“Since the start of this month, police and propaganda officials have launched their biggest crackdown on Beijing’s counterculture hothouse – Dashanzi art district – where at least three galleries have been ordered to remove politically sensitive works.”
Tag: 04.22.06
Start Your Conspiracy Generators Now
DaVinci Code fanatics will have to wait a while longer for Dan Brown’s much-anticipated sequel. The Solomon Key, which was originally expected to be released this spring, will now be delayed until sometime in 2007.
Overexuberance May Be Hazardous To Your Strad
The music world abounds with stories of soloist mishaps, usually involving a broken string or something equally innocuous. But violinist/heartthrob Joshua Bell added an unusual chapter of his own last week in Chicago: caught up in the passion of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Bell took too large a swipe with his bow, and with a mighty thwack, knocked over the delicate bridge that holds up his strings. (Yes, the famous Strad Bell plays on is fine.)
Young at Heart
In many cities, the concept of children’s theatre is a relatively new one. But in Toronto, where the Young People’s Theatre has been going strong for 40 years. “Today, it is Toronto’s oldest non-profit professional theatre and the largest in Canada dedicated to programming for young audiences, reaching about 80,000 young people annually… The alumni who’ve graced its stage are a veritable Who’s Who of Canadian talent,” and while the theatre had a rough time in its first few years, it is now one of Canada’s enduring cultural institutions.
Turn Off TV? Why Would We Want To Do That?
It’s TV Turn-Off Week again, that time of year when the culture police beg us all to reconnect our brains and find something, anything, to do other than watching the tube. “Consider, however, before you reach for the remote, the holes you’d have in your education if you’d never watched television. From geo-politics to physics, through romance and relationship advice, to grand philosophical ideas and simple, helpful, practical hints, it’s all there when you turn on your television.”
D.C. Yawns At Modern Swans
The Matthew Bourne reimagining of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” has hit a wall of indifference in Washington, D.C. after successful runs in London, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Organizers have canceled the entire planned D.C. run of the show, which was slated to begin this week, due to sluggish ticket sales.
Rebirth of the RSC
“Three years ago the Royal Shakespeare Company was in trouble. For all the aura surrounding its name, the company was in debt, its plan to replace its 1930’s theater faced stiff opposition, it was without a London home, and its shows were often unexciting. Further, its long-time artistic director, Adrian Noble, stepped down amid a storm of criticism. It was hardly an auspicious moment for Michael Boyd to take over. Yet, in a surprisingly short time, Mr. Boyd has turned things around. And as a measure of the company’s revived self-confidence, it is preparing to start its biggest project ever: a yearlong festival of Shakespeare’s complete works, staged by its own directors and actors as well as by guest troupes from as far afield as India and Brazil.”
The Toughest Museum Gig In America?
The arts have had a tough time getting a foot in the door of the reconstruction effort at New York’s Ground Zero. Two cultural organizations have already been driven out of the official plans by relatives of 9/11 victims, and plans for the official memorial museum are under constant scrutiny by countless interested parties. So why would anyone want the job of designing and launching such a museum? Alice Greenwald, who took the job, says it’s all about bringing people together, and knowing that not all of them will be pleased.
The New Yorkers, The Italians, And The Severed Head
Officials in New York have returned the disembodied head of Dionysus, god of wine and revelry, to Italy, 23 years after the deity was rudely dismembered by thieves. (Okay, it was actually a statue of Dionysus.) Following its severing, the head “was acquired sometime before 1990 by a Japanese museum that went out of business several years afterward…
The head then appeared in the Christie’s catalog,” and was withdrawn when the auction house received information that it might be stolen goods. The NYPD got involved, and eventually linked the head to a list of missing Roman antiquities.
Salivating Over The Next Big Van Gogh Sale
“In the auction business, Vincent van Gogh is the magical name. With fewer than a dozen of his portraits in private hands, the two significant ones to have sold in the last 16 years achieved spectacular prices: $71.5 million for Self-Portrait Without Beard in 1998 and $82.5 million for Portrait of Dr. Gachet in 1990, the record for van Gogh at auction. So there is great anticipation about what L’Arlésienne, Madame Ginoux will bring on May 2, in the Impressionist and Modern Art sale at Christie’s New York.”