“A former employee of the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum is suing the museum and its executive director, claiming she was harassed and faced racial and disability discrimination before being unlawfully dismissed. Yvonne Wilson, 56, was the executive assistant to museum head Jane Werner… Ms. Wilson claims she was fired Jan. 18, after her superior said she was insubordinate and hostile in the workplace.”
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Fountain Freak-Out: Art or Vandalism?
“The Dada movement made its name in the early 20th century by trying to destroy the conventional notion of art. Taking literal inspiration from their exploits this week, a latter-day neo-Dadaist took a small hammer to Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain,’ the factory-made urinal that is considered the cornerstone of Conceptual Art. The assailant, a French performance artist named Pierre Pinoncelli, was immediately arrested after his act of vandalism… The porcelain urinal was slightly chipped in the attack and was withdrawn to be restored… Mr. Pinoncelli, 77, who urinated into the same urinal and struck it with a hammer in a show in Nîmes in 1993, has a long record of organizing bizarre happenings. Police officials said he again called his action a work of art, a tribute to Duchamp and other Dada artists.”
Maybe They Can Watch Touched By An Angel Reruns Instead
When NBC television created its new Friday drama, The Book of Daniel, it was hoping to tap into the new mainstreaming of religion as entertainment that has done such great business for Disney (The Chronicles of Narnia) and Mel Gibson (The Passion of the Christ). Instead, NBC affiliates in markets heavy with evangelical Christians are refusing to air the show after receiving protest calls from religious right activists who do not appreciate the title character’s portrayal as a pill-popping Episcopal minister who believes that Jesus speaks directly to him. To date, four stations have pulled the show, with the largest affected market being Little Rock, Arkansas.
Aging Like A Fine Wine
Let’s face facts. Elaine Stritch is not exactly in her prime these days – her voice cracks, her intonation is off, and she sounds like every bit of her 80 years. But Stritch did not become a Broadway legend by vocal talent alone, and her magnificent stage presence and bravado is 100% intact. Furthermore, the aspects of her singing that always made her unique – her use of silence and her special way of delivering lyrics – could be used as a primer for aspiring theatrical singers.
Art Borne Of Sickness
Moscow’s 1200-bed Children’s Clinical Hospital has quietly become an international pioneer in the field of art therapy, simply by encouraging its young patients to engage their creativity, even as they struggle through batteries of tests and exhausting medical treatments. Now, a Russian foundation is displaying the art created by the young patients in a space normally reserved for “serious” art. “The artworks, which include elaborate beadwork, went on display at the Russian Abroad Foundation, a gleaming new library and research and cultural center that is the creation of Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn and was built with the backing of Moscow’s mayor.”
Mozart’s Skull? Inconclusive
Scientists have failed to determine whether a skull they tested is that of Mozart. “The scientists hoped to match its DNA to genetic samples taken from what they believed are the skeletons of Mozart’s grandmother and niece. The scientists said on Austrian television Sunday that the skeletons do not match the skull, and that the skeletons are also unrelated – creating a whole new mystery of who is buried the Mozart family crypt.”
CIA Trying To Discourage Books
Concerned about information getting out about how the CIA operates, agency director Porter Goss is trying to discourage books about the agency by former employees. “Goss is concerned about the potential effects of books written by those with inside knowledge of agency operations.”
Cracking The Code – Da Vinci To Get Paperback Megaprint
The publisher of the Da Vinci Code is printing 5 million copies in paperback. “Even though the book is one of the best sellers in hardcover history with 12 million copies in print in North America, Random House, a division of Bertelsmann of Germany, is operating on the assumption that many readers have been waiting for a less-expensive paperback version and that the film will generate new interest.”
Wait For It! Second Chord In World’s Longest Piece
We’re now two years into the performance. The abandoned Buchardi church in Halberstadt, eastern Germany, is the venue for a mind-boggling 639-year-long performance of a piece of music by US experimental composer John Cage (1912-1992). Entitled “organ2/ASLSP” (or “As SLow aS Possible”), the performance began on September 5, 2001 and is scheduled to last until 2639.
The Word Of The Year
It’s “truthiness”. “The American Dialect Society chose the word Friday after a runoff with terms related to Hurricane Katrina, such as “Katrinagate,” the scandal erupting from the lack of planning for the monster hurricane.”