David Letterman’s “The Late Show” apparently has an informal ban on lawyers in the audience. “Apparently, the lawyers didn’t yuk it up enough. Sources at a handful of New York law firms told NYTV that the “Late Show” has unofficially ceased its practice of handing out blocks of tickets to law firms. Their suspicion? Them lawyers are just too damn dull.” – New York Observer
Author: Douglas McLennan
STEALING HISTORY
A major new study details a brief history of looting of cultural artifacts and treasures. “Maya ceramics from the Petén that bring the looter $200 to $500, may ultimately fetch $100,000. In the case of five big-ticket items (a Song Dynasty head, Morgantina acroliths, Euphronius krater, Achyris phiale, and Marsyas statue), where we know the initial payout and the final price, middlemen received 98% of the money.” – Archaeology Magazine
DESIGN BY EXAMPLE
Roman architect and writer Pino Scaglione has been urging discussion in Rome about encouraging more contemporary architecture in the tradition-bound city. To that end, he’s organized an exhibit in Rome of Berlin’s 20th-century design highlights. “Scaglione eyes Berlin enviously – unlike Rome, which looks back, it looks forward.” – Die Welt (Germany)
THE GOOG ONLINE
The Guggenheim Museum’s most ambitious architecture may have nothing to do with Frank Gehry. The Goog has bet the budget equivalent of one of its land galleries on developing a radical “virtual” museum online. “Though much has been made of the marriage of computers and architecture, the computer is still used chiefly as a facilitator—a tool to help conceptualize or produce a final object. But what of an autonomous digital architecture—an architecture that is conceived of, rendered, built, and exists and is experienced solely on the computer?” – Architecture Magazine
WHAT KIND OF PRIORITY?
While museum’s on America’s East Coast struggle to track down provenance of their artwork for the time around World War II, California museums lag far behind. “It’s a high priority, but we don’t have the resources in place,” says a spokesperson for the Armand Hammer Museum. Meanwhile, the Getty Museum, just completing a first phase of inquiry, “has found that more than half of its paintings collection has wartime gaps – 248 of its 425 works.” – Washington Post
RESTORING THE PATH OF FAITH
This month, Coptic Christians in Egypt are celebrating the 2000th anniversary of the Holy Family’s travel through Egypt. In preparation for the thousands of pious pilgrims that will come to retrace their path, the Egyptian Heritage Revival Association is pouring millions of Egyptian pounds into the restoration of tombs, icons, altars…and the installation of restrooms. – Egypt Today
FEAR OF THE NEW?
“The Wallace Collection is a hugely loved, gilded time-warp set in a magnificent house in the center of London. Its superb works of art – including the best collection of French 18th-century artifacts outside France – were collected by one family and left to the nation. Small wonder that it inspires a rare passion and woe betide anyone who attempts to alter so much as a strand of horsehair stuffing.” That’s exactly why so many are nervous about Wallace’s reopening this week after a thoroughly modernizing remodel. – London Evening Standard
POPPING WHEELIES
Is there something odd about dancing in a wheel chair? “When you think about it, theatrical dancing is a pretty odd thing all by itself, remaking and deploying the body in ways it wouldn’t intuitively go. Physical comics, mimes, acrobats, masks, and surrealism have always been at home on the dance stage – along with, more recently, flying bodies, moonwalkers, and okay, wheelchairs. All these exaggerations and ultra-specializations of human behavior can enrich that peculiar ability dance has to superimpose the imaginary on the real before our very eyes.” – Boston Phoenix
WHO WON WHAT
Want to see who won what this year in the theatre? Here’s an aggregation of lists of all this year’s theatre awards and who won what. – Curtainup
BETTER TO JUST COME IN LATE?
Movie trailers: They can have a kind of rough poetry (think the blood splashing out of the elevator for Kubrick’s “The Shining”) or can enticingly juxtapose key visual moments from the upcoming feature. But they’ve really gone down hill lately. “Today, they’re infuriatingly generic, manically edited, and ruined by plot spoilers.” – Salon 06/20/00