He had agreed in principle to the loan, but when his tough terms proved unacceptable, the V&A’s request was dropped.
Tag: 09.09.06
Wild Man Conductor
That’s Claus Peter Flor. “With his wildly animated face, enormous mane of salt-and-pepper hair and plummy German accent, the 53-year-old conductor would be Central Casting’s idea of a crazy professor. But his podium antics are musically functional: They achieve a gut-gripping intensity and a vividness of characterization, color and texture all but unparalleled among living conductors.”
Spanish Play About Lorca Canceled
“A play about Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca has been canceled after its proposed performance ignited political passions still simmering over Spain’s 1936-1939 civil war.”
Appeal Sought In Nazi Loot Case
Madrid’s Thyssen-Bornemisza museum is appealing a US court’s ruling in “a lawsuit seeking the return of a disputed Impressionist masterpiece allegedly stolen by the Nazis from a Jewish family during World War II.” The Spanish government, which administers the museum, had asked the court to dismiss a lawsuit by a San Diego family which claims it is the proper owner of the Pissarro street scene valued at $20 million.
Presumably, This Means The Dance Numbers Are Back In
“With no disrespect meant to Jon Stewart or Chris Rock, the last two Oscar hosts who garnered mixed reviews for their efforts, the announcement that Ellen DeGeneres will emcee the 79th Academy Awards appears designed to boost the ratings of the show by presenting a comedian who has a broader appeal with the public than her two predecessors.”
Destroying The National Mall, Step By Painful Step
Washington, D.C.’s National Mall is arguably “America’s greatest 20th century work of civic landscape art.” But in recent years, politicians have given their blessing to a series of projects which Christopher Knight says are ruining the whole area. “The Mall’s planning and oversight process is irreparably broken. At least six federal agencies, eight congressional committees, plus the District of Columbia have jurisdiction — so many competing overlords that no one is effectively in charge. That makes it ripe for exploitation.”
The Hollywood Disconnect
ABC-TV has been under fire this week for its new “docudrama” about the path America’s leaders followed in the years leading up to the 9/11 attacks. Tim Rutten says that the network deserves exactly what it’s gotten: “[ABC] somehow thought it could approach the most wrenching American tragedy since Pearl Harbor with the values that prevail among network television executives — the sort of ad hoc ethics that would make a streetwalker blush — and that nobody would mind.”
Remembrance? No Thanks, We’d Rather Argue.
In the five years since the 9/11 attacks, there has been no shortage of ideas for a memorial honoring the victims. But a deadly combination of shrieking bloggers, opportunistic politicians, and shortsighted bureaucrats have thus far managed to shoot down, water down, and wrap in red tape every serious proposal. “Future memorial juries would be wise to think about how and why these designs have been so easily pushed off track.”
Don’t Call It Non-Fiction
Margaret Atwood’s latest book is like nothing the famed novelist has produced before: a loosely connected story arc tying together a collection of “stories about people who might well be thinly disguised versions of Atwood’s parents, sister, husband and various other friends and acquaintances that have passed through her life.” Still, Atwood is insistent that there is no autobiography here. “It’s not that the things in the stories didn’t happen. A lot of them did. They didn’t necessarily happen in that order. And there are a lot of glaring omissions.”
Will Shiite Clerics Spell The End Of Iraqi Antiquities?
“There is mounting concern among scholars that the appointment of religiously conservative Shiite Muslims throughout Iraq’s traditionally secular archaeological institutions could threaten the preservation of the country’s pre-Islamic history.”