“Four Nobel Prize-winners for literature have joined seven other distinguished writers in issuing a statement of support for the Czech-born author Milan Kundera, who has been accused of informing for the Communist secret police when he was a student.” The signatories are J. M. Coetzee, Gabriel García Marquez, Nadine Gordimer, Orhan Pamuk, Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie, Carlos Fuentes, Jean Daniel, Jorge Semprun, Juan Goytisolo and Pierre Mertens.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Obama, The Musical (Yes, Already)
The Kenya National Theatre has just opened Obama, The Musical, a stage bio of the half-Kenyan, half-Kansan senator who may be about to become President-Elect of the United States. “Those involved in the production are doing little to hide their sympathies. […] ‘McCain comes in as the villain, the chief villain. His supporting cast are George Bush and Sarah Palin who are standing in Obama’s way,’ the director says.”
Strad Cello Fails To Sell At Online Auction
The 1717 “Amaryllis Fleming” Stradivarius cello received only one bid when it was put up for auction with the online house Tarisio. And that bid didn’t meet the reserve price.
Controversy Over Provocative Images Of Muslim Women
Windows and doors at a London gallery were smashed in response to an exhibit of paintings by British Muslim artist Sarah Maple. Among the images are a veiled woman holding a pig, Maple herself in a T-shirt saying “I love jihad,” and another veiled woman wearing a badge reading “I love orgasms.”
New Peanuts Videos Released Online
“In a batch of 20 new webisodes, Charlie Brown and the gang have been brought back to animated life, much in the style of their classic holiday TV specials. But Lucy, Snoopy and others have been remade for the Web in 3- to 4-minute videos taken directly from classic 1964 comic strips.”
Dealer In Fake Antique Violins Hangs Himself
A Russian violinist and teacher has hanged himself in Rome after being arrested for fraud. He had confessed to buying violins at flea markets and re-selling them to his students as 18th-century instruments for hundreds of thousands of euros.
The Secrets In Martin Luther’s Trash
Historians are suggesting that entire chapters in the life of the founder of Protestantism might be re-written following the discovery of household trash at two of his homes. Among the preliminary conclusions is that Luther’s tales of coming from humble circumstances were untrue: his parents were considerably more prosperous than he claimed.
Two Van Gogh Portraits Authenticated
“The Van Gogh Museum confirmed Friday that two portraits suspected of being fakes are authentic. […] The analysis placed the date of the paintings in the spring of 1886 in Paris, when Van Gogh was being mentored by the painter Fernand Cormon. One of the portraits depicts a woman in hat and the other, a lady folding her gloved hands.”
Making Sense of Stockhausen, One Year After His Return To Sirius
Philip Hensher: “It seems a tragic justification of the career of the author of Gruppen that it would lead, in the end, to a multi-million selling pop album called OK Computer. But such Lilliputian testaments were very much in the air in 2007 because, for the best part of 30 years, the people who understood what had made Stockhausen interesting in the first place were generally not willing to stand up for his whole career. Since the mid-1970s, the composer who had once ruled a vast swath of contemporary taste had turned into a curiosity.”
… Well, Björk Understands Him
“I remember sitting in [Stockhausen’s] studio in Cologne, surrounded by 12 speakers, him creating a current traveling up and down, swirling around us like the force of nature that electricity is, my insides pulsating to his noise… Now the 21st century has started, Karlheinz was right, things are great, we are communicating telepathically, of course (as he prophesied), and music schools have changed.”