Liberty Park Gets A Boost - Literally A park facing the new towers set to rise at the Ground Zero site could wind up being more topographically interesting than planned if a new proposal for the towers' parking garages goes ahead as scheduled. "The ramps, which will lead to underground parking and loading docks for the giant complex, will have to accommodate the headroom needed for buses and trucks. And because the land drops as it approaches the Hudson River, the west end of the park may end up as a berm 25 to 30 feet above street level." The New York Times 12/17/04
Posted: 12/17/2004 6:43 am
Jabba The Art The shortlist for the fifth annual Beck's Futures art prize, which honors contemporary UK artists, has been released, and it includes a lifesize sculpture of Jabba the Hutt surrounded by bikini-clad women. The prize is not restricted by medium, however, and the Jabba sculptor will be competing against painters, installation artists, and filmmakers for the pretigious prize. BBC 12/17/04
Posted: 12/17/2004 5:11 am
Fraud Alleged In Giacometti Estate Sales A former French foreign minister has been accused of swindling the estate of sculptor Alberto Giacometti. "Prosecutors and the Giacometti heirs allege that Roland Tajan illegally kept back more than €1.22m of the auction's total proceeds of €6.5m, shoring up his bank balance and hiving off a substantial sum in interest." The Guardian (UK) 12/17/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 8:46 pm
Iran Dams Threaten Archaeological Sites An aggressive program of dam-building in Iran is threatening important archaeological sites. "There are currently 85 dams under construction across the country, part of a programme that the Iranian government promotes with a considerable amount of national pride. At least five dams, all in advanced stages of construction, have been identified as threatening sites of particular importance ." The Art Newspaper 12/17/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 8:25 pm
Returned Looted Art Coming To Market More and more art looted in World War II is coming to market. "Since 1996, Sotheby’s and Christie’s alone have sold a combined total of about £140 million ($252 million at today’s exchange rate) of art returned to families from museums and private collections. As more and more art, primarily looted by the Nazis as well as the Red Army, is being identified and returned, it is becoming an increasingly important source of supply for the auction houses." The Art Newspaper 12/17/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 8:23 pm
Claim: Munch Paintings Damaged In Theft A Norwegian newspaper is claiming that the Munch paintings "The Scream" and "Madonna" have been damaged after they were stolen last summer. "Sources from both the art world and criminal sources say that at least one of the paintings has been seriously damaged. Witnesses said that both paintings received very rough treatment as the thieves removed them from their frames in the course of their escape. The "Madonna" is reportedly ruined." Aftenposten (Norway) 12/16/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 7:34 pm
Copenhagen Mermaid Draped In Burka As European Union leaders gathered to debate allowing Turkey to join the EU, Denmark’s national symbol, the Little Mermaid sculpture perched on a rock at a Copenhagen pier, was draped in a burka and a sash reading “Turkey in the EU?” overnight. Daily Times (Pakistan) 12/16/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 7:28 pm
Outrage Closes Show Featuring Hitler Images A German artist is shutting down his controversial show depicting Hitler in response to "public outrage." "Walter Gaudnek says his brightly coloured artworks aim to provoke people by showing Hitler as a human rather than a monster but Jewish community and local political leaders see the images as dangerous." ABCNews (Reuters) 12/16/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 7:17 pm
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Is Pittsburgh's Hahn Headed To San Francisco? "Even after a contract extension, Pittsburgh Opera artistic director Christopher Hahn continues to be talked about as a top candidate to succeed Pamela Rosenberg as general director of the San Francisco Opera." Neither Hahn nor the San Francisco company are talking publicly about the rumors, but with Chicago Lyric Opera also now seeking a new artistic director, SFO may want to move quickly to secure Hahn's services. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 12/17/04
Posted: 12/17/2004 6:49 am
Creating Kahane's Colorado Symphony Conductor Jeffrey Kahane will have some big shoes to fill when he takes over as musid director of the Colorado Symphony next fall. For better or for worse, the CSO has been identified for a decade as Marin Alsop's orchestra, due in large part to Alsop's blossoming international reputation over those years. Kahane may not be as outsized a personality as Alsop, but he has some definite ideas about where his new orchestra needs to go. "One thing is the way in which the orchestra is central to the life of a community. That the orchestra is not just there to entertain, although that's part of what we do, but to provide a sort of spiritual core to the cultural life of the community." Denver Post 12/17/04
Posted: 12/17/2004 6:10 am
Report: NJ Symphony Should Have Known Better A scathing internal report on the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's purchase of more than two dozen rare string instruments from now-imprisoned philanthropist Herbert Axelrod has concluded that the orchestra ignored warning signs that the collection was not worth what Axelrod claimed, fast-tracked the purchase in order to meet a deadline that did not exist, and deliberately misled the public and its own trustees throughout the process. The report singles out NJSO president Lawrence Tamburri, who has since jumped to the Pittsburgh Symphony, saying that he kept reports of Axelrod's legal troubles to himself, and ignored serious questions of authenticity raised by experts engaged by the orchestra. Newark Star-Ledger 12/17/04
Posted: 12/17/2004 5:28 am
Beijing's National Theatre Faces Money Woes Beijing's controversial National Theatre is under construction but facing budget problems. "Shaped like a tear drop, the silvery theater -- made of glass and titanium -- once sparked controversy on whether such an modern design was appropriate for the center of Beijing. The project met numerous obstacles before finally gaining approval -- now it faces budget troubles." China Daily 12/17/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 9:18 pm
World's Oldest Flute "German archaeologists revealed yesterday that they had discovered one of the world's oldest musical instruments, a 35,000-year-old flute carved from the tusk of a now-extinct woolly mammoth. The flute was dug up in a cave in the Swabian mountains in south-western Germany, and pieced back together again from 31 fragments." The Guardian (UK) 12/17/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 8:43 pm
The All-Beethoven Network BBC3 Radio plans to broadcast every note Beethoven wrote. "The schedules will be cleared for a week in June, the Radio 3 airwaves will be unsullied by music by any other composer, and listeners will be treated to such little-known delights as Beethoven's 100 or so settings of Scottish, Irish and Welsh folksongs. Over the six days and nights some of Beethoven's works will even be heard twice. 'There are about 100 hours of Beethoven's music, but we are devoting 136 hours to him'." The Guardian (UK) 12/17/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 8:37 pm
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Canada Renewing Commitment To Public Arts Funding The Canadian government's renewal of the arts funding program known as Tomorrow Starts Today, which had cultural organizations across the country breathing a sigh of relief, was far from a foregone conclusion. Arts advocates had spent months lobbying new Heritage Minister Liza Frulla to insure that the program, which was launched in 2001, would not fall victim to the budget knife. Now, with funding secured through mid-2006, Frulla is predicting that she may have more good news for the arts when the new national budget is released early next year. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/17/04
Posted: 12/17/2004 6:24 am
Talking 'Bout A Content Revolution The Federal Trade Commission brought representatives of the recording industry together with purveyors of peer-to-peer file sharing networks last week for a two-day workshop designed to find common ground between the warring factions. There doesn't appear to be much, but at the very least, such face-to-face meetings take away both sides' ability to posture, and force everyone involved to consider the logic of the opposing position. Still, peer-to-peer network operators insist that the recording industry isn't interested in any partnership that doesn't completely wipe out file sharing, and solutions appear to be a long way off. Wired 12/17/04
Posted: 12/17/2004 5:21 am
Now In Pop Culture - The Big Discussion (Literally) "Discussions about body size are on the upswing, as pop culture - apparently trying to keep pace with news reports about obesity among Americans - is generating entertainment that deals with being fat. From Broadway to books, reality TV to the movies, the lives of the overweight are being mined for laughs and drama - giving a voice to those who typically don't get heard, and testing the theory that society is becoming more tolerant of bigger bodies." Christian Science Monitor 12/17/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 8:16 pm
Swiss Cut National Arts Budget Because Of Controversial Exhibit The Swiss parliament has voted to cut the budget of the Swiss Arts Council because it supported a controversial exhibition in Paris. "Entitled “Swiss-Swiss Democracy”, the exhibition contains an attack on the justice minister and rightwing People’s Party figurehead, Christoph Blocher. It also takes aim at the country’s system of direct democracy." Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland) 12/16/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 7:21 pm
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The Last Of The Great American Newsmen? When journalist and cultural commentator Bill Moyers signs off the PBS airwaves for good this month, he will be leaving a news industry that he believes to be in tatters, and sorely in need of self-examination. In his career, Moyers frequently bucked the conventional TV news wisdom to craft truly impressive, if admittedly partisan, works of journalism on a network which seems forever trapped in a whirlwind of bias allegations from the right. "Moyers dabbled in commercial TV for CBS, but he's no fool. He knew his true calling was the truly independent voice of Public Broadcasting, where he led exhaustive reporting on the things that got under the skin, and grew there, like a rash." Fort Worth Star-Telegram 12/17/04
Posted: 12/17/2004 6:16 am
- Partisan & Proud Of It "Anybody who has paid attention to Mr. Moyers's 54-year career in journalism would not be surprised by his jeremiad. He is a rigorous journalist, one whose documentaries and television news reports always point to the facts, but when he makes up his mind, he lands hard on his conclusions. And among other epiphanies, Mr. Moyers has decided that the current administration in the White House represents a threat to free and unfettered discourse." The New York Times 12/17/04
Posted: 12/17/2004 5:41 am
Artist Agnes Martin, 92 Agnes Martin died this morning (Dec. 16) at approximately 6 a.m. at her home in Taos. Details about her death have not been released. "Martin apparently wished to have no obituary written about her, nor any memorial services." The Taos News 12/16/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 10:02 am
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Boston's Theatre Man Of The Year Boston's theatre scene is crowded, yet frequently underfunded and in desperate need of structural upgrade. This year, though, the Huntington Theatre's Michael Maso "achieved what naysayers said would never happen. He oversaw a capital campaign that has raised nearly $20 million and managed the opening of the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts... With the new spaces, the Huntington has made a commitment to developing and presenting new plays and new playwrights. And its partnership with the BCA has made the Huntington a champion of that institution's aim to become 'an urban cultural village.'" Boston Globe 12/17/04
Posted: 12/17/2004 6:02 am
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A Dictionary You Can Add To The new Collins Online gives readers an opportunity to suggest words for inclusion, as well as debate whether they should be included. "This is a completely new concept which will provide direct contact between the people who compile dictionaries and the end users. It allows us to open up the process of suggesting and selecting words." The Guardian (UK) 12/17/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 9:02 pm
The Depressing Business Of Selling Books "Anyone who really cares about books is bound to find the way in which they are sold and marketed deeply depressing. To walk into the average high street bookstore at this time of year is to beinstantly assailed by a riot of three-for-two promotions, Christmas catalogues packed out with what Victorian scholars used to call biblia abiblia ("books that are not books"), Robbie Williams, the two motor-cycling actors, and cookery gurus. A glance at this week's Bookseller chart, meanwhile, discloses that of the country's 50 bestselling titles, exactly two might possess some kind of literary merit." The Guardian (UK) 12/17/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 8:56 pm
Book-Buying - Am I Blue? (Or Red?) Do you care what the political persuasion of the bookstore you buy from is? "Does it make the decision easier for you to know that 98% of B&N's corporate political donations went to the Democrats, while 61% of Amazon's went to the Republicans? Or maybe you'll be encouraged to get offline entirely and shop at an old–fashioned brick and mortar store upon hearing the news that Borders gave 100% or its donations to Democrats?" MobyLives 12/16/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 10:19 am
Random House Considers Selling Online Publishing giant Random House says it is considering selling its wares directly to the public online. This would put the publisher in competition with e-tailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. "Among factors driving such talk are sluggish sales in the industry overall and a role reversal at Barnes & Noble, which publishes more and more books under its own name. B&N has released literary classics, histories and novelty books, vying with traditional publishers for reader dollars." New York Daily News 12/16/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 10:10 am
US Reverses Embargo On Publishing Cubans, Iranians The US has changed a policy that had banned American publishers from working with dissident authors in certain counries. "The rule change by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control comes after Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi sued the United States because its economic embargo on Iran blocked U.S. publication of her memoirs. The new rule allows U.S. publishers to engage in 'most ordinary publishing activities' with people in Cuba, Iran and Sudan, while maintaining restrictions on interactions with government officials and agents of those countries." Philadelphia Inquirer (Reuters) 12/16/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 9:59 am
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Because Public Radio Likes To Rock, Too When Minnesota Public Radio announced that it was buying independent Twin Cities classical music broadcaster WCAL, music aficonados throughout the North Star State protested the move, viewing it as just more evidence of MPR's secret plan for global domination. MPR took the criticism in stride, and promised to use the frequency to create a new type of non-classical music station (the network already maintains a round-the-clock classical service on another frequency) aimed at younger listeners. This week, the new format was revealed to be what MPR is calling "the antiformat": progressive rock with an "adult" lean, drawing on a library of 500,000 albums. Minneapolis Star Tribune 12/17/04
Posted: 12/17/2004 6:30 am
Minorities Still Underrepresented On American TV American TV networks are still bad at presenting minority characters on TV says a new study. "Among the 16 shows set in New York, Hispanics and Asian- Americans made up a combined 9 percent of regular characters, researchers found - while the city's population is 27 percent Hispanic and nearly 10 percent Asian-American." The Plain Dealer (AP) 12/16/04
Posted: 12/16/2004 9:46 am
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Minnesota's Jazzdance To Fold "Jazzdance, one of the best-known, longest-running dance companies in the Twin Cities, will take its last steps in a farewell concert in April, then cease operations. Founder Danny Buraczeski is closing his nine-member company after 25 years. Buraczeski, who began as a dancer in New York, formed Jazzdance in New York in 1979 and moved to the Twin Cities in 1989... At its height, in 1999, Jazzdance had an annual budget of about $550,000, Buraczeski said. This year the figure is about $175,000." Minneapolis Star Tribune 12/17/04
Posted: 12/17/2004 6:37 am
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