Separate Art From Its Owner's Reputation? Not Likely. The controversial Flick collection currently on view in Germany has, temporarily, at least, "put Berlin on the map with cities like London and New York. But it has also come at a steep cost. There is no promise of a gift to Germany from Mr. Flick, who can take back the art when his loan expires in seven years, and is free to sell work while the exhibition naturally inflates the value of his collection." According to Michael Kimmelman, the Germans have made a major mistake in assuming that the art could ever be viewed by the world without being sullied the taint of its ownership. The New York Times 09/27/04
Posted: 09/27/2004 7:33 pm
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And The 2004 "Genius" Designation Goes To ... "A barber, a high school debating coach, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, a farmer and a ragtime pianist are among the 23 recipients of $500,000 'genius awards' being announced today by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. This is one of the few years women and nonacademics have dominated the list since the annual awards program began in 1981." The New York Times 09/28/04
Posted: 09/28/2004 2:41 am
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SoCal's Little Big-Time Theater The list of cities that can count themselves as "springboards to Broadway" is brutally short: Chicago, Boston, maybe Atlanta. And yet, a string of small playhouses in Southern California has somehow become a favorite of the New York crowd over the years, and claimed its place as one of the top regional theaters in America. 40 years after its birth in a hardware store, South Coast Repertory has given birth to "Pulitzer Prize winners like Margaret Edson's 'Wit,' Nilo Cruz's 'Anna in the Tropics,' and [South Coast co-founder Donald] Margulies's "Dinner With Friends." The New York Times 09/27/04
Posted: 09/27/2004 7:40 pmLondon's Most Unassuming Impresario Bows Out Neil Bartlett is leaving his post as artistic director of London's Lyric Hammersmith theater after 11 years, having "put his own name to no fewer than 10 translations of plays by Racine, Marivaux, Genet and Labiche, while a new version of Don Juan will be his third Molière... He has also devised, designed and even appeared in his own shows. The one string missing from his bow is that he doesn't seem to sell the ice creams." Still, Bartlett has never been much of a self-promoter, and his tenure at the Lyric, while undeniably successful, was surprisingly low-profile. The Telegraph (UK) 09/27/04
Posted: 09/27/2004 7:09 pm
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It's Michael Chabon Calling. Please Vote ... "More than three dozen U.S. authors will spend the morning of the (presidential) election phoning students attending universities in the swing states of Ohio, Florida and Wisconsin as part of an unusual voter-registration initiative dubbed Operation Ohio." The Globe and Mail (Canada) 09/28/04
Posted: 09/28/2004 4:49 amU.S. Publishers Sue Over Treasury Dept. Editing Rules A group of American publishers has sued the Treasury Department on First Amendment grounds, seeking to overturn regulations that prohibit the editing of manuscripts from countries under U.S. economic sanctions. The rules, they say, prevent them "from performing typical editing functions like reordering sentences and paragraphs, correcting grammar and adding illustrations or photographs." The New York Times 09/28/04
Posted: 09/28/2004 2:49 am
New Hemingway Publication Dispute "A simmering row over the modern publication of a long-lost short story by Hemingway, written in 1924 while on a drunken spree in Pamplona, Spain, has revealed the American writer as a champion luncher but a poor humorist." The story, which is a slapstick description of a bullfight, was initially intended for the magazine Vanity Fair, but was never sent. Now, the magazine stands ready to print it, but lawyers for the Hemingway estate have blocked publication without explanation. The Independent (UK) 09/28/04
Posted: 09/27/2004 7:32 pmUnusual Library Mulling Cross-Country Move The Brautigan Library in suburban Boston may be the only library conjured into existence by a 1960s counterculture novel. It is almost certainly the only library to consist entirely of unpublished work: "From 1990 to 1996, the Brautigan Library accepted manuscripts from all over the world, as long as the authors paid binding costs." But like all good '60s icons, the Brautigan collection looks likely to spend its mature years in Northern California - specifically, in the Presidio Branch of the San Francisco Public Library. Boston Globe 09/27/04
Posted: 09/27/2004 6:33 pmAfrica's Next-Generation Bookmobile A digitally outfitted bookmobile funded by a grant from the World Bank has spent the last year traversing some of Africa's poorest rural areas, and providing the youth of the continent with print-to-order copies of great children's books. The project has proved wildly popular with the kids, and now that the initial grant has run out, the bookmobile is working with librarians and various foundations to keep the presses rolling. Wired 09/27/04
Posted: 09/27/2004 6:08 pm
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If You've Gotta Say The Seven Words, Say 'Em En Español This year, the Federal Communications Commission has devoted an astonishing amount of energy to targeting and punishing radio stations which violate the commission's "decency" standards. So why is it that Spanish language stations are free to say whatever they wish, regardless of how vulgar it may be? It's simple: the FCC "employs only two Spanish-speaking investigators to deal with 705 Spanish radio and TV outlets in the United States." Chicago Tribune 09/27/04
Posted: 09/27/2004 6:40 pm
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Looking For The Underappreciated, Finding The Overrated The Place Prize awards were meant to do for modern dance what the Turner Prize does for modern art - namely, get an entire nation talking about it, for better or for worse. With a top prize of £100,000, "the idea of this biennial jamboree is to find, by means of an open entry, outsider judges and audience votes, neglected talent that the over-prescriptive Arts Council system misses. So how did the inaugural final manage to be so inferior to the best (or even the average) being produced in British modern dance nowadays?" The Telegraph (UK) 09/27/04
Posted: 09/27/2004 7:15 pm
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