Toronto-born architect Frank Gehry has won the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, “awarded on behalf of the Queen by the Royal Institute of British Architecture, and still, despite the big bucks attached to newer international prizes, the most prestigious of its kind.” – The Guardian
Author: Douglas McLennan
TROPHY PICTURES
Ireland’s booming economy has caused a surge in Ireland’s art market prices. – The Telegraph (UK)
ONLINE GUGGENHEIM
The Guggenheim World Empire becomes the WWW Empire. The museum “has pledged the equivalent of a real building’s budget to create the Guggenheim Virtual Museum (GVM), launched this month, on a laptop near you. Wagering that the New York-based architecture firm Asymptote can do for it in virtual space what Frank Gehry’s Bilbao did in the physical world, the Guggenheim’s commitment is not only costly but long-term: Its design and construction will be ongoing, given the fluid nature of the medium.” – Architecture Magazine
WHY WE LIKE OUR BIG McHOUSES
Everyone, it seems, decries suburban sprawl. From the McHouse architecture to the sterile street life, the ‘burbs make an easy target. But “for all the scorn that’s heaped on the suburbs – and especially on subdivisions of nearly identical houses on the fringe of metropolitan areas – people like living there. And not just middle-class drones either.” – Weekly Standard
REDEFINING CULTURE
- Two new studies of the arts and culture in New Zealand promise the radical reshaping of the country’s creative industries. “There’s a culture of ignorance in the media. You can’t tell me that 88,000 people [the number of New Zealanders employed in the cultural sector] work entirely without effect.” – New Zealand Herald
TICKETLESS MASTER
Been reading those stories about how buying concert tickets online beats the traditional TicketMaster experience? Read on: “Fans are complaining they are being charged for tickets that never arrive, that they can’t track their orders online, and that it is extremely difficult to find a way to communicate their situations with the ticket-selling giant.” – Wired
WHY WE LIKE OUR BIG McHOUSES
Everyone, it seems, decries suburban sprawl. From the McHouse architecture to the sterile streetlife, the ‘burbs make an easy target. But “for all the scorn that’s heaped on the suburbs – and especially on subdivisions of nearly identical houses on the fringe of metropolitan areas – people like living there. And not just middle-class drones either.” – Weekly Standard
BRIT PICK
Why do so few British films make it to Cannes? “You always dream of a British discovery but you know in your heart that the offering from Liechtenstein or Albania is probably a better bet.” – New Statesman 05/22/00
CANNES’T BUY ME LOVE
Controversial director Lars von Trier wins the Palm d’Or in Cannes, then insults the head of the festival and “assured his leading lady – whom he called a ‘mad woman’ only a fortnight ago – that he ‘loved her very much’.” – The Guardian 05/22/00
- A DISSENTING VOICE: “Daft as a brush, and about as visually interesting, for most of its extended duration, Lars von Trier’s ‘Dancer in the Dark’ arrived in Cannes on a wave of anticipation and to prolonged applause, with some viewers reduced to tears. There were others who, like me, found the entire exercise self-indulgent, pointless and even unintentionally funny.” – Irish Times 05/22/00
- MIXED CONSENSUS: “The bad news for Trier-watchers, who since ‘Europa’ and ‘Breaking the Waves’ have included most intelligent cinephiles on the planet, is that dozens walked out – noisily – on this Death Row musical about a Czech-American worker condemned for killing a cop who stole the savings earmarked for her child’s eye operation. The good news is that it is a daring, fascinating, boldly unorthodox film.” – Financial Times 05/22/00
MOVIES IN THE BANK
Australia’s main film funding agency has built up a $26 million cash reserve, leading the government to investigate why more of it isn’t being spent on funding movies. – Sydney Morning Herald 05/22/00