“More than three dozen U.S. authors will spend the morning of the (presidential) election phoning students attending universities in the swing states of Ohio, Florida and Wisconsin as part of an unusual voter-registration initiative dubbed Operation Ohio.”
Tag: 09.28.04
Suburb Says It Wants Barnes To Stay
Although a judge in the Barnes Foundation case has blamed some of the foundation’s financial problems on the township it’s trying to leave for Philadelphia, two of the suburb’s commissioners testified yesterday that they want the Barnes to stay and will try to help it if it does.
Bloomberg: MoMA’s $20 Too Much? Too Bad
New York City’s billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has an idea for those who find the Museum of Modern Art’s new $20 admission fee beyond their price range: Go to a different museum. “Some things people can afford, some things people can’t,” he said.
With Cartoons, Anatomizing The Sense Of Humor
Virtually every cartoon ever published in The New Yorker will be put to work as researchers at the University of Michigan attempt to discover why people find certain things funny. As visuals, the single-panel cartoons’ uniformity and simplicity are key.
Abstract Brilliance Or Child’s Play?
A 4-year-old painter’s abstracts have earned her nearly $40,000 so far, and her most recent canvases are commanding $6,000. Grownups debate whether she is a prodigy or a typical little girl just having fun.
U.S. Publishers Sue Over Treasury Dept. Editing Rules
A group of American publishers has sued the Treasury Department on First Amendment grounds, seeking to overturn regulations that prohibit the editing of manuscripts from countries under U.S. economic sanctions. The rules, they say, prevent them “from performing typical editing functions like reordering sentences and paragraphs, correcting grammar and adding illustrations or photographs.”
And The 2004 “Genius” Designation Goes To …
“A barber, a high school debating coach, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, a farmer and a ragtime pianist are among the 23 recipients of $500,000 ‘genius awards’ being announced today by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. This is one of the few years women and nonacademics have dominated the list since the annual awards program began in 1981.”
LA Opera Picks Conlon
“James Conlon, who stepped down in June as principal conductor of the Paris Opera, was hired Monday as music director of the Los Angeles Opera starting in July 2006.” Conlon succeeds Kent Nagano, whose contract runs through next spring. He will conduct as many as five productions per season, and intends to spend nearly half of each year in Los Angeles. The appointment has to be considered a major coup for L.A. Opera, which has been gaining prestige in recent years under the artistic leadership of Placido Domingo.
New Hemingway Publication Dispute
“A simmering row over the modern publication of a long-lost short story by Hemingway, written in 1924 while on a drunken spree in Pamplona, Spain, has revealed the American writer as a champion luncher but a poor humorist.” The story, which is a slapstick description of a bullfight, was initially intended for the magazine Vanity Fair, but was never sent. Now, the magazine stands ready to print it, but lawyers for the Hemingway estate have blocked publication without explanation.
Design Museum’s Chairman Quits
Vacuum cleaner magnate James Dyson has angrily resigned from his position as board chairman of London’s Design Museum, declaring that the institution is “ruining its reputation” and “betraying its purpose”. Dyson had been in a years-long feud with director Alice Rawsthorn over the true mission of the museum, and his resignation letter accuses her of allowing it to “become a style showcase [when it should be] upholding its mission to encourage serious design of the manufactured object.”