“Who bans books? … The mass media. Which books do they ban? Scholarly books. Virtually all of them.” Scholarly books, you see, don’t get coverage in the mass media. “In short, we, the mass media, ignore what our best and brightest produce.”
Tag: 09.29.07
Block This: Getting Physical With Virtual Reality
“Shakespeare had it easy. He lived in inherently stageable times: people lived in communities; were largely illiterate and so communicated through speech. … But the world has changed. People are spending more and more time online, some living virtual Second Lives or interacting in chatrooms. If one duty of the theatre is to depict contemporary society, how are its writers, directors and designers to approach virtual reality?”
Is “Cana” Facsimile A Miracle Or A Monster?
“Can — and should — technology right a historical wrong? That’s a question Italians have been asking since a facsimile of Veronese’s 16th-century ‘Wedding at Cana’ was installed on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore a few weeks ago. At the heart of the debate is the digital re-creation of this vast 1563 painting, which Napoleon’s forces removed from the refectory in the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore 210 years ago and took back to France as war booty.”
Antiquities Expert Joseph V. Noble Dies At 87
“Joseph V. Noble, a former director of the Museum of the City of New York who earlier exposed three famous works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as fakes, died last Saturday in West Orange, N.J.”
In Tania Head’s Story, Echoes Of Lillian Hellman
Tania Head’s dramatic and unsubstantiated tale of surviving the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center brings to mind Lillian Hellman’s self-proclaimed heroism against the Nazis. “Whether from Lillian Hellman’s pen or Tania Head’s mouth, in Europe during World War II or Lower Manhattan in 2001, the mythic power of the stories was the same. Love had given Hellman and Ms. Head the strength to transcend terrors. The similarities do not end there. Neither story has any verifiable link to reality.”
Report Details Smithsonian Disgraces
“Deteriorating Smithsonian facilities have damaged historic airplanes, threatened collections and resulted in the leakage of tens of millions of gallons of water at National Zoo enclosures, while cuts in security staff have exposed artifacts in the institution’s 18 museums to vandalism and theft.”
Bypassing Hollywood To The Audience
“This week’s Raindance Film festival in London claims to be the first simultaneously to show its movies via the web. Elliot Grove, its director, claims online distribution gives aspiring filmmakers “an opportunity to find an audience without having to go through the traditional Hollywood system”. It is quite likely that tomorrow’s film directors will emerge from sites such as these without having been through film school at all.”
The Three Fates – Mulling Minnesota Arts
As leadership of three of Minnesota’s major arts organizations changes hands, the principals get together to talk about what they’ve gotten themselves in for. Anyone for a Prince gala?
Yes To Nono
“Like Venice, the city in which he lived and died, Luigi Nono is complex and contradictory. He was at the heart of developments in European modernist music after the second world war, yet his work was rooted in the Renaissance, baroque and classical periods.”
Chicago Lyric Gets A New Contract, Averts Strike
Lyric Opera of Chicago reached a tentative contract settlement Friday with the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA), the union representing Lyric’s chorus, dancers, actors and some of its solo singers and production staff.