“Launching a new publishing venture in the current economic climate is risky enough, but Toronto-based writer and translator Musharraf Ali Farooqi is really going out on a limb. Not only is his new company, Urdu Project, dedicated exclusively to publishing English translations of classical and contemporary works of Urdu literature, but he has chosen, as his debut offering, a centuries-old, 24-volume fantasy epic.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Stop Calling Alan Bennett A National Treasure
“It makes him sound like a theatrical Queen Mum radiating beneficence over a grateful populace. He’s not nearly as cuddly as the term implies. I see him as a sharp-eyed analyst of contemporary England and a genuinely complex writer…. His talent has always been for satirical nostalgia; and by treating him like a warm tea cosy, we ignore what he has to say.”
Copying DVDs Is Illegal, But It Shouldn’t Be
“A federal judge … Thursday or soon thereafter is likely to conclude RealNetworks’ DVD-copying software is unlawful, and therefore should be permanently barred from distribution. That’s the correct interpretation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Yet we think it’s offensive that the 1998 act produces the absurd result that consumers are considered hackers and copyright scofflaws just for duplicating DVDs for personal use.”
Who’ll Fill The Void In British Arts-TV Programming?
“Melvyn Bragg’s retirement is the moment ITV has long been waiting for to dump this hugely expensive flagship, and replace it with an enthralling new reality/talent show plumbing a new depth of public taste. … Melvyn’s departure leaves the BBC nowhere to hide. It’s constantly claiming that it wants and needs to improve its arts coverage, so here is a golden opportunity….”
UK’s Immigration Laws Are Harming The Arts
“Thanks to the one-size-fits-all anti-terrorism laws, artists from outside the EU now need to go through a complex process of finding a sponsor and getting all manner of fingerprints and face-scans prior to travelling to the UK. … [D]o we really need a scan of Robert LePage’s face to know that he’s not coming here to bomb Canary Wharf?” And that’s hardly the only problem with the laws.
An Utterly Dispensable Mies? Go Ahead, Knock It Down.
An Illinois Institute of Technology building by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe “will soon be demolished…. And you know what? That’s perfectly fine. Mediocre buildings by world-class architects sometimes have to make way for pieces of civic infrastructure that uplift the community as a whole. As you might suppose, a cadre of historic preservationists doesn’t see it that way.”
Take That, Canaletto! Fueled By Ego, Turner Fights Back.
“JMW Turner was one of the most egotistical of all the 19th-century artists, with a firm belief that he was a match for any of his contemporaries – or indeed any painter who had gone before him. Now that lofty self-assessment is to be put to the test on an unprecedented scale. The Tate announced today that for its big autumn show this year it would hang Turner’s responses to some of the greatest paintings side by side with the originals.”
A Gauguin Painting From Boston Draws Throngs In Japan
“Though the enormous painting is set in Tahiti and has never been seen before in Asia, the Japanese embraced it with a kind of fanaticism usually reserved for their baseball players. Gauguin’s work is much loved in Japan, where it has a special resonance, with its subtle references to Buddhism, its embrace of the natural world, and the deep Zen-like riddle of its title.”
Actors’ Inspiration: Carl Jung
“In the last decade, dream work, as it is known, has spread into actors studios and classrooms across the country, taking its place among the ever expanding techniques of actor training and in the long-running debate over what leads to the most authentic performances.”
Domingo Bows Out Mid-Performance At Met
“Plácido Domingo … withdrew in midperformance at the Metropolitan Opera’s production of ‘Die Walküre’ on Tuesday evening and was replaced by Gary Lehman in the role of Siegmund, the Met said.”