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Tuesday, August 3




Ideas

Today's Educators - No Time To Think "Today the role of professor has veered to a ludicrously opposite extreme from the untrammelled freedom of the postwar years. Under huge pressure to be labelled a highly starred international researcher in the next research assessment exercise, a professor is expected to produce top-quality books and papers, while buried under a ferocious bureaucracy of business plans, mission statements, forecasts, audits of every kind, endless meetings, paperwork, quality inspections, performance assessments and interim reviews. It is no way to treat talented and creative people, on whom the next generation of scholars, and indeed our society, depends." The Guardian (UK) 08/03/04
Posted: 08/02/2004 10:22 pm

Imprint Of Memorization Students don't memorize texts anymore. "Aren’t exercises in memorizing and reciting poetry and passages of prose an archaic curiosity, without educative value? That too-common view is sadly wrong. Kids need both the poetry and the memorization. As educators have known for centuries, these exercises deliver unique cognitive benefits, benefits that are of special importance for kids who come from homes where books are scarce and the level of literacy low. In addition, such exercises etch the ideals of their civilization on children’s minds and hearts." City Journal 08/04
Posted: 08/02/2004 9:32 pm

Science Expressed As Art (It's Easier That Way) "Most of us have seen the cyclonic swirl of water running down a drain, but what about the turbulent rush of the jet stream or the dance of an electromagnetic field? John Belcher and colleagues at the MIT Center for Educational Computer Initiatives developed a computer program that turns the mathematical descriptions of these phenomena, technically known as vector fields, into visual patterns showing the fields frozen in time. Then he took the program a step further, allowing students in his introductory-level class on electricity and magnetism to design their own field patterns." Discovery 08/02/04
Posted: 08/02/2004 9:17 pm

Visual Arts

Architectural Target? Is there anything in common about the architecture of the announced list of potential al Qaeda building targets? "As the list of targets revealed Sunday by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge demonstrates -- again -- when it comes to the grisly business of blowing up buildings, these media-savvy terrorists clearly prefer a certain kind of target: Big. Global. American." Washington Post 08/03/04
Posted: 08/03/2004 10:46 am

In Germany - Little Progress In Tracking Art Stolen By Nazis Five years after German politicians directed the country's museums to search their collections for artwork that might have been stolen from Jews by the Nazis, only a handful of artworks have been turned up. There has been little cooperation from the museums - "only about 165 of Germanys 6,000 museums have reported" that they have any suspicions of artwork that might have been stolen. Expatica (DPA) 08/03/04
Posted: 08/03/2004 9:11 am

US Rethinks Venice Biennale Representation American representation at next summer's Venice Biennale is in jeopardy. "The committee that recommends an artist to represent the United States at the Biennale has been disbanded by its overseer, the National Endowment for the Arts, which is rethinking its involvement with federal advisory committees. And the State Department, which is responsible for American representation at this and many other international exhibitions, is not only looking for someone to run it but also to help pay for it." The New York Times 08/03/04
Posted: 08/02/2004 11:01 pm

Three Antiquities Thieves Convicted In Guatemala Guatemala has convicted three men for "stealing an eighth-century Mayan altar from an archaeological site and then threatening to kill anyone who told the authorities. The trial was Guatemala’s first criminal prosecution of antiquities thieves and the first of its kind in Latin America. Archaeologists and prosecutors hope the verdict and the prison sentences for the three men will have a powerful deterrent effect on the looting of the country’s many Mayan sites." The Art Newspaper 08/02/04
Posted: 08/02/2004 10:09 pm

Turner Revealed A copy of a JMW Turner painting that has never before been on public view has been put on display. "The watercolour, showing the Gothic Cross over the lake at Stourhead, Wilts, has been in the Tate archives since it was bequeathed in 1856. A copy of the work, which was painted in 1798 when the artist was 23, is being exhibited at the National Trust-owned Stourhead house and garden this month." The Telegraph (UK) 08/03/04
Posted: 08/02/2004 8:53 pm

Reopening A Bosnian Monument In July, Bosnia's famout Mostar bridge reopened after a decade of work. "It had been destroyed by Bosnian Croats in 1993, during the Bosnian War, to expunge a symbol of cosmopolitan Islam dating from 16th-century Ottoman times. Its destruction caused an uproar, and rightly so. Simultaneously, Bosnian Serbs were busy obliterating some 70% of the local Muslims' historic monuments. The Serbs then moved on to similar deeds in Kosovo. The bridge's reopening had been a belated triumph. Under the aegis of Unesco, countries such as Turkey, Italy and Croatia contributed to the project for a decade along with town residents..." OpinionJournal 08/03/04
Posted: 08/02/2004 8:50 pm

Music

The Tenor And I Tim Page writes that a new autobiography, due out shortly, will be "one of the most talked-about musical books of the fall season; it will certainly be one of the nastiest. Herbert Breslin, who has served as publicity agent or manager to a cast of clients that includes all four of the aforementioned artists, as well as Marilyn Horne, Itzhak Perlman, Leonard Slatkin and the late Georg Solti, has written his autobiography, in collaboration with New York Times music critic Anne Midgette." Washington Post 08/03/04
Posted: 08/03/2004 10:52 am

Cracking Down On Dentist Music (oooooh!) Dentists in Canada are required to pay license fees if they play music from their iPods through their offices (and Big Music is enforcing it). When dentists heard about it, they wondered, "Is this for real? Some were bemused, some were, I guess you could say, upset. We were just caught off guard.' Those offices that pipe music through speakers are now paying about $100 to $200 per year, depending on the square footage of the office. Dentists do not need to pay a fee if they play AM or FM radio in separate rooms for individual use." Wired 08/02/04
Posted: 08/02/2004 11:13 pm

Radio Shy - Brendel Quits Live Broadcasts (Almost) Pianist Alfred Brendel is allowing his Proms concert this summer to be broadcast. "This will be the last time that a Brendel performance will be heard in a simultaneous relay. 'I stopped live broadcasting two years ago but it was not trumpeted out. Microphones make me nervous. I have had microphones on stage at the Festival Hall for many years during my recitals, but the concerts were recorded, not broadcast live. There are quite a few of my colleagues who never do these things, even younger ones, so it's a matter of feeling that I have now reached a certain age and I can do without the radio'." The Telegraph (UK) 08/03/04
Posted: 08/02/2004 10:55 pm

Arts Issues

Russian Artists Protest Housing Plan A plan to take away subsidized housing for artists in St. Petersburg, Russia has brought out the artists to protest. "A number of them arrived at the Legislative Assembly with banners bearing the slogans: "[Governor Valentina] Matviyenko, don't be grudging, buy paintings!"; "St Petersburg is for the rich, the bandits and the thieves"; "Culture's grave-diggers are Russia's grave-diggers"; "The artists' canvasses bind the feet of the city administration"; and also a quotation from Nekrasov - "There have been worse times, but none as mean!" "If the studios are going to be sold, then the artists will either have to leave for the West, or change their profession". St. Petersburg Times 08/03/04
Posted: 08/03/2004 9:05 am

Paris Artists' Building To be Cultural Center "An illegal Parisian artists' squat is to be transformed into an official and permanent cultural centre, designed as a counterpoint to more traditional galleries like the Louvre, at a cost of up to €7 million." The Guardian (UK) 08/03/04
Posted: 08/02/2004 10:37 pm

Athens' Olympic Cultural Legacy "The Olympics is not, you might think, a cultural event. No one worries about the influence of Euro 2004 on the Portuguese art scene. But the return of the ancient games to Athens is a moment so rich in historical, artistic, architectural and even mythological associations that it becomes by definition a cultural as well as an athletic festival. Athens is staging a "cultural olympiad", a collection of exhibitions and concerts under the aegis of the Organising Committee of the Olympic Games. Meanwhile, even the new stadium and its surrounding complex aspires to be a work of art." The Guardian (UK) 08/03/04
Posted: 08/02/2004 10:27 pm

Publishing

Montreal Publisher Sues Random House Over Serial Killer Book "The Montreal publisher of a controversial book about serial killer Karla Homolka is suing Random House of Canada for alleged copyright infringement." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/03/04
Posted: 08/03/2004 10:05 am

Dickens Museum To Close A 25-year-old museum in Rochester, Kent, dedicated to Charles Dickens is to be closed. The reason - declining vistorship. BBC 08/03/04
Posted: 08/03/2004 9:42 am

Keeping Track Of Books (Readers Too?) Libraries have begun tagging books with high-tech tags to better keep track of their collections. "With their encased microchips, RFID tags can transmit information to devices designed to pick up the signals and interpret them. Some privacy advocates worry that a day will come when a library book's tag could broadcast information about a patron to anyone nearby with a tag-reading device -- stalkers, snoops, corporate marketers, or G-men." Chronicle of Higher Education 08/02/04
Posted: 08/02/2004 9:46 pm

Media

Hollywood's Comix Mania Comic book heroes are hot in Hollywood these days. "Hollywood is finally recognizing comics as literary material in their own right. That's why we've got deals happening for things that may not be franchises like 'Spider-Man' or 'Batman' but are books that may sell only a few thousand copies a month. Still, these books tell a great story that will resonate with a wider audience." Backstage 08/02/04
Posted: 08/02/2004 10:14 pm

Dance

Of Ashton And Tudor Although Frederick Ashton is the genius on whom British ballet is based, it could have been Anthony Tudor who got the crucial job. In a few brilliant years in the 1930s, between them they produced a handful of masterpieces that have endured 70 years, and will surely endure further. Ashton was making larky, sophisticated modern entertainments such as Façade and Les Rendezvous when Tudor made two ballets that were shocking in their time, for exposing emotions never talked about and opening up a rich seam of ballet that is feverishly mined by today's choreographers." The Telegraph (UK) 08/03/04
Posted: 08/02/2004 10:49 pm


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