Ernest Hemingway’s house in Idaho will stay where it is and become a museum. “The board of The Nature Conservancy’s Idaho chapter voted Friday to move ahead with a plan to turn the 13-acre property near Sun Valley into a literary library and museum. The Nobel Prize-winning author fatally shot himself at the home in 1961. Neighbors had agreed to pay market value for the property — which could fetch an estimated $5 million — on the condition the house be moved. Neighbors fear the nonprofit group’s plans will disrupt the residential character of the upscale Ketchum community.”
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(Tax Breaks) Ireland To Release Artists’ Names
Ireland is going to release the names of artists who have benefited from the country’s tax breaks for artists. “Disclosure would reveal that the Revenue considers the works of the artists to be original and creative and to have cultural merit. There is also significant public interest in ensuring maximum openness regarding public expenditure, particularly where there may be a perceived lack of transparency in the public body’s procedures and criteria.”
Actors Trade Fake Da Vinci Code For Real In China
Actors dressed as characters from The Da Vinci Code spent a day at Shanghai’s Book City exchanging pirated copies of the best-selling thriller for legal editions. “Customers looking to turn their fake copy in for a legitimate edition had to tell the actors where and when they bought the pirated book. Since the Chinese version was published last year, 500,000 legal copies of the book have been sold, but pirated versions are still readily available throughout the country. The real book sells for about 28 yuan (US$3.38), while pirated versions sell for between 5 yuan and 10 yuan.”
Oscar TV Ratings Up (Slightly)
The Oscars’ 30.1 rating in Nielsen Media Research’s 56 top markets was a slight 1 percent improvement over last year’s comparable number, and the highest-rated Academy Awards in the metered markets since 2000.
Churches Gobble Up Micro-Radio Licenses
Newly authorized low-watt radio stations were supposed to be places where “low-income folks and communities of color – ‘new voices,’ in government parlance – could grab a tiny slice of a radio dial now dominated by conglomerates. These micro stations would be a programming rainbow, where Hawaiian music would lead into debates over the fate of the local landfill — a type of community-focused format rarely heard on big-city stations. But something unexpected happened on the way to the dial diversity the left thought it was getting: Low-power frequencies have been gobbled up by Christian organizations. Church groups make up roughly half the 344 applicants licensed by the Federal Communications Commission.”
Laboring To Keep Oscar Interesting (And Not Succeeding)
This year’s Oscars telecast was pretty lame. “The Oscars are losing their status as a big national party and turning instead into de facto political conventions — and if there’s anything TV and the nation don’t need, it’s more of those. Chances are the ratings for this year’s Oscar show will not be especially high and might be especially low, unless Rock turns out to have been enough of a name to bring viewers back to their sets. More likely, the whole horrible mess will have to be rethought once again, and next year’s Oscarcast will be preceded by a fresh wave of hype about how new and improved it all is.”
Churchill’s Epic History, A Sequel
Winston Churchill’s “A History of the English-Speaking Peoples” told an epic tale of 2,200 years of history. Now “historian Andrew Roberts has taken on the daunting task of picking up where Churchill’s narrative left off, at the dawn of the 20th century. Roberts is writing a fifth volume to add to the four Churchill wrote. It will trace the main events of the 20th century chronologically, with the wartime leader himself a dominant figure.”
Taking Down The Gates
The dismantling of the 7,500 “Gates” in Central Park begins today. Taking them down “will be easier than the installation because there will not be any need to be careful. The 5,290 tons of steel will be melted down and recycled – The aluminum is going to become cans of soda and the fabric will be shredded and turned into carpet padding. Then all that will be left of “The Gates” will be the memories, and the T-shirts, coffee mugs, posters, watches and baseball caps. There will also be the coffee table book, as there is for most of their projects. Christo spent yesterday morning with Wolfgang Volz, the photographer, gathering pictures for the book.”
Conductor Arrested For Musician Employment Practices
France has arrested a German conductor at a concert. “Fifteen members of the Cologne New Philharmonic were taken into custody, followed allegations that the 49-year-old conductor had been illegally employing musicians from eastern Europe without work permits. Instead of paying the standard rate, it is alleged, the conductor was giving his musicians just €30 (£21) a day and bussing them between hotels to different European venues.”
Spoof “Gates” A Hit
Geoff Hargadon created “13 miniature plastic gates spread across his loft, often tracing the path of his cat, Edie” in a spoof of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Central Park “Gates.” Hargadon — “Hargo,” as he’s now known — had to shut down his Web site featuring photos of “The Somerville Gates” after it received 5.5 million hits in one week. He’s been fielding media calls nonstop and has been interviewed by reporters from Germany to Colombia. The art department at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C., said Friday that it wants one of the Somerville gates for its collection.”