Science museums and other institutions around America are struggling with how to deal with increasingly aggressive challenges to the theory of evolution. One company, called B.C. Tours “because we are biblically correct,” even offers escorted visits to the Denver Museum of Science and Nature. Participants hear creationists’ explanations for the exhibitions.
Tag: 09.20.05
John Denver, The Musical? Oh God No!
The show’s getting a pre-Broadway tryout in San Francisco, and “it’s the latest of the Broadway-bound popsicals, those songbook musicals that have been popping up like mushrooms all over the musical theater form.” So how’s it play? “Well, it’s one John Denver tune after another, sung by a cast of six. Diehard Denver fans will miss his uniquely insistent timbre; some may be upset at the ways orchestrator Jeff Waxman has reframed old favorites. Those who consider Denver’s voice akin to fingernails on a blackboard will be relieved by the variety of tones and tempos. But it’s hard to see why they’d want to attend.”
Watching The CBC Kill Itself
The lockout at the CBC has dragged on into its sixth week. And there seems to be no progress in negotiations. “This is nuts. The longer the conflict drags on, the less the chance the sides will come up with a mutually face-saving compromise. Meanwhile, public broadcasting is further imperilled as more and more Canadians learn to live without it. Frankly, I don’t know who is sicker about all of this.”
I Smithsonian, Land Trader
If the art and artifacts business doesn’t work out, the Smithsonian ought to consider the real estate business. The Smithsonian has flipped a building it bought and rehabbed, making a huge profit. “The museum bought the property and refurbished it in 1999 for $114 million and had used the nine-story building for office space. It sold for $157.5 million.”
The Island Circling Manhattan
Robert Smithson once dreamed of a floating island that would circle Manhattan. “Thirty-five years after the now-deceased Smithson drew it, his island artwork has become reality: a 150-ton flat-bottom boat full of dirt planted with trees, shrubs and grass. Through Sept. 25, tugboat captain Bob Henry will spend at least 12 hours a day pulling ‘Floating Island’ up and down the East and Hudson rivers around Manhattan.”
Saving The World One Movie At A Time
Jeffrey Skoll is a self-described “filmanthropist.” The billionaire invests in movies that have a strong message of social change. “The movie is just the beginning. Key to the company’s approach is that every film it makes must have a corresponding ‘social-action’ campaign and an on-line group that people can join, linking them to social-activist groups. All of this makes particular sense in an era where cross-marketing is so popular.
The Hottest Young Dancers Come From…
Latin America. “Nearly half of the principal dancers at Ballet Theater and at the Boston Ballet are from Latin America or Spain. Four of the 12 foreign dancers at the New York City Ballet are from Latin America or Spain; one is from Puerto Rico. Principal dancers from Latin America and Spain now outnumber those from former Soviet-bloc countries at the Boston Ballet and the Royal Ballet, and are neck and neck at the San Francisco Ballet. At the Washington Ballet almost 20 percent of the dancers are from Latin America or Puerto Rico.”
And A Continent Away – The Island In Lake Washington
Three Seattle-area artists build and float their own island in the middle of Lake Washington, sranrling traffic on a nearby bridge. “The 15-by-15-foot artwork titled, not surprisingly, ‘The Island,’ consists of a palm tree and granite-colored foam rocks on sand-colored canvas, as well as crabs, starfish, coconuts and other tropical props. “The only thing missing is Wilson, the volleyball from ‘Cast Away’.”
MFA: Getcher’ Galleries Fast!
Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts announces a schedule for its $500 million expansion. And how is the project being paid for? “Galleries are going fast,” museum director Malcom Rogers said. “But I do know, for instance, that the galleries of pre-Columbian art are still available. We also have the major American paintings galleries, where one or two of those are open at the moment. And also, people like to name endowment funds, funds supporting exhibitions, lectures, concerts.”
The “Art” Of Kidnapping (Really?)
“Brock Enright is notorious in the US as the man who performs ‘bespoke executive kidnappings’ for $1,500 a time. He’s persona non grata with the NYPD, fantasy salesman to the stars, and now he’s opened his first London exhibition with a performance-art extravaganza starring his own mother and the Easter bunny. ‘In what I do there is a lot of smoke and mirrors.’ He works at the edge of truth and fiction.”