“Saying the Art Institute of Chicago isn’t affordable for many city residents, Ald. Ed Burke (14th) today increased the pressure on the world-famous museum to reverse its looming 50-percent increase in admission fees. Burke, chairman of the Finance Committee, pushed through a resolution urging the Chicago Park District to repeal the increase it approved in March and force the museum to offer reduced fees for Chicago residents.”
Tag: 04.20.09
J.G. Ballard In Architecture, TV, Pop, Film And Visual Art
“Perhaps searching for a Ballardian cinema in ordinary terms is obtuse: we should be looking instead at CCTV footage taken from any shopping-mall security camera, or the Big Brother daytime live feed, or one of the direct-impact 9/11 World Trade Centre plane-crash shots – avidly consumed on YouTube, but now considered too brutal for television. Ballard was a poet of the occult fear, the subliminal horror.” And his influence spread far beyond literature.
On Drama Shortlist, A Female Winner Was A Sure Thing
Lynn Nottage won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, but “no matter which of the three finalists had snagged the prize today, a woman was going to win it.” That matters because, as female playwrights have pointed out recently, “women playwrights are vastly underrepresented on our stages. … The Pulitzer changes the composition of our canon, the stories we as a culture tell ourselves. Women’s voices need to be a much more significant part of that.”
Explaining Steve Reich
“Composer Steve Reich won the Pulitzer Prize for music Monday, taking the award for his ‘Double Sextet.’ In honor of Reich’s career, here’s a look at another of his most celebrated works.” (With audio.)
W.S. Merwin’s Happy Accident Takes Pulitzer No. 2
“W. S. Merwin won his second Pulitzer Prize for poetry on Monday for ‘The Shadow of Sirius,’ a collection that the Pulitzer board described in its citation as ‘luminous’ and ‘often tender’ — and that Merwin called a happy accident. … ‘If people are honest, very few gardens are exactly the way they were planned, if they were ever planned. They evolve, just like children grow up.'”
To Win A Drama Pulitzer, Drink Deeply Of Lake Michigan
“There must be something in the Lake Michigan water. For the second straight year, a play originating in Chicago has won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. This year’s winner is Lynn Nottage’s ‘Ruined,’ her play set in an African brothel. In an interview Monday afternoon, Nottage described herself as ‘jubilant’ over the honor. “
For Brown’s Da Vinci Sequel, A Coy 5 Million-Copy Printing
“Six and a half years after the publication of ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ the best-selling adult hardcover novel of all time, Dan Brown will publish his follow- up on Sept. 15. ‘The Lost Symbol’ will feature Robert Langdon of ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ the Harvard professor played by Tom Hanks in the movie based on the novel. … The planned American first printing of 5 million copies would be the largest in the history of Random House….”
Steve Reich Gets The Pulitzer In Music
“Steve Reich has been awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Music for Double Sextet. The award, for distinguished musical composition by an American that has had its first performance or recording in the United States during the previous calendar year, comes with a $10,000 cash prize.” (With video and audio.)
Nottage, Gordon-Reed, Merwin Among Pulitzer Winners
“The Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Monday. Following are the winners in Letters, Drama and Music.”
Pulitzer In Criticism Goes To … An Art Critic?!?
“Finally, the curse is over. New York Times art critic Holland Cotter today won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for criticism. He’s the first art critic to get the nod in 35 years, since the late Emily Genauer of Newsday won in 1974.”