Everyone want the memorial at the World Trade Center site to be special, writes Martin C. Pedersen. “Unfortunately, the more I studied the designs, the less promising I found them. None are fully realized. They all feel provisional, like ambitious first drafts. Still I am reluctant to condemn them, because the designers were handed a near-impossible brief.”
Month: December 2003
Plundered Book Ring Broken Up
A sophisticated book-stealing ring in Edinburgh has been busted. The kingpin of the operation had accomplices steal the books, and he removed anti-theft identifiers before selling them at a discount to retail prices. “Undercover police kept watch as he took regular deliveries from thieves targeting W H Smith, Waterstones and other outlets, said Marc Gadsden, prosecuting. He was so successful that in just eight months he made an estimated £240,000, the barrister alleged.”
Which Dictionary Is Best?
YiLing Chen-Josephson wonders which dictionary is best, and designs a test. “I restricted my testing to seven of the relatively affordable and frequently updated college dictionaries (the type of dictionary used not only in the most dormitory rooms but in the most homes and offices as well). To determine my rankings, I looked up seven times over words that I knew but wanted to understand better (like regret, jealous, and overdetermined); words with disputed usages (including aggravate, disinterested, fortuitous); words with potentially interesting etymologies (e.g., chauvinism, juggernaut, lagniappe); neologisms and slang (e.g., blogger, booty, yay); anything friends had looked up recently (e.g., Panglossian, condominium, alembic); as well as the words I didn’t know in the last book I read, J.M. Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello.”
Greek Parliament Considering Parthenon Museum Approval
The Greek parliament is considering a bill that would legalize construction of a new museum at the Parthenon. Backers of the museum are trying to build the 50-million-euro museum to try to pressure the British Museum into returning the fifth-century-BC Elgin, or Parthenon, Marbles before the 2004 Olympics. “But critics who argue that important ancient ruins found on the museum plot will be destroyed during construction have successfully challenged parts of the project before the Council of State.”
Sweeney In The Opera House
“The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has come to rank with Wozzeck and Peter Grimes in opera’s catalogue of 20th-century tragic heroes,” writes Rupert Christiansen. And thus “Sweeney Todd” comes to the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. The dialogue is being miked…er, make that “reinforced.” Why? Audiences are lazy today, says the production’s conductor. “It’s very destructive. I recognise that synthesizers are useful, but they eliminate instruments like the harp or guitar, and we’ve lost the possibilities of creating a deep string sound. It’s a joy at Covent Garden to be playing Sweeney Todd with a 50-piece orchestra.”
Ivan and Dinos and Jake Bat About Conceptual Art
Ivan Massow and the Chapman brothers debate conceptual art. But the exchange gets off to a rocky start, with the Chapmans firing back a dismissive shot: “We must apologise for agreeing to collaborate in a discussion on the merits and downfalls of modern art, since we now find ourselves forced to decline further participation. The first point of contact with Mr Massow has baffled us with so many negatives that any productive exchange seems doomed…”
This Whole Business Of Encores…
“Many concert-goers would agree that there tend to be more bad encores than good. There’s nothing worse than an indifferent encore after an indifferent concert, when all one wants is a stiff drink. There’s a particular sort of heart-sinking moment when an overkeen recitalist settles back to their instrument, having taken only a single curtain call. The last gesture in a concert is as potent as the last sentence of a book: you take the atmosphere of it out into the world with you, and if the final encore is crass or inappropriate, it can undermine the whole of the rest of the concert.”
This Rubens Is Mediocre? Hmphhh!
It’s easy to disparage great art, comparing it to other works. That’s not a reason not to collect it though, writes James Fenton. “Don’t imagine, when you read that some declared expert has spoken out rather forcefully against this Rubens or that Raphael, that this is the first time in history that this daft game of disparagement has been played. Whenever a strong claim is made on behalf of a work of art, there are plenty of dim individuals (inside and outside the art world) who are simply provoked into opposition – offended that something should be admired when they have had no say in the matter.”
La Fenice Rises Again
After years of delays, Venice’s La Fenice opera house, which was burned down eight years ago, has been rebuilt and reopened. “Standing amid the charred rubble on the morning of January 30 1996, the then mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari, pledged that La Fenice would be rebuilt “com’era, dov’era” (as it was, where it was). And, within the bounds of the possible and desirable, that is exactly what has been done.”
Why La Fenice Is So Beloved
“A stunningly beautiful building La Fenice certainly is. Ingeniously wedged into a tiny space surrounded by canals just to the west of St Mark’s square, it had only 814 seats, now 990 (compared with La Scala’s or Covent Garden’s 2,000). With its curves, its rococo decorations and its five levels of blue-and-gold boxes, galleries and its crystal lamps, it radiates a matchless theatrical warmth. But the reason the Venice opera house has a special place in the hearts of opera lovers is also the reason why it burned to the ground in January 1996.”