Even as London’s Tate and New York’s Museum of Modern Art get set to launch ambitious virtual museums, a big question still remains: “Why is the Virtual Museum so boring? And it is. The cyber gallery is nearly always dense, confusing, difficult to navigate, devoid of passion and, worse, of intellect. Not only are these sites a betrayal of the ‘muse’ function at the core of the name museum, they often demand hours of downloading special software to handle special effects that are nothing special.” – New York Times
Author: Douglas McLennan
RETURNED TO OWNER (OR HEIRS)
The two-year-old Commission on Art Recovery brokers a return of art stolen in World War II by the Nazis. “The heirs of Gustav Kirstein, a principal in an art printing firm in Leipzig, will recover an oil painting by Lovis Corinth and some 80 items, primarily drawings, by Max Klinger.” – Jerusalem Post
THE FIRST ART
A humble ancient stone turns out to be the first art. “New scientific data suggests that early humans were producing representations of life 220,000 years ago, 170,000 years earlier than previously thought. It is a discovery which could revolutionise our understanding of human development.” – The Independent (UK)
TO PROFIT OR NOT TO PROFIT
The line between non-profit and commercial theatre has all but disappeared. Non-profits are trying to be more entrepreneurial in hopes of generating more income, while commercial theatre looks to mitigate its risks. – Hartford Courant
THE SILVER SCREEN PROBLEM
Why is it that great stage musicals rarely translate well to film? The release of “The Fantasticks” after sitting around for five years on the shelf after it was made, gives some clues. – Los Angeles Times
PINTER AT 70
“It is tempting to think of Harold Pinter’s career as a series of rooms which together make up a remarkable, if draughty (his rooms tend to be draughty) house. Pinter brought poetry back into the theatre; he said things by the unsaid. People make jokes about his pauses, but the pauses are as eloquent as the lines. – The Observer (UK)
URBAN INSPIRATION
Salman Rushdie has moved to New York from London. “London did not spur his imagination. ‘I think it speaks for itself that, for somebody who lived in England for as long as I did, relatively little of my work has dealt with it.’ New York holds more promise. ‘There’s so much stuff just asking me to write it down here,’ he says.” – The Observer (UK)
PINTER AT 70
“It is tempting to think of Harold Pinter’s career as a series of rooms which together make up a remarkable, if draughty (his rooms tend to be draughty) house. Pinter brought poetry back into the theatre; he said things by the unsaid. People make jokes about his pauses, but the pauses are as eloquent as the lines. – The Observer (UK)
FUND-RAISING NO-NO
Jean Kennedy Smith, the former U.S. ambassador to Ireland, is fined by the Justice Department for “soliciting a $1 million donation from the Irish prime minister to help fund a program at the Kennedy Center. Smith, who served as ambassador for five years and is a longtime member of the center’s board, violated a federal conflict-of-interest law by making the solicitation in August 1998, near the end of her appointment in Ireland.” – Washington Post 09/23/00
RABBLE-ROUSING
- Stephen King portrays himself as a giant-killer fighting the publishing industry. “If King’s publishing history were one of enslavement and injustice, you could understand him wanting to disturb the sleep of his persecutors. But Big Publishing just happens to have published, distributed, and marketed 225-million copies of his thirty-eight books, helping to hoist him up the scale of absurdly rich American entertainers.” – Saturday Night (Canada)