At the London Book Fair, technology is the big theme, with Google’s John Needham speaked to a packed room about his company’s publishing projects…
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Art Thieves Hit Rio Again
For the second time in ten days, art thieves have scored a major heist in Rio. “Two armed men burst into the Rio City Museum and took gold and silver relics from Brazil’s empire era said to be of ‘incalculable historic value’. The 11 stolen items include an ivory sabre and a pearl and silver foil.”
Author: Da Vinci Code Claims Exaggerated
One of the authors suing Dan Brown, claiming Brown stole details for the Da Vinci Code plot, has admitted he exaggerated his claims. “Michael Baigent had claimed 15 points central to the plot of Brown’s novel had been taken from a 1982 non-fiction book he wrote with two other authors. As the case resumed at the High Court in London, however, Mr Baigent said his language had been ‘infelicitous’.”
ENO Settles On Gardner
Edward Gardner is the English National Opera’s new music director. “The conductor Oleg Caetani was to have started as music director this month, but resigned at Christmas even before he began. The company has, since November, also lost an artistic director and a chairman. Gardner is music director of Glyndebourne Opera’s touring arm, and a former assistant at the Hallé Orchestra to Mark Elder, who himself was 32 when he became music director of ENO in the 1980s.”
The Spoetry Of Spam
Spoetry is email spam poetry. “In an unedited, authorless spoem (spam poem) ‘aardvarks sweat in gibbon rucksacks’ and ‘freight trains rejoice toothpicks, merrily’. Reminiscent of Ezra Pound, or William Burroughs’ cut-ups, spoetry transcends its mundane commercial aim and becomes, yes, art.”
Auction Houses Say Buyers Pay New UK Levy
Sotheby’s and Christie’s say auction buyers will have to pay a new UK levy on the resale of art. “The artists’ resale royalties are paid on a sliding scale, based on the hammer price, and are capped at 12,500 euros ($14,904) for any individual item sold. Works costing less than 1,000 euros are excluded.”
Lost In Translation
“Though translators often get the short shrift, they are more important than ever in this global age. Literature from foreign lands is one of the best ways to understand and experience distant cultures. Yet it represents only a tiny fraction of the books published in America. Of the 195,000 new titles printed in English in 2004 (the most recent year for which numbers are available), only 891 were works of adult literature in translation.”
Washington Ballet Labor Accord
Washington Ballet and its dancers have reached an agreement on a new contarct…
Producers Looking For New NY Venue For “Rachel Corrie”
London’s Royal Court Theatre is considering other opportunities to stage “My Name is Rachel Corrie” in New York after New York Theater Workshop canceled a planned production because of political concerns. “Royal Court’s statement took issue with the workshop’s assertion that the planned production of “Rachel Corrie” was not definite, saying that press releases had been finalized, previews set, budgets approved, flights booked and tickets listed for sale.”
High And Low English?
“It often seems that the English language is heading off in two separate directions. On the one hand there are the wild abbreviated inventions of texting, all the different pidgin languages that are born on the street corner when an ethnic language bangs into English and the technospeak of modernity. All these separate strands of invention are blurring together to create a new English with a hybrid vigour.”