“The loss of the literary placards, which have offered a reprieve from the usual advertising array of laser acne treatments and injury lawyers, marks the first time in 18 years that the subways will not feature a pinch of erudition.”
Tag: 12.20.10
EU Rules That Light Installations Are Not Art, And Thus Not Tax-Exempt
“Brussels has ruled that the work of the American artist [Dan Flavin] … should be classified for tax purposes as simple light fixtures. His work, they said, has ‘the characteristics of lighting fittings … and is therefore to be classified … as wall lighting fittings’.” Similarly affected is video artist Bill Viola.
Conductor Jorge Mester Loses Another Gig, This Time in Florida
“Jorge Mester’s contract as music director with the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra will end at the completion of the 2011-12 season.” Last May, Mester left the same job (under disputed circumstances) at the Pasadena Symphony, which nearly went bankrupt in 2009; he also holds the music directorship of the Louisville Orchestra, which declared bankruptcy earlier this month.
‘How Barry Hannah Changed the American Short Story Forever’
“Hannah blasted the form out of the Joycean model of epiphany – whereby a short story seeks to impart to its characters, or readers, a hard-earned kernel of revelation – toward a more ecstatic model of release: The men and women in Hannah’s fiction, often at great cost, stumble upon – or crowbar their way into – moments of escape, explosion, literal flight, even transcendence.”
Iron Man: Conductor Gunther Schuller At 85
“The musical Renaissance man has had, by his own accounting, seven often-simultaneous careers…”
Colorado City Removes Mysterious Sculpture That Suddenly Appeared On Museum Lawn
“Six city workers took just under 20 minutes Monday to lower, disassemble, strap down and drive away a sculpture that mysteriously appeared on the front lawn of the Boulder History Museum a week ago. The work of art was deposited overnight Dec. 13 by an unknown sculptor, inspiring people to come by the museum to take pictures and try to decipher its meaning.”
America’s Growing Wealth Disparity – A Cultural Thing?
“Why has a significant increase in income inequality in recent decades failed to generate political pressure from the left for redistributional redress, as similar trends did in earlier times?”
Stolen Picasso, Botero, Chillida Works Recovered in Madrid
Spanish police have secured 34 of the 35 artworks – pieces by Picasso, Botero, Chillida and others, collectively worth €5 million – in a truck stolen from a warehouse last month. The tipster: a scrap metal merchant to whom the thieves offered some of the sculpture.
Cage Against the Machine’s 4’33” Cover Fails to Hit Top of Charts
The Facebook-based campaign to push a rock-n-roll cover of John Cage’s silent masterwork to the number one spot on the UK pop charts for Christmas was a bust: sales were only 16,000 units, putting the track at no. 21.
The Fate Of A Free Internet – Decided This Tuesday?
“The good news is that the Federal Communications Commission has the power to issue regulations that protect net neutrality. The bad news is that draft regulations written by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski don’t do that at all. They’re worse than nothing.”