While YBAs Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst have pushed traditional artistic boundaries with their unmade beds and pickled animals, the Royal Academy of Arts in London believes in the simple power of the line: drawing. This October, the Academy will sponsor a program in which more than 500 galleries and museums in Britain will offer sessions for adults and children to draw with artists, designers, mathematicians. – Sydney Morning Herald (AP)
Author: Douglas McLennan
THE POWER OF PRINT
The new National Opera house in Beijing, designed by a French architect in the shape of an enormous titanium bubble, has sparked a raging debate in mainland China. Days before authorities are to make the final decision on the project, the China Daily newspaper publishes petitions by more than 150 Chinese intellectuals who believe the futuristic building is all wrong for China. – China Times
UNLIKELY ALLIES
The Artists Coalition, an artists’ advocacy group led by Don Henley and Sheryl Crow, reached an agreement Thursday with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the dispute over the recently enacted “works made for hire” law (an amendment to the 1976 Copyright Act). The law allows record companies to maintain ownership of an artist’s recorded works for 95 years instead of the previous 35-year limit. The RIAA has agreed to join with the artists in petitioning Congress to repeal the law. – Live Daily
THE POWER OF PRINT
The new National Opera house in Beijing, designed by a French architect in the shape of an enormous titanium bubble, has sparked a raging debate in mainland China. Days before authorities are to make the final decision on the project, the China Daily newspaper publishes petitions by more than 150 Chinese intellectuals who believe the futuristic building is all wrong for China. – China Times
A SAD CHAPTER FOR ISRAEL’S LIBRARIES
In Israel, as in many other parts of the world, libraries are in terrible decline. Government funding has decreased, leaving Israel’s libraries without money for renovations or new books – “of the 1,233 public libraries in Israel today, only 133 provide Internet services and only 10 lend out computer compact discs.” – Haaretz (Israel)
CRITICAL DISCOMFIT
Movie critic Stanley Kauffmann finds his opinion has changed after 40 years. “The plain, discomfiting fact is that every one of us who has watched plays and films or read books or listened to music or looked at painting and architecture is, in some measure, self-deceived. Filed away in the recesses of our minds are thousands of opinions that we have accumulated through our lives, and they make us think that we know what we think on all those subjects. We do not. All we know is what we once thought, and any earlier view of a work, if tested, might be hugely different from what we would think now.” – The New Republic
STRIKE PREP 101
As the actors’ strike against TV commercial makers drags on into a fourth month, TV and movie studios are coming to the alarming realization they may be facing actors strikes for their projects too next year. “We are trying to get everything done and wrapped up by a June deadline. You don’t want to be halfway through a project when the strike hits.” – Washington Post
CRITICAL DISCOMFIT
Movie critic Stanley Kauffmann finds his opinion has changed after 40 years. “The plain, discomfiting fact is that every one of us who has watched plays and films or read books or listened to music or looked at painting and architecture is, in some measure, self-deceived. Filed away in the recesses of our minds are thousands of opinions that we have accumulated through our lives, and they make us think that we know what we think on all those subjects. We do not. All we know is what we once thought, and any earlier view of a work, if tested, might be hugely different from what we would think now.” – The New Republic 08/10/00
GHOST OF A CHANCE
In the 1960s, hippy artists from Britain were invited to revive a ghost hill town in Italy. They restored its houses and rebuilt the water and sewage system and made the town a going concern. “But a promise that they could make their homes was never put in writing.” Now the Italian government wants the town back … – BBC 08/09/00
CULTURAL CRUSADER
On Tuesday US VP-candidate Joe Lieberman, “a culture warrior considered one of the moral voices of the Senate, promised supporters that the Democratic Gore/Lieberman ticket would help parents ‘raise PG kids in an X-rated society.’ He praised Vice President Gore’s wife, Tipper, for having had the courage to speak out against certain music lyrics, a move for which she was widely blasted in the 1980s.” – Washington Post 08/09/00
- A TV CRITIC: “Lieberman, like a lot of us who actually watch the TV we rip, wants content changes. But when the government threatens to get involved in that sort of thing, it smacks of demagoguery. No matter. TV critic Lieberman is always good for an opinion.” – Chicago Sun-Times 08/09/00
- THE LIEBERMAN FACTOR: US VP-candidate Joe Lieberman has been tough on the entertainment industry. How tough? “He told Daily Variety last year that shows like ‘Friends’ should be relegated to late night because of their raciness. – Variety 08/08/00