EToys, the online toy retailer sued Etoy, the European conceptual artist group to get the latter to stop using its name. Even though the artists got to cyberspace first. Now EToys offers to drop its trademark infringement suit. New York Times
Pretending to know is a ticket to nowhere. Knowing you don’t know is a good thing, a creative and freeing thing. A company that teaches the creativity in knowing you don’t know. Financial Times
Artswire looks at a year of arts events and news. Artswire Current
This year’s Kennedy Center Honors telecast (to be broadcast tonight) is so puffed up with itself, it borders on self parody. The show’s creaky format has outlived the honors bestowed. Washington Post 12/29/99
Richard Branson is considering trying to buy London’s Millennium Dome when 2000 celebrations are done. Variety
In a decade when Singapore has congratulated itself on the flourishing of its arts, times haven’t been so good for those artists who dared say unpopular things. Singapore Straits Times
Jesse Ventura explains his position on the arts in an upcoming March Playboy mag interview sequel: The government shouldn’t be funding arts. “if a person wants to be an artist and is struggling financially, then they should support themselves by waiting tables. If you’re going to ask the government to subsidize artists, then you might as well subsidize stock car racers, too,” he adds. New York Daily News
A millennial eve concert in Greenwich starring Simply Red, The Eurythmics, and Bryan Ferry and the London Symphony Orchestra is saved by trained ferrets who pulled electrical sound and lighting cables through tunnels beneath the stage BBC
Britain’s Tony Blair proposes that Greenwich Time be adopted as a standardized world electronic time. BBC
Sydney, Australia will be the first major city to usher in the new millennium – the first to see whether Y2K is Y2Hype. But hey, it’s the middle of summer and the party’s just beginning. Wired
