“It’s ok for Prince Charles to be who he is, and want what he wants – God bless him for coming out of the closet and saying what he thinks … I mean some of things he likes, I like, and some of things he’s come out against, well, I’m on his side,” the architect (“I am not a ‘star-chitect'”) says.
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
In Customs Row, Prince Revokes Loans To Royal Academy
“Masterpieces by Rubens and Van Dyck were among the treasures from the royal family of Liechtenstein’s collection, which were expected to draw huge crowds to the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) from next September. But yesterday Prince Hans-Adam II cancelled the loans,” and now the academy is scrambling.
Never Mind Sherlock; Dr. Watson Shows Doyle’s Genius
“Holmes is flashy, brilliant and extraordinary, but it is Watson’s blunter, quieter virtues of simple decency that we are called on to admire, and it is his voice that we trust. Being right is all very well, [Arthur Conan] Doyle seems to say through Watson, but being good is better.”
Choreographer Calls BBC Reversal ‘Silly’ And ‘Dangerous’
A Javier de Frutos work, whose “deformed pope, pregnant nuns and wild sex” ignited controversy at its London premiere, was set for broadcast, in a pre-watershed slot, until the BBC changed its mind. The choreographer “is angry at the ‘naivety’ of the BBC for assuming that ‘they could broadcast it before the watershed just because it was ballet.'”
China Examines U.S. Museums In Search Of Lost Treasures
“For the past two weeks, the delegation of Chinese cultural experts has swept through American institutions, seeking to reclaim items once ensconced at the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, which was one of the world’s most richly appointed imperial residences until British and French troops plundered it in 1860.”
Report: Canada’s Cultural Revenues Down $3.1B In 2009
“Total cultural sector revenues ‘are expected to be 4.3 per cent – or about $3.1 billion – lower in 2009 than they would have been in the absence of a global recession’. The decline in revenues is expected to be most severe for written media (a 6.1% decrease) and broadcasting (4.8%).”
A.L. Kennedy: In Praise Of Rewriting
“A writer who thinks, who rewrites, isn’t just bucking an ugly trend. He or she is also taking control of a power that can delight the heart, encourage, entrance. That same power can deceive, betray and murder and it is a matter of basic self-defence to keep ourselves as literate as possible, as strong as possible in our words.”
The Best Books We Didn’t Read This Decade
Publishers, translators and agents on the titles that “should have gone on to take the world by storm. And never did, quite.”
Shepherding Dramatists Through The UK Playwriting Boom
“According to a recent report by Arts Council England, the amount of new writing produced by mainstream, subsidised theatre has more than doubled in the last six years. … With so much new work in circulation, how do script departments forge strong relationships with writers, to help them produce their best work?”
More Annoying Than Kirkus Critics: Anonymous Amateurs
“Granted, at Kirkus many of those critics were anonymous freelancers who were paid about $50 per review…. But as dangerous as it can be to instill power in reviewers who work for cheap (and are therefore less experienced), there’s now an even more menacing form of arbiter in our midst: the customer reviewer. And he works for free.”