Floods Wash Away Historic Britain

The UK has been drowning in floods. “As well as the human tragedies, the floods have been washing away thousands of years of history, across a swath of central and southern England. Silbury has been unmissable for millennia, but in Hereford, rain has been scouring away parts of a mysterious structure uncovered only a few weeks ago: the Rotherwas Ribbon, a serpentine path surfaced with deliberately burned stones, winding up a shallow hill – slap in the path of an unpopular new road plan.”

Is Broadway Totally Reliant On London?

New York Times theatre critic Ben Brantley has been reporting extensively from London this summer, a fact which has not gone unnoticed by British critics. What’s he doing so far from home? “That’s an easy one: because Britain more than ever is relied upon to fuel a New York theatre scene that, in the absence of thinking for itself, likes to import whatever has received the cultural imprimatur of the town’s most influential critic.”

Disputed Kirchner Painting Finally Back On Display

“A garish painting of Berlin streetwalkers on the prowl, the subject of a bitter restitution case from the Nazi era, went on display at the museum that bought it for $38.1 million in frenzied bidding.” The painting, by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, was purchased by New York’s Neue Gallerie after having hung for more than two decades in a Berlin museum. In 2006, it was returned to the heirs of the family that owned it prior to World War II, and put up for auction.

Art? Video? Movie? Who Cares?

“Fifteen years ago, it was called video art. Today, most people call it digital media, but they’d be hard pressed to describe the difference. Whatever you want to call it, the lines that separate film, video, and those files on your hard drive have been erased, and a new era of filmmaking has begun. Or maybe it’s just a new way of talking about it.”

Central Florida To Get $1.1 Billion Upgrade

Orange County, Florida, which includes Orlando, has approved a $1.1 billion plan for a new arena, performing-arts center and major Florida Citrus Bowl upgrades in downtown Orlando. The arts center will include three state-of-the-art performance halls. “It’s a monumental day for Central Florida. History will look back on this day in the same light as when Walt Disney decided to bring his theme park to Central Florida.”