news from lake wobegone...

pretty interesting counterpoint to our wide but specific range of information:

"Today, a universe of choice offers anyone of any political stripe the opportunity to get information from outlets that will reinforce their opinions and biases. Don't like the way CNN delivers the news? Try Fox. Think your local newspaper is in the thrall of its advertisers or slavishly serving some overarching ideology? Head for the blogo-sphere.

But that universe of information is becoming so vast that everything seems destined to orbit an absent sun. There's no centering gravitational pull, and the people on the different philosophical planets have lost the ability or the will to talk to each other anymore.

One of the things arts can do - the performing arts in particular - is to hold a group of people captive for a period of time, exposing them to ideas that might be foreign or unpleasant, and then allow time and space for conversation. This - and overpriced chardonnay - is why theater lobbies and intermissions were invented. "

read more here: http://www.twincities.com/stage/ci_5865014?nclick_check=1

cheers,