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Enough With The Potter-Mania Already "What's behind this Potter-mania? Clearly something other than the quality of the novels. When reviewers finally get to read the new Potter, no doubt there will be the predictable backlash of claims that it is not that good - but who cares? The discussion has gone beyond all that. Since it began, Potter-mania has represented a cultural infantilism, that only grows as the years go by. It is about what we expect from our kids, our books, our value system and ourselves. Whatever happens in The Order of the Phoenix, the story of our obsession with Harry Potter is unlikely to have a happy ending." spiked-online 06/19/03
Posted: 06/23/2003 8:25 pm
Rijksmuseum To Get Makeover Amersterdam's Rijksmuseum, or national gallery, is getting a makeover. The new design "envisions spacious, bright exhibition halls, better facilities, and a grand entrance hall large enough to shelter guests from the characteristically wet Dutch weather - instead of having them wait in the lines that now stretch outside the building for most of the year. The $230 million renovation, scheduled to run from 2004 to 2008, will be the most extensive since the original four-towered building by Pierre Cuyper opened in 1885. It was then the southern entrance to the city and accommodated only a tenth of the 1.2 million visitors it now receives each year." Philadelphia Inquirer (AP) 06/24/03
Posted: 06/24/2003 7:19 am
Norwegian Painting Returned A prized JC Dahl painting stolen in Norway a couple of weeks ago has been returned by the thieves. They "either got cold feet or decided the painting was more of a liability than an asset for them. They returned it using a local commercial radio station, P4, as intermediary."
Aftenposten 06/24/03
Posted: 06/24/2003 7:08 am
- Previously: Norway's Biggest Art Heist Since "The Scream" Norwegian authorities are calling the bold theft of a classic landscape painting from industrial concern Norsk Hydro "one of the biggest art heists in Norway since Edvard Munch's 'Scream' was stolen in 1994. The thieves disabled security cameras and alarms to steal JC Dahl's 'Rjukanfoss' landscape from 1830." Aftenposten (Norway) 06/12/03
Indian Government Nixes Taj Mahal Mall The Taj Mahal glows with light at dawn and twilight. But "before the Indian government stepped in at the weekend, the 17th century marble monument's source of illumination was in danger of being cut off by a tourist complex of shopping malls, restaurants, multiplex cinemas and other entertainment facilities. Construction on the project, less than 300 metres from the Taj Mahal, began in November but was halted by the Indian government, which said the new structure could divert the river during monsoon rains and damage the base of the monument." The Guardian (UK) 06/24/03
Posted: 06/23/2003 8:39 pm
Dutch Government Returns Art The Dutch government has finally begun returning art that hed been stolen by Nazis. "For a long period, between the end of that war and 1997, a veil of secrecy had been drawn over the so-called "NK collection", works of art that had been recuperated but had remained unclaimed when the date for submitting an application for restitution passed." The Art Newspaper 06/20/03
Posted: 06/23/2003 8:07 pm
Stolen Schiele Painting Sold A rare Egon Schiele painting that had been stolen by the Nazis has been sold at auction in London. "An anonymous telephone bidder who made the highest offer for the Schiele will pay more than £12.66 million once the buyer's premium is included - a record auction sale for the artist and the most expensive restituted impressionist work ever sold at an auction." BBC 06/23/03
Posted: 06/23/2003 7:48 pm
Ragtime Opera Scott Joplin's only opera - which he never saw performed in his lifetime - is getting a rare production. "The only large-scale work to survive from the pen of the greatest of the ragtime composers, 'Treemonisha' is still a comparative rarity in performance for reasons that have as much to do with history - the piece was never performed during Joplin's lifetime, and his original orchestrations have been lost - as with the opera's intrinsic merits." San Francisco Chronicle 06/24/03
Posted: 06/24/2003 7:23 am
The One-Performance Syndrome "As American orchestras perform an increasing number of premieres each season, it is all the more difficult to obtain that elusive second performance. A major roadblock toward that goal is the frequent inability of composers-and their publishers and agents-to secure recordings of concert performances for use in promoting new works." NewMusicBox 06/03
Posted: 06/23/2003 9:25 pm
Hipper Than Thou "Bang on a Can is a loose association of self-consciously edgy composers and performers whose stated aim is to write music "too funky for the academy and too structured for the club scene." They speak of their formative years this way: "We had the simplicity, energy and drive of pop music in our ears-we'd heard it from the cradle. But we also had the idea from our classical music training that composing was exalted." This too-neat division of labor-funky fun on one side, serious structure on the other-threatens to repeat the mistake of Paris in the twenties. It undersells both the wildness of composition and the wiliness of pop. Try telling James Brown that his music isn't structured." The New Yorker 06/23/03
Posted: 06/23/2003 9:04 pm
Another Plan To Ax California Arts Council The latest budget proposal in the California state legislature calls for the elimination of the State Arts Council. San Francisco Chronicle (AP) 06/24/03
Posted: 06/24/2003 7:02 am
Chicago Philanthropy Down A survey of Chicago foundations reveals that their giving will decline this year. "The survey indicates an average decline in grantmakers' assets of 15 percent in the most recent fiscal year. But requests for money from non-profits showed no letup. According to the survey, donors are responding by awarding fewer grants, but of somewhat larger amounts. They also are giving more toward general operating expenses, rather than specific programs of non-profits, allowing the groups more flexibility in the use of the funds." Chicago Tribune 06/23/03
Posted: 06/23/2003 5:22 pm
Arise, Sir Iggy! Last week the French government made rocker Iggy Pop an Officer of Arts and Letters. Really? Iggy's cool, but is he really a high-cultural luminary worthy of honors from the French Ministry of Culture? "Iggy's kudos appear to be utterly serious, as part of an attempt to seem as cool as possible. The further out of style a ministry is, the more it must stretch to 'get game,' and incongruous results are almost guaranteed. The problem is not uniquely French..."
OpinionJournal.com 06/24/03
Posted: 06/23/2003 5:10 pm
Leon Uris, 78 "Uris died Saturday of natural causes at his home on New York's Shelter Island, photographer Jill Uris said from her home in Aspen, Colo. Energetic and unafraid, the author was as much an adventurer as a writer, traveling tirelessly and sometimes risking his life. In researching `Exodus,' he logged thousands of miles and ended up reporting on the 1956 conflict in the Middle East." The New York Times 06/24/03
Posted: 06/24/2003 7:15 am
Baryshnikov: Still Dancing After All These Years "At 55, Mikhail Baryshnikov plies his trade with wonder, grace and more than a touch of genius. He is not so much fighting the effect of time as he is miraculously making time his ally: The man looks almost as beautiful now as he did a generation ago, and his charisma grows with the passing decades. No one holds the stage with as much ease and command." San Francisco Chronicle 06/23/03
Posted: 06/23/2003 6:19 pm
Supreme Court Sanctions Porn Filters On Library Computers The US Supreme Court has ruled that Congress can force public libraries to install and use porn filters on library computers. "Congress passed the law, the Children's Internet Protection Act, in 2000, but it did not take effect pending the legal challenge by public libraries and civil liberties groups, which argued that any filter also inadvertently blocks access to other, noncontroversial sites, as some studies have shown. But in a 6-3 ruling, the court said the law did not violate the First Amendment guaranteeing free speech because libraries will have the capability to disable the filters for any adult patron who may ask." The New York Times 06/23/03
Posted: 06/23/2003 6:07 pm
Classic Oprah - Anything Wrong With This Picture? Oprah's back with a book club - this time with classic literature...a little Steinbeck to start. "So what could be wrong with this? Thousands of readers will come to know a good book they might otherwise not have read. And, of course, 'East of Eden,' a best seller in its day, will come out of the experience no worse for wear. Maybe nothing is wrong with this. Maybe taking shots at Oprah for "inviting" Steinbeck to her talk show will, in the end, be exposed as just grumpy elitism. Or maybe something about 'East of Eden,' repackaged in an eye-catching Oprah Edition for the occasion, is in danger of being quietly lost in what could transpire in coming shows." Chicago Tribune 06/23/03
Posted: 06/23/2003 5:25 pm
A Tale Of Two Dance Companies Joan Acocella compares and contrasts American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet as their seasons wind down. "As A.B.T. gets more innocent, for better and for worse, New York City Ballet gets more sophisticated, for worse." The New Yorker 06/24/03
Posted: 06/23/2003 9:14 pm | 
