Tag: 07.05.04

Scottish Opera May Put Its Hand Out

Scottish Opera is facing a shutdown. But the company is considering asking for donations to help it stay active. “The company is debating whether to launch a fundraising drive that would appeal for donors to keep productions up and running. There were fears that, amid headlines of crisis and cutbacks, opera backers might feel their cash would go into a black hole. But regular supporters have already come forward asking how they can help, and a few have sent cheques for hundreds of pounds.”

Jazz In Montreal

The 25-year-old Montreal Jazz Festival is one of the world’s great music festivals. “The festival’s sense of its own history is one. As large an enterprise as the event has become — 500 concerts, 10 indoor stages, another 12 on the downtown streets around Place des Arts, attendance approaching two million — it tempers its penchant for grandiosity with a strong sentimental streak.”

Chicago – Recapturing The Millennium

“Chicago’s reputation for innovative architecture has languished in recent decades, its silhouette blighted by undistinguished glass and steel office buildings, monolithic concrete condominium towers and ubiquitous three-storey brick apartments. Conceived in 1997 and intended as part of the city’s celebration of the new century, Millennium Park was aimed at recapturing the spirit of innovative design that had brought Chicago architectural glory.”

The Rap On Rap In School English Classes

“Since his death eight years ago, there has been a stampede to include Tupac Shakur on American college syllabuses: not just the “we take anyone” community colleges, but institutions such as Harvard and Dartmouth solemnly cogitate on the inner meaning of Tupac’s lyrics and the printed volume of his verse, The Rose that Grew from Concrete. Universities can get away with putting Hit ‘Em Up alongside Othello. Undergraduates are adults; school pupils are not. A huge fuss has been kicked up this year since education authorities put The Rose that Grew from Concrete on summer readingsyllabuses for sixth- and seventh-grade children.”

Stolen Statue Epidemic

“According to art recovery experts there is an epidemic in stolen statuary in England and Wales that is being fuelled by the increasing demand for salvage to feed the boom in home and garden renovations. Gangs of thieves, who study magazines such as Country Life to locate their spoils, find the lead and stone figurines, iron benches and sundials easy plunder.”

Moveable Feast – US History Through Lenses Of Self-Interest

History belongs to those who choose to write it, right? “Extracts in ”History Lessons: How Textbooks From Around the World Portray U.S. History” tell us two things: historical narratives are biased and untrustworthy; and America’s impact on the world cannot be underestimated. Interesting history is interested history, so the secondary school texts excerpted here generally relate international events as they reflect local concerns.”

The Hip Near-Past For Sale

When it opened in 1998, the Damien Hirst-designed Pharmacy restaurant was the hippest thing in London. Maybe it was so hip it failed to outlive its opening moments, and last September it closed. Now the restaurant’s contents are being auctioned – relics of a singular moment. “There will be paintings with estimates of over $550,000 as well as objects expected to sell for under $100. A group of 10 of the artist’s much-loved butterfly paintings, each with a bright color background and each with love in the title, are estimated to fetch over $110,000. The auction will also have 11 of his well-known medicine cabinets and a molecular model sculpture with estimates each from $183,360 to $275,000.”