Friday, May 5
Don't Know Much About... Science "It is easy to say Americans, even those graduating from elite universities, lack scientific knowledge. But it is hard to define what science literacy consists of-and harder still to know how universities can impart it to, say, English majors. Does science literacy mean knowing a roster of facts or concepts? Having a sense of the scientific method? Appreciating the history and philosophy of science? Being competent in math, the lingua franca of the sciences? All of the above?" Boston Globe 05/05/06
Posted: 05/05/2006 6:59 am
Reinventing the Public Library (shhh...It's an "Idea Store"...) to begin with, don't call them libraries. "This is the Whitechapel Idea Store, the flagship of a $44 million project initiated by the London borough of Tower Hamlets. The council aims to replace the area's century-old libraries-largely disused and falling into disrepair after decades of meager funding and neglect-with modernized venues. More than just rehabbing buildings, though, the mission of the Idea Stores is to rejuvenate, as well as rename, the very concept of the British public library, starting in one of London's toughest neighborhoods." Boston Globe 05/05/06
Posted: 05/05/2006 6:27 am
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Greeks To Charge Curator True Over Antiquities Looting Greek police say they will charge former Getty curator marion True of illegal possession of 29 Greek artifacts found in her Greek villa earlier this spring. "This shouldn't come as a surprise. None of these items were registered with local archaeological authorities as the law requires." True says the antiquities were there when she bought the house. The New York Times 05/05/06
Posted: 05/05/2006 6:01 am
The Survey Says: American Museums Had A Good Year "The New York-based Association of Art Museum Directors said this week that 73 percent of the 129 museums responding to its survey reported steady or increased attendance in 2005. That compared with 70 percent seeing such results in 2004. The survey also found that 84 percent of respondents said their total revenue had increased or was the same as in the previous year, up from 79 percent in 2004." Boston Globe 05/05/06
Posted: 05/05/2006 5:38 am
Sweden Returns Totem Pole To Canada "The deal completes a 25-year campaign to return the artefact, known as the G’psgolox Totem after the chief who commissioned it, to a tribal site. The sculpted column was removed from Canadian territory in the 1920s by the then-Swedish consul, who had it chopped down and shipped to Stockholm." The Art Newspaper 05/04/06
Posted: 05/04/2006 8:37 pm
DC's National Gallery Admits Plagiarism Of Catalogue "The National Gallery of Art, in Washington, DC, has admitted copyright infringement and agreed to pay two Edouard Vuillard scholars $37,500 for publishing a catalogue that uses their research without authorisation or acknowledgement." The Art Newspaper 05/04/06
Posted: 05/04/2006 8:35 pm
Police Find Truck With Stolen Art Police in Florida recover a truck full of art that had been missing for tqo weeks. the driver, Patrick McIntosh, 36, had "been missing since April 17, when he and his 24-foot Budget rental truck pulled out of Boca Raton with millions of dollars worth of art, including seven canvasses by the Abstract Expressionist painter Milton Avery. He had been hired by David Jones Fine Art Services to deliver the art from private dealers and collectors — and at least one museum — in Boca Raton to a series of homes and galleries in New York." The New York Times 05/04/06
Posted: 05/04/2006 3:16 pm
Getty Meets With Greeks The Getty Museum will meet with Greek authorities to discuss antiquities the Greeks say were looted and are now in the Getty collection. "The visit by museum Director Michael Brand, announced Wednesday by the J. Paul Getty Trust, comes as Greek authorities step up a criminal investigation aimed at securing the return of four Getty objects, including a 2,500-year-old solid gold funerary crown considered to be one of the museum's antiquities masterpieces." Los Angeles Times 05/04/06
Posted: 05/04/2006 10:06 am
When A Masterwork Is Decertified (Where Do You Put It?) In 1985 the LA County Museum acquired a Van Dyck painting with great fanfare. But "these days, 'Andromeda' is all but invisible. Although it probably cost about $1 million, it hasn't been hung in a public area for several years, and the museum has never announced a reason. The answer is there, however, for those who dig into LACMA's online collection database: In July 1998, the museum decided it wasn't a Van Dyck after all." Los Angles Times 05/04/06
Posted: 05/04/2006 9:53 am
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Centuries Of Music In A Single Work (Caged, Of Course) A piece by John Cage is being performed in a German church. Don't worry about catching the performance though. It will continue over the next six centuries. It's "a version of a composition by John Cage called 'As Slow as Possible.' A group of musicians and town boosters has given the title a ridiculously extreme interpretation, by stretching the performance to 639 years." The New York Times 05/05/06
Posted: 05/05/2006 6:04 am
The Good News About Classical Music Nicholas Kenyon argues that far from dying, classical music is thriving. "The real problem for classical music is that no one expects it to change, because it is steeped in tradition and is too often associated exclusively with the past. Yet it changes continually, both in character and in content. New music, so often thought of as esoteric and unappealing, has never been more varied in style and substance than now." New Statesman 05/01/06
Posted: 05/04/2006 10:35 pm
A Plan For Music Education Drifts... New Labour made big promises about remaking music eduction in UK schools. But its initiatives have dwindled away, and it's looking less and less likely that things will get better... The Telegraph (UK) 05/04/06
Posted: 05/04/2006 9:35 pm
MacMillan Symphony Wins At Classical Brits The Classical Bit Awards are back, and Placido Domingo picks up two awards. "Domingo received a lifetime achievement award and shared the critics' prize for his part in the Royal Opera House's production of Tristan and Isolde. Katherine Jenkins won album of the year for Living A Dream while Andreas Scholl beat Bryn Terfel and Renee Fleming to the singer of the year crown." BBC 05/04/06
Posted: 05/04/2006 8:15 pm
Gaddafi, The Opera English national Opera will presnt an opera about Libyan disctator Muammar Gaddafi. "The opera tackles some of Libya's most controversial moments on the world stage, including U.S. attacks on the country in 1986, the Lockerbie disaster of 1988 and the shooting of police officer Yvonne Fletcher outside Libya's London embassy in 1984. Little wonder its creators see the project as high risk for one of Britain's two main opera houses." Yahoo! (Reuters) 05/04/06
Posted: 05/04/2006 9:32 am
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Boston Globe Hires Three New Critics "Jeremy Eichler, a classical music writer for The New York Times, will be the Globe's new classical music critic. Joining the staff on Monday to cover pop music will be Sarah Rodman. She comes from the Boston Herald, where for the last six years she was a staff columnist covering pop music and entertainment. The Globe's new theater critic will be staff writer Louise Kennedy. She has worked as assistant book editor, assistant Living/Arts editor, assistant magazine editor, food editor, home editor, and, since 2001, arts reporter." Boston Globe 05/05/06
Posted: 05/05/2006 5:39 am
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university Faculty Protests Munitz Deal California State University faculty are protesting a decision to take back former Getty director Barry Muintz back on the staff at a salary of $160,000. "Has the CSU administration been living under a rock the last eight months? They are using public money and playing with it like it's Monopoly money. Fees at CSU have gone up 76 percent. ... To pay him a salary that exceeds the highest salary at the university -- and have him teach one class -- offends everyone." San Francisco Chronicle 05/05/06
Posted: 05/05/2006 6:15 am
Bono To Edit Major UK Newspaper In Fundraiser Bono will be the guest editor of the May 16 issue of the UK newspaper the Independent as part of a media fundraiser to raise money for Red, the singer's initiative to tackle Aids in Africa. "The newspaper has also agreed to donate half of its revenues for the issue a week on Tuesday to the Product Red cause." The Guardian (UK) 05/05/06
Posted: 05/05/2006 5:53 am
Remembering John Kenneth Galbraith He was convinced that for a society to be not merely affluent but livable (an important distinction now all but lost) it had to put more political and economic power in the hands of people who exercised very little of it. InsideHigherEd 05/03/06
Posted: 05/04/2006 10:15 pm
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Lestat's Fatal Bite? The Broadway vampire music "Lestat" is on life support. "A week after opening to some of the worst reviews for any show this season, Elton John's $10 million vampire fiasco finds itself on the critical list. Ticket sales are averaging about $50,000 a day, which simply is not enough to keep the show going for long. (Rule of thumb on Broadway: To stay in the black, a $10 million show has to take in about $90,000 a day.)" New York Post 05/05/06
Posted: 05/05/2006 7:02 am
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Reconstructing The Books That Didn't Survive Most historians focus on works that actually existed. Stuart Kelly has gone in search of books which were "burned, misplaced, abandoned, suppressed, never finished, never started..." The New York Times 05/05/06
Posted: 05/05/2006 6:07 am
Calling All (Canadian) Poets "The two-year term of current poet laureate Pauline Michel runs out Nov. 16. The Library of Parliament has called for nominations to the post and a selection committee will look at applicants. The job description? Write poetry, sponsor poetry readings and get Canadians interested in poetry." CBC 05/04/06
Posted: 05/04/2006 8:33 pm
da Vinci Code Losers Late On Legal Fee Payment The pair who sued Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown for plagiarism and lost, are late on their court-ordered payment of Brown's legal fees. "Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who sued publishers Random House, were ordered to pay 85% of the company's legal bill, estimated at £1.3m. Their first instalment of £350,000 had been due on Friday. But they have applied for more time to pay." BBC 05/04/06
Posted: 05/04/2006 8:24 pm
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Congress Cuts Smithsonian Budget To Protest Film Deal Congress cuts the Smithsonian's budget by $5.3 million to protest an exclusive deal the Smithsonian made with Showtime Networks about filming the institution's collections. "The Smithsonian says the contract requires commercial filmmakers who want to make extensive use of the institution's collections to reach an agreement with Showtime. Smithsonian officials have refused to make the contract public, and members of Congress said they were surprised to learn of the deal through the media." Washington Post 05/05/06
Posted: 05/05/2006 6:21 am
CBS Creates A Channel Online CBS launches a new broadband channel. "The site, available on the CBS.com home page, is streaming three shows a day at first, at least one of them new each day. Material already shown will be archived and available for free to computer users. 'We want our content to be all the places our viewers are — and they are certainly on the Internet'." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/05/06
Posted: 05/05/2006 5:48 am
Univision Gains On Big 4 Univision, the American Spanish-language TV network says its earnings are up 21 percent over last year. "Univision has become a tough competitor to ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox and regularly beats one of these four English-language networks in prime-time. As the Hispanic population continues to grow in size, we are confident that advertisers will see that reaching Hispanics through Univision Television, radio, music and online assets will be a key to their success." Yahoo! (AP) 05/04/06
Posted: 05/04/2006 9:17 pm
Movie Star Salaries Falling? "After years of ever-rising star salaries, the prices for top talent are now coming down because the cost of making movies is going up, among other issues." Yahoo! (Reuters) 05/04/06
Posted: 05/04/2006 9:28 am
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Forsythe's NY Debut Is Baffling "William Forsythe has introduced his newly formed company to New York with a work oddly short on choreography. For those who have followed Forsythe's successful, if lately turbulent, career in Germany, the choice was baffling. It may be prophetic, indicating Forsythe's plans for the future." Bloomberg.com 05/05/06
Posted: 05/05/2006 7:06 am
Cirque Takes Over "To judge from its own statistics, Cirque du Soleil has taken over the circus world. Drawing, like other major circuses, from the same international pool of small traveling circuses and circus schools, augmented by fresh talent from Eastern Europe and Asia, Cirque du Soleil has elevated the once marginal and innovative "new circus" experiments of Europe into an international brand name. The Cirque format has surpassed the older-fashioned, sawdust plus painted clowns plus animal acts of Barnum & Bailey, wedding instead the jugglers and acrobats and its own kind of clowns to formulaic fantasies." The New York Times 05/05/06
Posted: 05/04/2006 9:54 pm
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