Ideas Getting Inside Einstein A new website explores the mind and world of Albert Einstein. "In addition to the voluminous collection of Einstein's writings, some never before published and none previously available online, the website will house an extensive database of 40,000 documents, images and research on Einstein's life and work, as well as digitized copies of Einstein's professional and personal correspondence and pages from his notebooks and travel diaries." Wired 05/19/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 11:02 pm Pondering The Theory Years In the most recent past, critics have returned to studying art in historical social context. The art theory years of the 60s and 70s seem like a distant past. "As we look back at the theory years today, now that the fierce polemical passions have waned, the transformation of literary studies through several phases in a single generation seems astonishing. Where did it come from? Are its sources to be found in the 1960s, the tumultuous decade in which it emerged? In the poststructuralist phase, scholarship and criticism that had been focused on individual writers gave way to a skeptical approach to all interpretation." Chronicle of Higher Education 05/23/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 10:51 pm Visual Arts Europe's Most Wanted Art Thief A thief has been entering important libraries in Europe and cutting out pages of rare volumes. "Such is the concern that Scotland Yard has just included him on its 'most wanted' list alongside men wanted for questioning about murders, sex attacks and gangland crime. He is in effect Britain's most wanted art thief." The Guardian (UK) 05/20/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 11:57 pm Museum Director Aquitted In Goldfish Massacre A museum director in Denmark has been aquitted in a case that charged cruelty to animals. "The exhibit at the Trapholt modern art museum in 2000 featured live goldfish swimming in a blender. Visitors were given the possibility of pressing the button to transform the fish into a runny liquid. Artist Marco Evaristti, the Chilean-born bad boy of the Danish art scene, said at the time that he wanted to force people to 'do battle with their conscience'. Two goldfish died after two visitors pressed the button, and the Danish association Friends of Animals filed a complaint against the artist as well as the director of the museum, Peter Meyer, for cruelty to animals." The Age (Melbourne) 05/20/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 11:50 pm A $27 Million Van Gogh - $75 At A Time The owner of the cafe that Van Gogh frequented wants to buy one of the master's paintings and hang it there. He "recently negotiated to buy 'Field and poppies', painted just two weeks before Van Gogh?s death. For most of the past 50 or so years it has been hidden away in a Swiss private collection. The audacious plan is to raise the $27 million in just 30 months, by selling shares for $75 each. Under this scheme, donors will own a tiny share in the painting, which is to belong to the non-profitmaking Institut Van Gogh. A discreet camera will be mounted in the attic room, enabling shareholders to view the painting in 'real time' on the internet. It will require over 300,000 people to take up the offer." The Art Newspaper 05/16/03 05/16/03 05/16/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 11:15 pm Afghan Art Still Being Stolen Art pillaging in Afghanistan hasn't slowed any since the Americans came. "For decades, war and gnawing poverty made Afghanistan fertile ground for thieves and smugglers. Looters have cleared the shelves in Afghanistan's museums and left deep hollows in the earth of its ancient sites, where Buddhist, Greek, Zoroastrian and early Islamic civilizations once flourished. Yet even with the U.S.-backed government of Hamid Karzai in place and an international community eager to support cultural preservation, large-scale looting of Afghanistan's archeological sites goes on." Chicago Tribune 05/19/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 11:12 pm Contemporary Art - The Auction House Winner? An emerging trend in the art market? "It was evident that the market for Contemporary art - made from about 1945 to the present - continues to rise. It seems to be only a matter of time until Contemporary art auctions routinely outshine those of the longtime market leader, Impressionist and Modern art." Los Angeles Times 05/19/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 11:11 pm Found Iraqi Art Being Horded "Thousands of antiquities missing from the Iraq National Museum have been found but not returned because citizens won't hand them over to either their American occupiers or remnants of the hated former government, U.S. investigators say." USAToday (AP) 05/17/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 11:06 pm Art Market Headed For Fall? Is the art market getting ready to tumble? Recent sales were good - but some say the good prices were luck. "So far the art market has defied the doomsayers who predicted a collapse at the top end. Perhaps it is true that art, because of the emotional attachment, is the last thing the financially embarrassed rich will sell. But some believe that it is a only matter of timing." The Economist 05/16/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 11:03 pm Music Death Of The Single Why are record singles dying? "There's no question in my mind that when record companies sign kids up now, bar a very few exceptions, it's a case of 'bring 'em in, squeeze 'em dry, and throw 'em out again'. And if you tell the teenyboppers today that some band is the latest, greatest thing, eventually they get sick of being manipulated and stop buying the records - which is exactly what is happening. The sale of singles fell by 42% in number and value in the first quarter of this year, compared with the same period last year, and experts are predicting that the top 40 may soon be based on radio airplay, rather than how many singles people buy. " The Guardian (UK) 05/20/03 Posted: 05/20/2003 12:32 am Are You Good Enough To Sing Underground? London has licensed performers who work in the subways. "London Underground says the public wants high quality musicians who are guaranteed not to be confrontational. Complete with blue busking licences - after auditions, police background checks and a refundable registration fee - the first official buskers are among 256 approved performers who will occupy 25 pitches at 12 stations." BBC 05/19/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 10:59 pm Choral Union - Where New Music Thrives Where's the action in American contemporary music? Choral music. "In terms of concert music, choral and 'educational' music represent the lion's share of most titles that are commercially published each year. There is a significant and constant demand for new works for chorus that significantly surpasses demand for new string quartets or symphonies or operas. Choral unions, community choruses, professional choruses, and choirs in faith communities regularly commission new works?oftentimes, there are numerous commissions each year. The premiere of a new work is a matter of course for hundreds of thousands of American choir members every year." NewMusicBox 05/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 10:56 pm Arts Issues NAJP Chooses New Arts Journalism Fellows "The National Arts Journalism Program (NAJP) at Columbia University has selected this year's fellows. In a departure from previous years, all seven of the critics and arts writers chosen for the program will participate in a research project - Reporting the Arts II - which will follow up on a 1999 study which measured arts coverage in 10 cities across America. This year's fellows include: Caryn Brooks, arts and culture editor, Willamette Week; Willa Conrad, classical music critic, Star-Ledger (Newark); Paul de Barros, jazz and world music critic, The Seattle Times; Bill Goldstein, books editor, The New York Times on the Web, and contributing editor, WNBC-TV; Laurie Muchnick, book editor, Newsday; Valerie Takahama, staff writer, Orange County Register; Lily Tung, segment producer and writer, KRON TV (San Francisco)." National Arts Journalism Program 05/19/03 Posted: 05/20/2003 1:13 am Foundations Upset At Potential Law Changes The US Congress is considering a bill that would force charitable foundations to give away five percent of their assets each year. This would result in a big increase in money going to charities (and arts non-profits). "The bill has created a furor in the philanthropic world, with foundations warning that they could be forced to squander their assets and spend themselves out of existence. Its supporters, however, say it will actually rein in wasteful spending ? on salaries and overhead ? as it gives charities needed help in a time of withering government budgets and growing economic pain." The New York Times 05/19/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 11:13 pm Today's Cheap Knockoffs - As Good As The "Real" Thing "To most people, counterfeiting means forged currency first and foremost. But counterfeiters are copying an ever widening range of products. For some time they have been churning out imitation designer fashion, software and CD s. Now they are copying medicines, mobile phones, food and drink, car parts and even tobacco. New technology has broadened the range of goods that are vulnerable to copying. It has dramatically improved their quality, as well as lowering their cost of production. Where once counterfeits were cheap and shoddy imitations of the real thing, today their packaging and contents (especially for digital products such as software, music CD s and film DVD s) often render them almost indistinguishable from the genuine article." The Economist 05/15/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 11:05 pm Will WalMart Decide What You Read Or Listen To? With the big mass retailers like WalMart now accounting for 40 percent or more of sales for books and music, their influence on what gets sold is growing. "But with the chains' power has come criticism from authors, musicians and civil liberties groups who argue that the stores are in effect censoring and homogenizing popular culture. The discounters and price clubs typically carry an assortment of fewer than 2,000 books, videos and albums, and they are far more ruthless than specialized stores about returning goods if they fail to meet a minimum threshold of weekly sales. What is more, the chains' buyers ? especially at Wal-Mart ? carefully screen content to avoid selling material likely to offend their conservative customers." The New York Times 05/18/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 5:30 am Theatre A Tony Field That Actually Means Something Where are this year's outrages among the Tony nominations? Usually there's at least something the nominators did that offends. "For the most part, however, the nominating committee has sorted heroically through the season's extremely peculiar mixture of shows. The awards, to be dispensed June 8 on CBS, are not likely to be placed in unworthy hands. What hurts my head this year more than ever is the necessity of having to choose at all." Newsday 05/18/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 11:07 pm Publishing What Happened To The Well-Made Book? What's happened to the physical quality of books? "Setting aside magnificent art books and the sometimes quite extraordinary over-production of commercial 'jackets', the heft, boards, paper and design of a typical new novel or biography are decent and serviceable, certainly, but beautiful - no. Why should this be? Is it merely economics? A lack of aesthetic excellence is often blamed upon this quite nebulous excuse and on the declining standards of the book-buying public, which leave publishers under no obligation to make their books any better than they are." London Evening Standard 05/19/03 Posted: 05/20/2003 12:57 am The Gray Lits You might think, the way we lionize the latest young writer that only the young can write a compelling book. "Older people aren't newcomers to literature. But older characters have tended to spend their time recalling their youths or coming to terms with their mortality. Now we are seeing the rise of books about sexto-, septo- and octogenarians who are seizing the here and now." Raleigh News & Observer 05/18/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 11:01 pm Working To Amend The Patriot Act US librarians and booksellers are organizing to protest the Patriot Act, which allows the government to access records of what books people are reading. "In an unusual display of industry solidarity, 32 groups representing a cross section of publishing-related organizations, regional booksellers associations and chain booksellers issued a statement in support of House Resolution 1157, a bill introduced by Vermont Rep. Bernie Sanders that would amend section 215 of the U.S.A. Patriot Act." Publishers Weekly 05/19/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 10:58 pm Media BBC Arts - Looking Up? One of the biggest complaints about the BBC has been its declining arts coverage. But the arts fortunes seem to be changing. "Eighteen months of reassessment have resulted in a stream of new programme commissions planned to 2006. Twenty projects are listed in a special BBC booklet, including films on Michelangelo, Christopher Wren and Mary Shelley and landmark series, such as The Origins of Art. BBC1 is finalising plans for a series on British culture. Another strand, Arena, is being salvaged and turned into a biographical series." The Guardian (UK) 05/20/03 Posted: 05/20/2003 12:52 am Is Fewer Media Voices A Good Thing? What will media ownership deregulation mean to you, asks Howard Rosenberg? "Meaning more media control in fewer hands. Meaning more cross-promotion. Meaning less diversity. Meaning fewer independent voices in news and entertainment. Meaning less competition and fewer options for information. It's true that what we have now is often unreliable, a fact underlined by tag-along TV's generally feckless, ever-manipulated, go-with-the-flow, yassah-Mr. President coverage of the war in Iraq and its aftermath. Everyone would profit if the quality of today's journalism were higher. Diverse media, however imperfect, are essential to us all, however." Los Angeles Times 05/19/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 11:09 pm Reality TV That's News Rather Than Entertainment The cable news networks have ceased being anything about news - they're reality entertainment vying desperately to hook our attention. So where is there decent non-fiction TV? "I?m sometimes ambivalent about the self-declared good intentions of public television, as I am about a culture that now gives trophies to kids for merely participating in a sport, regardless of how well they perform. And public television itself often seems ambivalent about its identity, unsure whether it wants to be a macramé plant holder or a shiny electric scooter from the Sharper Image. It often ends up somewhere in between, resorting to middle-of-the-road, commercial fare?Deepak Chopra, Suze Orman, nostalgic pop-music shows?to pull in money at fund-raising time. But, at the end of the day, I would, and do, support public television?s inclusiveness, with all its occasionally tedious shagginess." The New Yorker 05/19/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 10:55 pm Who's Supporting Media Deregulation? (It's No Coincidence) The US Senate is holding hearings on whether to deregulate media ownership. "When the Federal Communications Commission was debating whether it should give away or sell $70 billion worth of digital broadcast spectrum in 1996, newspaper editorial pages weighed in. Senator John McCain's list, a consumer group survey, found that every paper favoring a giveaway was owned by a company that also owned television stations that, naturally, wanted the spectrum for free. Every paper opposing a giveaway was owned by a company with no substantial interest in television." A coincidence, wondered senators...? Washington Post 05/19/03 Posted: 05/19/2003 10:53 pm