Tag: 08.11.00

SON OF SENSATION

The Royal Academy is about to open another show aiming to shock. “Three years after ‘Sensation!’, the 1997 show that prompted the resignation of three Royal Academicians, the show is equally defiant in the face of political correctness. Exhibits include Jake and Dinos Chapman’s nine-part, swastika-shaped sculpture containing 10,000 figures and Maurizio Cattelan’s Pope John Paul II crushed by a meteorite.” – The Art Newspaper

FINDING A WAY

Blind woman finds new career as a painter. “She uses a technique she describes as mental mapping to work her way around a canvas, by dividing it up into quadrants. And how does she find the right colours? In water colours, I used to differentiate between colours by dipping my fingers in it.” – BBC

THAT SINKING FEELING

When the Renzo Piano-designed Osaka airport – based on the wings of a glider – opened in 1994, it was hailed as a marvel of architectural and technological achievement. “Due to the extreme constrictions of space in Japan, the airport was built on a 1.7 kilometre long, man-made island of mud, rock and sand which has since descended eleven metres into Osaka Bay.” What to do? – The Art Newspaper

BEETHOVEN AND BEYOND

Can there possibly be much left to say about Beethoven at this late date? The answer’s an emphatic yes for the players and scholars gathering at the Bard Music Festival for three upcoming weekends devoted to his work and to exploring recent scholarship. “One result of such explorations has been a radical revision of the notion of Beethoven as an Olympian figure removed from daily life, writing quintessentially absolute music, almost wholly abstract in its meanings.” – New York Times

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

Rustling candy wrappers, coughing during quiet moments, and clapping between movements are well-known bugaboos of classical music audiences. Have these (oft-neglected) standards of etiquette always been the norm? “In Beethoven’s day it was different. One clapped routinely at the end of every movement of a symphony. According to one eye-witness, the audience at the first performance of the Ninth Symphony were so impressed by the Scherzo that they applauded while the music was still playing.” – The Guardian

DROPPING IN

Droplifters make their own CD’s then drop them in record stores on the shelves for customers to find. It’s “a form of culture-jamming prankery so quixotically low-tech it’s charming. There’s always a chance that the CD will help the Droplift bands find a larger audience. But sticking your CD on store shelves without the knowledge or approval of the store’s management – then hoping against hope that somebody finds it, and then is curious enough to try to buy it – makes subway busking look like a killer business model.” – Inside.com

FROM MAILER TO OPRAH

Salon Magazine’s “Reader’s Guide” to the best and worst contemporary fiction of the last 40 years. “The world of established literary giants, each one solemnly tapping out his version of the Great American Novel on a manual typewriter, has since dissolved into a fluid, unpredictable marketplace where the next critically acclaimed hit first novel might be written by a 57-year-old horse breeder from North Carolina or by a 36-year-old former aerobics instructor from India.” – Salon

WEIGHING IN

So why is the mother of a Boston Ballet dancer suing the company over her daughter’s death? “The only numbers in the nine-page document refer to Guenther’s age (22), height (5 feet 3 inches) and weight (less than 100 pounds) at the time of her death. Seeing these numbers in the same file that lists the damages the plaintiff is seeking – loss of society, companionship, comfort, guidance, counsel and advice – is heartbreaking.” – Boston Herald

WINDFALL

  • “Thanks to a tight race and more money flooding into politics, the Television Bureau of Advertising is forecasting that television stations will post a record of $550 million in 2000, up significantly from the $367 million of 1996.” – Variety