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Wednesday, August 16




Ideas

In Japan: Fan Art Flourishes Japan's relaxed attitude about copyright has allowed a flourishing of fan-created art and literature. "That it not only exists but thrives is a testament to Japan's relaxed attitudes on copyright, which have facilitated a flowering of both creative and commercial activity. American media companies, take note." Wired 08/16/06
Posted: 08/16/2006 8:48 am

A Landmark Of Human Thought? A Russian mathematician solves one of the great proofs an then disappears. "Mathematicians have been waiting for this result for more than 100 years, ever since the French polymath Henri Poincaré posed the problem in 1904. And they acknowledge that it may be another 100 years before its full implications for math and physics are understood. For now, they say, it is just beautiful, like art or a challenging new opera." The New York Times 08/15/06
Posted: 08/15/2006 4:37 pm

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Visual Arts

Tennessee College Tries To Sell Donated Art Fisk University is trying to sell art it owns in order to raise money. "The Nashville school is awaiting a court ruling on whether it can sell a Georgia O'Keeffe painting and a Marsden Hartley painting, both part of the 101-piece collection, which was donated to the historically black college nearly 60 years ago by Stieglitz's widow -- O'Keeffe herself. The collection also includes works by such artists as Cézanne, Renoir, Picasso, Arthur Dove and John Marin, as well as some of Stieglitz's photography. According to an IRS filing, Fisk's entire art collection was appraised at $31.4 million in 2002." Washington Post 08/16/06
Posted: 08/16/2006 9:00 am

Russian Museums Decry "Witch Hunt" After Hermitage Thefts Are Russian authorities using the recent thefts at the Hermitage Museum as a way to purge museums? "The Union of Museums of Russia protested what it described as an attempt to use the thefts of 221 objects from the St. Petersburg institution to push the government to privatize national museums." Los Angeles Times (AP) 08/16/06
Posted: 08/16/2006 8:20 am

Tardy Denver Museum Loses Out On Funding Denver's Museum of Contemporary Art has lost out on money from the city's major funder. "After receiving the museum's audit on June 8 - two days late - the district's board decided to remove the museum from it's Tier II category of funding." Rocky Mountain News 08/15/06
Posted: 08/15/2006 4:43 pm

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Music

Hear The Sample, Buy The Ticket The City of Birmingham Orchestra is posting excerpts of music it will be performing this year on the orchestra's website. It's a try-before-you-buy offer. "Many of the excerpts featured were specifically recorded for the website to provide an accurate representation of the concert-hall experience." Gramophone 08/16/06
Posted: 08/16/2006 9:13 am

Locals Rescue Traveling Orchestra That Had To Abandon Instruments An Italian Baroque orchestra had to fly to Canada without their instruments over the weekend because of increased airline security. "Scouring the city and calling out to performers across B.C., Festival Vancouver promoters found baroque-era replacements -- made of 18th-century wood and strung with catgut rather than modern steel for a 'warmer' tone -- for all 16 of the missed instruments for the musicians from Turin." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/15/06
Posted: 08/15/2006 10:20 pm

Psych Out - Classical Roots "When peddling Provençal sea salt — or deterring crime, or boosting efficiency in a hospital's operating room — classical music seems to be played as much for its psychological properties as for the art-for-art's-sake aesthetic of the concert hall." Atlanta Journal-Constitution 08/15/06
Posted: 08/15/2006 10:16 pm

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Arts Issues

Town Challenges MacDowell Colony's Tax-Exempt Status The New England town of Peterborough has challenged the MacDowell Colony's status as a tax-exempt, charitable institution, arguing that "MacDowell did not 'provide a charitable purpose to the general public,' as required by New Hampshire law. Initially, Peterborough asked MacDowell for a relatively modest payment in lieu of taxes, known as PILOT in nonprofit jargon, to pay for services such as fire and police protection." But MacDowell has decided to fight the town on the issue... Boston Globe 08/16/06
Posted: 08/16/2006 9:49 am

The Art (and Attraction) Of Celebrity Gossip Why do people seem so interested in the misfortunes of celebrities? "The beast of gossip loves this moment best: Befuddlement. News it didn't already know. That is the very freshest meat. Those are the reactions you want in the express checkout line. (Unless of course you live in the world where the first question is Who, followed by a very disdainful Why? That world exists. That world has Hezbollah, the end of oil reserves and the trade deficit. That world has a special loathing for celebrities and anyone who would familiarize himself with their divorces.)" Washington Post 08/16/06
Posted: 08/16/2006 8:57 am

Getty Chooses Bryson As New Board Chair The Getty Trust has elected Louise Bryson as chairman of the board. "We've had some lapses in oversight, and as a member of the board I would acknowledge that," Bryson said Tuesday. A member of the Getty board since 1998, she was elected chairwoman during a Saturday morning trustee conference call.
Los Angeles Times 08/16/06
Posted: 08/16/2006 8:22 am

A Threat To Artists And The Internet "The Internet allows artists to create and distribute projects outside the entertainment mainstream, if only as a means of one day securing a place within it. There is concern, however, that this self-empowerment could become more costly or disappear altogether if legislation now under consideration in Congress does not safeguard high-quality Internet access at affordable prices." Backstage 08/16/06
Posted: 08/16/2006 7:27 am

Dopey - Americans Know Pop But Not News If a new poll is accurate, Americans know much more about pop trivia than they do about the news, civics or classic literature. One example: "About 77 per cent of Americans can name at least two of the dwarfs from the fairy tale Snow White, but only about 24 per cent can name two U.S. Supreme Court justices." CBC 08/15/06
Posted: 08/15/2006 10:30 pm

Miami Artists Caught In Real Estate Squeeze "As Miami's cultural community continues to grow and with boomtown rents continuously on the rise, artists and presenters are having a difficult time finding the right space or, in some cases, any space at all to show their work." Miami Herald 08/15/06
Posted: 08/15/2006 4:41 pm

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People

Grass: My Writing Is Being Attacked Writer Gunther Grass says his accomplishments as a writer are being denigrated after he admitted being in the Nazi SS during World War II. "What I'm experiencing is an attempt to make me persona non grata, to cast doubt about everything I did in my life after that. And that later life was marked by shame."

BBC 08/15/06
Posted: 08/16/2006 7:24 am

Director Lawrence Sacharow, 68 "From the early 1960’s, Mr. Sacharow was an active director of Off and Off Off Broadway productions, winning an Obie for his production of Len Jenkin’s “Five of Us.” Much of his success came from an association with Edward Albee; Mr. Sacharow directed “Beckett/Albee” at the Century Theater in 2003 and won a Lucille Lortel Award in 1994 for his direction of Mr. Albee’s “Three Tall Women” at the Vineyard Theater." The New York Times 08/16/06
Posted: 08/15/2006 11:11 pm

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Theatre

NY's Atlantic Theatre Has A Great Year On Stage And Off "It has been an unusual year for the Atlantic. As medium-size nonprofit theaters go, it has been unusually successful. Two of its shows — half of its season — were picked up for commercial runs on Broadway. The company has a paid membership of 3,500. How the Atlantic found itself there is a tale of nimble negotiating and real estate jujitsu that could almost be the subject of a David Mamet play, albeit one in which the little guys come off pretty well in the end." The New York Times 08/16/06
Posted: 08/15/2006 11:03 pm

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Publishing

How Literature Really Works "It's a truism that great novels have something to tell us not only about life but about our own lives. But for decades literary criticism has neglected or scorned this useful truth in favor of 'theory' and its barbarous jargon. How refreshing then to read a study which dwells without apology, and with genuine insight, on the ways in which novels impinge upon our own experience. This is Edward Mendelson's 'The Things That Matter: What Seven Classic Novels Have to Say About the Stages of Life'." New York Sun 08/16/06
Posted: 08/16/2006 8:12 am

Classics In Translation The Loeb Library has recently published its 500th volume in translation. "Just as scholars once feared, there has been a steady decline in hard-core classical philology—and thanks in part to that, the Loeb Library has lately thrived." Slate 08/15/06
Posted: 08/15/2006 10:44 pm

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Media

Merger For XM, Sirius? Will XM and Sirius, the two American satellite radio services, merge? Their stock prices have been languishing and losses have mounted. "Some observers have speculated that time is of the essence if the two are thinking of merging -- both companies declined comment for this report -- because a Republican president and Congress would be more open to such a scenario than Democrats would be if they take power in upcoming elections." Yahoo! (Reuters) 08/16/06
Posted: 08/16/2006 8:33 am

Movies Lose Out In Baghdad Baghdad's movie theatres have fallen on hard times. "Most of the city's once-popular movie theaters have shut down for lack of business. Those that remain open save money by replaying the same films. As with art and music and theater in Baghdad, going to movies is a cultural luxury losing out to the daily killing." Washington Post 08/15/06
Posted: 08/15/2006 4:28 pm

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Dance

The New Superstars Of The Steppes In Soviet times, scouts from Moscow and Leningrad regularly roamed into the USSR's furthest outposts, discovering children for free training - the Siberian Rudolf Nureyev, the Kazakhi Altynai Asylmuratova, the Uzbekh Farouk Ruzimatov and the Georgian Nina Ananiashvili, for example. Since the end of communism, regions have lost free access to the Mariinsky and Bolshoi schools, and increasingly the companies' profile is narrowing on to a north-western population. This has opened interesting opportunities for ex-republics such as Georgia who are building their own... The Telegraph (UK) 08/12/06
Posted: 08/15/2006 11:22 pm

Getting To Know You... Ensemble dance companies have a rhythm to them that repeat visitors learn to enjoy. But watching such companies when one is unfamiliar with the dancers provides a different expereience, writes John Rockwell. The New York Times 08/16/06
Posted: 08/15/2006 10:59 pm

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