Tag: 05.22.07

Stories We Tell About Ourselves May Help To Form Us

“For more than a century, researchers have been trying to work out the raw ingredients that account for personality…. They have largely ignored the first-person explanation — the life story that people themselves tell about who they are, and why. … Yet in the past decade or so a handful of psychologists have argued that the quicksilver elements of personal narrative belong in any three-dimensional picture of personality. And a burst of new findings are now helping them make the case.”

Back To The Future (The 3-D Glasses Are Cooler Now)

“Last week the next phase in the theatrical viewing experience took a significant leap forward, as Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson signed on to direct and produce for Paramount’s DreamWorks Studios a trilogy of 3-D movies about the intrepid Belgian comic-book hero Tintin. And on Saturday nearly an hour of footage from the 3-D concert film of the Irish rock band U2 made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival.” So is 3-D the future of moviegoing? Some major players would like it to be.

Carnegie Hall Expansion To Dislocate Artist Residents

“The curtain may finally be falling for dozens of tenants of Carnegie Hall, whose studios helped form a Bohemia on 57th Street because of the many musicians, dancers, painters and other artists who lived in them. Carnegie Hall announced yesterday that it would embark on a major expansion that would create more offices, rehearsal and practice rooms and space for large ensembles, as well as renovate backstage areas. The plan would gobble up all of the studios in the building and its two towers, Carnegie said, and would mainly serve Carnegie’s expanding educational wing.”

MASS MoCA To Open Exhibit Sans Artist’s OK

There’s movement in the standoff between the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and Swiss artist Christoph Büchel, who left his war-themed installation there unfinished last December after relations with the museum soured badly. “On Saturday it will open the doors to the show anyway, without Mr. Büchel’s permission or cooperation. But there is a catch…. Because of concerns about legal action by Mr. Büchel, the museum will shield all the huge objects in the warehouse from view with tall plastic tarps, as if Christo and Jeanne-Claude had intervened at the last minute.”

Selling £1m Of Art To Save A Castle

“A private art collection, billed as the most impressive of Scottish colourists in a generation, goes under the hammer this week to help save a historic castle estate. The Hunter Blair collection, housed at Blairquhan Castle in Ayrshire, which was used as a setting in the Oscar-winning movie The Queen, is estimated to fetch £1m.”

Polar Prizes To Rollins, Reich

“Jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins and composer Steve Reich received the prestigious Polar Music Prize from the hands of Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf at a ceremony on Monday at the Stockholm Concert Hall. The Polar Music Prize, often called the Nobel Prize of music, is Sweden’s biggest music award and it comes with a 1 million kronor ($147,000) prize for each winner.”

Cutty Sark Burns

“Fire today ravaged the Cutty Sark, causing extensive damage to the world’s last remaining tea clipper and one of Britain’s most important maritime treasures… Despite the apparent damage, experts overseeing the broad restoration project on the 138-year-old ship said an initial inspection indicated a section of its structure remained intact and it could perhaps be restored.” Arson is suspected to have been the cause of the fire.

Iran Up In Arms Over Another Movie

Only months after expressing outrage over what it deemed the racist content of the Hollywood war movie 300, the government of Iran is protesting the inclusion of “an animated film about a woman growing up in revolutionary Iran” in the Cannes Film Festival. Calling the film’s selection a transparently political act, Iranian officials say that the film paints “an unreal picture of the outcomes and achievements of the Islamic revolution.”