“[An] appeal court in Norway [has] overturned a previous ruling and cleared the author of The Bookseller of Kabul and her publisher … of invading the privacy of the family she lived with and wrote about, and concluded that the facts of the book were accurate.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Damien Hirst Launches A Spot-Painting-Industrial Complex
After swearing off his “abstract canvases of candy-color dots” in 2008, Hirst has started (mass-)producing his signature spot paintngs again – and “he has persuaded the gallery owner Larry Gagosian to let him take over all 11 of his galleries … to hold a retrospective” of those works in January.
One Hundred Years Of British Film Censorship
“When it was first set up in 1912, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) – or Film Censors, as it was known then – concerned itself with the ‘unnecessary exhibition of under-clothing’ or ‘scenes calculated to afford information to the enemy’. Now … it finds itself more likely to be fending off Hollywood studios attempting to shoehorn too much violence into films aimed at 12-year-olds.”
Carlos Acosta, Ballet-Superstar-Turned-Novelist
The Cuban heartthrob of the Royal Ballet, who has already published an autobiography, has written a novel that will be published in 2013. “The story, which is as yet untitled, is set in Cuba and charts the island’s history from the 19th century to the present, including … the revolution of the 1950s.”
Don’t Support Your Local Bookstore, Buy Books On Amazon Instead
Farhad Manjoo: “Compared with online retailers, bookstores present a frustrating consumer experience. … As much as I despise some of its recent tactics, no company in recent years has done more than Amazon to ignite a national passion for buying, reading, and even writing new books.”
Great Art Emigrates From Britain
“Treasures worth more than £65m, including a Poussin, a Van Dyck and a stupendous Turner painting that was the artist’s final image of Rome, will all leave the UK because no one had sufficient money to prevent their export, an annual report has revealed.”
Austin Powers: The Musical (It Had To Happen Eventually)
Mike Myers, creator and star of the cinematic ’60s spy spoof franchise, is writing the script for a stage musical – a prequel to the films that explains how Austin Powers became a superspy. Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello are reportedly writing the songs.
Cute Little Psychokillers: Why We Love ‘Bad Seed’ Movies
“What if a parasitic creature is squatting in one’s womb? What if, once born, the baby is a monster – alien and unlovable? What exactly does one do if the darkest and most unspeakable of parental fears come to terrifying fruition? These questions drive one of the classic tropes of horror: the bad seed film.”
We Swear We Didn’t Design These Twin Towers To Look Like 9/11. Really, We Didn’t.
As part of a large new urban development scheme in South Korea, the Dutch architectural firm MVRDV designed twin skyscrapers with a “pixelated cloud” structure connecting them roughly halfway up. The architects, in their apology, insist that the resemblance to the burning World Trade Center never occurred to them.
Russian State Television Actually Covers Protests
“Regular viewers of government-controlled television were treated to a curious sight when they tuned in to the evening news on Saturday. … In short, government television covered the protests much as they had occurred – to the surprise of many.”