“The New York City Waterfalls, Olafur Eliasson’s grandest project yet, consists of four man-made cataracts sited on the waterfront in Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan and Governors Island. In height they range from 90 to 120 feet, in width from 30 to 80 feet, each scaled to and aligned with its surroundings.”
Month: June 2008
A New Idea For Skyscrapers In Dubai
“As the floors swivel, the silhouette of the tower will mutate. The floors will be divided by horizontal wind turbines which will generate enough energy to power the structure. The roof will be clad with solar cells. The dwellings will be manufactured as a series of pods in a factory outside Bari in southern Italy, transported to the site and attached to the concrete column. “
Jordan Returns 2,500 Stolen Artifacts To Iraq
“The repatriation is latest step in recovering about 15,000 priceless artifacts that were smuggled out of the country by looters during the chaos following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and have been turning up at art auctions around the world. Many were taken from the national museum in Baghdad, and thousands more were looted from archeolgoical sites.”
Potential Actors’ Strike Threatens Big Movie Projects
“A protracted period of uncertainty is casting a pall over future film production. Just the threat of a strike has put a crimp on local production, which was cited Friday as a factor in the state’s highest unemployment rate for May in five years. Employment in the motion picture and sound recording sectors was down 4.4% from May 2007.”
Indie Bands Cancel, Cut Tours As Gas Price Soars
“If they’re not canceling their tours, small acts are banding together, stuffing themselves into smaller vehicles or cutting short their tours. The tough choices being made at the bottom of the music industry food chain are just one more hit to the business already reeling from declining album sales because of digital music.”
Margaret Atwood Wins Spanish Lit Award
Atwood has published more than 25 volumes of poetry, fiction and nonfiction and won prestigious awards including Britain’s Booker Prize in 2000 for “The Blind Assassin.”
In Uganda – Familiar Story Of Radio Payola
“Radio stations are extorting money from artistes to play their music on radio – artistes have confessed. Whereas artistes seem comfortable with the system, they have no choice but to pay some money to get air play on radio. Usually the money is paid to the music schedulers and the DJs so that they speak well of an artiste while playing his or her songs.”
London Dome Is A Surprise Hit
The Millennium Dome was a huge bust for the purpose it was built. But “since then the former Millennium Dome has become the most popular music venue in the world, with the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Spice Girls selling out its 20,000-seat arena.”
SF Opera Outdoor Simulcast Draws A Big Crowd
San Francisco Opera’s free Friday night simulcast of Gaetano Donizetti’s tragic warhorse “Lucia di Lammermoor” drew about 23,000 people to AT&T Park, according to Opera estimates.
Art Movies Lose Their Audience
Many factors contribute to why art theaters resemble evacuation zones. Among them: a seasonal releasing pattern, an oversupply of movies, and what Tom Bernard, copresident of Sony Pictures Classics, calls “a periodic market adjustment.”