The fifth annual list, which does not rank the films in order, is organized through the Toronto International Film Festival Group to promote Canadian film. Though Canada’s filmmaking veterans were highly visible this year, TIFF director Piers Handling referred to 2005 as a “powerhouse year” because the old guard were augmented by some strong first-time filmmakers.
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How “Alt-” Will New Alt-Weekly Chain Be?
“A half-century after New York’s Village Voice launched the genre of alternative weeklies, there’s still plenty of war, injustice and corporate domination around. But the anti-establishment counterculture has moved topside. Rock ‘n’ roll jingles hawk luxury cars, mutual funds come with social consciences and alternative weeklies have become a profitable, parallel universe to the mainstream media. In an unmistakable sign that the counterculture has morphed into corporate culture,” now two “alt-weekly” chains are merging…
Pianist Gyorgy Sandor, 93
“Mr. Sandor was born in Budapest and studied piano with Bartok and composition with Kodaly at the Liszt Academy of Music there. He began to travel widely as a concert pianist in the 1930’s, and settled in the United States after his American debut at Carnegie Hall in 1939.”
Edith Wharton Library Returns To America
George Ramsden, a British bookseller, has signed “a $2.6 million agreement to sell the 2,600-volume Edith Wharton library to the custodians of the Mount, the writer’s estate in Lenox, Mass., which she designed, built and finally left forever in 1911 as her marriage unraveled.”
A Solution For The Museum Looted Art Mess?
American museums should not grudgingly cough up artifacts piece by piece, like thieves caught with swag. They should make a virtue out of adversity and offer to share their disputed antiquities en masse with plaintiff countries–this applies above all to the Getty, which can afford to lead the world by example and precedent. The Getty should flaunt its courage with a grand public change of heart. It should offer to build Getty museums abroad in the Guggenheim Bilbao manner to house its antiquities in style and to create a system of permanently shared collections.”
Court Seizes Audubon Quartet Instruments
A federal bankruptcy court judge in Roanoke, Va., has ruled that the three remaining original members of the Audubon String Quartet must turn over their instruments to a bankruptcy court trustee to satisfy a judgment won by the fourth quartet member. “The legal battle has been long and bitter. It has divided the music world and split loyalties in and around Blacksburg, Va., where the quartet moved in 1980 for a residency at Virginia Tech, which ended after the lawsuit.”
Britain’s Most Popular Building (Or One Of Its Biggest Eyesores?)
The new Scottish parliament building was voted the UK’s 8th most popular in a poll, just a day after it was voted in another survey as one of the country’s biggest eyesores. The Eden Project in Cornwall has been voted the UK’s best-loved modern building.
Detroit Mayor Closes Historical Museum
Acting quickly on a re-election mandate to fix the city’s finances, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on Tuesday announced the layoffs of 400 city workers, the closing of the Detroit Historical Museum and transfer of management of the Detroit Zoo.
Omaha’s New Symphony Space
Omaha has a new concert hall. “For a mere $92 million, Nebraska’s largest city has a sonically satisfying 2,000-seat concert hall and a ‘black box’ space that can seat as many as 450.”
What It’s Like To be An Art Critic?
“The days on your feet. The camaraderie of the galleries. The athleticism of aestheticism. A fellow art critic recently told me the story of an important figure who, in important tones, once asked him to explain how he goes about criticizing art. Well, the critic replied, I see art … and I write about it! The response, he reports, was met with bewilderment.”