WHY BOLSHOI LEADER HAD TO GO

While some were surprised by Russian president Vladimir Putin’s dismissal of Bolshoi director Vladimir Vasilyev this week, others were not. “While critics could forgive Mr. Vasilyev his shortcomings as an administrator, they were angry about his failure to revive the Bolshoi artistically. His staging of ‘Swan Lake’ was deemed a flop, but what critics found even more dismaying was his inability to introduce the new ideas he had promised when appointed.” – New York Times

FASTER, LOUDER, PAINTIER?

A former Canadian Olympic athlete has proposed an Arts Olympics. “The plan is to create an Olympics that will celebrate emerging artists from around the world in five categories: film, dance, music, literature and visual arts. The effort also proposes to bring an element of competitiveness back to the arts, which has always played a large role in the Olympic movement, dating back to the beginning of the modern Games in 1896.” – National Post (Canada) 08/31/00

“MILLIONAIRE” MAULS MOVIES

The Indian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” is such a ratings hit in India, movie theatre owners say it’s killing their business. “If things continue the way they are, our trade will be almost finished. Nobody is interested in coming to the theatres when the game show is on.” – BBC

FRINGE BENEFITS

As part of his job Thomas Foley, U.S. ambassador to Japan, gets a mansion to live in, a driver, full in-house staff…and his own private art collection. A beneficiary of JFK’s 1964 “Art in Embassies Program,” Foley is particularly fond of American Abstract Expressionist paintings…as you can tell by looking at his website. – Japan Times

ODE TO DANTO

Arthur Danto is a prominent philosopher as well as art critic for The Nation. “Philosophers, at least in theory, are seekers after truth. Truth, the poet says, is beauty. Thus it makes perfect sense that Danto, who philosophizes by day, should moonlight as one of America’s best-known art critics.” – Boston Globe

ASSEMBLY-LINE KITSCH

Who are these “artists” who paint the “genuine oil paintings” for $29.95, and why do they have to be so bad? “The pedestrian banality, if not downright kitsch, of these offerings is as numbing as a TV sitcom or Norman Rockwell Christmas card. Seagulls, sand dunes, beached rowboats, heeling sailboats, wooden pilings, twinkly lighthouses and ineptly drawn old-time sailing ships parade endlessly by as evocatively as place mat decorations.” – Chicago Tribune