Cultural Exchange

"Sitting on the bus which is ticking to explode writing my last poem. " --Eliaz Cohen Suicide bombings are not the usual stuff of poetry, but Eliaz Cohen, a leading figure in a religious poetry scene flourishing in Israel, writes about the conflict in language as beautiful as reality can be ugly. Amid the drone of warring words, he offers a different voice, challenging political and religious convention. "Hear O Lord," the recently published bilingual collection translated into English by Larry Barak is Cohen's literary chronicle of the last turbulent decade (it's subtitled "Poems From the Disturbances of 2000-2009")

BEIJING - Orgies and anal sex hardly seem the usual fodder of traditional Chinese folk art, but that is exactly what one Chinese artist is depicting in a series of provocative paper-cuts that are now being exhibited in Los Angeles for the first time. Paper-cuts originated in Eastern Han Dynasty China (AD 25-220) and are hung on windows or doors for good luck. But instead of the usual decorative flowers and birds, Xiyadie, whose pseudonym means "Siberian Butterfly," portrays graphic and daring depictions of homosexual love - long considered taboo in China.

At the seemingly fragile age of 76, his story is the stuff of Hollywood legend (Well, maybe the seamier side of the San Fernando Valley), a tale made more outlandish because it happened to a buttoned-down salary man in hyper-conservative Japan. For years, a Tokyo grandfather kept a dirty little secret from his family. Longtime travel agent Shigeo Tokuda, who resembles countless older men who ride the Tokyo subway each day, admitted to his wife and daughter that he sometimes performed cameos in small-budget films.

The coolest place in Hollywood is a sauna inside the health center at El Centro and Selma that's been around since the mid-1980s. I was reminded of this the other day after a conversation with a Guatemalan maintenance man named Romulo and a retired auto mechanic from Ecuador named Victor. We sat sweating together as they discussed Victor's house in Ecuador. He wanted to sell it but couldn't. The idea pained Victor, as he'd bought the house hoping his kids might want to experience his home country.

She was a young actress with designs on mega-stardom. But to realize her dreams, Jang Ja-yeon was resigned to take her place in the seamy realm of the South Korean sexual casting couch. In the end, the disgrace proved too much. In the seven-page note she wrote before her March 2009 suicide, the 27-year-old TV sitcom regular described how her manager forced her to have sex with industry VIPs such as directors, media executives and CEOs, many of whom she cited by name. Jang's death stunned this nation transfixed by celebrity and all its trappings.

BEIJING - Orgies and anal sex hardly seem the usual fodder of traditional Chinese folk art, but that is exactly what one Chinese artist is depicting in a series of provocative paper-cuts that are now being exhibited in Los Angeles for the first time. Paper-cuts originated in Eastern Han Dynasty China (AD 25-220) and are hung on windows or doors for good luck. But instead of the usual decorative flowers and birds, Xiyadie, whose pseudonym means "Siberian Butterfly," portrays graphic and daring depictions of homosexual love - long considered taboo in China.

— When he notices she has entered, the DJ sprays fire and smoke from an elaborate spaceship control deck onto hundreds of teenagers from the poor outskirts of this city in the Amazon. Soon, she climbs to the top of the alien structure, launching into an impromptu version of one of her manic dance songs, celebrating the pirate nature of these huge parties that launched her career. "I'm going to sample you, I'm going to rob you," she booms over the crowd, before calling out the names of the various groups holding up signs demonstrating their allegiance to a particular part of the scene.

The Sundance Institute's Latin American Screenwriter Workshop appears to be the cultural and artistic equivalent of NAFTA ("Adventures in the Cultural Divide," by Lorenza Munoz, Sept. 24). Here come Robert Redford and his minions south of the border to "support" and "nurture" filmmakers with advice on how to make the projects more appealing to Miramax, the characters more heroic. About the only promising note in Munoz's excellent article was the postscript revealing how all of the Sundance advisors' notes to the Latin filmmakers were largely (and thankfully)

Tracey Emin always sets out to provoke — her stock in trade is the outrageous and the obscene. But it wasn't just the array of used tampons, pregnancy tests and expletive appliqué tapestry that shocked audiences at her new exhibition "Love Is What You Want," which just opened at the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank. Instead of her usual outbursts of profanity and perversion, Emin used her limelight to do something perhaps more shocking — she pledged her support for Britain's Conservative-led government, opining that "The Tories are the only hope for the arts.

In Europe, seeing the ministers and heads of state doing their song-and-dance routines over how best to resolve the long-running financial crisis might be commonplace, but for a brief engagement at a Berlin playhouse, that spectacle would at least offer real songs and actual dancing. "EuroCrash!," an English-language monetary unit musical, has arrived to do a send-up of the continent's currency. For the playwright, the Economist magazine's Berlin correspondent David Shirreff, it seemed a natural outlet for someone sitting on such a surfeit of fodder.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - The Turks have a blockbuster on their hands. It's called "Fetih 1453," as in the year the Turks conquered the Byzantine capital of Constantinople - now the sprawling city of Istanbul. This epic, with 16,000 extras, sword fights, tons of blood and turbans galore, has broken all film records in Turkey, not only in how much it cost to make ($17 million) - but also the box office take, more than double the investment and counting. Millions have seen the film since it opened in February - the premiere of which was an afternoon matinee that began at 14:53 p.m. in theaters around the country (the film opened Friday in Los Angeles)

Han Song predicted the destruction of the Twin Towers a year before 9/11. In his novel "2066: Red Star Over America," Han, China's premier science-fiction writer, depicts a disturbing future. It is the year 2066. China rules the world while the U.S. festers in financial decline and civil war. A team has been sent to America to disseminate civilization through the traditional Chinese board game Go. But during the critical Go match held at the World Trade Center, terrorists strike.

— When he notices she has entered, the DJ sprays fire and smoke from an elaborate spaceship control deck onto hundreds of teenagers from the poor outskirts of this city in the Amazon. Soon, she climbs to the top of the alien structure, launching into an impromptu version of one of her manic dance songs, celebrating the pirate nature of these huge parties that launched her career. "I'm going to sample you, I'm going to rob you," she booms over the crowd, before calling out the names of the various groups holding up signs demonstrating their allegiance to a particular part of the scene.

In Europe, seeing the ministers and heads of state doing their song-and-dance routines over how best to resolve the long-running financial crisis might be commonplace, but for a brief engagement at a Berlin playhouse, that spectacle would at least offer real songs and actual dancing. "EuroCrash!," an English-language monetary unit musical, has arrived to do a send-up of the continent's currency. For the playwright, the Economist magazine's Berlin correspondent David Shirreff, it seemed a natural outlet for someone sitting on such a surfeit of fodder.

It took Brazil's most important television network two days to take action after social networks exploded in disgust at what may have been one of the most shocking moments in reality television's sordid history. According to some interpretations, a suspected sexual assault was broadcast live from the house of Brazil's "Big Brother" Jan. 15. Though it was ignored on the following night's show, the country became obsessed by the case, and police are now investigating 31-year-old model Daniel Echaniz, who was suspended from the show and has been forced to hand over his passport to prevent him from fleeing the country.

It is one of Latin America's best-known and biggest schools, with five times more students than UCLA and a treasured spot in Mexican life as the people's house of higher learning. But to prove it really matters, the 100-year-old National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM, is placing its work on the Internet. All of it. In an effort of staggering scope, UNAM hopes to upload everything it has — from 18th century newspapers and vintage films to hundreds of thousands of student theses and a still-to-be-gauged sea of classroom teaching items — and let the world have it free of charge.

It is one of Latin America's best-known and biggest schools, with five times more students than UCLA and a treasured spot in Mexican life as the people's house of higher learning. But to prove it really matters, the 100-year-old National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM, is placing its work on the Internet. All of it. In an effort of staggering scope, UNAM hopes to upload everything it has — from 18th century newspapers and vintage films to hundreds of thousands of student theses and a still-to-be-gauged sea of classroom teaching items — and let the world have it free of charge.

"You need to create blur to create desire," Jean-Charles de Castelbajac says in English, at a swanky restaurant in the center of Paris. The manager teases him about a TV appearance as he walks in and shakes hands with a famous French actor. Later, leaning in off his seat, the 61-year-old fashion designer and artist of noble birth excitedly talks about projects and the changing fashion business. "You like to see a man you understand in one minute? If you want to be seduced you don't like some blur?

While the win-loss tally from the final week of Congress isn't complete, the White House can count one small victory in protecting its newly relaxed policies on travel to Cuba. Republicans had tried to use a must-pass spending bill moving in the House on Friday to roll back the Obama administration rules, which eased restrictions on travel for educational exchanges, loosened rules on sending remittances and  opened up new opportunities for airlines to fly to Cuba. The new rules have helped balloon the number of people traveling to the communist country.

Lee Wen has the wiry frame and slumped shoulders of a man accustomed to making the most of scant resources. As one of Singapore's few performance artists active in the 1990s, he lived on the margins of society, surviving brushes with the authorities while forging a body of work based on spontaneous individual expression in a country where it is largely frowned upon. "Because of the unscripted nature of it, the authorities were always worried about what we were going to do," Lee said.