Playwright Harold Pinter says he’s giving up writing plays. “I think I’ve stopped writing plays now, but I haven’t stopped writing poems. I think I’ve written 29 plays. I think it’s enough for me. I think I’ve found other forms now.”
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Art Theft On Rise In China
Thefts of artifacts from Chinese museums are on the increase. “Forty cases involving 222 items stolen from protected sites and museums were recorded last year, an 81.8 percent increase year-on-year” in 2004.
Sculptor Ices Performance
A sculptor who created an entire orchestra of instruments from ice canceled his show in Sweden at the last minute because he didn’t like the sound of the musicians warming up…
USC Arts Journalism Fellows Chosen
Seven arts journalists have been chosen 2005 Fellows for the University of Southern California Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program. A committee of six journalists chose the Fellows from an international pool of approximately 70 applicants from Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, Nigeria, Romania and the United States.
Japanese Museum Tops 2004 Attendance Figures
For the first time, a Japanese museum has topped world museum attendance records compiled by the Art Newspaper. “The most visited show of 2004 was “Treasures of a sacred mountain” at the Tokyo National Museum which was seen by an average of 7,638 visitors a day, while another exhibition at the institution, “Treasures of Chinese art” has also made it into the top 10.The remarkable increase in attendance to Japanese exhibitions follows the 2001 semi-privatisation of all State-run museums, combined with the country’s continuing recession which has fostered a ruthlessly competitive climate among Japanese institutions.”
Ringtones – Recording Gold
Cell phone ringtones “cost about two dollars and are typically no more than twenty-five seconds long. Nevertheless, according to Consect, a marketing and consulting firm in Manhattan, ringtones generated four billion dollars in sales around the world in 2004. The United States accounted for only three hundred million of these dollars, although Consect predicts that the figure will double this year.”
Springer Opera Tour Backer May Pull Out After Christian Pressure
The backer of a British tour of Jerry Springer The Opera says he may pull out. The backer, who was to have provided 40% of the funding for the tour, was targeted by Christian Voice, an evangelical group that has condemned the musical — based on the American television show — as “filthy and blasphemous”.
Did Orff Write The Original “Springtime For Hitler”?
Canada is in love with Carmina Burana. “Right now we’re in the midst of a rush hour of Canadian performances of the whole cantata, with or without dancers and fireworks. Recent critical discussion has tried to determine whether, in effect, the Nazis were right. Was Carmina Burana “the original Springtime for Hitler,” as musicologist Richard Taruskin has suggested, and is it somehow dispensing a toxic mist of Nazi mythology over all who hear it?”
Conductors Petition For South Bank Acoustics
Thirty top conductors have signed a letter demanding that improving acoustics at London’s South Bank should be the top priority in a renovation. “The roll of names includes such sworn enemies as Daniel Barenboim and Christian Thielemann; Riccardo Muti and most other Italian maestri; Simon Rattle and several of his less guarded professional critics. What unites them is a concern for London’s premier concert venue and a fear that it may suffer as a result of declining political regard for classical music and the general decay in British arts policy.”
Did Drugs And Alcohol Kill Hunter Thompson’s Talent?
“His greatest period of creativity certainly commences with Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, written in 1972. The Great Shark Hunt, published in 1979, contains his last work of any merit. The 11 books Thompson published in the next 25 years were a patchwork of half-finished columns and poorly researched articles, the occasional flashes of brilliant prose serving only to illuminate his lack of coherent thought and the ever-dimming light of his genius. As he retreated from the front line of journalism, he became a freak show on the corner of American pop culture. The books kept getting smaller. The print kept getting bigger.”