The Video Game And The Painting (What You Can Learn) A new video game that combines PacMan with a Mondrian painting has caught the attention of the art world. "Why is Pac-Mondrian attracting more art types than gaming types? Maybe it's because Pac-Mondrian has more to say about Mondrian's painting than about Pac-Man. In fact, it qualifies as a coherent interpretation of "Broadway Boogie Woogie." The inventors don't say so, but if you play the game you'll probably discover some features of the painting that you never knew were there, and some that aren't there at all." The New York Times 12/27/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 6:48 am
Swiss Parliament Punishes For Critical Exhibition Members of the Swiss parliament are furious over an art exhibit at the Swiss Cultural Center in Paris that criticizes democracy in Switzerland and attacks the country's minister of justice and police. "Last week, after 10 days of furious debate, the Swiss Parliament slashed $1.1 million from the $38.9 million annual budget of Pro Helvetia, the government-financed cultural foundation that owns the Swiss Cultural Center. Legislators on the right also demanded the resignation of Michel Ritter, the center's director, who invited Mr. Hirschhorn to show his work here." The New York Times 12/27/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 6:42 am
Israel Museum's Prized Pomegranate Is Fake "The Israel Museum has discovered that the most important item in its priceless collection of biblical antiquities is a fake. An ivory pomegranate originally thought to have adorned a sceptre carried by the high priest in Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem is to be withdrawn from public exhibition. The withdrawal of the pomegranate, which was on display during an exhibition at the Canadian Museum of Civilization last year, is the latest in a series of embarrassing scandals which have rocked the quiet but high-spending world of antiquities collectors." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/27/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 6:29 am
A New Weapon For Tracking Art Thieves New software will soon make it possible for investigators to instantly check whether a piece of art in front of them is stolen. "With Derdack's software, investigators can take a photo of a suspicious painting with a cellphone or a personal digital assistant, send it wirelessly by GPRS or UMTS networks to international databases of stolen art and make a match - within seconds." International Herald Tribune 12/27/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 5:08 am
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Departure Puts Chicago Lyric Opera Back Into The Pack Matthew Epstein's departure from Chicago Lyric Opera won't affect the company's day-to-day operations much. But the experienced administrator brought a forward-thinking style that set the company apart. "Epstein's departure at Lyric leaves no leading American opera company except David Gockley's Houston Grand Opera with a bold artistic visionary among its top administrators. Everybody else is taking a cautious line and blaming artistic reticence on a sputtering economy." Chicago Tribune 12/27/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 6:06 am
America's Disappearing Music Rarities of American music are disappearing because care isn't being taken to preserve old movies, recordings and sheet music. "The irony is that original artifacts are vanishing, but the golden era of American song is enjoying a comeback. New recordings of old standards by Rod Stewart and other artists have sold millions of copies, and record companies are forever reissuing classic albums. Songs made famous by Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Billie Holiday provide nostalgic soundtracks for films, sitcoms and television commercials." Chicago Tribune (LATimes) 12/27/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 6:02 am
Prince Tour Tops Box Office Prince's tour of North America was the best-selling live tour of 2004. "His 69 city, 96 show tour took $87.4m during 2004, beating Celine Dion's Las Vegas residency, which came in second, taking $80.4m." BBC 12/27/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 5:24 am
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Culture At War - The Year Pop Culture Was Politics "The past 12 months put forth two faces because American entertainment was riven by partisan politics and the culture wars emanating from them. We saw all the symptoms of split personality play out every day on our TVs, DVDs, CD racks, bookshelves, and movie screens, in reds and blues that rarely blended into a peaceful and Princely purple. Even the most benign of pop provocations -- a metal-clad aureole, stage prattle from Linda Ronstadt, ''Saving Private Ryan" -- were transformed into politically divisive events analyzed relentlessly on talk radio." Boston Globe 12/26/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 5:42 am
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Alice Munro At 73 Alice Munro's latest book is set to be her most successful yet. The reviews are rapturous, and it's selling well. "So late in life," she admits, it has occurred to her to stop writing. Working on Runaway, Munro was tempted by the idea, she says, of becoming a "normal person." It hasn't come down to that yet, because, for one thing, she thinks her best work is still ahead of her. "This, of course, is a fallacy that probably keeps you going," she says The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/27/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 6:24 am
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Broadway's A Bust So Far This Year "Look at the shows that have opened so far in the 2004-05 season, and you see a sea of revivals and stand-up comedy. There was a time when it was thrilling to see classics reinterpreted, reconceived or rediscovered. But for the most part many of the dusted-off shows are museum pieces. This would be fine if they were surrounded by other productions of new plays and musicals. But at season's midpoint, anything that doesn't have a pre-sold brand name of some kind might as well head straight for regional theater hills (not that we're facing a renaissance of nationwide creativity there either)." Hartford Courant 12/26/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 6:33 am
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Freaking Out Over Language For 15 years now, the Modern Language Association has seen its annual year-end conference dominated by "skirmishes between old-school traditionalists and the increasing powerful new breed of postmodernists, multiculturalists, feminists and queer-theory advocates." But "the circus is looking pretty threadbare, and the ones trying to do the freak show aspect of it are looking silly now." The New York Times 12/27/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 7:08 am
Lit Love - The Age Of Literary Magazines There are more than 1000 literary magazines currently publishing. "That is more than at any time in history. Most of the magazines are geared toward specific audiences, with average readerships of 2,000 and annual budgets under$10,000." The New York Times 12/27/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 7:02 am
Poetic Justice - What's A Poet Laureate To Do? California is looking for a new poet laureate, joining 35 states that have designated poets. But what, if anything, does the job entail? "These jobs come with almost no job description and little if any pay, so we start from scratch and decide what we want to do and how to do it." Christian Science Monitor 12/27/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 6:15 am
The Email Mystery A new book is published over the internet in the form of a series of emails. "Those who order the book receive 98 e-mail messages during a three-week period from a sender identified as ``e-mail mystery.'' Readers are then treated to the voyeuristic experience of reading Sam's correspondence. As the plot thicken and Sam's life is threatened, e-mails arrive in a sudden flurry. Then, just when readers worry about Sam's safety, they have to wait for an update." Boston Herald 12/27/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 5:54 am
The Digital Book (And What It Won't Remember) The drive to digitize every book is a good thing, right? It will make information more easily available to more people. And yet, digital records fail to include some of the traditional book's essential information. "The book as we know it carries within itself something more concrete: its own archeology. Dependent on ever-changing technology, e-books are relatively ephemeral; and although this need not be so, they tend to obscure their own origins and inner workings. Seeking to tame the ghosts of the past, the digital future may end up erasing its own history." Boston Globe 12/26/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 5:49 am
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Lobbyists Push Culture Crusade The Parents Television Council is a self-appointed lobbyist for their brand of broadcast "morality." "What stands in the way of their success? Oh, not much: Just the seemingly irreversible trend that has all of American culture becoming cruder and more explicit. Then there are the passionate defenders of the First Amendment and the equally passionate defenders of the free market, who argue that people must want sex and violence since they sell." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (WP) 12/27/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 7:42 am
Christmas - Land Of The Reruns (But Why?) Why do TV networks revert to reruns over the holiday season? They say it's because no one's watching. And yet, according to the numbers, viewership is down only about 5 percent. And maybe that's because there's not much new on. So why not try to win those audiences with fresh shows? Washington Post 12/27/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 7:38 am
New Reality: Political Documentaries After The Election Political documentaries abounded before November's elections. So what's happening to the documentary makers since then? "Political documentaries are not going to come to an abrupt halt because of the re-election of George Bush. If people were motivated to make films because of their concern with the policies of the first administration, it's hard to argue that those concerns were allayed on Nov. 2." The New York Times 12/27/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 6:53 am
Credit Where Credit Is Due (A New ArtForm) TV's opening credits are changing. "The old style, called "turn and look," centered on the show's stars looking into the camera as their names scrolled underneath. The new openings are sophisticated mini-movies, complete with their own scores, celebrating ideas, metaphors, symbols, even poetry as the credits roll. It's a trend, television executives say, that's being driven by the increasing use of digital technology and a desire to spotlight a show's concept and brand rather than individual actors." Baltimore Sun (LAT) 12/26/04
Posted: 12/27/2004 5:35 am
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