The Flesh-And-Blood Stars Of Online Gaming Online games are big business, and now players are making real money and becoming stars at it. In South Korea, at least a quarter of the population has participating in a game called Kart Rider. "Kart Rider competitions have been broadcast on two cable channels, and Kim Hyun Wook -- who has won several of them -- has emerged as a pop idol among gamers. A local apparel company, Spris Corp., sponsors Kim and three others as professional Kart Rider players. Some tournaments have been sponsored by the likes of Coca-Cola Co. (KO ) and offer as much as $50,000 in prize money. BusinessWeek 06/23/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 5:39 pm
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A Discovery Under Site Of Ethiopian Obelisk In preparing to erect an obelisk being returned from Italy to Ethioipia, workers have found at the ancient site of Axum a series of underground chambers and arcades near the original position of the obelisk, beneath an area converted into a parking lot in 1963. The Art Newspaper 06/24/05
Posted: 06/24/2005 9:05 am
Record Price For Francis Bacon A Francis Bacon painting has sold at auction for £4.9 million, "a new record for the artist. Portrait of George Dyer Staring into a Mirror reached the price at a Post-War and Contemporary Art auction by Christie's on Thursday. The 1967 painting, sold to a private collector from Europe, had only been expected to sell for up to £3.5m." BBC 06/24/05
Posted: 06/24/2005 9:00 am
UK Court Rules Hamilton Photos "Indecent" A British court has ruled that photographer David Hamilton's "multi-million-selling images of young, naked women and girls are officially branded as indecent in a landmark British ruling. Anyone owning one of his coffee-table books now risks being arrested for possession of indecent photographs, following a ruling at Guildford Crown Court.
Hamilton's photographs have long been at the forefront of the 'is it art or pornography?' debate.
The Guardian (UK) 06/24/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 6:10 pm
After Two Years Of Looting Iraqi Art... "Archaeological sites in southern Iraq have been systematically looted for more than two years, but experts say the dig will have to go much deeper to find out where thousands of lost artefacts have ended up. The complete lack of knowledge is devastating. One article said that a billion Iraqi dinars worth of artefacts had been smuggled to Syria, but that's absurd. We just don't know what's gone." Discovery 06/23/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 5:25 pm
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Classical Neglect... Why is classical music shrinking, asks Julian Lloyd Webber? It's our own faults. "Yes, we know that there are lots of other kinds of music apart from classical - and don't we classical musicians fall over backwards to say how wonderful they all are - but while our children are continually being bombarded with pop music, they are also being denied a knowledge of some of mankind's greatest creations and their adult lives will be much the poorer for it." The Telegraph (UK) 06/24/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 6:27 pm
We Got Music... Your Way! "Forget the album and corporate radio. Fan-built playlists and mixes are taking over the way people get their music. The popular iPod shuffle is designed around the idea that people like pairing reggae and pop with country and jazz. But music fans are ahead of corporate-endorsed playlists, putting their own clever twists on mixes by holding mixing contests, auto-generating playlists from blog posts and collaborating with others to build theme mixes. People are choosing what they want to hear rather than having it pushed on them." Wired 06/23/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 5:34 pm
Live 8 Tickets Gone In a Whoosh Fans gobble up all 35,000 free tickets for Canada's Live 8 concert in just 21 minutes on the internet... CBC 06/23/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 5:21 pm
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Saratoga Looks For New Life The Saratoga Performing Arts Center is reopening with hopes for a fresh start. "The performing arts center is pronouncing itself reborn after a grim year touched off by the announcement that the New York City Ballet - a founding constituent - would be banished because of a financial crisis. The news led to a scathing state audit, an attorney general's investigation and a bombardment of critical articles in the local press. But a new and politically connected executive director was appointed. The old board resigned en masse last month and was replaced." The New York Times 06/24/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 7:31 pm
Which Los Angeles Shall It Be? Los Angeles is "a city re-examining its past. And it comes as the strength of Latino culture is increasingly evident - in everything from the city's murals to its concert halls and stages. The city is poised for a cultural shift. Latinos will form a majority of the population in the US's second-largest city within a few years." Sydney Morning Herald 06/24/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 6:33 pm
Anime Gives American Pop Culture A Run "What began as a distinctly Japanese style of visual storytelling has gone global. As culture watchers from Tokyo to London point out, anime is far more than Pikachu and PowerPuff girls. The art form has achieved what no other indigenous cultural expression has managed to do: become widespread enough to challenge America's stranglehold on entertainment." Christian Science Monitor 06/24/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 6:04 pm
A Plan To Remake Scottish Arts A long awaited plan for Scottish culture is released: "It contains 124 recommendations for the future of art and culture in Scotland, 29 of which require new legislation. It includes calls for a major funding boost, the abolition of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, and the establishment of two new national arts bodies: Culture Scotland and the Culture Fund. The former would develop policy and the fund would provide finance. Both bodies, operating as companies, would roughly maintain the "arm's length" principle – where cultural decisions are made outside government – which most artists and cultural workers in Scotland desired." Glasgow Herald 06/24/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 6:01 pm
- Scottish Culture Report Slammed Even Before It's Released Scotland's official Cultural Commission is to deliver its report on the future of Scottish arts. "But last night the organisation representing Scotland's local councils made a searing pre-emptive strike, denouncing the body as undemocratic, dull and driven by "managerial gobbledygook". The Scotsman 06/23/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 5:57 pm
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NPR/D'Arcy Case To Arbitration "A federal arbitration hearing has been finalized for July 7 to settle the case brought against National Public Radio by the union representing a staff editor who was disciplined for his supervision of a David D'Arcy report about the Museum of Modern Art's involvement with a painting looted by the Nazis." Straight Up (AJBlogs) 06/23/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 6:38 pm
Heppner: Reflecting On His Vocal Crisis Tenor Ben Heppner reflects on the vocal crisis two years ago that kept him off the stage for eight months. "Those performances are seared on my memory. I had a panic attack. It was like my heart was beating 150 beats a minute. I was sweating in places I never knew I could sweat. Every inch of my body was running in sweat. I was thinking, 'What are you doing here? You've never sung this publicly before.' And when I sang, this squeaky voice came out... and I thought I was going to die. Somehow I got through it, but it was not my finest hour." The Guardian (UK) 06/24/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 6:17 pm
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On Golden Pond To Close On Broadway Broadway's On Golden Pond will close this week because of James Earl Jones' serious bout of pneumonia. "Jones' doctors determined on June 23 that "the seriousness of recuperating from pneumonia would prevent his return until sometime in August," according to a press statement. The show was to have run through Labor Day. Jones is expected to eventually fully recover from his illness." Yahoo! (Playbill) 06/23/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 5:30 pm
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BookExpo Canada Opens - Where Do Canadians Buy Books? The Canadian book industry is gathering in Toronto this weekend for BookExpo Canada. "Among the concerns for booksellers this year is an emerging U.S. trend for publishers such as Penguin Books to sell directly to the public through their website." A new study of Canadians' book-buying habits says that "59 per cent buy at the national chain Indigo, 28 per cent buy at smaller independents and the number that buy only on the Internet is 'inconsequential'." Toronto Star 06/24/05
Posted: 06/24/2005 8:42 am
Do Books Need To Go On A Diet? "All books should be exactly as long as they need to be. There is no ideal length. But like mainstream Hollywood films, nonfiction books have shown a tendency to expand in recent years, for no particular reason. Directors cannot bring a film in at 90 minutes anymore. Likewise, my shelves are overloaded with nonfiction titles that, 30 years ago, would have been 225 or 250 pages. I'm not sure why. Fatter spines do look more imposing, and readers may feel, subconsciously, that $30 should buy them a thick, substantial volume. But time and again, I find, the extra weight comes from empty calories." The New York Times 06/24/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 7:34 pm
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This "R" Is For Rude Nell Minow wishes there was a movie rating for rudeness. "After all, the ratings for language are based on the traditional profanities. They don't apply to insults or obnoxious comments that are what used to be called "fresh." On the contrary; in today's media, children who are rude, even to adults, are applauded -- literally, in the case of sitcoms, which give insulting and disrespectful comments full-out laugh-track approval." Chicago Tribune 06/24/05
Posted: 06/24/2005 8:56 am
Congress Votes Not To Cut Public Broadcasting Budget The US House of Representatives has voted not o cut funds for public broadcasting. "The 284-140 vote demonstrated the enduring political strength of public broadcasting, whose supporters rallied behind popular programs such as 'Sesame Street,' 'Postcards From Buster' and 'The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.' The Public Broadcasting Service undertook a high-profile campaign to rescind the proposed cut. Lawmakers were flooded with letters and phone calls." The New York Times 06/24/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 7:26 pm
CPB named New President The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has a new president. "Patricia S. Harrison, the assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, was selected after three days of closed meetings by the corporation's board of directors. She was co-chair of the Republican National Committee from 1997 to 2001." Yahoo! (AP) 06/23/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 5:27 pm
Successful Indie Needs Downloads How to make indie films rich and famous? By emulating the success of indie music, which has used internet downloads with great success. "European cinema currently has a 26.5% penetration inside Europe - and only makes a 3.3% chink in the US market. By digitally delivering film with a new initiative, the 35% market share that independent music enjoys in North America could be achieved with cinema." BBC 06/23/05
Posted: 06/23/2005 5:17 pm
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