About Those 562 Stolen Picassos... "There are more than 160,000 missing works of art, according to the Art Loss Register, a London-based organization that tracks stolen and recovered art. The global trade in stolen art is estimated to amount to at least $5 billion a year, according to the Progressive Policy Institute, which reports by comparison that the legitimate art market is said to be about $25 billion annually." Newsday 03/29/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 7:10 am
Police Investigate Missing Boston Gallery Owner The owner of a venerable Boston art and prints gallery abruptly left the country about two weeks ago, setting off a criminal investigation into whether he absconded with hundreds of thousands of dollars from the sales of artwork left on consignment at his shop... Boston Globe 03/29/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 6:33 am
Artist To Tow, Melt Iceberg Off Ireland Rita Duffy, Northern Ireland's foremost artist, plans to tow a giant iceberg from the Arctic and moor it off Belfast. She says "allowing it to melt is about 'thawing' a place locked in a political and emotional deep freeze where divisions are firmer than ever. 'A huge big mountain of ice seems to be the most eloquent way of describing where we are. There is a certain type of madness in Northern Ireland society, a denial of what has happened to us. Maybe it's time to come out of denial and confront what has sunk us'."
The Guardian (UK) 03/29/05
Posted: 03/28/2005 5:51 pm
Art Direct To Your Cell Phone "This month, a New York-based Web site that celebrates graffiti and other street art began testing a system" that would allow "art lovers to download images created by emerging artists onto the video screens of their cellphones. Calling it a "curated online art gallery for your mobile phone," the founders of the Web site, woostercollective.com, are hoping it will provide a new way for struggling young artists to make money, in much the same way that a songwriter can earn money from radio play or an actor from reruns." The New York Times 03/28/05
Posted: 03/28/2005 10:13 am
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America's Band The Eagles haven't released a new album in 25 years, but they still pac arena, and their Greatest Hits has sold 28 million copies - the most of any recording in history. "It's almost as if what the band stands for has become more important than what it actually does. Somehow, quietly and gradually, the Eagles became America's band, representing the nation's aesthetic and sense of self in ways Bruce Springsteen or Lee Greenwood never could. It's not patriotism, exactly -- you'd be hard-pressed to find the words "America" or "U.S.A." in their lyrics -- but it speaks to the American identity on an almost subliminal level, evoking a psychic landscape far more immediate than the iconic purple mountains and amber waves of grain." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/29/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 7:44 am
Japanese Orchestra Reforms How It Pays Players One of Japan's top orchestras is restructuring and offering new contracts to players. "The two new contracts will have members choose between a fixed-term employment system and an annual contract system based on performance evaluation. This is the first time that a Japanese professional orchestra has decided to adopt a performance-based wage system comparable to that used by private-sector companies." Daily Yomiuri 03/29/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 7:14 am
The Precocious China Philharmonic The China Philharmonic Orchestra is only four years old, but already it is touring the world. "The 106-strong orchestra was founded in 2000 through a revamp of an old Beijing radio orchestra. Supporters say that the orchestra’s success is heralding a renaissance in classical music in China. Around 240 million Chinese children now learn the piano and the Pearl River Piano Group is now the second largest instrument manufacturer in the world." The Times (UK) 03/29/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 6:22 am
Peter Maxwell Davies On Demand Composer Peter Maxwell Davies has started his own recording company. But not just any company. "The solution was radical. Rather than simply reissue set-packaged discs, the decision was made to offer a much more flexible product through the medium of the internet. The formula they came up with does just that, and at remarkably low prices. There are two ways of obtaining your personalised disc. One is simply to download the required pieces, together with an "owner’s booklet", which will contain the required sleeve notes (including a libretto in the case of an opera), to your hard disc, then pay the appropriate money. The other is to choose your tracks, pay for them, and place a request for the disc to be compiled and posted out to you." The Scotsman 03/28/05
Posted: 03/28/2005 10:34 pm
Big Mac: Product Placement In Rap Lyrics? McDonald's is "reported to be launching a campaign that will offer financial incentives to rap artists who mention its Big Mac burger in their lyrics. McDonald's will not pay an upfront fee, but intends to pay the artist between $1 and $5 (53p-£2.68) each time a track is played on the radio. It hopes to have several such songs on the airwaves by the summer." The Guardian (UK) 03/29/05
Posted: 03/28/2005 5:53 pm
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Dallas's Performing Arts Center And The Starchitects Dallas's $275 million performing arts center is being designed and built by star architects Rem Koolhaas and Norman Foster. But trying to get the two to work together has been difficult. And the arts groups that will call the center home have little access to the two or their representatives. "This pattern has produced frustration among performing arts center staff and some members of the building committees, who complain privately about lack of coordination and their once-a-month access to the decision-makers." Dallas Morning News 03/27/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 7:37 am
How Blogging Is Changing Iran Blogging has taken off in Iran, and Persian is now the fourth most popular blog language in the world. "A major factor in the widespread adoption of blogging in Iran has been the Unicode standard, which has made it possible for people to write and publish easily in the Persian script. Nor does it hurt that it is easy to set up a blog — or to use a pseudonym. The result has been the creation of a medium that cuts across social and geographic boundaries." Inside Higher Education 03/29/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 7:24 am
The Big Review Review It's not enough to just have reviews of culture these days. Now we have reviews of those reviews. "The traditional objects of culture - books, movies, art - are becoming ever more distant. In their place are reviews of reviews, museums of museums and many, many lists." The New York Times 03/29/04
Posted: 03/28/2005 10:43 pm
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I Remember Susan Susan Sontag was a complicated and difficult person. "A good part of her characteristic ‘effect’ – what one might call her novelistic charm – has not yet been put into words. Among other things, Sontag was a great comic character: Dickens or Flaubert or James would have had a field day with her. The carefully cultivated moral seriousness – strenuousness might be a better word – co-existed with a fantastical, Mrs Jellyby-like absurdity." London Review of Books 03/27/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 8:56 am
Cat Stevens' Bad Year Singer Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) has had a rough year. "In September last year he was escorted off a flight from London to Washington and grilled by the FBI, which then deported him as a security threat. Since then, he has been wrongly accused of supporting terrorist groups by the Sunday Times and the Sun, who were last month forced to pay damages. "Ever since I became a Muslim, I've had to deal with attempts to damage my reputation and countless insinuations seeking to cast doubt on my character and trying to connect me to causes which I do not subscribe to," he grumbled after the out-of-court settlement." The Guardian (UK) 03/29/05
Posted: 03/28/2005 11:12 pm
Amazon's Book Review Champion Harriet Klausner is Amazon's most prolific book review. "In terms of productivity (8,649 reviews as of mid-March) and the ability to turn out what the site calls helpful information, Ms. Klausner is in a league of her own." She reads four or five books a day, and publishers have taken to sending her everything they publish in hopes of getting a thumbs-up... OpinionJournal 03/29/05
Posted: 03/28/2005 5:16 pm
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The Poet Of Melbourne "The idea of being a career poet is an odd one to most of us - writing poetry doesn't pay, for a start - but it implies someone who is out there seeking publication and renown, and respect from one's peers. Kris Hemensley doesn't seek such things. And yet he's been writing seriously and steadily for 40 years, his work is held in very high regard, and he has arguably done more for poetry than anyone else in Melbourne." The Age (Melbourne) 03/28/05
Posted: 03/28/2005 10:12 pm
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A Blockbuster Dispute Of Epic Copyright A legal conflict is brewing over one of the summer's biggest potential blockbuster movies, the Crusades epic "Kingdom of Heaven," with a prominent author accusing the film's director, Ridley Scott, and the studio releasing the film, 20th Century Fox, of stealing his research for their screenplay. The New York Times 03/29/04
Posted: 03/28/2005 10:50 pm
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Royal Winnipeg Star Retires Royal Winnipeg star Evelyn Hart has retired from the company after 30 years. "Hart, who turns 49 on April 6, said that over the past few years, the company has mounted more and more productions without her. Although billed as one of the company's principal dancers, she was scheduled to dance only one short pas de deux this season and was not cast in any of the company's recent hit productions." CBC 03/29/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 6:42 am
Matthew Bourne - The Debate Revived "This is ridiculous. Theatrical dance, throughout its history, has swung back and forth between storytelling and abstraction. For every Marius Petipa there was a Michel Fokine, for every Balanchine an Agnes de Mille, insisting that movement had to “mean” something. In the end, it never mattered. Narrative or abstract, some dance shows were good, and some weren’t. But Matthew Bourne, for his own reasons, has revived this weary debate. He comes, as he has put it, from “Cockney East London,” so he presumably has some feelings about social class. Furthermore, he didn’t see his first ballet until he was nineteen, and didn’t take his first dance lesson till he was twenty-two, so he may, in the past, have had misgivings about his credentials." The New Yorker 03/28/05
Posted: 03/28/2005 10:22 pm
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