Category: Uncategorized

“In a year when ratings for the Grammys, the Golden Globes and the Super Bowl were all up, the bright, new Twitter-fingered Oscars were down.”

Painter James Hart Dyke was assigned to shadow spooks for a year, sketchbook in hand. What did he learn about their mysterious world?

“An elaborate and mysterious winnowing process pares down the thousands of potential nominees to five. The usual pre-nomination handicapping — the canvassing of critical opinion and the weighing of popular sentiment — does not apply to these movies, which might in principle make the choices less compromised, but in practice only serves to make them more confusing.”

“The renovations, designed to cater for growing demand and to improve display conditions for its art collection, are set for completion in 2013. Private donations have so far helped Tate Britain raise £28.5m and director Penelope Curtis said they are confident the rest will be found.”

“Eli Broad is ready to build himself a west side museum to house his 2,000-piece contemporary art EliBroadClendenin collection, and send it into the world with a $200 million endowment that he reckons will give it a $12 million a year budget before another penny is earned or raised. That would be the largest single hunk of cash ever bestowed on the arts in Southern California.”

“The Sotheby’s art auction house has repeatedly inflated prices by failing to make full disclosures when it has an ownership stake in some of the works it sells, according to a federal suit brought Wednesday.” The plaintiff is CNet founder Halsey Minor, who was sued by Sotheby’s for failure to pay for three paintings he had bid for in spring auctions.

“I probably wouldn’t throw down any money – even just a fiver – to read a couple issues of some magazine before moving on to another one… People tend to be loyal to their magazines, often subscribing for years and sometimes keeping the back issues in their library (think of all those National Geographics that you’ve seen at yard sales), and aren’t really all that interested in swapping issues around every month or two.”

The college apparently through out a valuable Leger. “Travelers Insurance has already paid approximately $3 million to the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, though the company continues to investigate the painting’s disappearance and has offered a $100,000 reward for its return.”

A New Jersey opera company is presenting the world premiere of an operatic version of the tragic story of Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago who was viciously beaten and shot in Mississippi in 1955. The opera was composed by Charles Lloyd, Jr, best known for his jazz compositions.

Ethiopia has imposed a ban on what had been billed as the Horn of Africa nation’s first exhibition of nude photography