Anish Kapoor is creating a sculpture to the British victims of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center. The sculpture will be placed in a square near the WTC site. “The sculpture will be crafted from a block of black granite into which a vertical chamber is carved of approximately 1m [3.3ft] by 2.5m [8.2ft] by 80cm [2.6ft]. The inner chamber is polished to give a mirrored surface,” said the Bombay-born artist. The chamber reflects light so as to form a column, which hovers, ghost-like, in the void of the stone.”
Tag: 04.01.04
The New Movie Checklist: Ticket, Popcorn, Strip Search…
Your trip to the local multiplex to check out the big new Hollywood blockbuster may soon include an element you hadn’t bargained for: a bag search and pat-down to insure that you aren’t carrying any video cameras or camera phones that could be used to illegally record the film for later distribution. In-theater searches aren’t exactly a great PR move for the industry, but officials insist that they may be the only way to stem the tide of pirated films.
Portrait Of A Troubled Art Collection
“As the McMichael Canadian Art Collection prepares to host its second annual ‘100-per-cent Canadian’ fundraiser tonight at Toronto’s art-moderne masterpiece the Carlu, the art gallery is poised to undergo big changes in the months ahead.” But change is nothing new to the McMichael, which throughout its history has endured seemingly constant and “tumultuous disputes over the gallery’s governance and mission. Everyone, it seems, has gotten in on the debates at one time or another — the McMichaels first and foremost, governments, scholars, artists, art critics, auditors, lawyers, opposition politicians, and the courts.”
Anne Of The Public Domain
A controversial piece of Canadian legislation which would have extended the copyright of certain works of literature – most notably, the Anne of Green Gables series – has apparently died in Parliament, but the story of how it met its demise is as rife with political intrigue as the question of how such a specific measure found its way into legislative print in the first place. The estate of Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of the Green Gables books, had pushed especially hard for passage, and questions are swirling about the political influence of the Montgomery family as a result.
Big Day For Canadian Prizes
The Writers’ Trust of Canada has awarded this year’s prize for political writing to retired Canadian lieutenant-general Roméo Dallaire, for his examination of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Shake Hands With the Devil. The prize carries a CAN$15,000 cash prize, and is one of the country’s most prestigious literary awards. “Elsewhere, the Griffin Trust, sponsor of the world’s richest prizes for poetry — $80,000 — announced the 2004 nominees,” including Canadian poets Leslie Greentree and Anne Simpson.
English As The Global Language? Think Again.
“With the emergence of the Internet and the growth of global commerce, many assume English is on its way toward becoming the dominant global language, wiping out its competitors as it spreads around the world. Actually, the number of people who speak English exclusively is declining worldwide, while people who speak two or more languages are becoming more common.” Arabic and Spanish are on the rise, and Chinese (which, let’s not forget, is spoken by three times as many people as its nearest competitor) isn’t going away anytime soon. Nonetheless, researchers predict that English will remain the language of international business and commerce for the foreseeable future.
Legal Downloads Up, Choice Too
The amount of legally purchased downloaded music has increased 10 times in the past year. But what’s really interesting, is what is being downloading. “Music fans are downloading a wide range of songs, with the top 100 downloads accounting for just 11% of sales. This contrasts with CD single sales, where the top 100 CD singles account for 77% of total CD singles sales.”
The Ultimate Do-It-Yourself Music
Who needs a big expensive piano, really? After all, you can make beautiful music for only a few measley bucks! Just “pry open a Gameboy, tinker with its electronic guts, plug the re-engineered result into a Speak & Spell, duct tape it all together, sprinkle liberally with glitter, hook it up to an amplifier and let the good times roll.” The act of creating such self-hacked instruments is known as “circuit bending,” and a new festival celebrating the fad may be proof that it’s becoming a legitimate form of artistic expression.
Solutions? No. But We Do Have A Task Force!
The U.S. Justice Department has announced that it will form a task force to look into the issue of illegal content piracy (online song-swapping, etc.,) and that the task force will advise the attorney general on how the department should be dealing with the problem. “The announcement took place on the same day that a House judiciary subcommittee unanimously approved a bill that would punish file swappers with up to three years in jail for first offenses, and up to six for repeat offenses.”
You Mean MTV Still Plays Videos In Europe?
MTV Europe has backed off efforts to force a cut in the royalty rate it pays to independent record labels. The TV music network, which also owns European music channels VH1 and TMF, had sought a rate cut of 55% from nearly 300 smaller labels, but the companies went public with the dispute, and MTV has apparently backed down.