Tag: 07.02.07

A Monty Python Ballet?

“On the heels of his success with Spamalot, Python’s Eric Idle says he’s currently working on a ballet with longtime co-composer John Du Prez. ‘It’s perfect. John and I are always interested in doing something nobody wants, so that seemed to be the natural thing’.”

$325 Painting Now Worth $30 Million

In 1968 Ira Spanierman bought a painting for $325. “Three years later, leading Renaissance scholars identified the work as a lost 15″8 portrait of Lorenzo de’ Medici by Raphael. Spanierman was thrilled. Almost four decades after his purchase and discovery, Spanierman has placed the Raphael with Christie’s International to be auctioned on July 5 — during London’s old master sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s tomorrow through July 6. The work has a top estimate of 15 million pounds ($30 million).”

Why Isn’t Classical Music Front And Center?

“What has changed is not how much the tradition means to its devotees, but how little it means to everyone else. From being the center of cultural aspiration, art music has become almost quaintly marginal; from being the hallmark of bourgeois accomplishment (‘Someday you’ll thank me’), music lessons have become optional attempts at self-expression; from appearing on newsmagazine covers, maestros now barely rate boldface in gossip columns.”

Inside The Harry Potter Phenomenon

“Harry Potter’s popularity has changed the way children’s books are published. Once it became clear adults were reading them, Bloomsbury invented parallel ‘grown-up’ editions. That was, of course, childish: the text is the same, but the cover’s different… all to prevent little Timmy from being embarrassed by reading a children’s book on his way to work at Downing Street. Crossover books are now big business.”