“Ai Weiwei, the dissident artist whose arrest has prompted an international outcry, is being charged with evading ‘huge amounts’ of taxes.” The brief news release “was the first official disclosure of the charges being leveled against the 54-year-old artist, who was arrested without warning at Beijing’s international airport April 3.”
Tag: 05.21.11
In Praise Of Not Reading
“There are books on our shelves we haven’t read and doubtless never will, that each of us has probably put to one side in the belief that we will read them later on, perhaps even in another life. The terrible grief of the dying as they realise their last hour is upon them and they still haven’t read Proust.”
Friends Of Ai Weiwei Also Being Held By Chinese Authorities
“Three men dragged him into a black car in the Caochangdi art district of north Beijing and drove away. Wen Tao, 38, has been missing for seven weeks now, his detention just a few hours shorter than that of the world-renowned artist. Yet his case has barely been reported. It has sparked no protests overseas; no politicians have stood up to condemn it.”
The Reason We Still Need Libraries
Here is the case for human librarians: You, the information consumer, don’t want to go insane.
The Lessons Of Tracey Emin’s First Retrospective
“Through the semblance of full personal disclosure, her works engage and enrage a wider, more socially diverse audience than, before her, contemporary art ever enjoyed in Britain.”
Back-Roads Virginia – Where Music Is Born
“Take a drive through the dozens of one-stoplight towns that are planted along highways that twist through this region’s blue hills and green valleys, and you’ll find that music is the manna of the community. If there ever was a place where musical authenticity was born and nurtured, “raised up” as the people around here say, the Crooked Road is it.”
What The Tonys Tell Us About Acting Styles
“This year’s Tony nominees for lead actor in a play suggest that there may still be some truth to the clichés about the Anglo-American theatrical divide.”
How Rivers Of Cash Fuel The Lucrative Gossip Machine
“An analysis of advertising estimates from those outlets shows that the revenue stream now tops more than $3 billion annually, driving the gossip industry to ferret out salacious tidbits on a scale not seen since the California courts effectively shut down the scandal sheets of the 1950s.”
New York City Opera To Leave Lincoln Center
Following two days of board meetings, “City Opera disclosed its plans as it announced that it had settled on a slimmed-down budget for five operas and three concerts, starting in October, after speculation that financial woes would force it to halt performances.”