Some might call it that, but those little buzzy tunes and blurbles and bleeps emanating from our tools are becoming more and more intrusive. “Dangerous as it is to make predictions, electronic games, computers and the latest mobile phones all suggest that various unforeseen combinations of sound and image will come to dominate our work and leisure in the near future.” – The Age (Melbourne)
Author: Douglas McLennan
ONE STEP BACK
Australian arts groups are losing one of their richest, most generous patrons. Richard Pratt is stepping down from his various roles as arts supporter, as part of a general withdrawal from public life. – The Age (Melbourne)
ART IN THE ‘BURBS
So what’s the secret of running a successful arts center out in the suburbs? Treat people like they’re in the city. “There is this city mentality that seems to believe that everyone in the suburbs has gone brain dead. A lot of well-educated, sophisticated people come out to raise their children in a nurturing setting. That doesn’t mean they have lost their curiosity or their interest in cultural diversity.” – Chicago Tribune
UNDUE INFLUENCE
Consumer groups are stepping up to object to Time Warner’s merger with AOL. Critics are afraid of a “content bottleneck” if the deal goes through. – Variety
ONE STEP BACK
Australian arts groups are losing one of their richest, most generous patrons. Richard Pratt is stepping down from his various roles as arts supporter, as part of a general withdrawal from public life. – The Age (Melbourne)
STALKING STUFF ‘ER
Germaine Greer was captured by a teenage girl stalker and held captive in the writer’s house until friends arrived and freed her. – The Telegraph (UK)
STILL TOO HOT TO HANDLE
After reducing the time some of Robert Mapplethorpe’s more explicit photographs are shown in its documentary about the 1990 obscenity trial over the work, Showtime’s “Dirty Pictures” gets an “R” rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. As originally edited, the film would have been tagged with an NC-17 which would mean the network couldn’t have shown it in prime time. – Variety
YO PICASSO
Heirs of a French collector come forward to lay claim to Picasso work owned by New York’s Museum of Modern Art. – New York Times
A LITTLE DISTANCE PLEASE
Okay, so Sotheby’s chairman has resigned in the midst of the auction house investigations. But if his people still control the board of directors, how will the company make a clean break from possible misdeeds of the past? – Financial Times
TARNISHED TALE: Sotheby’s chairman Alfred Taubman rebuilt Sotheby’s and helped make it successful – it was all a kind of fairy tale. But sometimes fairy tales write their own dark endings… – New York Times
HANDICAPPING THE GUGGENHEIM
What are the chances the Guggenheim’s proposed Gehry building for lower Manhattan will ever get built? Not entirely solid. On the other hand, “these days the Guggenheim name is as much a prestige brand as BMW, Bollinger or Armani and not one that is lightly dismissed especially in its home town. [Guggenheim director Thomas] Krens says ‘more than 50’ cities and towns around the world have invited the Guggenheim to set up shop. – Sydney Morning Herald
BOLD STROKE: No museum has been so defined by its architecture as the Guggenheim. That helps explain the grand scale of what the proposed lower Manhattan Guggenheim would be. – New York Magazine