Sam Clemens (Mark Twain) spent some time in Carson City Nevada developing his writing. And the city wants to advertise the fact in its tourist promotions. Trouble is, Clemens’ estate still holds control of the famous name and the Mark Twain Foundation Trust has warned the city to stop or its lawyers will come a’ callin’. – Washington Post
Month: May 2000
THE “REAL” SYLVIA PLATH
“At long last, Sylvia Plath’s uncensored journals are published. “Almost from the day she died, readers and scholars, faced with the huge, faceless enigma of her suicide, have been perplexed and thwarted by Plath’s mental condition. The unabridged journals and other new information, some of it reported here for the first time, lend credence to a little-noticed theory that Sylvia Plath suffered not just from some form of mental illness (probably manic depression) but also from severe PMS.” – Salon
AN ACTOR’S ROOTS
It’s so whorish, isn’t it, all these Hollywood actors skittering over to London to get a little legitimate stage credit under their belts? Not that that’s what Donald Sutherland’s doing, mind you. Sutherland “learned his craft in Britain. He arrived in 1952, aged 18, to study at the London Academy of Dramatic Art before going on to do a seven-year apprenticeship on almost every stage in the country. Afterwards, to hone his vocal technique, he added another year in Scotland at the Perth Repertory Theatre.” Now he’s back, starring at the Savoy. – The Guardian
AN IPO FOR ART
Britain’s Year of the Artist – aiming to raise the profile of living artists throughout the UK – kicked off on Tuesday. More than 1,000 artists have been invited to being their art out of the studio and into public venues. – BBC
ARTISTIC TAKE ON THE NEWS
A newspaper with an artist-in-residence? Why not – it’s the UK’s “Year of the Artist, a £4 million scheme to place 1,000 artists in residence in 1,000 different places.” The Guardian newspaper will sponsor two residencies: supporting a theatre company for homeless people, and it will appoint an artist-in-residence to work in its London offices. – The Guardian
NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET
Sam Clemens (Mark Twain) spent some time in Carson City, Nevada developing his writing. And the city wants to advertise the fact in its tourist promotions. Trouble is, Clemens’ estate still holds control of the famous name and the Mark Twain Foundation Trust has warned the city to stop or its lawyers will come a’ callin’. – Washington Post
UNDERGROUND ART
Performers line up to audition for permits to play in the New York subway system. – The Age (Melbourne) (AP)
POST-INDUSTRIAL CHIC
After a two-year closure, Glasgow’s revitalized Tramway (a vast old tram shed and site of some of the UK’s most ground-breaking multidisciplinary performances of the ‘90s) reopens this week. New York’s Wooster Group will reopen the “post-industrial, dressed-down chic” space with its first UK performances in eight years. – The Guardian
REPORTS OF OUR DEATH ARE…
The Royal Canadian Academy of Art decided to do a millennial show and made an open call to artists. The idea might have worked 120 years ago when the Academy was formed. “Maybe it even worked 30 years ago, when the RCA’s annual exhibition finally died off. For better or worse, however, at the beginning of the 21st century it’s simply not how things work – as any truly vigorous arts organization would have understood right off. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
THE REAL DICK
That maybe-Richard Diebenkorn-that wasn’t in that E-Bay auction that got everybody so excited a few weeks ago and forced a winning bid of $135,000? Well maybe it is real after all. Though the auction was nullified, experts are now looking at the painting to determine its patrimony. – San Francisco Chronicle