Banality Of The New "We live in an age addicted to newness. It is a core attribute of any successful person or product in our consumer society. The whole economic system in the developed world depends on our continuing desire for new things that we often do not need. Do you remember the Innovations catalogue? How long has being new been a way of saying something is good in art? When did this quality take on a life of its own apart from being beautiful or thought-provoking?" The Times (UK) 02/22/06
Posted: 02/21/2006 8:50 pm
Click here for more Ideas stories...
Ideas stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
Met Signs Return/Loan Deal With Italy "The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Italian government have signed a watershed accord on Tuesday under which the Met will return 21 artifacts that Italy says were looted from archaeological sites within its borders. In exchange for yielding the works to Italy — including a prized sixth-century B.C. Greek vase known as the Euphronios krater and a set of Hellenistic silver — the Met will receive long-term loans of prestigious objects from Italian collections." The New York Times 02/22/06
Posted: 02/21/2006 10:13 pm
- Met Trustee To Talk Italian Artifacts A major Metropolitan Museum trustee agrees to talk with the Italian government about disputed artifactgs in her collection. "The Met's director, Philippe de Montebello, said the trustee, Shelby White, had told him last week that she was willing to meet with Italian cultural officials to discuss eight works she owns that the Italians believe were illicitly excavated and removed from the country. 'She wants to do the right thing and she is eager for this to be behind her'." The New York Times 02/22/06
Posted: 02/21/2006 10:09 pm
A First: War Crimes Against Architecture Slobodan Milosovic is on trial for war crimes. Among the charges? “The intentional and wanton destruction of religious and cultural buildings of the Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat communities. This is the first time that anyone has been properly charged in a court of law for wartime attacks on architecture as well as civilians, and a direct connection noted between the two." The Times (UK) 02/22/06
Posted: 02/21/2006 8:44 pm
Quarry Plans For Prehistoric Site Shelved Plans to quarry gravel from the UK's biggest prehistoric site have been rejected. The site has been "ranked the complex as a "northern Stonehenge". Although short of dramatic stone relics, the area is rich in burial mounds, traces of settlements and an formal avenue which may have been used for ceremonial funerals." The Guardian (UK) 02/21/06
Posted: 02/21/2006 7:09 pm
Click here for more Visual Arts stories...
Visual Arts stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
Domingo Reups In LA Plácido Domingo, the superstar tenor who helped found Los Angeles Opera and has led it as general director since 2003, has renewed his contract with the company for an additional five years, through 2011. At the same time, the company announced Tuesday, artistic director Edgar Baitzel has been promoted to chief operating officer, and two new executives are coming on board... Although Domingo's re-upping is no surprise, it underscores his pivotal role at Los Angeles Opera." Los Angeles Times 02/22/06
Posted: 02/22/2006 6:44 am
- ...And DC, Too (but shhh! it's a secret) Washington National Opera will announce next week that they, too, have inked General Director Placido Domingo to a five-year contract extension, running through the 2010-11 season. The company had promised execs at LA Opera that they wouldn't trample on the California story with a simultaneous announcement of their own, but leaks are apparently a whole different story. Washington Post 02/22/06
Posted: 02/22/2006 6:43 am
On Second Thought, Mediation For Louisville After weeks of recriminations and threats through the press, the Louisville Orchestra has agreed to mediation in its ongoing contract negotiations with its musicians. The orchestra's management team had initially rejected mediation, and has said that without major cuts to the size of the orchestra and the compensation package paid to the musicians, the organization would declare Chapter 7 bankruptcy and liquidate before the end of the current season. Louisville Courier-Journal 02/22/06
Posted: 02/22/2006 5:24 am
Oramo To Leave CBSO Finnish conductor Sakari Oramo has announced that he will step aside as music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the end of the 2007-08 season, after ten years at the helm. The CBSO won't be completely bidding farewell to Oramo, however: in a rather unusual move, he will be granted the title of principal guest conductor beginning with the 2008-09 season. Gramophone (UK) 02/22/06
Posted: 02/22/2006 5:14 am
Click here for more Music stories...
Music stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
Hong Kong Puts Brakes On Enormous Cultural Center The Hong Kong government has put plans for one of the world's largest cultura; centers on hold. "The decision is a setback for several major museums. The Georges Pompidou Center in Paris and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Museum of Modern Art in New York had been vying for the right to run museums at the cultural center, which was to be several times the size of Lincoln Center." The New York Times 02/22/06
Posted: 02/21/2006 9:28 pm
Click here for more Arts Issues stories...
Arts Issues stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
Summers Quits Harvard The controversial president of Harvard University has resigned under pressure, bringing to an end a stormy 5-year tenure. Lawrence Summers drew the ire of many Harvard faculty and alumni during his time at the helm, but many students were disappointed to hear of his departure. The New York Times 02/22/06
Posted: 02/22/2006 6:55 am
- Bold, Brash, Blunt: The Summers Legacy "When the Harvard Corporation chose [Lawrence] Summers to lead Harvard in 2001, there was a sense among its members that the nation's most prestigious university had become complacent. Summers was brought in to shake things up, and he didn't disappoint." His record on fund-raising (one of a university president's most important duties) was less than stellar, and yet, his big plans and blunt leadership style endeared him to many outside the institution, who saw in Summers a populist dedicated to bringing the famously elite school into the larger Boston community. Boston Globe 02/22/06
Posted: 02/22/2006 6:51 am
Ray Baretto, 76 Barretto, a percussionist and bandleader who was a pioneer of the Latin jazz and salsa movements, has died. "Known as 'King of the Hard Hands,' Barretto recorded at least 50 albums in a career spanning more than 40 years. Collaborating with singer Celia Cruz, Barretto won a Grammy in 1990 with the album Ritmo en el Corazon." Yahoo (Reuters) 02/21/06
Posted: 02/21/2006 10:21 pm
Click here for more People stories...
People stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
Theatre stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
South African Writer Accused Of Plagiarism Stephen Watson, a poet and the head of the University of Cape Town's English department has accused Antjie Krog, the Afrikaner author of Country of My Skull, of "lifting material from a range of writers, including the late British poet laureate Ted Hughes and two 19th-century European linguists. He said Country of My Skull, an award-winning account of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission that was recently turned into a Hollywood film, used words and phrases from Hughes's 1976 essay Myth and Education." The Guardian (UK) 02/21/06
Posted: 02/21/2006 7:32 pm
Click here for more Publishing stories...
Publishing stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
Paging Dr. Junkie Medical shows have always been a hit with TV viewers, but doctors are concerned that the latest wave of edgy hospital dramas are misleading viewers, and possibly giving the impression that prescription drugs are something to be played around with... Los Angeles Times 02/22/06
Posted: 02/22/2006 6:42 am
Gives Whole New Meaning To "Cult Hit" As documentaries go, What The #$*! Do We Know? was an unlikely hit when it was released in 2005. Dealing in quantum physics, philosophy, and more than a little bit of new-age mumbo-jumbo, the film straddled the line between science and religion just carefully enough to make it the fourth-highest grossing documentary of all time. What most viewers never knew was that What The #$*!... had its roots in a bizarre sect whose followers believe that a 35,000-year-old "spirit warrior" from Atlantis appeared in the kitchen of a Tacoma housewife in 1976. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/22/06
Posted: 02/22/2006 6:17 am
Bond Fans Shaken, Not Stirred Fans of the James Bond franchise generally aren't terribly difficult to please. Give them a suave, hunky leading man, a sexy female sidekick, and plenty of car chases and explosions, and most Bond aficionados are perfectly content. So it was a bit of a surprise this month when a website was launched with the express purpose of organizing a Bond boycott as a protest against the decision to replace popular Bond portrayer Pierce Brosnan with actor Daniel Craig. The Globe & Mail (AP) 02/22/06
Posted: 02/22/2006 6:13 am
BBC To Invest In BritFilm, If The Money's There "The BBC plans to invest at least £100m in the UK film industry over 10 years. The money will be split between homegrown movie projects and acquiring British films for broadcast on UK TV." However, the Beeb's proposal is contingent on the corporation receiving the significant increase in federal funding for which it has asked the UK government. BBC 02/22/06
Posted: 02/22/2006 5:39 am
Paramount - A Movie Studio Reinvents "After years of sedate stability under Sherry Lansing, Paramount has been rebuilt pretty much from the ground up. In less than a year, virtually every division chief has been replaced, some without warning, as happened to production chief Donald DeLine, who found out from friends that he was being replaced when he was in London on a business trip. Countless staffers have been let go after the studio paid $1.6 billion to acquire DreamWorks last December in a selection process that one staffer described as a human bake sale." Los Angeles Times 02/21/06
Posted: 02/21/2006 9:22 pm
Radio Tries For A Comeback Traditional radio is going on the offensive to try to "recapture some of the consumer and industry buzz temporarily ceded to satellite radio in the wake of shock jock Stern's defection to Sirius Satellite Radio. (Oprah Winfrey will be going to Sirius' larger rival, XM Satellite Radio). Industry observers wonder whether these initial steps by terrestrial radio will be enough to maintain it as a dynamic media business." Los Angeles Times 02/21/06
Posted: 02/21/2006 8:58 pm
Current's Viewer Video - Tougher Than It Seems Current TV is based on the idea of viewer contribution. "While there's no question the number of people who can edit videos at home has skyrocketed, Current TV has discovered that the number who can make interesting or watchable "pods" is substantially smaller. To separate the wheat from the chaff, the network uses a Web based "green-lighting" process through which viewers rate each others' submissions. Videos that rise to the top are put on air and the contributors are paid a fee that starts at $500. That process yields only about 30% of what the network needs to fill its days. The channel fills the rest with commercially-produced or "commissioned" segments about social issues, fashion, and music." New York Sun 02/21/06
Posted: 02/21/2006 8:30 pm
Click here for more Media stories...
Media stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
Born To Dance (Literally) Researchers say some people are genetically engineered to dance. "People are born to dance. They have (other) genes that partially contribute to musical talent, such as coordination, sense of rhythm. However, the genes we studied are more related to the emotional side of dancing — the need and ability to communicate with other people and a spiritual side to their natures that not only enable them to feel the music, but to communicate that feeling to others via dance." Discovery 02/21/06
Posted: 02/21/2006 8:36 pm
Click here for more Dance stories...
Dance stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
