Tag: 11.11.05

The New MoMA – Modernism As Elevator Music?

It’s been a year since the new Museum of Modern Art opened. Jerry Saltz has come to an unhappy conclusion about the place. “The more I go to the new MOMA—and I’ve been there over 50 times since it reopened a year ago this week—the more I think this crown jewel is becoming a beautiful tomb. At MOMA the unruly juice of art history, the chaos, contradiction, radicality, and rebellion, are being bleached out. Instead, we’re getting the taming of modernism—modernism as elevator music.”

Sony To Halt Making Antipiracy Software

Sony says it will temporarily stop making antipiracy CDs that can leave computers vulnerable to hackers. “The antipiracy technology, which works only on Windows computers, prevents customers from making more than a few copies of the CD and prevents them from loading the CD’s songs onto Apple Computer’s popular iPod portable music players. Some other music players, which recognize Microsoft’s proprietary music format, would work. Sony’s announcement came one day after leading security companies disclosed that hackers were distributing malicious programs over the Internet that exploited the antipiracy technology’s ability to avoid detection.”

Toronto Symphony In A Deep Hole

The Toronto Symphony closed its financial year with a $2.1 million defifcit. That “boosted the orchestra’s accumulated deficit to $9.47 million. The deficit stood at just over $7 million when the TSO teetered close to bankruptcy in 2001. Loan guarantees from the city of Toronto and the TSO Foundation helped stave off another near-death episode. The foundation also handed over $1.5 million in emergency financing, $1 million of which is repayable within five years.”

Author Koontz Accused Of Racism

Dean Koontz is being accused of racism after the author recounted to an audience a story of his dispute with a Japanese executive over a movie.”Dear Mr Teriyaki,” he read to the audience. “My letter of 10 November has not been answered … I would assume your silence results from the mistaken belief that World War II is still in progress and that the citizens of your country and mine are forbidden to communicate. Enclosed is a copy of the front page of the New York Times from 1945, with the headline, ‘Japan Surrenders’.” In other letters Koontz talked about the Bataan Death March and Godzilla.

Antiquities Trove Discovered In Egyptian Museum Basement

“For the past century, artefacts have been stored away in crates there and forgotten, often allowed to disintegrate in the dank, dusty cavern. Forgotten until now. The recent theft and recovery of three statues from the basement have prompted antiquity officials in Egypt to increase an effort already under way to complete the first comprehensive inventory of artefacts in the basement.”

Dallas’ New Performing Arts Center Breaks Ground

“The $275 million project, which will include the Winspear Opera House, the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, the City Performance Hall, the redesigned Annette Strauss Artists Square and the Grand Plaza, is expected to be ready for performances by 2009. Resident companies will include The Dallas Opera, Dallas Theater Center, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Texas Ballet Theater and Anita M. Martinez Ballet Folklorico and other local arts organizations.”

The World’s Books Online

“Creating a virtual Library of Alexandria has long been a dream of techies and book-lovers alike. Project Gutenberg, a digitisation initiative dating back to the 1970s, currently boasts over 17,000 books in around 45 languages. This summer, European nations backed a “digital library” plan to place literary works online. For readers, the idea of being able to access the aggregate knowledge of humanity on a single device from anywhere in the world seems a benefit of mythic proportions, and the obvious next step in man’s quest —from stone slabs to papyrus to movable type to ethereal digital bits—to document the world in words and symbols.”