The sometime standup comedian and retired host of NBC’s Tonight Show said in a statement “What an honor! I’m a big fan of Mark Twain’s. In fact, A Tale of Two Cities is one of my favorite books!”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.18.14
The Young and the Restless: Taking the Right Career Path
AJBlog: Field Notes | Published 2014-06-18
Earmarked taxes for the arts
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth | Published 2014-06-18
Damning DAM: AAMD Sanctimoniously Sanctions the Delaware Art Museum
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-06-18
Public Art: The Video And The Cathedral
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-06-19
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Where’s The Real Anti-Semitism Around ‘The Death Of Klinghoffer’?
Mark Swed: “But in fact, the only anti-Semitism this work – which delves deep into the idealistic roots but inevitably evil practices of terrorism – has ever engendered has been because of often successful pressure from Jewish groups to ban performances of Klinghoffer rather than incorporate poetic tragedy into the peace process.”
Delaware Art Museum Loses Accreditation For Selling Its Art
Following the sale of William Holman Hunt’s Isabella and the Pot of Basil to pay down debt, the American Alliance of Museums revoked DAM’s accreditation and the Association of Art Museum Directors put DAM on a blacklist for receiving loans from or collaborating on shows with other museums. All this for the sake of a painting that sold for less than half Christie’s lower pre-sale estimate.
Jazzman Horace Silver, Creator of ‘Hard Bop’, Dead At 85
“Through classic compositions such as ‘Song for My Father,’ ‘Nica’s Dream’ and ‘Señor Blues’,” [the pianist and founder of the Jazz Messengers “influenced generations of musicians with a style that encompassed all his musical loves: gospel, blues, Latin rhythm. It was music that, in Silver’s words, ‘cooked’ and ‘burned’.”
Apple Settles E-Book Price-Fixing Class Action Lawsuit
“The terms of the proposed settlement are sealed and have yet to be approved by the court. But by agreeing to any settlement terms Apple has effectively dodged a trial scheduled for July in which it faced up to $840 million in claims.”
California Arts Council Gets First Funding Increase In 11 Years – And It’s By 400%!
The budget just approved by the state legislature allocates $5 million to the CAC. “The council, which issues grants to nonprofit arts groups and arts education programs, had seen its annual allocation from state tax coffers stagnate at $1 million since 2003-04, down from a peak of nearly $31 million in 2000-2001.”
Turns Out Picasso Hid A Man In ‘The Blue Room’
“Using advances in infrared imagery, [researchers] have uncovered a hidden portrait of a bow-tied man with his face resting on his hand” underneath the 1901 painting. (Picasso evidently re-used the canvas.) “Now the question that conservators at The Phillips Collection in Washington hope to answer is simply: Who is he?”
Sherlock Holmes Is In The Public Domain, Rules U.S. Appeals Court
“The decision came in a suit between the [Arthur Conan] Doyle estate and Leslie Klinger, who was editing a set of stories inspired by Sherlock Holmes and other Doyle characters.”
Yet Another Problem For Journalism: Nobody Really Knows If Online Advertising Works
It’s true that advertisers have a lot more data – vast seas of data – from the Web than they ever did from print or broadcast. But researchers are finding that much of that data, and most ads, aren’t really useful for convincing people to buy things they weren’t going to buy anyway.