Lynching The Confederate Flag An exhibition examining the Confederate flag has not yet opened at Gettysburg College, but it has already attracted the ire of a Confederate heritage group with a flag-lynching piece called "The Proper Way to Hang a Confederate Flag"... Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 09/02/2004
Posted: 09/02/2004 6:24 am
The Aura Of Value If artistic objects like Munch's "The Scream" have monetary worth only because we agree that they do, what is it that makes us value them? "Myths develop around great artists, and objects associated with their actual physical presence become imbued, in many people's minds, with some kind of spiritual aura." The Globe and Mail (Canada) 09/02/2004
Posted: 09/02/2004 5:19 am
NY's Penn Station Revival Spins Off The Tracks On the surface all looks like a go for rebuilding New York's Penn Station within the old US Post Office across the street from Madison Square Garden. "Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the project, with its soaring glass-enclosed great hall, was originally unveiled in 1999. It has been a pet project of politicians from both sides of the aisle, including Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, for whom the proposed station is named, and Gov. George E. Pataki. Most of the $800 million needed to complete the project's construction has been in place since 2001. And the post office abandoned the space this summer, in part to make room for the news media covering the convention." So why has the project stalled out? The New York Times 09/02/04
Posted: 09/02/2004 12:18 am
The Just-Ask-Heloise Historic Restoration "Sure, there are plenty of commercial products available to clean and restore architectural treasures, but quite often, preservationists turn to items such as Ivory soap, candles, sponges, spatulas, tea, and eggs. It's simply a matter of using common sense to determine which products work best..." Christian Science Monitor 08/31/04
Posted: 09/01/2004 11:22 pm
Native Hawaiians Protest Bishop Museum Plan Native Hawaiians are protesting the Bishop Museum's plan to "define itself as a native Hawaiian organization under the terms of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990. NAGPRA was enacted to provide procedures for museums to return ancestral bones and four classes of objects to Native Americans and Hawaiians." The museum believes it can claim ownership of Hawaiian artifacts if it is considered a native organization. Critics disagree: "This is extremely colonial and paternal."
Honolulu Star-Bulletin 09/01/04
Posted: 09/01/2004 10:57 pm
Luring Hollywood Into Opera With charm and shrewdness, Placido Domingo, the general director of the Los Angeles Opera, has been enticing Hollywood into the fold since he was a midwife at the company's birth in 1986. 'It's not that we're in Hollywood so we have to use film directors. It's because we believe in them. It has never been a gimmick." The New York Times 09/02/04
Posted: 09/02/2004 12:23 am
Lebrecht: I Was Right - Classical Recording Industry Has Died Norman Lebrecht predicted at the start of 2004 that this would be the recording industry's last year. "Well, I was over-cautious. No need to wait for Christmas: it's over now. The closure signs are up in neon. There is barely a new symphony or sonata to be heard this season from any of the six major labels which command three-quarters of store space and classical sales. Game over." La Scena Musicale 09/01/04
Posted: 09/02/2004 12:09 am
Summer Of Free Music This has been a bountiful summer for free music in the UK. "Magazines have long used cover-mounted CDs to boost sales but this year newspapers have embraced them enthusiastically..." The Guardian (UK) 09/02/04
Posted: 09/01/2004 11:58 pm
Official Download Chart Debuts The new download chart measuring music downloaded on the net debuts in the UK. "The countdown, broadcast on BBC Radio 1, is an attempt to take account of the thousands of tracks that are bought legally from online sites such as iTunes and Napster. But if supporters of online music were hoping it would herald a break in the dominance of the music industry majors, they were disappointed:" all the music in the Top 20 was produced by major labels. The Guardian (UK) 09/02/04
Posted: 09/01/2004 11:34 pm
Salzburg's Tough Summer (How About Lucerne?) The Salzburg Festival has a difficult summer. It "was the last century’s most illustrious summer camp for musical and theatrical talent, but seemed more than ever trapped between the glories of the past and an uncertain future in more competitive times. In the years since the death in 1989 of Herbert von Karajan, who ruled over the proceedings as if by divine right, Salzburg’s artistic focus has been blurred." New York Observer 09/01/04
Posted: 09/01/2004 11:09 pm
What Would Shakespeare Say? At the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Nicholas Kristof ponders what Shakespeare would tell the Republican National Convention and President George W. Bush. "The paramount lesson in Shakespeare's plays is that the world is full of nuances and uncertainties, and that leaders self-destruct when they are too rigid, too sure of themselves or - Mr. President, lend me your ears - too intoxicated by moral clarity." The New York Times 09/01/2004
Posted: 09/02/2004 4:01 am
Avignon Fest Dispute Leads To Leadership Change "A disagreement at the Avignon festival has led to the departure of one of its founding fathers, the actor Alain Leonard. His resignation comes after a rift between his not-for-profit organisation, Avignon Public Off (APO) and Association de Lieux de Festival en Avignon (Alfa), a rival organisation set up last summer by the directors of 40 of the fringe venues." The Guardian (UK) 09/02/04
Posted: 09/01/2004 11:38 pm
Ireland's Abbey Downsizing Ireland's Abbey Theatre - the national theatre - is facing a funding crisis, and is taking measures to downsize. "The Abbey employs more than 100 people, many of whom work on a fixed-contract basis. Sources close to the theatre say the literary department is likely to face the brunt of cutbacks with some of its functions transferring to the artistic director, Mr Ben Barnes." Irish Times 09/02/04
Posted: 09/01/2004 8:13 pm
Conservative Authors Say Big Publishers Shut Them Out Sure, conservative books -- including "Unfit for Command," this week's No. 1 nonfiction title -- have lately occupied a hefty percentage of the best-seller list. But at a Manhattan forum this week, right-wing authors said they were feeling marginalized. "Alleging a sort of liberal conspiracy to keep conservative authors from getting their books to the reading public, conservative authors said they had been forced to turn to scrappy, little-known alternative publishers." The New York Times 09/02/2004
Posted: 09/02/2004 4:10 am
Lack Of Kids' Shows Violates Law, Watchdogs Say Watchdog groups have petitioned the Federal Communications Commission not to renew the licenses of two Washington, D.C., television stations. "The groups argue that the two stations have not complied with the FCC's 1996 guidelines regarding the Children's Television Act, which require stations to air at least three hours of educational programming for children per week. The act has never before been cited in a petition to revoke a license." The Washington Post 09/02/2004
Posted: 09/02/2004 6:06 am
Protesting A Movie Without Seeing It There is a niggling problem with the outcry against the Toronto International Film Festival's decision to screen "Casuistry: The Art Of Killing A Cat," and it's the same problem that accompanied the releases of "The Passion of the Christ" and "Fahrenheit 9/11": The people working themselves into a righteous fury haven't seen the movie. Toronto Star 09/02/2004
Posted: 09/02/2004 5:39 am
- Previously: TIFF Programmer Gets Death Threat A documentary film investigating a notorious event in which an art student killed, cooked, and ate a cat on camera in the name of artistic expression has provoked a steady stream of angry e-mails and phone calls ever since the Toronto International Film Festival programmed it as part of its Real to Reel program. But according to TIFF organizers, the protesters have now crossed the line, with one festival programmer receiving a vicious death threat on his cell phone this week. Toronto police are now actively pursuing the caller, and the festival insists that the film will go on as scheduled. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/01/04
Warner Bros. Nixes Antiwar Documentary "Warner Brothers has decided not to distribute the director David O. Russell's new antiwar documentary when it re-releases his 1999 Gulf War movie, 'Three Kings,' this fall, judging it 'totally inappropriate' to do so in a political season." The New York Times 09/02/2004
Posted: 09/02/2004 4:32 am
