08.01.00 – ArtsJournal Wayback

IL BEL MARCELLO

A salute to Marcello Mastroianni, on the eve of the UK’s National Film Theatre’s major retrospective of 22 of his movies. “Nowadays, if you want to sum up Italian style, that sinuous Italian charm that is so easy on the ear and eye, then it’s usually Mastroianni who comes to mind.” – The Guardian

WHERE OH WHERE

The Moscow Film Festival is supposedly an “A” festival alongside the likes of Cannes and Venice. But it’s difficult getting the stars to come to Russia. “This year, as in the past, many of the promised celebrities failed to show, leading an English-language newspaper here to dub the event the ‘Moscow Vanity Fair – high on vanity but low on fair value.’ ” – New York Post

WILLIAM MAXWELL DIED —

— at age 91 on Monday. Accomplished novelist and revered editor at the “New Yorker” for 40 years, Maxwell honed the prose of some of this century’s finest American writers, J.D. Salinger, John Cheever, and Harold Brodkey among them. – CNN

AN INTERVIEW WITH STANLEY KUNITZ, —

— the new U.S. poet laureate. First published more than 70 years ago, Kunitz, now 95, has won almost every poetry award (including the Nobel in 1959 to the National Book Award in 1995), although he’s only published a handful of books. “I write poems only when I cannot escape them, when it is so urgent I will sacrifice everything else to do it.” A new Kunitz collection is due out next year. – NPR [Real audio file]

IL BEL MARCELLO

OLYMPIC ARTS FEST SPUTTERS

What if they threw a party and nobody came? Sydney’s arts companies are reporting that the Sydney Olympic Organizing Committee has botched the arts festival by not promoting it properly and failing to deliver tickets. “Arts companies have complained that some events have sold as little as 8 per cent of tickets with just six weeks until the festival’s opening.” – The Australian

THE NEW LATIN

“Think of mathematics as the Latin of modern times. Across the world, it plays, as several historians have noted, the role that Latin played for Europeans in the Middle Ages. It’s the international language of vital work. It unites those whose thoughts produce big changes, and it helps make those changes occur. We who know nothing of mathematics (like Europeans who knew nothing of Latin in, say, 1350) are fated to be, in a crucial sense, more spectators than participants at the central dramas of our lifetime.” – National Post (Canada)

TAKE A LESSON FROM THE BASQUE

Once admired as one of Europe’s most art-friendly cities, with collections rivaling those of several European capitals, Glasgow has seen its museums and galleries fall into disrepair and financial turmoil in recent years. No surprise why – funding cuts, due in large part to a remapping of municipal four years ago. “What is required is a change in the way the museums – and perhaps other cultural assets – are funded.” – The Telegraph (UK)

WHAT’S THE REAL STORY?

While the Napster controversy has enjoyed an avalanche of media attention, how much of it can be considered “good journalism”? “Too often the complicated dispute between the online start-up and the music industry has been painted in the most simplistic terms – a reductive tale of forward-thinking entrepreneurs outsmarting head-in-the-sand label executives. From the get-go, disturbing signs suggested the press was more interested in advancing Napster’s story as a David-vs.-Goliath tale than in seriously addressing the intricate issues at hand.” – Salon

SILICON VALLEY’S RESIDENT LUDDITE

Clifford Stoll is on a mission. “In his most recent book, ‘High Tech Heretic,’ Stoll writes that computers ‘dull questioning minds with graphical games where quick answers take the place of understanding.’ In his book, Stoll skewers calculators, laptops, desktops, and cell phones as gizmos that do nothing to provoke critical thinking. Instead, they swallow time and waste money that should be spent on books and teachers.” – The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)