What, Will These Hands Ne'er Be Clean? Moral transgression eating away at your conscience? Try an antiseptic wipe. "Liars, cheats, philanderers and murderers ... are human beings, after all, and if a study published last week is any guide, they feel a strong urge to wash their hands — literally — after a despicable act in an unconscious effort to ease their consciences. And it works, at least for minor guilt stains." What are researchers calling this impulse? The "Macbeth effect," after her ladyship. The New York Times 09/12/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 4:51 am
Breaking News: Celebrities More Narcissistic Than The Rest Of Us Scientific evidence finally proves it: According to a new study, celebrities score higher on the narcissism scale than the general population. "The study — soon to be published in the Journal of Research and Personality — confirmed that celebrities are more narcissistic than average Americans. And — surprisingly — they seem to start out that way, leading [the researchers] to surmise that narcissistic people seek out careers in the limelight, rather than becoming narcissistic when they earn fame." Los Angeles Times 09/12/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 4:06 am
The Man Who Saved Geometry "Geometry was, for much of the 20th century, a discipline very much in jeopardy. It was deemed by a generation of mathematicians to be old-fashioned, a fine recreation for idling away a lazy afternoon, but in essence little more than a trivial tinkering with toys." But the enemies of geometry didn't figure on Donald Coxeter... Boston Globe 09/10/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 9:14 pm
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Donor Pays $1 Million, Public Gets In Free "The Baltimore Museum of Art has received a $1 million gift from a local philanthropist to support its new policy of free admission to the public that begins Oct. 1. Suzanne F. Cohen, former chairwoman of the BMA board and a long-time supporter of the museum's programs, donated the money last November, during her tenure as board chair, to establish an endowment that will be known as the Cohen Family Fund for Free Admission, the museum said." Baltimore Sun 09/11/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 6:26 am
Post-9/11, Architecture Shifts Toward Excitement "The destruction of the World Trade Center is part of the reason American architecture is more brash and experimental than ever before. The void left by the collapse of the world's most recognizable pair of towers showed us with grim clarity that buildings matter -- as icons, as memories, as something we all share. ... After a generation where conformity was the norm, we'll soon learn if provocative drama has a place in America's urban landscape. Cities across the country are opening the door to imaginative designs that exult in the unexpected -- and at skyline scale." San Francisco Chronicle 09/12/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 5:53 am
Pelli's New Concert Hall Handsome, Yes, But ... "At age 79, the Argentine-born, Connecticut-based architect Cesar Pelli is inevitably described in newspaper and magazine profiles these days as diplomatic and genteel. In his design for the $200-million Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, which opens Friday night, he and his firm have produced a building that brings the very same adjectives to mind. In other words, if you are optimistic enough to believe that classical music — or architecture, for that matter — is an evolving art form with the capacity to provoke as well as merely soothe, you will likely find it enormously disappointing." Los Angeles Times 09/12/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 5:16 am
Museum Names (Not Playing In Peoria) Peoria is getting a new museum, but a contest asking the public to vote on names has backfired. It seems people don't like any of the names. "Museum leaders chose the four finalists from 500 suggested by surveys, committees and focus groups ('What was your focus group? A group of 5-year-olds?' someone wrote on the Web site). Officials hope to choose a name next month." Chicago Sun-Times 09/11/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 9:00 pm
Towers Of Low Expectations That's what Nicolai Ouroussoff thinks of the latest efforts for the WTC site. "For those who cling to the idea that the site’s haunting history demands a leap of imagination, the towers illustrate how low our expectations have sunk since the city first resolved to rebuild there in a surge of determination just weeks after 9/11." The New York Times 09/11/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 6:10 pm
Banksy Strikes Again (At Disneyland) The self-styled "guerilla" artist placed a life-size figure representing a hooded prisoner at Guantanamo Bay inside a ride at Disneyland. "A spokeswoman for Banksy said the stunt was intended to highlight the plight of terror suspects at the controversial detention centre in Cuba. Banksy is notorious for his secretive and subversive stunts - such as sneaking doctored versions of classic paintings into major art galleries." BBC 09/11/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 5:38 pm
A New Take On WTC Towers What to make of the new towers proposed for the site of the World Trade Center? Justin Davidson: "The three new towers have shaken some life back into Libeskind's ideas. Their peaks sweep upwards, more or less; they disdain symmetry and borrow mildly from his vocabulary of interpenetrating shapes. Call them Libeskind Lite." Newsday 09/11/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 4:55 pm
City Of Memorials The World Trade Center site is not the only memorial. Throughout the New York region there are other memorials. "Was Sept. 11, 2001 like Dec. 7, 1941: the start of America's involvement in a global war that was already under way and in which the United States will eventually emerge victorious? Or was it, to name just one other possibility, an alarm that the country has completely misread, and to which it reacted disastrously? How can we properly interpret an event we have barely begun to understand? And how can we hope to do so on so large a scale?" Newsday 09/11/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 4:52 pm
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Baltimore Symphony Contract Talks Going Well? "Both sides negotiating a new contract for Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians have maintained a media blackout, but, with the current contract set to expire Saturday night after the annual BSO gala, there are a few favorable signs - and also potential concerns. ... As the orchestra's management aims to balance a budget after a string of annual deficits, negotiating points may include the orchestra's size and the length of its season - factors that can affect the BSO's reputation and ability to attract and retain talent." Baltimore Sun 09/12/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 6:31 am
Paris' Salle Pleyel Reopening After four years of renovation, Paris' Salle Pleyel reopens this week. The theatre is the Carnegie Hall of Paris. "The acoustics used to be a weakness of the Salle Pleyel. To improve them, architect Francois Ceria and Artec Consultants Inc., the acclaimed New York sound gurus, have encircled the platform with a wooden wall and added four narrow side balconies and a number of rows behind the orchestra, replacing the old Cavaille-Coll organ with a human reflector." Bloomberg.com 09/11/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 10:36 pm
Claim: New UK Airline Carry-on Restrictions Killing Musical Life "Restrictions on hand luggage, intended to reduce the volume of baggage going through cabin security checks, have had a devastating impact on performers. Musicians who were used to stowing their Stradivarius in the cabin fear that irreplaceable instruments will be smashed by a careless baggage handler or wrecked by freezing temperatures in the hold. Instead, they are cancelling concerts or enduring exhausting train journeys." The Guardian (UK) 09/11/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 9:29 pm
Soprano Denounces Bolshoi Production Soprano Galina Vishnevskaya has denounced a new Bolshoi production of Yevgeny Onegin. "To the end of my days I will not escape my shame at participating in that public desecration of our sacred national treasure," she told the Bolshoi's management in a letter. Ms Vishnevskaya's spokesman confirmed she had called off plans for an 80th birthday party at the Bolshoi in protest at the opera's "completely deformed" main characters. The Guardian (UK) 09/12/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 9:25 pm
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Italian Fashion, Chinese Labor "When the first Chinese, their suitcases filled with cash, arrived in the early 1990s and leased their factories, the Italians laughed at them. But now that their numbers have quadrupled and they own a quarter of the city's textile businesses, where they make 'Made in Italy' fashion at 'Made in China' prices - often illegally - the newspapers are full of op-ed pieces about the "yellow invasion," low-wage competition and the Chinese mafia." Der Spiegel 09/11/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 8:27 pm
Chronicle Of Current College Controversies Over the past several weeks controversies have erupted on American college campuses. Scholars who endorse dissenting views about 9/11 have been challenged, a decision to invite former Iranian president Khatami to speak at Harvard has been opposed, and an art show by a convicted muderer has been shut down in Maine... InsideHigherEd 09/11/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 4:33 pm
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Chinese Director Plans To Work Around Ban "Acclaimed Chinese director Lou Ye, whose new film, 'Summer Palace,' is set partly during the Tiananmen Square student uprising, said he plans to continue working in China despite a five-year ban imposed on him by government officials. He said he will try to work in and around the system and find alternative ways to get his work distributed, such as on DVDs. Or he may focus on screenwriting." The Globe and Mail (Toronto) 09/12/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 7:31 am
Palme d'Or Competitor Banned From Filmmaking "Chinese authorities have banned the film director Lou Ye from making films for five years because he failed to seek permission from them before his latest work, set against the backdrop of the Tiananmen uprising, was screened at the Cannes film festival. Mr Lou's film 'Summer Palace' is to be confiscated and income from it seized, the Xinhua news agency reported." The Guardian (UK) 09/05/06
Posted: 09/05/2006 6:38 am
Theatre Trustee Nancy Roche, 64 Nancy Roche, a longtime board member at Baltimore's Center Stage, where she once served as interim managing director, died Friday of breast cancer. "She worked as consultant in governance for National Arts Strategies and was a founding member of the National Council for the American Theatre and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's trustees program. She co-edited 'The Art of Governance,' a guide to trustee leadership in the performing arts published in 2005." Baltimore Sun 09/11/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 7:05 am
Theatre Critic Herbert Whittaker, 95 "He imagined himself a war correspondent on a battlefield, writing about costumed soldiers that bled emotions on a stage. But the struggle that Herbert Whittaker documented and supported for almost half a decade was a real one. As The Globe and Mail's emeritus drama critic until 1975, Mr. Whittaker found himself on the front lines of the creation of a distinct Canadian theatre." The Globe and Mail (Toronto) 09/12/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 6:54 am
Tenor Norman Kelley, 95 "Norman Kelley, a tenor who sang with the New York City Opera, the Metropolitan Opera and many other companies around the world, died last Monday in Rockland, Mass. ... He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1957 as Mime in the 'Ring' cycle, but his longest-lasting legacy at that house may have been his English translation of Humperdinck’s 'Hansel and Gretel,' first performed in 1967 and used for decades thereafter." The New York Times 09/11/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 4:43 am
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For NYU Orientation, A Caveat-Packed Musical "Many colleges around the country feel obliged to caution entering students about what to expect and what to avoid, but few offer more hard-hitting warnings than New York University’s theatrical orientation created by the New York playwright and director Elizabeth Swados. The musical 'The Reality Show: NYU,' which has already played to nearly 5,000 incoming students at the university and will be shown twice more this month, tells of drugs and date rape, drinking and anorexia, depression and suicide." The New York Times 09/11/06
Posted: 09/12/2006 4:32 am
West End - How Many Is Too Many Musicals? London's West End is flooded with musicals this fall. But can they all survive? The Guardian (UK) 09/12/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 9:21 pm
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Giller List Announced Fifteen Canadian writers are in the running. "This year the jury includes former governor general Adrienne Clarkson and authors Alice Munro and Michael Winter." CBC 09/12/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 10:32 pm
How To Record History In A Disposable Age? "The National Library of Scotland, belatedly, is creating an archive of blogs, journals and e-mails written by leading Scots. Curators will harvest websites and inboxes for things of cultural significance, describing it as a 'digital repository' containing what will come to be regarded as the manuscripts of the 21st century. It all sounds very admirable: the e-mails of JK Rowling, Ian Rankin and Alasdair Gray captured for posterity. (JK's e-mails to her investment manager would be the best read of all. Except those are precisely the ones that will never be kept and never be seen.)" Glasgow Herald 09/11/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 9:40 pm
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The Year's Worst Box Office Weekend "It was the first time all year that the number one film didn't clear $10 million and the cumulative gross of the weekend was $70 million, making it the worst box office total of the year." Los Angeles Times 09/11/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 10:18 pm
Surprise Chinese Winner At Venice Fest Chinese director Jia Zhang-Ke's film "Sanxia Haoren" (Still Life) has won the Venice Film Festival's top prize. "The film was a last-minute addition in competition, its name withheld until Sept. 5 because of sensitivities related to acquiring the proper permissions from Chinese censors. It only screened twice on the Lido, and in a poll of 14 leading Italian critics taken on the eve of the closing ceremony, not one listed the film among their top three choices." Back Stage 09/11/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 6:42 pm
NBC Plans Double Revenues From Digital "Media conglomerate NBC Universal aims to more than double revenue from its digital businesses to about $1 billion by 2009 from an estimated $400 million this year." Yahoo! (Reuters) 09/11/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 6:34 pm
Baby Talk - Is TV Bad For Babies? So now there is a TV network for babies. But some experts are protesting. " 'In essence, we're conducting a big experiment on this generation of kids before we know what the impact of these media are'. That's one reason the American Academy of Pediatrics has no plans to modify its recommendation that children under 2 engage in no "screen time" and that toddlers watch no more than two hours of quality programming each day." San Francisco Chronicle 09/11/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 5:08 pm
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Lyon - A Dance Grab Bag The Biennale de la Danse in Lyon has become one of the world's great dance festivals. "Every installment of the festival has a theme, often geographic and intended to minimize the impression of a lively grab bag of the most interesting stuff available that year. This year’s 28 cities — 29, until Cairo had to cancel for technical reasons — are supposed collectively to represent dance and the city." The New York Times 09/11/06
Posted: 09/11/2006 10:04 pm
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