You really feel for these boys; to live up to their dream they have to give up so much. Basketball is certainly not the answer for everything. These boys need life experience too. If they are not taught to lead a balanced life in their teens, how will they react when they start making serious money and they can afford to indulge in any temptation they want?
At present America is fighting various battles – some on the outside, some inside the country. For one, American militaries are operating in Afghanistan and Iraq, in Somalia, Georgia and Lebanon; further troops are stationed in Turkey, Kenya and South Korea. For the other, the United States quarrel with a presidential election, the credit crunch, gas prices, and decisions on abortion, gun laws and same-sex marriages.
Like the characters, Mungu’s production takes a long while to get off the ground, but having finally taken off, it soars. The metal structures form a swinging cockpit-like contraption, equipped with an industrial fan and four black-clad stagehands, and the two seem to genuinely take flight.
Le plays with this genre, yet ultimately refuses to be confined by it, choosing to use aspects of the immigrant experience in his writing, yet avoiding any sense of didacticism.
It is a story of good and evil, with an important point: ‘you could be fighting for the right cause and still be embroiled in a dirty war’. Indeed, the contradictions that arose when Romanians fought their own governments in favour of the US are more apparent now when America has shown that its actions rarely are in the interests of the countries its culture or armed forces invade.
Constantinople was almost destined by its geography and history to be the seat of a great empire. And that was - arguably - a contributory factor in its undoing: everyone wanted a share of the political and economic action inherent in the city.
Lucy Ellinson and Chris Thorpe perform with dazzling openness – utterly convincing as characters yet also allowing something of themselves to slip through. Whether playing with finely-tuned details or broad comedy, they remain engaging, empathetic and extremely likeable.
This is a diverting exhibition, and I was certainly engaged while meandering through the four floors of the gallery, the setting of which was very appropriate for this catholic set of ephemera. I particularly enjoyed Pae White’s striking tapestry suspended between the top two floors, and the stunning patterns produced by Marey’s 1901 smoke machine (I want one!).
What is the state’s role in raising the next generation? Can parents be trusted to bring up children without interference from government?
The scale may be localised at times, but the presence of the border and the resulting bureaucracy reminds the viewer of the splintering divisions that run through all lives in post-independent and partitioned India.
The ‘New Blue Media’ in the US, science documentaries and discipline and participation in music.
What his book crucially lacks is an analysis of the other side, the rightwing radio talk shows, Fox news and the previously mentioned Bill O’Reilly. Especially as many of Hamm’s heroes are reacting to their success.
The personal importance of the experiment to the lives of those involved is the central theme of the film, which at times boils over into genuine desperation and elation over its ups and downs.
How can music help improve young people’s lives? I suppose unlike the Music Manifesto I firmly believe that the answer comes as much in the discipline it instils as in the flights of creative self-expression it can let loose.
El Sistema takes children from varied backgrounds and abilities and forces them through a system that demands discipline and application, and the rewards have been inspiring.
