“It appears that all that can be said about the Obama arts program is that he has more pressing issues on his plate. Meanwhile, the appetite for that program is growing by the day, with the U.S. arts community salivating at the prospect of government handouts that would’ve been unimaginable before the economy tanked.”
Tag: 01.15.09
The Vocabulary Of Smell
So why is it that the words we use to describe smells are the names of actual things with particular odors (rose, ammonia, hay, sulphur), while we have abstract words for color (red, green, light, dark) and touch (rough, smooth, hard, soft)?
Those Beastly Dickens Incest Rumors May Be True After All
Charles Dickens was hounded by gossip that he had an affair with his sister-in-law, who lived with him and his wife. He called the rumors “abominably false,” of course. “But next month a diamond ring goes up for auction that, together with documentation about its provenance, could prove he had a child with Georgina.”
How Wedgwood Stifled Itself Into Bankruptcy
“But when I drove up to Stoke to visit the Wedgwood museum last summer, the place was as dead as a cobwebbed dodo… Two weeks earlier I’d attended the Ceramics in the City show in London, featuring the best new talent in a market that’s been expanding… I’d seen revolutionary shapes, colours and ideas. The punters were handing over their credit cards. So why wasn’t Wedgwood buying in?”
With Economy In A Ditch, Library Use Climbs Swiftly
“A library card has become a hot property in the Seattle region — area public libraries are experiencing a surge in circulation. While busy libraries in one of the nation’s most literate cities are nothing new, some librarians credit (or blame) the recession for a dramatic upswing in business. … Nationwide, libraries have reported similar or greater increases.”
Czechs To Bulgarians: Really Sorry About That Toilet Thing
“The Czech EU presidency has apologised for an art installation it commissioned that lampoons national stereotypes. Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra apologised directly to Bulgaria, which has formally complained over its depiction as a toilet in the art work. He said the image, at the European Council building in Brussels, would be removed if Sofia insisted.”
L.A. Opera To Go Ahead With Next Season’s Complete Ring
“But with Wagner draining the budget in an uncertain economic climate, L.A. Opera has an otherwise reduced season of two beloved Italian comedies and two rarities.” There’s luxury casting, though, including a Flórez-DiDonato-Gunn Barber of Seville.
Outgoing Philadelphia Orchestra President Departs Early
Last September, James Undercofler announced that he’d be stepping down at the end of this season. Instead, he left abrupt this week. The new interim CEO, a retired financial executive, will have to deal with the current economic tumult, searches for a permanent chief executive and a new music director, and what one board member reportedly describes as a “chaotic” atmosphere in the administrative offices.
Futuristic Architect Jan Kaplický, 71
“The 71-year-old designer behind the spacecraft-like media centre at Lord’s cricket ground in London and the curvaceous, sequin-clad Selfridges in Birmingham collapsed in Prague last night. The Czech-born architect’s octopus-shaped design for a new national library in Prague had won an international competition but failed to gain acceptance among Czech politicians… [and he] had been fighting hard to win support for what he hoped would be the ‘grand finale’ to his career.”
Patrick McGoohan, 80, Creator And Star Of The Prisoner
“One of the leading stars of British television of the 1950s and 1960s, he is best known for played The Prisoner‘s title character Number Six in the surreal 1960s show… He also won two Emmy Awards – 16 years apart – for his work on the Peter Falk detective drama Columbo.”