“Junot Diaz has won the Pulitzer fiction prize for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, an ambitious novel that took him 11 years to complete… The poetry prize was shared between two authors: Robert Hass for Time and Materials and Philip Schultz for Failure.”
Tag: 04.08.08
We Know What It’s Not. Now, What Is It?
Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria has a Van Gogh hanging on its wall that is fairly transparently not a Van Gogh. Still, it’s probably not a hoax, either, so what exactly does the gallery have? Germaine Greer is making the “completely mad” suggestion that it might just be a Rubens.
The Color Of Music
The music site Guitarati unveiled a unique new way of categorizing music this week: they’re using colored dots to organize dozens of genres and thousands of songs. “To find music that suits your current mood, you first decide which color best represents it. Clicking on the color ostensibly brings up music that fits your state of mind.”
Lloyd Webber To Be Honored At Classical Brits
“Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber will be presented with the outstanding achievement prize at the annual Classical Brits awards.” As near as anyone associated with actual classical music can tell, there is no ironic intent.
Bulgarian Crime Novelist ‘Murdered By His Characters’
“Bulgaria’s Georgi Stoev, the author of crime stories who died after he was shot in the head in downtown Sofia, feared for his life because of the books he wrote, publisher Nedyalko Nedyalkov said. ‘Georgi was murdered by his characters,’ Nedyalkov declared Tuesday in an interview for Nova Television.”
Hockney’s Tate Painting Is A Thing Of Beauty
“David Hockney’s gift of the most ambitious of his recent landscape paintings to the Tate proves once and for all what a great national treasure this man is. … Hockney’s big paintings of woodlands in the changing seasons have a bounce that’s totally different from anything else in the entire history of British landscape art.”
Pair Of Seattle Theatres Merge
“In an unusual move designed to raise the profile and productivity of two respected classical-drama troupes, Seattle Shakespeare Company and Wooden O Theatre have merged their nonprofit operations, a move legally finalized Monday.”
Far From Broadway, Letts Is On To The Next Play
When Tracy Letts won a Pulitzer Prize Monday for his Broadway play, “August: Osage County,” the playwright was at work on a new play at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, which premiered “August.” “‘It’s in rough shape,’ Letts said of his newest drama. ‘It’s teaching me a lot of humility. Which is good, because I am going to be impossible.'”
Venice Biennale Chooses 2009 Curator
“The Venice Biennale appointed Daniel Birnbaum, the rector of the Staedelschule international art academy in Frankfurt, to curate its 2009 show.”
Charlton Heston, Faithful Pen Pal, Constant Reader
“Charlton Heston, who died Saturday at age 84, was an avid newspaper reader, eager to share his opinions. In addition to writing dozens of letters to the paper over four decades, the ‘Ben-Hur’ star often would telephone Los Angeles Times editors with his comments.” Here’s a sampling from his missives.