“Sixty-five years ago many of London’s art treasures were moved north and stored in a remote slate mine to protect them during World War II. These included works by artists such as Titian, Michelangelo and Constable. After the war ended, the 2,000 works were returned intact. Many of the pieces even arrived home in a better condition, preserved and improved by the humidity and low temperatures inside the mine.”
Tag: 07.09.05
9/11: The Movie
It had to happen eventually: Paramount Pictures has announced plans to make a big-budget film focusing on the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The director will be Oliver Stone, and the film will star Nicholas Cage. Several smaller films and documentaries have dealt with the attacks and/or their aftermath, but until now, the major Hollywood studios have shied away from what they rightly guess to be a sensitive topic.
“Ed McBain”, 78
The author of a legendary and long-running series of police novels centered on the fictional 87th Precinct has died. Ed McBain, whose real name was Evan Hunter, wrote his first crime novel in 1956, and never looked back, amassing a huge following over the subsequent half-century of work. “How long the Ed McBain books will hold their huge audience is anyone’s guess. Mystery writers go out of style… James Ellroy’s intense, dark stories of Los Angeles have nothing in common with the formulaic Ed McBain stories. But there you are in the airport, and your flight has been delayed. You’ve read the papers and had a drink. Luckily, there on the newsstand shelf are half a dozen Ed McBains. Relax: Detective Carella will take good care of you for the next three hours.”
Russia’s Legendary Beanpole
“From unpromising beginnings as a gawky young dancer, Uliana Lopatkina has become the greatest ballerina in Russia today, and a national legend… Russian ballet had been known for its small, delicate women, but the then Kirov director Oleg Vinogradov was mad about Sylvie Guillem and eagerly started unearthing tall new girls in her image – his ‘basketball team’, as they were known.” A decade on, Lopatkina is changing the face – and the body type – of classical ballet in Russia and beyond, but she remains quite conservative in her choice of roles, as well as in her assessment of what a dancer with her body can (or should) attempt.
Really, Really Bad Timing
“[UK] bookselling giant Waterstone’s yesterday pulled advertising for a new novel about suicide bombers creating mayhem in London. The book, called Incendiary, was published on Thursday, the day all-too real bombs hit London. Pictures promoting the novel show plumes of smoke curling above London’s skyline. The wording reads ‘a massive terrorist attack … launches this unique, twisted powerhouse of a novel’. Waterstone’s has removed all advertising for the book from today’s newspapers – except for the Guardian’s Guide, which went to press before the advert could be pulled.”
Maybe Their Movies Don’t Suck
Hollywood may be having a rough year, but the French Canadian film industry is raking in the dough. “While box-office receipts across the continent were down more than 8 per cent in the first half of 2005 compared with a year earlier, they fell less than 3 per cent in Canada’s French-speaking heartland. There’s nothing bewitching about the trend. While this year’s crop of Hollywood films is leaving Quebeckers just as indifferent as other North Americans, homegrown movies continue to build their audience, making the province’s film industry the envy of its English-Canadian counterpart.”
America’s Poet
It’s been 150 years since Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass, widely considered to be America’s greatest contribution to the world of poetry. Over the years, sales of the opus have stayed strong as Whitman’s legend has grown, and scholars and public alike have come to view Leaves as something of a definitive poetic statement on American life.
Pop Sales Take A Dive
Orchestras aren’t the only ones with ticket woes: attendance at popular music performances in North America dropped 12% in the first half of 2005, despite lower average ticket prices. Revenue generated by the concerts – mainly touring rock, pop, and hip-hop shows – fell more than 17%.
Swed: Tindall’s Tales Miss The Point
Blair Tindall’s now-infamous stories of sexual favors traded for career advancement in New York’s freelance scene are less troubling than her characterization of the music business as a whole, writes Mark Swed. “Classical music doesn’t mean much to the average American’s life, and she condemns the major orchestras, opera companies and performing arts centers for acting as if it does. They can’t sustain their high budgets, and they get by, in part, by taking advantage of the little guy, the musician… There are serious inequities in the system and a lot of jerks who manipulate musicians and the public for their own profit. But there are musicians who engage in the world in a meaningful way — and not just the Rattles, Tilson Thomases and Salonens — who get out and make music that matters, who change lives.”
Arizona Opera Stays In The Black
Arizona Opera has balanced its budget for the second straight year, despite a difficult season that required serious cutbacks to keep the company in the black. The group, which performs in both Phoenix and Tucson, had a $5.5 million budget in 2004-05, but was forced to improvise for venues when Phoenix’s Symphony Hall closed for renovations.