Visual Arts Salle Forth - David's Back But Evasive As Ever David Salle is back with a new show in New York, back at Mary Boone's gallery, where he came to prominence in the 1980s. "Salle is right up there with Jasper Johns as one of contemporary art's all-time great question dodgers. Although he was initially viewed as a cynical provocateur, that characterization is no longer useful or even accurate. With the gift of hindsight, he seems more like an art Sphinx. His pictures feed at least partly off Mr. Johns's use of pop images, and their work is similarly confounding, a box of puzzle pieces that you keep trying to put together only to realize that six pieces are missing on the floor of your hall closet. The New York Times 01/05/03 Posted: 01/05/2003 6:06 pm Gehry Weighs In On The WTC Why wasn't Frank Gehry among the architects submitting plans for the World Trade Center site? He tells Deborah Solomon: "I was invited to be on one of the teams, but I found it demeaning that the agency paid only $40,000 for all that work. I can understand why the kids did it, but why would people my age do it?" The New York Times 01/05/03 Posted: 01/05/2003 5:55 pm Music Bootleg Nation (So What If It's Illegal) "With a minimum of online searching, fans of virtually any band from arena-filling superstars to cult-worshiped club acts, can find a Web site or electronic mailing list to feed a habit for live CD's. Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen? No problem. Illicit recordings, or bootlegs, of their concerts circulate soon after the last car leaves the parking lot. But a show by the singer-songwriter Dirk Hamilton or the electronica musician Luke Vibert? Also no sweat. In the music world, you're nobody until somebody loves you enough to want your bootlegs." The New York Times 01/06/03 Posted: 01/05/2003 9:04 pm UK Police Accuse Rappers Of Promoting Gun Violence Police have charged that British rap artists are promoting gun culture and creating a "backdrop of music" for influencing alienated young men. Police are calling for an emergency summit with the rap industry, after two teenage girls were killed over New Year's in crossfire between rival gangs. The Observer (UK) 01/05/03 Posted: 01/05/2003 6:57 pm Former KGB Spies Offer Anti-Piracy Plan A group of foermer KGB spies is offering recording companies a new "watermarking" technology to protect their music from music pirates. This month a music distrbutor "will introduce watermarking technology developed by former Russian spies in St Petersburg, in the hope of attracting more music companies on to the web. The Guardian (UK) 01/06/03 Posted: 01/05/2003 6:48 pm British Culture Minister Attacks Rap Music Fresh from condemning Turner Prize shortlisters, British culture minister Kim Howells has attacked British rappers. "For years I have been very worried about these hateful lyrics that these boasting macho idiot rappers come out with. It is a big cultural problem. Lyrics don't kill people but they don't half enhance the fare we get from videos and films. It has created a culture where killing is almost a fashion accessory." Th tirade, delivered on live radio, was quickly labeled "deeply racist" by the rap community. The Guardian (UK) 01/16/03 Posted: 01/05/2003 6:42 pm Readers Defend Baz Boheme Readers take New York Times critic Anthony Tomassini to task for his piece criticizing Baz Luhrmann's Broadway La Boheme. "Mr. Luhrmann has got me happy to stand in line again, and has made some of us (including all the twentysomethings who stood alongside me for three hours for tickets) excited about returning to the opera." The New York Times 01/05/03 Posted: 01/05/2003 6:00 pm Previously: Will Baz Boheme Spoil Opera For Those Who Already Love Opera? Anthony Tommasini is impressed by the glare and glitter of Baz Luhrmann's Broadway Boheme. "Yet from a musical perspective, many veteran opera buffs will be dismayed, as I was, by the compromises the production has made. Newcomers to opera who think they are experiencing the real thing are not. For all the dazzle and heart of this Broadway "Bohème," I sat through three shows (to see the three pairs of rotating leads) getting more and more glum about the future of opera. Will traditional companies that play by the rules be able to keep up as the public embraces amplified opera on Broadway?" The New York Times 12/22/02 Arts Issues 50 Arts Events Not To Miss In 2003 What 50 arts/cultural events should you simply not miss in 2003? London's Observer does the rundown... The Observer (UK) 01/05/03 Posted: 01/05/2003 7:14 pm Publishing Granta's List Of Britain's Best Young Novelists Granta's one-a-decade list of Britain's best young novelists always creates a stir. "The list, like all literary prizes, is an attempt to bypass market imperfections, and is loved and loathed by publishers, who are inclined to dismiss it as irrelevant when they aren't included, and to applaud its detachment and authority when they are." This year's list has its critics and defenders. "So were there any shoo-ins? Several judges mentioned, unsurprisingly, Zadie Smith." The Observer (UK) 01/05/03 Posted: 01/05/2003 7:03 pm 20 Years Later - What Does A List Mean? A list's still a list. Yes there are stars from the previous Granta lists. But "the somewhat sadder message conveyed by the yellowing old photos of 1983 and 1993 is that many of these writers, while in middle age still going through the motions of publishing a novel every few years, are not what they were." The Telegraph (UK) 01/06/03 Posted: 01/05/2003 6:42 pm Struggle Behind The Publishing Of A Lost Tolkien Manuscript The medieval studies professor who discovered and edited a lost manuscript by JRR Tolkien, says dealing with Tolkien's fans was arduous over the six years it took to prepare the manuscript. "It was unfortunate that there were some obsessive fans who "whose attention one attracts by working on anything related to Tolkien. The sheer number of people who were trying to profit from Tolkien's work was astonishing, and the problems with copyright violation and outright theft were like nothing I had ever encountered in medieval studies." BBC 01/05/03 Posted: 01/05/2003 6:33 pm Previously: Tolkien Manuscript Found An unpublished manuscript by JRR Tolkien, found six years ago in a box at Oxford and is being published. "The 2000 handwritten pages include Tolkien's translation and appraisal of 'Beowulf', the epic 8th century Anglo-Saxon poem of bravery, friendship and monster-slaying that is thought to have inspired 'The Lord of the Rings'." The Australian 12/30/02 What Paperbacks Sold Last Year What were 2002's hottest UK paperback sellers? John Grisham leads the list, as expected. And there were an awful lot of manufactured celebrity books. Some 30 million paperbacks were sold in the UK in 2002, about the same as in 2001, but nearly three million down on 2001 (there was a new Harry Potter that year). Still, it's estimated that fewer than 50 percent of Britons ever buy a book. Here's the list of paperbacks most sold... The Observer (UK) 01/05/03 Posted: 01/05/2003 6:28 pm Media Pitiless TV Critiques From The Web Have Hollywood's Attention In an industry where ratings are everything, websites that hash over the latest series offerings have found big influence in Hollywood. One - a site called Television Without Pity - has attracted a regular following of people who run the shows - all who want to know what the fans on the site think of their work. TWoP tends to be merciless...The Observer (UK) 01/05/03 Posted: 01/05/2003 7:23 pm