A comic book remake of Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” in Russia has critics upset. “Convertible cars, cocaine and sushi bars provide the backdrop for the comic-book reworking, set in the present day and casting its characters as fast-living members of Russia’s idle rich. The novel’s heroine is depicted as a femme fatale with a mobile phone, a taste for luxury lingerie and, by the end of the comic, a drug habit that drives her to suicide.” – National Post (Canada)
Month: December 2000
THE SECRET TO MY SUCCESS
The average independent bookstore turns over its inventory about 3½ times in a year – a bit better than the chains do. What makes an independent successful? The formula’s not so difficult. – Washington Post
WANNA JOB, KID?
A high school kid who joined an English printing firm for a fortnight’s work study program came up with and implemented an idea that earned the company millions of pounds and saved it from bankruptcy. – The Telegraph (UK)
TA’s OF THE WORLD UNITE
Last month teaching assistant graduate students at New York University voted to unionize. “The vote was immediately translated into an attack on the very framework of academic collegiality, and the board’s decision to allow the vote was denounced by other universities facing similar union threats. Loudest in their condemnation were Yale University officials, who have succeeded for almost a decade in thwarting a graduate organizing effort on their own campus.” – Village Voice 12/28/00
PROSPECTS FOR PEACE
Hollywood weighs a new Bush administration. Sen. John Ashcroft, Bush’s nominee for attorney general, gets mixed reviews. – Variety 12/28/00
MAKING IT BIG
Which artists are we likely to hear from in the next year. The BBC takes a look. – BBC 12/28/00
NEW YEAR SHOWCASE
Boston’s New Year’s Eve celebrations – First Night – is an artist showcase. A thousand artists in 250 performances at 50 venues for an expected audience of 1.6 million. – Boston Herald 12/28/00
THE COMPUTERS UNITED
All those millions of home computers out there laying idle much of the time could be put to good use while their owners aren’t working on them, say researchers. “With about 300 million PCs connected to the Internet but idle 90 percent of the time, there’s huge potential for scientific projects utilizing distributed computing power, researchers argue in a report.” – The Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (Scripps Howard) 12/28/00
INVISIBLE ARTISTS
“In a literate society, perhaps no form occupies this zone of invisible visibility more completely than typography, which makes type designers among the most influential, if anonymous, artists in history.” – New York Times
CAN ONE BUILDING BE ALL THIS?
“The Tate Modern is literally and figuratively the biggest thing to happen in the world of contemporary art, anywhere, for the last 25 years. The mutant offspring of such questionable immensities as the Pompidou Center and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Bilbao Guggenheim, and the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, the new Tate represents either the beginning of the end of the British art scene, or the end of the beginning. It makes you wonder if success will spoil the English art world.” – Village Voice