"Reality" Show To Kill Buildings A new "reality" show asks viewers to name their most hated piece of architecture. At the end of the season the building will be demolished. "The show's announcement has triggered a paroxysm of designating. All over Britain, architects and civic associations have singled out for elimination buildings--generally works dating from the 1950s and 1960s--deemed "unworthy" of keeping company with the icons of modern architecture (such as Lord Foster's recent "Gherkin Building") or deemed eyesores." OpinionJournal.com 10/29/04
Posted: 10/29/2004 7:30 am
Ruscha In Venice Ed Ruscha has been chosen to represent the US in next summer's Venice Biennale. "Ruscha, 66, was selected by directors and curators from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of the Smithsonian Institution, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art." The New York Times 10/29/04
Posted: 10/29/2004 12:28 am
Hughes: What MoMA Means How important is the Museum of Modern Art to America? Robert Hughes: "To put it plainly: Moma, to give it the acronym by which it is always known, made modern art mandatory in America. It did this not only by collecting it, showing it, moving big money into place behind it and evangelising for it, but by setting the prime example whereby, in the US, the function of the museum shifted from accumulation to teaching. This came to apply to almost all museums, not just those dedicated to a hitherto enigmatic or marginal 'modernism'." The Guardian (UK) 10/29/04
Posted: 10/29/2004 12:02 am
Alsop Slides Into Bankruptcy England's Alsop Architects has declared bankruptcy. "Alsop has been the driving force behind a plethora of media-grabbing projects, including the intended transformation of Barnsley into a semblance of a Tuscan hill town, the planned creation of a "mega-city" for 15 million people linking existing settlements across the north of England, and the rebranding of Middlesbrough with proposed blocks of flats shaped like Prada skirts." The Guardian (UK) 10/29/04
Posted: 10/28/2004 11:52 pm
Guilty: Man Destroys Dali To Create Dali A man has been found guilty of cutting up a Salvador Dali painting and using it to create a new piece of art. "John Peter Moore, a former private secretary to the artist, cut up a stolen 1969 Dalí painting, The Double Image of Gala, and used it to create what he claimed was a new Dalí." The Guardian (UK) 10/29/04
Posted: 10/28/2004 11:47 pm
Tennessee Museum Cancels Show Because Of Sexual Images Nashville's Frist Center for the Visual Arts has "canceled an upcoming show featuring sexual images and containing racially charged language — a move the artist terms a 'form of censorship'." The Tennessean 10/26/04
Posted: 10/28/2004 4:54 pm
UN Creates Culture Warriors (Peacekeepers) The United Nations is setting up an international force prepared to fly in and protect culture treasures threatened by war or natural disaster. "The cultural blue berets, as they are already being called, will initially be formed entirely of Italians and could include members of Italy's paramilitary police, the carabinieri. Yesterday's move followed international outrage over the looting of priceless antiquities during the US-led coalition's invasion of Iraq last year." The Guardian (UK) 10/28/04
Posted: 10/28/2004 4:51 pm
Gagosian Is Art World's "Most Powerful" Who's the art world's most "powerful" figure? Art Review magazine says it's gallery owner Larry Gagosian. The annual ranking called Mr Gagosian "the world's greatest art businessman". BBC 10/28/04
Posted: 10/28/2004 4:46 pm
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Chicago Symphony Likely On Strike Course With less than 72 hours before their contract runs out, it looks likely that musicians of the Chicago Symphony will be going out on strike. "During the last two weeks key issues such as salaries, health care and pension costs and work rules have not been broached even in conversations between the negotiating committee and management representatives, let alone as serious talking points, sources say." Chicago Tribune 10/29/04
Posted: 10/29/2004 6:58 am
NY City Opera Negotiating On New Home Rebuffed in its attempts to move to lower Manhattan, New York City Opera is negotiating to build a new home near Lincoln Center. The New York Times 10/29/04
Posted: 10/29/2004 12:56 am
Music Biz Of The Future (Could It Please Happen Now?) Clearly, the way of the future is getting music over the internet. And this will be good for the music business. "But the question facing the music industry is when that future will arrive. And the issue is most urgent for the four big companies that dominate the production and distribution of music—Universal, Sony/BMG, Warner and EMI." The Economist 10/28/04
Posted: 10/28/2004 6:09 pm
The Secret Of Mozart's Skull "In a controversial operation, scientists have exhumed several skeletons from Mozart's family vault in Salzburg, where the composer spent most of his life. On Monday they appear to have discovered the remains of the composer's 16-year-old niece Jeanette, whose bones could unlock the mystery of whether the skull, currently kept by Salzburg's Mozarteum Foundation, really is Mozart's." The Guardian (UK) 10/27/04
Posted: 10/28/2004 5:09 pm
Breslin: My Life With The Big Man SuperAgent Herbert Breslin sits down with Norman Lebrecht: "Breslin in his prime would play the media and the music business like a fairground accordionist, simultaneously squeezing and stroking to pump out hullabaloo. He could be tiresomely obscene or irresistibly comic - Puck to Pavarotti's Bottom - but there never any doubt of his driving passion. He might have made a bigger career in showbiz, but Breslin was devoted heart and soul to vocal beauty, and to Pavarotti as its supreme exponent." La Scena Musicale 10/28/04
Posted: 10/28/2004 5:06 pm
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Dancer Is New Cambodian King A former ballet dancer has been sworn in as the new king of Cambodia. ""The new king has never held political office, but he was Cambodia's ambassador to UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural organisation, a post he left only recently." The Telegraph (UK) 10/29/04
Posted: 10/29/2004 6:55 am
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The Bricklayers And The Shakespeare Washington's Shakespeare Theatre has joined forces with the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers to build and a new building that will house a theater and offices for the union.
Washington Post 10/29/04
Posted: 10/29/2004 8:00 am
Eustis To Lead Public Theatre? Who will be the next director of New York's Public Theatre? "Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, R.I., is the leading candidate after an eight-month search, a process that included nearly 100 candidates and eventually involved interviews with about a dozen finalists." The New York Times 10/29/04
Posted: 10/29/2004 12:26 am
O'Neill Center Postpones Director Search The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut has temporarily suspended its search for a new director and will concentrate for now on hiring someone to run its annual National Play Conference, "one of the most esteemed professional development programs in the nation." Backstage 10/28/04
Posted: 10/28/2004 10:29 pm
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Bookstore Customers Burning Out On Political Books As the American election gets close to resolution, "many independent, Chicago-area booksellers are yanking the most partisan books out of their store windows and off their most visible shelves. The reason? It's just not worth the grief." Too many customers were complaining. "I don't remember this four years ago. I think everybody feels the stakes are higher this year on both sides." Chicago Tribune 10/29/04
Posted: 10/29/2004 7:52 am
Used-Book Sellers Complain Over Amazon Outages Used-book sellers have found whole new markets on Amazon. But lately they've been complaining that the Amazon site has been plagued with technical problems. "The mood right now is you just can't depend on Amazon anymore, and you have to go to other venues. It's just so many things." Seattle Times 10/29/04
Posted: 10/29/2004 7:38 am
Wal-Mart Returns Carlin Wal-Mart has returned about 3,500 copies of George Carlin's new book, saying it hadn't ordered it. The publisher begs to disagree (since he will take a loss on the books). "Publishing sources say it's unlikely that Wal-Mart — known to skip books that might be deemed politically or religiously provocative — would have ordered the book in the first place. But it's also unlikely that the books would have been shipped from the warehouse by accident. The most likely scenario is that someone ordered them, and then thought better of it. Retailers can return any unsold books to the publisher or distributor, at any time, at the publisher's expense." New York Post 10/29/04
Posted: 10/29/2004 7:33 am
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American Scholar On American Idol The University of North Carolina at Charlotte is offering a new course studying the TV show "American Idol." Beginning in January, students at UNCC will earn three credit hours for the class “Examining ‘American Idol' Through Musical Critique.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) (AP) 10/29/04
Posted: 10/29/2004 7:08 am
