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Weekend, April 26, 27




Ideas

Destruction Of Culture - Holding American Leadership Accountable "There is much we don't know about what happened this month at the Baghdad museum, at its National Library and archives, at the Mosul museum and the rest of that country's gutted cultural institutions. Is it merely the greatest cultural disaster of the last 500 years, as Paul Zimansky, a Boston University archaeologist, put it? Or should we listen to Eleanor Robson, of All Souls College, Oxford, who said, 'You'd have to go back centuries, to the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258, to find looting on this scale'? Nor do we know who did it. Was this a final act of national rape by Saddam loyalists? Was it what Philippe de Montebello, of the Metropolitan Museum, calls the 'pure Hollywood' scenario — a clever scheme commissioned in advance by shadowy international art thieves? Was it simple opportunism by an unhinged mob? Or some combination thereof? Whatever the answers to those questions, none of them can mitigate the pieces of the damning jigsaw puzzle that have emerged with absolute certainty. The Pentagon was repeatedly warned of the possibility of this catastrophe in advance of the war, and some of its officials were on the case. But at the highest levels at the White House, the Pentagon and central command — where the real clout is — no one cared." The New York Times 04/27/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 10:15 am

Visual Arts

Zagreb - City Of Art The city of Zagreb claims to have more museums and galleries per square foot than any other city. "One of the oddities of Zagreb is that although there's an amazing abundance of museums and galleries, there's no national art gallery. Instead, several of the leading galleries are named after prominent collectors who left their treasures to the nation." The Telegraph (UK) 04/26/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 9:33 am

Mesopotamian Studies - A Changed Landscape Clearly, after the looting of the Iraq National Museum, Mesopotamian studies will never be the same again. In Chicago "at one of the leading global centers for the study of ancient Mesopotamia, the personalities vary but the mood is a mix of anger and mourning, seasoned by the bitterness of personal betrayal. And it's clear that the recent events in Baghdad already have provoked both internal and external soul-searching about the role of this composite museum-research institute in a harsh new world for near-Eastern scholarship." Chicago Tribune 04/27/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 7:17 am

  • What Means Mesopotamia Mesopotamia isn't just some long-ago land that doesn't have resonance today. "Mesopotamia was the 'cradle of civilization' that gave us the wheel, the 60-minute hour and, probably, the earliest system of writing. And then, too, it is a place in human consciousness - the land of the Garden of Eden and the birthplace of Abraham from which descended such biblical stories as those of Noah, the Tower of Babel and Moses." Chicago Tribune 04/27/03
    Posted: 04/27/2003 7:09 am

United Arab Emirates Modernizes Its Biennale "The five previous editions of the Sharjah biennale had focused mainly on the local and traditional art scene and were aimed at an exclusively local public; this year, however, 117 artists from 25 different countries have been invited and the biennale has taken on an international aspect. It is an ambitious project, entirely the effort of the emirate government led by Sheikh Bin Mohammed al Qasimi. His aim is to show Sharjah as the cultural capital of the United Arab Emirates, and indeed of the entire Persian Gulf." The Art Newspaper 04/25/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 6:23 am

Venice To Build Protective Barriers Venice's government has voted to build mobile barriers for the city's lagoon to protect the city from flooding. The barriers "will consist of 78 hollow, hinged steel flaps, each 18-28 metres high and 20 metres wide, at the three entrances from the sea into the lagoon. In normal conditions they will lie on the sea bed, but when there is the threat of a tide higher than 110 cm above mean sea level, air will force water out of the flaps, which then rise up to hold back the water. The €6 billion (£4.1 billion; $6.4 billion) project, which is expected to be completed by 2011 (to put this cost in proportion: the road works in the centre of Boston have cost $14.6 billion)." The Art Newspaper 04/25/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 6:17 am

Music

Florida Philharmonic Demise Could Threaten Region's Culture Last week the Florida Philharmonic announced it must raise $20 million by May 2 or face a bankruptcy. "In the meantime, some arts executives and community leaders fear that bankruptcy could cloud major cultural plans, including a proposed concert hall in Boca Raton, and send a dangerous message about the health of the cultural scene. But some also say the orchestra's collapse is long overdue, given the organization's nearly $3 million deficit and constant cries for help." Palm Beach Post 04/25/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 10:25 am

Course Correction - Are We Making Music Too Perfect? According to industry insiders, many successful mainstream artists in most genres of music - perhaps a majority of artists - are using pitch correction. Now some in the music industry think the focus on perfection has gone too far. "Vocal tuning is contributing to the Milli Vanilli-fication of modern music. What a singer sounds like has always been manipulated and massaged by producers: The difference nowadays is that it is so easy to do - maybe too easy. 'Pro Tools is the industry Frankenstein that's taken over. Everything has to be exact, and I blame engineers and producers. It's been overdone'." Chicago Tribune 04/27/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 7:55 am

Arts Issues

Beijing Closes Theatres Beijing has closed all of its theatres, cinemas and Internet cafes in an attempt to contain the outbreak of SARS. CNN 04/27/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 6:46 am

Florida House Votes To Slash Arts Funding Florida's legislature takes its first steps to kill or drastically reduce state arts funding. "The House wants to slash arts funding to $6 million - down from $28 million - while eliminating the Corporations Trust Fund, which comes from a tax on corporations and helps fund Florida arts programs. The Senate would keep the trust but allocates nothing for arts programs. The bill, which passed on a 67-44 vote, was immediately sent to the Senate. It is expected to come into play during budget negotiations." Tallahassee Democrat 04/25/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 6:30 am

  • Wiping Out Florida's Arts Trust "Both the House and Senate passed bills Thursday eliminating the trust fund for the arts and putting the money into the state's general-revenue pot. The only difference between the bills: The House budget includes $6 million from general revenue for the arts. The Senate version: zero. The House version now goes back to the Senate. If the Senate approves, the bill would go to Gov. Jeb Bush for his signature." Miami Herald 04/25/03
    Posted: 04/27/2003 5:37 am

People

Rem Koolhaas - Beating A Retreat To Europe? Star architect Rem Koolhaas is closing his New York office after several of his American projects were cancelled. "It's been a tough year for the high-flying Mr. Koolhaas, who won the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2000. Two weeks ago the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York scrapped his $200 million expansion, saying the project was too big for the cash-strapped institution to take on. A few months earlier, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art had iced his $400 million building, citing budget and fund-raising problems. The Prada superstore in San Francisco that Mr. Koolhaas designed has been axed, and his glitzy, casino-cushioned Guggenheim Las Vegas closed after 18 months. In a recent lecture at Columbia University, Mr. Koolhaas suggested that he was fed up with New York and America and was shifting his focus elsewhere – to Beijing, for example, where he is designing a $650 million broadcast center for the 2008 Olympics." Dallas Morning News 04/25/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 8:21 am

Theatre

"Shockingly Sexual" London Play Is A Sham The show "XXX," currently playing in London, is said to be shocking and sexually explicit to a degree not seen in the London theatre. "At a time when there's no shortage of dildos and bare butts (even bare butts that you might know) on TV, it seems that flesh on the stage is still peculiarly 'real'. Which is, you might think, an argument for the power of the theatre. But not for this show. Of course, it shouldn't be banned: all you have to do to avoid it is not to go. But it is a con: it's commerce mas querading as taboo-breaking creativity." The Observer (UK) 04/27/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 8:53 am

Unions Protest Non-Union Music Man A non-union production of "The Music Man" now touring America is upsetting theatrical unions. Unlike most shows, this production never was on Broadway. But its ticket prices are cheaper than the typical touring show. "The AFL-CIO and Actors' Equity announced a boycott when the show first hit the road, in Des Moines. Since then, actors union representatives have organized small public protests, garnering media attention at most stops. The only problem: the protests haven't dissuaded many ticket buyers from seeing the show." Boston Globe 04/27/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 6:55 am

Publishing

Naming The Top 50 Women Writers - What's Wong With This Picture The Orange Prize is holding a vote on the best books of all time by women writers. "But 50 Best Books by women? The old arguments that greeted the establishment of the Orange Prize itself are immediately unrolled for another airing: chiefly, that women are not a minority group and good writing transcends boundaries of gender, therefore to treat women writers as belonging to a separate category serves to perpetuate divisions rather than address and erase them. The notion of a literary prize exclusively for white writers or, indeed, for men, is untenable, so the defence for a women-only prize must be that we consider ourselves sidelined. Is it still true that women writers are undervalued?" The Observer (UK) 04/27/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 8:58 am

Orange Prize Shortlist Plays It Safe Big names dominate the shortlist of six for this year's Orange Prize. "The triumvirate of Donna Tartt, who shot to worldwide fame with her debut novel The Secret History, Zadie Smith, another novelist who struck gold first time with White Teeth, and the grand dame of Canadian letters, Carol Shields, are the favourites for the £30,000 award, which is for women writers only. The Scottish novelist Shena Mackay, nominated for the Booker for her bestseller The Orchard On Fire, is the fourth heavyweight on the list with her book Heligoland." The Guardian (UK) 04/25/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 8:41 am

London Book Review Opens Small Bookstore - But Will It Succeed? The London Review of Books is opening a small bookstore in London. The venture "poses a large question about the way we buy books in this country. Are we ready to break the chains of corporate bookselling, which have strangled so many independents? The shop, on Bury Place, will stock the kinds of books that the LRB reviews - political polemics, biographies, philosophical tracts, slim volumes of poetry and literary novels. Whereas most big stores now carry 60-70,000 titles, the LRB shop has only 20,000. And while chains like Borders and Waterstone's stock multiple copies of most books, the LRB shop has only one of each." The Observer (UK) 04/27/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 8:37 am

Voting On A Book For A Country To Read A CBC radio panel has chosen Hubert Aquin's controversial "Prochain Episode" as the book it would most like Canadians to read in this year's Canada Reads program. Over several programs the panel voted off other books under consideration. The final two books for the winning slot were the Aquin and Wayne Johnston's The 'Colony of Unrequited Dreams'. In previous days, they had debated the merits of, and had voted off, Paul Hiebert's 'Sarah Binks', Yann Martel's 'Life of Pi' and Helen Humphreys's 'The Lost Garden'. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/26/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 8:06 am

Judge Restores Harry Potter Books To Arkansas Library Shelves A judge has ruled that an Arkansas school district must return Harry Potter books to its shelves. The Cedarville school district had voted that children wanting to check out the books had to get parental permission. "The Harry Potter books have been assailed by some Christian groups for their themes of witchcraft. The American Library Association says the books were the most frequently challenged of 2002, but rarely did those challenges lead to restrictions or bans." CNN 04/23/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 6:51 am

Media

In Praise Of The B-Movie "As a cultural phenomenon the B-movie lasted for less than 40 years. Its life was extended for a while by the post-war popularity of the drive-in cinema, but it finally succumbed to television and the inexorable disappearance of locally owned independent movie houses.
Fairly rapidly 'B-picture' became a pejorative term. 'B-movie dialogue' meant a string of clichés. 'B-movie plots' were predictable dramas retreading familiar stories. There is some justice to this. Most B-movies are bad and forgotten. But at their worst they have an unpretentious, sometimes camp, charm. At their best they are as different from smooth A-movies as the great pulp writers like David Goodis and Horace McCoy were from the respectable best-selling novelists of the day."
The Observer (UK) 04/27/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 8:51 am

Dance

Dance On Degas' Model Ballerina A ballet based on the life of the model who posed for Degas' bronze ballerina has opened at the Paris Opera. "La Petite Danseuse, with a cast of 60, pays tribute to the model who posed for La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans, the only sculpture Degas exhibited in his lifetime. The bronze in a white tutu is in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris." Recent research about the model indicates that she was a dancer "brought up in a poverty-stricken family of prostitutes and was jailed soon after posing for Degas, at the age of 14, in 1881." The Guardian (UK) 04/26/03
Posted: 04/27/2003 8:30 am


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