Everyone hates cliches, but no one does anything about them. In fact, at the end of the day, most of us would have to admit, with all due respect, that we are driven round the bend on a daily basis by friends and co-workers who can’t stop tossing out overused metaphors and meaningless catchphrases. So what to do? Run right out and pick yourself up a copy of “The Dimwit’s Dictionary,” a compendium of 5,000 of the worst abuses of the English language, as well as reasonable alternatives for the more overused and irritating entries, all authored by the man who wrote the book on tired expressions. The tome may be a work in progress, but it’s almost sure to be an overnight success with language geeks.
Month: April 2004
Przybilla Leaving Atlanta Museum
The curator of contemporary art at Atlanta’s High Museum has resigned in order to study for her Ph.D. at nearby Emory University. Carrie Przybilla had been at the High Museum since 1988, and was responsible for the acquisition of an importantg collection of Ellsworth Kelly paintings, which will have their own gallery in the new building being constructed for the High. The museum will conduct a national search for a new curator.
You Notice No One Seemed To Care About The Viola
“An 18th-century Italian-made violin reported missing earlier this week was found in an alleyway near the Manhattan bar where its owner had left it, police said. Odin Rathnam, the first-chair violinist for the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, had been in New York for a meeting and left the violin, along with a borrowed viola, at Yogi’s bar on the Upper West Side. The violin, valued at about $95,000, was made by Bartolomeo Calvaros of Bergamo, Italy, between 1750 and 1755; the viola belonged to a friend.” A bar patron actually claims to have hocked the fiddle at a local pawn shop for $600, but doesn’t have a good explanation for how it ended up back in the alley.
Kazaa Gets Sued In Oz, Adds New Lawyers
The makers of the Kazaa file-sharing software have made some big changes to the team of lawyers defending them from charges of aiding and abetting piracy. The shakeup in the legal team occurred after the Australian recording industry launched a lawsuit against the company. The new lawsuit charges that Kazaa’s very existence constitutes a breach of fair trade practices, and that the company engages in “misleading and deceptive conduct.”
Towards A New National Black Theatre
Nationwide, black theatre companies have “cut programming and reduced staff. Some troupes have had to cancel shows or suspend production in recent years. Other respected companies, like the Freedom Theater in Philadelphia and the New Jomandi in Atlanta, have struggled financially as public and private support continues to dwindle.” But one hardy soul is traing to “establish something almost unheard of since the heyday of the black theater movement in the 1960’s and 70’s: a national black theater company.”
NY Fringe Fest Roars Back
The New York Fringe Festival has shaken off its financial misfortunes and says that more than “800 applications were received this year, a better than 10% jump over the 2003 total of 716. This was the first year artists could submit applications online; if one includes incomplete and late submissions (which are not adjudicated), that figure rises to over 900. The total two years ago was 585.”
Passion Sells
Passion of the Christ may or may not be a good movie. But it’s breaking box office records around the world and making a ton of money. “It’s clear that the film has tapped into something which Hollywood normally avoids like the plague: Strong, assertive religious belief. Mel Gibson, who directed and financed the film himself outside the usual channels, will make a fortune from his enterprise, but it mirrors his strong belief.”
Corleone – An Offer Film Critics Can’t Refuse
US film critics have named Mafia boss Vito Corleone, as played by Marlon Brando in The Godfather, as the greatest movie character of all time.”
Art Or Advertising – Hmnnn….
“As fine art’s conceptual leanings are increasingly difficult to distinguish from the facile surfaces of advertising, this ironic fusion of art and commerce is perhaps an inevitable progression.
Yet, despite the irony, fine art is faced with a very real problem presented by a rapidly evolving technological world, which means, in effect, a rapidly changing commercial world. What actually distinguishes “fine” art from the advertising techniques that it parodies and appropriates?”
The London That Never Was (Or Will Be)
“The game of what-ifs in architecture is addictive. The organisers of a new Hayward Gallery touring exhibition had the brilliant idea of exploring the never-never land of building, drawing on the collections of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Victoria and Albert museum. So many of these visions are a great deal more exciting than the buildings we actually got.”