octavia Butler

Nikki Giovanni and other African American writers will honor the late novelist at the second annual Leimert Park Book Fair on Saturday. Jobs are scarce. Water is even scarcer. Pollution, racial tensions and general poverty have transformed Los Angeles into a dystopian wasteland dotted by pockets of privilege. Sounds like a page right out of 2008, except for the fact that it was written back in 1993, as the setup for Octavia E. Butler's science fiction novel "Parable of the Sower," set in 2025.

Arts elite attacks Australian PM Rudd over images

The handpicked cultural advisers of prime minister Kevin Rudd have confronted him over his attack on Bill Henson's photographs of naked teenagers, and have warned that the Melbourne artist potential prosecution damages the Australia's cultural reputation.

Palestinian Youth Express Themselves Through Hip-Hop

May 2008 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Nakba - Arabic for catastrophe, the expulsion of the Palestinian people and creation of the state of Israel. However, the Palestinian Diaspora decided to commemorate it with a different image: sharing and performing hip-hop. A commemoration concert was recently held here at the Civic Center Plaza and it was free and open to the public. Performers were male and female. They ranged in ethnic backgrounds -from Palestinian and other Arab nationalities, to African American, Mexican and Caucasian. They had come from across the United States, Canada, the West Bank and Israel.

Giacometti sculpture sale breaks record - swissinfo

Sculptor Alberto Giacometti has retained his title as the most expensive Swiss artist after one of his pieces fetched a record price at a New York auction.

What Does Building a Movement Among Youth-Driven Music Spaces Mean?

Leaders of the country's most effective youth arts centers talk about building power of youth through cultural expression, and why it is the best way to engage young people in politics.

David Byrne to tour with "electric gospel" album

David Byrne has completed a new album (of "electric gospel") for released before 2009 and has booked a North American tour on which he is planning to play at least 40 percent old Talking Heads material.

Hugo Claus 1929-2008: "Each day we should wake up foaming at the mouth at the injustice of ...

Belgian author Hugo Claus, who died last month, was one of the most prolific and versatile of postwar European writers. From 1947, when he was just 18, he produced thousands of poems, some 20 novels, 18 books of short stories, film scripts, libretti, and around 60 plays, including translations into Dutch and adaptations from English, French, Greek, German and Spanish works. He also painted, and worked extensively in the dramatic arts as a director. He once said that had he grown up in a country with a tradition of cinema, he would probably have been a film director rather than a writer. Some of his works are available in English translations, including his most important novel, 1983's The Sorrow of Belgium (Het Verdriet van België).

Film: Where is Osama bin Laden?

Nicole showed some of this some weeks ago as it was going through the film festival circuit, but it s opening wide this weekend. Morgan Spurlock, the genius who brought you Super Size Me, now brings us Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? , a side-splitting quest to hunt down the world s number one most-wanted man.

Pete Seeger: How Can I Keep from Singing? :: Interview with Sarah van Gelder

It’s not fame he’s been after during his decades of singing. “Fame is a snare and a delusion,” he says. He marched for civil rights from Selma to Montgomery, played music on the banks of his beloved Hudson River, and was celebrated at Carnegie Hall.
He’s been working for change all his life, and he’s seen some of his fondest hopes come to pass.
Sarah van Gelder interviews Pete Seeger

.:: 70 years of Superman : comic ::.

An online interactive comic book feature that has been put together by an Canadian newspaper to celebrate Superman's 70th next month. The site has old radio shows and cartoons from the 1940s as well as character bios and lots of other cool stuff... best part is, it's free.

After 63 years, death photo of famed WWII reporter Ernie Pyle surfaces

The figure in the photograph is clad in Army fatigues, boots and helmet, lying on his back in peaceful repose, folded hands holding a military cap. Except for a thin trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth, he could be asleep. But he is not asleep; he is dead. And this is not just another fallen GI; it is Ernie Pyle, the most celebrated war correspondent of World War II.

Music Review: Shahram & Hafez Nazeri The Passion Of Rumi

What's amazing is that there has actually been any sort of connection established that establishes even the tiniest beachhead of understanding amidst all this mutual recrimination. In the last few years there has been a growing fascination among people in the West for the poetry of the Persian Sufi mystic Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Balkhi Rumi, most commonly referred simply as Rumi. With modern Iran being home to the land once known as Persia it is only fitting that Iranian musicians have created a mu

Tanzania: Tackling Corruption Through Song

Wailing into the microphone and feigning an exaggerated limp, singer Tominem pleaded with corruption-weary Tanzanians in the audience to assert their rights when fighting graft. His piece of lyrical advice: ask bribe-seekers for a receipt, and take names.

Wave of Violence Against Mexican Musicians

The violent deaths of two Mexican singers this weekend raise the number of these killings to at least nine in the last two years, reports Spanish-language La Opini n. The two slain musicians, Sergio Gomez, 30, and Zayda Pe a, 28, played "grupero" music, a popular genre with songs often about drug trafficking and organized crime.