A Czech court has awarded a Canadian family a European art collection assembled by their Jewish grandfather before the Second World War and later confiscated by the Nazis and then the Communists. “The family has been fighting for more than 14 years to gain title to and possession of some of the estimated 140 art works — including paintings by Gustav Klimt, James Ensor and Oskar Kokoschka — owned by their grandfather, businessman Oskar Federer. Many of the works are housed in small public galleries in the cities of Ostrava and Pardubice.”
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It Was The Monster Mash…
“An outfit calling themselves Dean Gray (ho, ho) had taken Green Day’s American Idiot and fused each one of its tracks with other pieces of music, ranging from Bryan Adams to Queen. Then they changed the album’s name to American Edit and set it loose on the Internet. This is a mashup, the on-line stepchild of the remix and the latest way to anger a music company. It’s true that the concept sounds improbable; when pairing two different songs, the line between mashup and train wreck can be thin indeed. But the Zen of good mashing isn’t about pairing random songs; it’s about picking up on the similarities between two tracks, and tweaking the songs to have them create more than the sum of their parts.”
Saving The Met’s Aural History
The Metropolitan Opera has a trove of recordings of its week-by-week performances across seven decades. “The house is pressing forward with a project to preserve, and in many cases locate, nearly 1,400 recordings of its Saturday broadcasts. Met officials said they have completed 403 preservations, with 868 still to go, spending about $1.4 million in an open-ended project that is predicted to cost more than $4 million.”
A New Kind Of 21st Century Art Center?
Peter Noever, the “globe-trotting head of Vienna’s MAK Center” has a plan for a new art center in an old WWII antiaircraft tower in Vienna. “The idea is to build a collection of the 21st century. And to do it on site, and step by step. It will be very slow — 15 to 20 years. You invite one artist, and then see what he has done, and then see what you do next. It is the very opposite of the kind of collection that’s offered on the market, which changes as parts are bought and sold.”
What Did Howard Stern Do To Radio?
“Whether he was a force for further vulgarizing the culture or liberating it from its puritanical neuroses depends upon the ear of the listener. But whatever your viewpoint, one thing is clear: In addition to almost single-handedly creating a new species of talk show hosts — involving behavior that morning show newcomers now must either emulate or surpass — Stern also pushed, stamped and shook pop culture.”
Chihuly Sues Glassbowers Over Copyright
Glass artist Dale Chihuly is suing two glassblowers, claiming they are copying his designs. “How does an artist go about proving — or disproving — copyright infringement? How do you differentiate between Chihuly’s influence on other glass artists and artistic plagiarism? Can he claim exclusive rights to designs that are modeled on things such as Navajo blankets and sea life? And what does it mean for the world of art glass?”
New JetBlue Terminal – How To Wreck A Modernist Classic
Eero Saarinen’s 1962 masterpiece TWA Terminal at JFK airport is a classic. It’s now being used by JetBlue, which in only a few years has become the airport’s biggest carrier. So now the airline is expanding. “JetBlue’s new terminal, unfortunately, shows just how low air travel can go. At $875 million, it’s $125 million cheaper than the bare-bones JFK barracks that American Airlines opened last summer — and looks it.”
What American Dance Needs…
“After the postmodern multidisciplinary melting pot era, it’s my opinion that the dance world is in need for specializing again: finding new movement techniques, new working ethics, new ways how the art form could communicate to an dance-alienated public who has lost contact with their own bodies. Though both the infrastructure and the financial situation necessary for accomplishing this is within the US unfortunately almost completely absent, the mindset for establishing for such developments is most definitely there. And that’s where it all starts.”
I Got My Degree At… Wikiversity?
Members of the Wikipedia community are proposing the creation of a Wikiversity. “It’s not clear exactly how extensive Wikiversity would be. Some think it should serve only as a repository for educational materials; others think it should also play host to online courses; and still others want it to offer degrees.”
Freeman Says No To Black History Month
Actor Morgan Freeman says the concept of a month dedicated to black history is “ridiculous.” “You’re going to relegate my history to a month?” the 68-year-old actor says in an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes” to air Sunday”I don’t want a black history month. Black history is American history.”