“In occupied Paris, a Gestapo officer who had barged his way into Picasso’s apartment pointed at a photo of the mural, Guernica, asking: ‘Did you do that?’ ‘No,’ Picasso replied, ‘you did’, his wit fizzing with the anger that animates the piece.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Now, That’s Flexible: Finance Museum Tackles Credit Crisis
“The global economic crisis wears on, but the Museum of American Finance is already documenting its history in an exhibit that opened on Wednesday. ‘Tracking the Credit Crisis’ provides a timeline of the events that led to the current recession and translates the catchphrases of the economic downturn such as ‘securitization,’ ‘liquidity,’ and ‘derivative’ for the average person.”
Augusta Symphony Names New Conductor
“The Augusta Symphony has a new conductor. His friends call him Z. Shizuo Kuwahara is set to be named today as the third conductor in the organization’s history. He succeeds Donald Portnoy, who is retiring at the end of the performance season.”
Why The Christian Book Expo Was An Attendance Flop
In an essay that begins by noting that he didn’t go to the last day of the Christian Book Expo, publisher Michael Hyatt, who organized the event, analyzes why attendance was abysmal. “If consumers had come, this would have been an incredible show. The ‘product’ itself was superb. Programming, production, logistics, displays–everything was first class. … So then, why didn’t it work? We built it. But they didn’t come. Why?”
In Orchestra’s Program & Costumes, Echoes Of Auschwitz
A community orchestra in Woodstock, N.Y., “is, with its instrumentation, uniforms and repertory, emulating one of the best known of the concentration-camp ensembles: the Birkenau women’s orchestra of some 54 Jewish prisoners at Auschwitz from 1943 through 1945.” The program “is meant to be a poignant reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust and of how a group of women used music to survive. While this mission has been hailed by numerous Jewish groups, some survivors find it too poignant.”
Mamet To Make His B’way Debut (As A Director, That Is)
“David Mamet will make his Broadway directing debut next season with the world preem of his new play ‘Race.’ In Gotham, Mamet has previously helmed productions of his plays ‘Oleanna’ and ‘The Cryptogram’ as well as magician Ricky Jay’s outings ‘Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants’ and ‘Ricky Jay: On the Stem,’ all of which ran Off Broadway.”
Love The Novel — But Our Famous Author Wants That Title
“Joanna Smith Rakoff had just turned in a major set of rewrites on her novel, Brooklyn, when her editor at Scribner broke the news to her over dinner that she would have to change its title. It seemed that Irish novelist Colm TóibÃn, a Scribner author since 2000 who has been twice short-listed for the Booker Prize, wanted to use it for his forthcoming book, which was scheduled to come out this spring, just a month after Ms. Rakoff’s. Would the young debut novelist mind terribly getting out of the way?”
What’s This? The British Have Come To Love Le Corbusier?
In England, there is “fresh debate about whether to preserve what used to be regarded simply as bad Corbu-derived architecture. Occasionally a cultural figure provides a little window into a nation’s shifting identity, and in Britain the self-regarding Swiss-born, Paris-based architectural genius who died in 1965, at 77, may now be one such figure.”
Faust, Bowie, Last Scottish ‘Witch’ At Edinburgh Festival ’09
“Controversial choreographer Michael Clark will use the music of David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed as the starting point of a new work specially produced for Edinburgh.” Other highlights of the the 63rd festival: “a 100-strong cast performing Faust at the Royal Highland Showground, a recital from popular Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, the premiere of a play telling the story of Scotland’s last ‘witch’ and a reworking of JM Barrie’s classic fairytale Peter Pan.”
Sculpture With Energy As Topic Wins Jerwood Prize
“A sculpture made using scaled down models of electricity pylons has won the 2009 Jerwood Sculpture Prize. The £25,000 commission will see winning artist Michael Visocchi produce a large-scale work at the Jerwood Sculpture Park in Warwickshire. … Visocchi said the work aimed to provoke thought about climate change, carbon footprints and renewable energy.”