“The race to find the secrets of Kryptos, a sculpture inside a courtyard at the CIA’s heavily guarded headquarters in Langley, Virginia, may be reaching a climax. And interest has soared since Dan Brown hid references to Kryptos on the cover design for his bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code, and suggested it might play a role in his next novel, The Solomon Key.”
Tag: 06.11.05
Europe Gets Into The Crime Wave
Where once crime fiction came from downtown Los Angeles, or the east end of London, these days the best are from Europe. “Traditionally, British readers have a horror of translated novels. Europeans have always bought up our crime writers, from PD James to Ian Rankin, but we’re a nation for whom the words ‘French exchange’ still have the power to instil terror. Yet sales of translated European crime fiction have increased fivefold in the past four years.”
Of Music And Architecture
“There has always been a close relationship between music and architecture, experimental or otherwise, in terms of structure, pattern and aesthetics, even though sound ultimately describes immaterial space. Plainchant, for example, somehow belongs to Romanesque abbeys, even though its origins are much older, just as Bach is all but synonymous with baroque churches. For better or worse, Wagner conjures images of the fairy-tale, alpine fantasmagoria of Neuschwanstein, the Sleeping Beauty castle built by Wagner’s indulgent patron, Ludwig II. The avant-garde music of the 20th century has its architectural counterparts, too>”
40 Sue Art Storage Company Over London Warehouse Fire
Forty galleries, collectors and artists have sued the art storage company Momart over a warehouse fire in London last year that destroyed millions of dollars worth of art. “The list of litigants includes some of the most powerful figures in the industry: the artists Damien Hirst and Gillian Ayres; the sculptor Barry Flanagan; five Royal Academy of Arts trustees, including the celebrated architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw; and a host of galleries.”
New Jersey Finds A Hole In Its Cultural Funding Plan
Two years ago New Jersey passed a dedicated hotel-motel tax to provide stable funding for arts and culture. Arts supporters rejoiced. But the amount the tax has collected has fallen far short of predictions and “although funding for the arts council is at an all-time high, overall cultural funding is down because the tax does not fully fund the cultural trust, a public-private endowment started in 2000.”
NY Freeelance Orchestras Sign Contract
The musicians union has signed a new contract agreement with New York City’s freelance orchestras – New York Pops, American Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Long Island Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Riverside Symphony, and Bronx Arts Ensemble. Terms include “an increase in pay from $200 to $225 per concert over the course of the contract and a one-percent increase in pension payments in its final year. All of the orchestras also agreed to ban the use of the controversial Sinfonia system—termed a virtual orchestra machine.”