Art As A Way Of Understanding The Universe (Literally) Can art help us understand natural physical phenomena? A competition at the Massachusetts Institute of technology suggests it can. "The Weird Fields contest, part of the undergraduate course 'Introduction to Electricity and Magnetism,' — encourages students to use a special computer program that converts mathematical formulas into visual representations of electromagnetic fields. The resulting swirls, loops, circles and squares, while not necessarily corresponding exactly to those occurring in nature, offer a creative way to understand some of the most abstract concepts in physics." Discover 04/08/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 8:04 pm
Burning Out On Pop Culture Pop culture is, by definition, fun. It's fun to keep up with celebrities, fun to gossip with friends about the latest fashions, albums, movies, etc. But these days, there's just so much pop culture to soak in that keeping oneself on the cutting edge is almost a full time job. "How [can] anyone find time to update their LiveJournals, finish reading the new Sheila Heti novel, or get tickets for the just announced M.I.A./LCD Soundsystem show in May? They had to stay up to the wee hours just to kill a few more soldiers in the new Splinter Cell or druggies in Narc. And who had time to wait for the perfect iPod Shuffle moment to magically appear?" Welcome to the phenomenon known as 'hipster burnout.' Toronto Star 04/09/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 9:40 am
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Official Artist To The '05 Election If you can have a Poet Laureate write verse for official events, why not commission an artist to record an election? That's exactly what the British Parliament has done. "The artist, who was commissioned by an all-party parliamentary committee to present a unique portrait of Britain en route to the polls, will spend the next three weeks on the stump with politicians and plans to travel on both opposition battle buses. He is struggling to get access to Tony Blair's strictly-controlled entourage, however." The Observer (UK) 04/10/05
Posted: 04/11/2005 7:52 am
US Scientists Fight Legislation That Would Restrict Kennewick Man Study Scientists are opposing a bill in the US Congress that would "allow federally recognized tribes to claim ancient remains even if they cannot prove a link to a current tribe." That could block study of the ancient Kennewick man. "Scientists fear that the bill, if enacted, could end up overturning a federal appeals court ruling that allows them to study the 9,300-year-old skeleton, one of the oldest ever found in North America. The skeleton was discovered in 1996 along the Columbia River near Kennewick, Wash., and has been the focus of a bitter nine-year fight." Newsday 04/11/05
Posted: 04/11/2005 7:33 am
NY Public Library To Sell Off Art The New York Public Library has decided to sell some of its art work so it can compete better in buying books, manuscripts and other works on paper and bolster its endowment. "Sotheby's, which has been retained by the library, estimates that the works will sell for $50 million to $75 million. The transactions will be handled either privately or by public auction." The New York Times 04/11/05
Posted: 04/11/2005 7:20 am
An Arrest In The Munch "Scream" Theft Norwegian police say they've taken a man in custody for the theft of two Munch paintings from an Oslo Museum. "A man in his 30s was arrested Friday afternoon ... and charged with participating in the armed theft of the Munch Museum on Aug. 24, 2004," Oslo police said in a statement. CBC 04/09/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 11:04 pm
Real Good, Fake Bad (But Why?) "So just what is wrong with a fake? Certainly not enough to stop forgery becoming a multi-million dollar business. Across Europe, America and Asia, anywhere from 15 per cent to a staggering 80 per cent (in Africa and China) of artworks offered for sale are thought to be fakes. Cases such as the gang of French and Belgian forgers jailed in 2001 for reproducing Cesar’s “compression” sculptures make headlines. And the Impressionist forgers John Myatt or Elmyr de Hory became so well known that their works are sought after because of the forger rather than the forged." Financial Times (UK) 04/09/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 9:19 pm
Hide! The Art Cows May Be Coming To Edinburgh The art cows could be coming to Edinburgh, home to some pretty great art of its own. "There is no question that they [the cows] have been popular, attracting tourists and generating a buzz. So I’m sure you are wondering what grumpy cow would dismiss a herd that brightens up our streets and gives money to good causes. My problem with this exhibit is that it is one of many banal but inoffensive displays littering our public spaces." Scotland on Sunday 04/10/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 5:21 pm
Heinz Kerry Makes Surprise Gift To Warhol Museum Theresa Heinz Kerry (wife of 2004 presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry) surprised the staff and management of Pittsburgh's Andy Warhol Museum with a $4 million endowment gift this weekend. The donation will go a long way toward helping the museum, "Pittsburgh's lively, provocative hub of contemporary art and popular culture," achieve its overall endowment goal of $35 million. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 04/10/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 11:49 am
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Denver Hall Needs $40 Million Fix An acoustical fix for Denver's Boettcher Hall is going to cost more than $40 million. Last year the director of Denver's Division of Theatres and Arenas, estimated the project's price tag at $25 million to $40 million. But he now says he believes that "when the firm completes the second half of its study later this spring, it will recommend gutting Boettcher and essentially building a new, reconfigured concert hall within its existing walls." Denver Post 04/10/05
Posted: 04/11/2005 6:06 pm
Chicago Jazz Gets A Slug Of Cash "In an unprecedented development, jazz -- specifically Chicago jazz -- is about to get a large infusion of funding and opportunity. Three Chicago-area corporations and one local foundation have joined forces to pour an estimated $1.5 million into the city's jazz scene in the next three years, with possibly more money to come during that time. Boeing Co., Bank One and Kraft Food have teamed with the non-profit Chicago Community Trust to create the Chicago Jazz Partnership, which will begin funneling approximately $500,000 into the city's jazz scene this year, with hopes of expanding that support in years to come." Chicago Tribune 04/10/05
Posted: 04/11/2005 7:55 am
Opera Looks To Film, Now Film Looks To Opera Opera once coveted the realism of film. Nowadays, film is looking to opera for its ability to create fantasy. "Opera once recruited film directors because it envied the truth vouchsafed by the frank eye of the camera. Nowadays, opera delights in illusion, which is why it can offer characters in film an escape from their grim, grounded lives: hence Cher's trip to the Met's Bohème in Moonstruck, or Tom Hanks's duets with Callas in Philadelphia." The Guardian (UK) 04/10/05
Posted: 04/11/2005 7:47 am
A Fight Over Which UK Orchestra Is Best Does England have only one "world-class" orchestra? So says the departing chief executive of the London Symphony, and guess what - he believes the LSO is the only orchestra that counts. And guess what - managers of two of London's other orchestras take issue with the claim. And critics are now pouncing on the LSO for some of its decisions in recent years. The New York Times 04/11/05
Posted: 04/11/2005 6:59 am
Met Broadcasts With Commercials? For all those years that Texaco sponsored weekly broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, the broadcasts were run free of interrupting commercials. But the Met can no longer afford to compensate commercial stations for the commercial time. "With the reduction of fees to commercial stations, the cost of the broadcasts will be $5.6 million instead of the usual $7 million. To help the stations make up the lost subsidies, the Met will create 7 to 10 places for advertisements during intermissions , depending on the length of the opera." The New York Times 04/11/05
Posted: 04/11/2005 6:54 am
Cincy Opera Posts Help-Wanted Sign Cincinnati Opera is looking for a new artistic director, and that person should reflect the progress the company has made in the past decade. "I think vision is imperative. Someone who comes here has to be able to look at what we've developed and say, 'This company can go to the next level.' I'm not sure that 10 years ago you could have said that. We want this to be their primary job." Cincinnati Enquirer 04/10/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 9:32 pm
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Land Of (Theme Park) Lincoln A new theme park/museum based on Abraham Lincoln opens this week. "The museum, which opens to the public April 16 a few blocks from the Illinois state capitol, is an architectural flop that turns Lincoln's life into the storyline for a mawkish indoor theme park. It puts us on a slippery historical slope, where the unreal blurs with the real and ultimately upstages it." Chicago Tribune 04/10/05
Posted: 04/11/2005 7:59 am
A Boston Billion-Dollar Arts Boom Boston is in the midst of spending more than $1 billion on new arts facilities. "The projects are varied, ranging from a contemporary art museum on the waterfront and downtown theaters to a pair of cultural centers slated for open space created by the Big Dig. 'It's staggering. Boston has always had a lively cultural scene, but I think we're seeing the kind of arts renaissance catching up with the tremendous revitalization Boston's undergone over the last 25 years'." Boston Globe 04/10/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 9:02 pm
Is Scottish Government Intent On Killing Arts Council? Is a current review of Scottish arts policy currently underway just a front for killing off the Scottish Arts Council? A Government memo would suggest that it might be. "The secret memo confirms the suspicions of cultural policy insiders who believe the Executive has always had an agenda to scrap the arts organisation, which has been widely tipped for abolition in the forthcoming shake-up." Glasgow Herald 04/10/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 5:53 pm
Minnesota Legislators Freeze Out Arts Requests Is the appetite of government to fund arts capital projects fading? "Minnesota arts groups were all but frozen out of the $945 million bonding bill passed by the Legislature this week, a halting step in what has been an awkward minuet between ambitious artists and a sometimes-skeptical state government." St. Paul Pioneer-Press 04/10/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 5:13 pm
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The Bellow Legacy "In a recent essay, one of our finer critics, Lee Siegel, asks what is it with Bellow and a number of non-American writers. Martin Amis had an almost father-son relationship with him (and it can't be said that this was for lack of a literary parent). James Wood co-taught a class with him at Harvard. Ian McEwan's Saturday pays homage to a Bellovian inspiration. What other American novelist has had such a direct and startling influence on non-Americans young enough to be his children?" The Observer (UK) 04/11/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 10:08 pm
Thompson's Ashes To Be Blasted From Cannon In keeping with his final wishes, Hunter S. Thompson's ashes will be blasted out of a cannon. The gun-loving writer will go out with a bang from a cannon mounted inside a 16-metre-high (53ft) sculpture of his trademark "gonzo" fist - a clenched hand on an upthrust forearm with the word gonzo written on it. "It's expensive, but worth every penny," his wife, Anita Thompson, said. "I'd like to have several explosions. He loved explosions." The Guardian (UK) 04/10/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 9:42 pm
The Intellect Behind The Wall At his core, Saul Bellow was a teacher, but he was never much for disciples or devotees of his own work. "Bellow had himself well shielded from aspirants. Get in line: wives, children, students, writers, editors, lovers, biographers. I don't mean this cruelly; it was part of Bellow's genius. He reminded many people of their incompleteness, perhaps because he knew of his own. There was a rawness to him, almost like a wound, underneath the genteel polish and fiendish wit. His feathered fedora and striped shirts, his elegant manners and silken voice were enameled surfaces, under which he was, like his characters, at sea, the imposing intellect unable to ever lay down any reliable anchor - and not for want of trying, not for lack of greatness." The New York Times 04/09/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 8:57 am
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What's Wrong With Humana? What ails Louisville's venerable Humana Theatre Festival? Michael Phillips thinks it might be something as simple as a lack of competition for contemporary American drama. "The festival would [also] benefit from writers with a sense of honest, vital political engagement with our country today. This year the protestations amounted to a soapbox derby of speechifying, not entirely uninteresting but not persuasively dramatic." Chicago Tribune 04/10/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 11:36 am
Bridging Broadway's Gender Gap The Monty Python-inspired musical, Spamalot, is more than just the latest Broadway smash. It's an actual piece of legitimate musical theatre that has succeeded in attracting a traditionally elusive demographic on Broadway: men. The New York Times 04/10/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 11:17 am
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France: Fighting Off Google's World-Wide Domination Does Google's global reach create "the risk of a crushing domination by America in the definition of the idea that future generations will have of the world?" The president of the Frnech National Library believes so. "Europe, he said, should counterattack by converting its own books into digital files and by controlling the page rankings of responses to searches. His one-man campaign bore fruit. At a meeting on March 16, President Jacques Chirac of France asked Mr. Jeanneney and the culture minister, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, to study how French and European library collections could be rapidly made available on the Web." The New York Times 04/11/05
Posted: 04/11/2005 8:34 am
US Poet Laureate Gets A Second Term Ted Kooser - who last week won a Pulitzer Prize - has been appointed to a second term as US Poet Laureate. "Kooser's idea was to offer a free weekly poem to U.S. newspapers. The second poem, Jonathan Greene's "At the Grave", was posted Thursday. The Library of Congress said 24 newspapers signed up within the first few days of the project. The library gives the poet an office and expects a few readings and lectures in return. Kooser is due to lecture at the library on May 5. He receives a stipend of $35,000 for each term." USAToday 04/08/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 7:27 pm
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Vintage US Propaganda Films From The Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan helped rebuild Europe after WWII. "But in addition to rebuilding, it also plowed about $650-million into information dissemination, including the creation of more than 260 films to help convince the populations of 16 disparate countries to jointly accept American aid and embrace U.S.-style democracy. The films were seen everywhere, from movie palaces in big cities such as Paris to tiny, mountainous villages in countries like Portugal and Italy. But until recently many of them had never been seen in the United States because of a 1948 law prohibiting Americans from being propagandized with their own tax dollars, a restriction removed only 15 years ago." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/11/05
Posted: 04/11/2005 8:23 am
Podcasting - Coming To A Radio Station Near You "Executives at some of the largest radio companies are suggesting that radio stations develop their own podcasts and make them available at no charge to listeners seeking a more varied or obscure selection of tunes. The idea is to ease the pressure that broadcasters now feel to broaden the array of music on over-the-air radio. Give choosier listeners what they want, without making them wait for the 11 p.m. Sunday show, when radio has traditionally offered less popular forms of music. Once listeners get into the habit of downloading inventive podcasts from their local radio station, they're more likely to tune in to that station's broadcasts when they're in the car or at work." Washington Post 04/10/05
Posted: 04/11/2005 7:42 am
The Advertising Jingle Is Dead (Long Live The "Audio Logo") "Advertisers have become more sophisticated in their choice of music to convey mood and appeal to consumers. Tunes are still being used to sell soap and establish brand identity, but they are far subtler than the voices we used to hear (cue Barry Manilow) singing, 'You deserve a break today, so get up and get away to McDonaaaaald's!' The jingle as we know it - an often inane, repetitive melody that drills itself into your head - has been declared almost dead." Christian Science Monitor 04/11/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 5:18 pm
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The Problem With Martha Graham "She is, indisputably, one of the key choreographers in the history of Western dance. However, more often than not, the work of the last third of Graham’s long career was inflated and vague, almost to the point of self-parody, and thus hardly worth conserving in the active repertory. So the viable Graham canon is limited and, though the power of the company rests with the great old works, neither the troupe’s audiences nor its dancers will accept having their experience confined solely to these pieces." Seeing Things (AJBlogs) 04/11/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 11:02 pm
Dancing & Motherhood: Not Necessarily Opposing Values Ballet is notorious for its devotion to (some would say obsession with) the "perfect" female form. So pregnancy must mean the end of the line, at least temporarily for a ballerina, right? Wrong. "Today dancing during pregnancy and after childbirth, once a privilege of only the grandest stars, is unexceptional. But the fact remains that for dancers who become pregnant, the body is an instrument of art as well as of motherhood, and those roles can sometimes clash." The New York Times 04/10/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 11:07 am
How Do You Please The New Yorkers? When Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre headed to New York for a run of shows at the Joyce Theater two weeks ago, the company was hoping to please both press and public with a pop-influenced program featuring music of Bruce Springsteen and Sting. Instead, PBT garnered a mixed bag of reviews, and while ticket sales were brisk, phrases like "lightweight" and "blatantly driven by marketing" didn't do much for the company's national image. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 04/09/05
Posted: 04/10/2005 9:33 am
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