John Coltrane’s Giant Steps

Michael Levy takes a fascinating look at John Coltrane’s Giant Steps. A great compliment to Elizabeth Van Ness’s question: Is a Cinema Studies Degree the New MBA?

Still more, Ms. Daley, the U.S.C. Cinema-Television dean, argues that to generalize such skills has become integral to the film school’s mission. More than 60 academic courses at U.S.C. now require students to create term papers and projects that use video, sound and Internet components – and for Ms. Daley, it’s not enough. “If I had my way, our multimedia literacy honors program would be required of every student in the university,” she said.

What’s Missing from News is News

Frank Rich nails it:

What’s missing from News is the news. On ABC, Peter Jennings devotes two hours of prime time to playing peek-a-boo with U.F.O. fanatics, a whorish stunt crafted to deliver ratings, not information. On NBC, Brian Williams is busy as all get-out, as every promo reminds us, “Reporting America’s Story.” That story just happens to be the relentless branding of Brian Williams as America’s anchorman – a guy just too in love with Folks Like Us to waste his time looking closely at, say, anything happening in Washington.

Even NPR. I woke up the other morning at 6 and Morning Edition’s lead story was Martha Stewart (not Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq, the dollar’s ongoing meltdown, or any of a number of domestic issues).