Chaos Theory (It's Safer) What makes driving safer? Well yeah, better-designed cars. But better roads and street markings and traffic lights and speed limits and signs, right? Well maybe not entirely true. One traffic engineer says simplifying roadways - taking away traffic lights and restrictive signs might be a better way to ultimately improve the safety of our roads. "In the US, traffic engineers are beginning to rethink the dictum that the car is king and pedestrians are well advised to get the hell off the road." Wired 12.12
Posted: 12/13/2004 9:11 pm
Making Up America's Art Improvisation is America's great contribution to art - not just in music, but art and acting too. Marlon Brando, Charlie Parker, Jackson Pollock - these were the American originals. "Improvisation is America's art, its self-expression - and its disaster." The Guardian (UK) 12/11/04
Posted: 12/13/2004 4:58 pm
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The Barnes Is Dead You can move the art of the Barnes Collection, writes Edward Sozanski. But its soul will not be transported. "The uniquely idiosyncratic art school and gallery that had been one of the wonders of the American cultural landscape since the mid-1920s has been ruled officially dead. Whatever replaces it somewhere along Benjamin Franklin Parkway will be something different, perhaps better, but most likely not. Like the London Bridge that an American developer moved to the Arizona desert, the new Barnes will be a simulacrum at best, ripped from its historical context and set down where it will become just another "attraction" on Philadelphia's developing cultural midway." Philadelphia Inquirer 12/14/04
Posted: 12/14/2004 6:30 am
World's Tallest Building Under Construction Construction begins on what will be the world's tallest building. It's in Dubai and will be 160 stories. "The Burj Dubai tower will stand 800 metres tall - just 5 metres shy of half a mile - once completed in 2008. That will be nearly 300 metres taller than the tallest floored building in the world today, the Taipei Tower in Taiwan." New Scientist 12/13/04
Posted: 12/13/2004 10:15 pm
Judge: Barnes Needs To Move To Save It "Judge Stanley R. Ott of the Montgomery County Orphans' Court said the proposed move, backed by pledges of $150 million in financial support primarily from three Philadelphia-area foundations, seemed the only realistic way to save the Barnes from bankruptcy and salvage its prized legacy." The New York Times 12/14/04
Posted: 12/13/2004 10:01 pm
Manhattan Dealer Pleads Guilty To Art Forgery A Manhattan art dealer pleads guilty to art forgery over a period of 15 years. "The government charged that Ely Sakhai had purchased genuine but lesser-known works of Gauguin and other Impressionist and modern artists, then ordered copies made by skilled forgers working from the originals. Other painters whose works were copied were Chagall, Klee, Modigliani and Renoir. Mr. Sakhai then sold the copies to private collectors, primarily in Japan and Taiwan." The New York Times 12/14/04
Posted: 12/13/2004 9:45 pm
Beaverbrook Dispute Drags On A dispute at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in New Brunswick is dragging through the Canadian legal system. So far the legal costs alone are about $1.5 million for the three parties involved in the tug of war: the art gallery and the Canadian and British Beaverbrook foundations. "At stake is ownership of about 200 prized paintings worth at least $100 million, housed at the provincial art gallery in Fredericton." CNews 12/13/04
Posted: 12/13/2004 9:34 pm
Judge Okays Barnes Move To Philly "More than two years after the Barnes board, backed by a $150 million fundraising promise from three charitable foundations, petitioned the court for permission to move the collection, Montgomery County Orphans' Court Judge Stanley Ott agreed that the Barnes needs to relocate to a more-accessible location to avoid going broke." Philadelphia Inquirer 12/13/04
Posted: 12/13/2004 12:06 pm
Allegation: Mob-Connected Contractor Got MoMA Job Were the walls at the new Museum of Modern Art put up by a contractor with ties to organized crime? That's the allegation. "The firm, Interstate Drywall, has been affiliated with the family of the late John (Dapper Don) Gotti for years, according to several mob informants and public documents. Construction companies align themselves with mob families so they can get cheaper nonunion help on union jobs, and so they can intimidate other contractors from bidding against them for certain contracts, authorities say." New York Daily News 12/13/04
Posted: 12/13/2004 12:00 pm
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Phoenix Symphony's New Music Director The Phoenix Symphony has chosen Michael Christie, a 30-year-old American, as its new music director. Christie has been artistic director of the Queensland Orchestra in Brisbane, Australia for three years. He succeeds German-born maestro Hermann Michael, who retired last year at age 66 after seven years with the symphony.
Arizona Republic 12/14/04
Posted: 12/14/2004 8:51 am
Chicago Symphony - 100 Years At Home The Chicago Symphony commemorates 100 years in its home at Orchestra Hall tonight. "In 1903, CSO trustee Daniel Burnham designed Orchestra Hall, an eight-story building of brick and limestone; the building was built for $750,000 over seven months the following year." PlaybillArts 12/14/04
Posted: 12/14/2004 7:00 am
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UK Freezes Arts Spending English arts funding is being frozen through 2008, which means a net decline in cultural spending. "Based on a Treasury estimate of inflation at 2.7%, its grant will be worth £10m less in the financial years 2006-7 and £20m less in 2007-8, meaning a total real-term shortfall of £30m." The Guardian (UK) 12/14/04
Posted: 12/13/2004 9:26 pm
- Arts Funding Seesaw Bad For UK Arts The British government's arts funding plan is ill-advised. "Arts organisations were braced for a tough few years following the last spending review, but the decision to tilt the flow of funds so strongly from one sector (arts) to another (museums) goes against the grain. All arts and culture organisations ask for one thing: not bottomless pockets but reliable funding. Sudden sharp changes in who gets funds and who does not sets off a see-sawing of resources." The Guardian (UK) 12/14/04
Posted: 12/13/2004 9:26 pm
- UK Arts Funding Freeze Will Kill Momentum Government plans to see a "4.6 per cent cut in support for English Heritage, an allocation for museums and galleries which falls far short of previous demands and budgets frozen in the performing arts. From heritage bodies, through theatre chiefs to museum directors, all expressed concern that the genuine progress of recent years would be stalled and potentially reversed by the deal." The Independent (UK) 12/14/04
Posted: 12/13/2004 9:25 pm
- Arts Leaders Angry At UK Arts Funding Cut Arts leaders reacted angrily to news that the British government intends to freeze cultural spending until 2008. This means a net decline in arts spending. "Nicholas Hytner, artistic director of the National Theatre, said he was mystified by the decision. 'The achievements [of the past few years] will not be lost overnight; we will cope. But it is at the edge that has been most exciting and progressive that the arts will be forced to compromise'." The Guardian (UK) 12/14/04
Posted: 12/13/2004 9:24 pm
South Africa Disbands Arts Council South Africa's Minister of Arts and Culture has dissolved the country's National Arts Council. Based on consultations, he is "satisfied that the NAC as presently constituted has lost the confidence of the arts community and is not in a position to carry out the responsibilities assigned to it." Mail & Guardian (South Africa) 12/14/04
Posted: 12/13/2004 9:21 pm
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Documenta Director Gets SF Gig The director of Documenta 11 has a new gig - dean of academic affairs at the San Francisco Art Institute. "Most people in the art world know Enwezor, 41, as the director of Documenta 11 in Kassel, Germany, the 2002 edition of one of world's most prestigious survey exhibitions of contemporary art. He made it an even more international event than usual by staging, in advance of the exhibition, topical conferences in Vienna, New Delhi, St. Lucia and Lagos, Nigeria." San Francisco Chronicle 12/14/04
Posted: 12/14/2004 7:54 am
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Deal To Digitize The Repositories Of Human Knowledge Google and some of the world's biggest libraries announce a deal to digitize their collections. "The goal is to expand the Web beyond its current valuable, if eclectic, body of material and create a digital card catalog and searchable library for the world's books, scholarly papers and special collections. Within two decades, most of the world's knowledge will be digitized and available, one hopes for free reading on the Internet, just as there is free reading in libraries today." The New York Times 12/14/04
Posted: 12/14/2004 7:30 am
California Seeks A Poet California is looking for a new state poet laureate. The post has been empty for two years after nominated poet Quincy Troupe withdrew from consideration for the job after a resume problem. "In addition to transforming the ordinary, applicants will be asked to traverse the Golden State for little or no compensation. A Schwarzenegger spokeswoman suggested that candidates who choose to forgo pay could earn a leg up in the selection process. 'As you know, this is a very tight fiscal year. Quite possibly, a poet laureate may step up to the plate and volunteer their time. Wouldn't that be wonderful'?"
Los Angeles Times 12/14/04
Posted: 12/14/2004 6:52 am
Wolfe Wins Bad Sex Award Tom Wolfe's new book wins a prize... but not exactly a good one. The Literary Review gave Wolfe its annual Bad Sex award Monday for his best-selling novel I Am Charlotte Simmons. Judges said the book's sex scenes were 'ghastly ... inept ..(and) unrealistic.' The nearly 700-page novel is set at fictional Dupont University in Pennsylvania, chronicling the bright, naive Charlotte Simmons' entry into a hedonistic world filled with heavy drinking and casual sex." Yahoo! (AP) 12/13/04
Posted: 12/13/2004 10:22 pm
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Human Cargo Scores At Geminis The Gemini Awards, celebrating Canadian television, take a shine to "Human Cargo", the three-part drama about the plight of refugees. The show won 7 of 17 nominations, winding up seemingly in a class of its own. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/14/04
Posted: 12/14/2004 6:47 am
Is Regina The New Tinseltown? Film production is dying in Ontario. So where is the new Hollywood North? Saskatchewan. The province offers generous tax credits and has seen production soar 2,400 percent in the past few years. "The co-operative movement is rooted here, so people know if you don't work together you ain't getting nowhere. If we don't have experience in the province we can deem someone from another province or country a Saskatchewan resident. And unlike other tax programs, we can pay it out above the line, that is, on producers, key cast and directors." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/14/04
Posted: 12/14/2004 6:38 am
Hollywood's Kranky Christmas Time was when Hollywood made movies idealizing Christmas. Not anymore. "Nowadays you make fun of Christmas. I think it's more current now to say that Christmas is this dreadful family occasion where relatives who don't like each other come together and get drunk and start fighting. A lot of Christmas movies are rather like that." The New York Times 12/13/04
Posted: 12/13/2004 9:30 pm
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