“There was a time when great Persian poets such as Hafez, Rumi or Khayyam were present in people’s daily lives, permeating their speech even in the very rural regions, but now books scarcely figure in a country once recognised by its literature. Today, you are unlikely to see signs of literary life in Iran. Writers face immense challenges in getting their works read. Crackdowns imposed by Ahmadinejad’s government have plunged publishing into crisis.”
Tag: 01.06.08
Who Keeps Attacking The Benjamin Britten Sculpture?
A sculpture honoring Benjamin Britten in a village in the UK has been vandalized 11 times. “The problem is that the list of potential suspects is just too long. More than 1,000 locals hate the Scallop, the controversial, 12ft high, steel artwork created by artist Maggi Hambling, which has bitterly divided the town since it was erected four years ago.”
$99 Pass Buys You All The Orchestra You Want
The St. Louis Orchestra is offering an all-you-can-eat deal. “For $99 (much cheaper than skiing all day at Vail), you can get a seat to almost all concerts from Thursday through March 2.”
Prague’s New National Library (Or Is It A Jelly Fish?)
The “inning design was not so much a compromise between all three as a combination of them all. It is a 48m tall, irregular structure inspired, perhaps, by a handful of Play-Doh being splatted on to tarmac by an insurgent Russian military vehicle. A floppy jellyfish of coruscating triangular tiles sits above a podium of white marble.”
Oscars Endangered?
“The willingness of the striking Writers Guild of America to take on the most glittering of all entertainment spectacles has sent shock waves through an industry whose idea of political activism has historically been confined to wearing a ribbon on its frock for this or that cause.”
The Movies In Sound
Like film editing, film sound remains a somewhat misunderstood craft, partly because at its best it tends to be imperceptible. “The better we do our job, the less people realize what’s going on,” Mr. Lievsay said. “I think a lot of people think the sound just comes out of the camera.”
Map Quest
“No matter the age, maps have always inspired that eternal human penchant for dreaming of far-off places, for locating oneself in the universe. As vessels of wishful thinking, they transform us into explorers lured by the mystery of the unknown, if not a lust to conquer it.”
Needed: A New Definition For “Original” Art?
“As contemporary art becomes more mainstream, and successful artists become “brands” that draw huge sale prices and big museum crowds, legions of art viewers are now finding themselves confronting “original” works created by someone other than the person listed on the wall label.”
Record Labels Trying New Marketing Strategies
“Among the business models music fans are likely to see more of: music subscriptions bundled with the price of Internet access, and services like Nokia Corp.’s upcoming Comes With Music, which would give users of select mobile phones a year’s worth of unlimited access to music for no extra charge.”
Wilson Getting His Due In D.C.
August Wilson’s legacy as a playwright is vast and hard to pin down, making it difficult to mount any sort of overarching celebration of his life’s work. But Washington’s Kennedy Center is making a stab at it anyway, presenting ambitious stagings of every one of Wilson’s ten plays in a single month.