Artists have been exploring images of the unclothed human body for centuries. But a new exploration of muscular women wanders outside the traditions. – New York Times
Author: Douglas McLennan
PAIN RELIEVER
Musicians of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra have suffered an unprecedented number of injuries this season. So the orchestra will cut down on the performances it gives next year, in hope of reducing repetitive stress ailments. – CBC
HOW CAN YOU BE “WORLD CLASS?”
When the Province of Ontario withdrew funding support to build a new opera house, it thwarted Canadian Opera Company plans that have been brewing for decades. – CBC
PULL UP A COUCH
Novelist Alain de Botton created a literary stir in 1997 with the release of his tongue-in-cheek philosophical musings in “How Proust Can Change Your Life.” Readers praised his invention of “a new genre: part self-help, part ethics primer, and part confessional.” Now de Botton is back as host of a TV show in which guests are invited to share their personal problems – from broken hearts to road rage. Distilling 2,400 years of Western thought into an hour of advice, de Botton “seeks to show that Epicurus, Montaigne, and Schopenhauer have many sensible things to say to an anxious modern audience.” Good luck! – The Observer (UK)
COMING TO A THEATER NEAR YOU
The case of the missing Oscar statuettes is… positively cinematic. There’s got to be a movie in there somewhere. – Washington Post 03/19/00
- What do Oscar-winners do with their Oscar statuettes? Why dress them up – in Barbie clothes, of course. – San Francisco Chronicle 03/19/00
FAUX SAVINGS
Until it closed last month, the 84-year-old Universal Studios Research Library was the oldest and largest collection of its sort in Hollywood – a remarkable resource for screenwriters, producers, art directors and set designers who relied on its books, magazines and indexed images to give their projects factual and atmospheric credibility. Now the library has been closed to save money, and its users worry about the fate of its collections. – San Francisco Chronicle 03/19/00
ONLINE AND ENTREPRENEURIAL
This week yetis (that’s Young Entrepreneurial Techies) from all over will gather in Hollywood for the first Online Film Festival. There’s some irony here, though. “The technical ideology thing is way ahead of the technical practicality.” – Philadelphia Inquirer 03/19/00
THE UNSTOPPABLE AIDA
Has it gotten to the point on Broadway that theater people are just grateful that a star like Elton John would sit down and write for the stage, no matter what the project looks – or sounds – like? – New York Times
WHEN CORPORATIONS BUY ART
“No corporation will tell you it buys art as an investment. Art isn’t liquid enough for most companies, and there’s no real tax advantage to collecting. What really happens is that the nature of physical space calls for you to put things on the wall. But if you can put things up that increase in value, that’s a good financial investment. Why put up hotel art when, for relatively little more, you can invest in your community and in a point of view?” – Chicago Tribune
FAUX SAVINGS
Until it closed last month, the 84-year-old Universal Studios Research Library was the oldest and largest collection of its sort in Hollywood – a remarkable resource for screenwriters, producers, art directors and set designers who relied on its books, magazines and indexed images to give their projects factual and atmospheric credibility. Now the library has been closed to save money, and its users worry about the fate of its collections. – San Francisco Chronicle