12/8/08

Culture Corner

If you're in NY don't miss the revivial of David Mamet's "Speed The Plow," which I saw Friday night. The fabulous cast features Jeremy Piven (from Entourage), Raul Esparza (who starred as Bobby in the revival of Sondheim's Company a yearish ago) and Elisabeth Moss (the lady copywriter from Mad Men). The energy, the intense sticcato dialogue, and the theme of art vs commerce in Hollywood make it a pure joy. Here's the glowing Times review if you need more noodging.

Am reading the galley of Philip Howard's forthcoming Life Without Lawyers. It's another elegant, persuasive indictment of the American way of law from the man whose plea about The Death of Common Sense still feels timely a decade later. Read it and find out why, among other things, teachers aren't allowed to control their classes, and why the parents of a few kids with a rare allergy have been allowed to eliminate the peanut butter sandwich from American childhood. It's a cry for balance, and for the authority to counter the riot of "rights" that leave society helpless to govern with communal goals in mind, rather than placating the Individual With A Complaint.

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