There may be as many as 50,000 book clubs in the UK. “What is clear is that the book club is now a near-ubiquitous feature of bourgeois life. If you are not in one, you will know someone who is. There are reading groups devoted to football, horror, and crime books. There groups in prisons, groups for men, groups who dress up in clothing appropriate to the book, groups who cook for each other, lesbian groups and radical groups.”
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Hidden City’s Remains Uncovered By Tsunami
Parts of a long-lost port city in India were uncovered by last year’s tsunami. “Archaeologists say they have discovered some stone remains from the coast close to India’s famous beachfront Mahabalipuram temple in Tamil Nadu state following the 26 December tsunami. They believe that the “structures” could be the remains of an ancient and once-flourishing port city in the area housing the famous 1200-year-old rock-hewn temple.”
Is Palm Beach The Next Maastricht?
Art Basel Miami has become an art sensation in Florida for contemporary collectors. Now Palm Beach wants to the same for Old Masters. First though, to settle on a name: The fair has “changed its name twice in the past two years, the latest version being Palm Beach! America’s International Fine Art & Antique Fair. The exclamation mark caused some hilarity in the art market and there were rumours that an outside consultant had been paid $500,000 to come up with the idea. The fair’s organisers deny the latter suggestion and say that it was dreamed up in-house, but there is no doubt about their strategy.”
Grammy Ratings Dive – Have We Lost Interest?
Ratings plummeted for Sunday night’s Grammy show. “An estimated 18.8 million people watched Ray Charles’ swan song clean up with eight awards Sunday night, a startling 28 percent drop from the 2004 Grammys. After two years on an upswing, Grammy ratings sunk to their lowest level since 1995.”
Teachout: Not Liking Arthur Miller
Terry Teachout was not an Arthur Miller fan. “He was, literally, pretentious: He pretended to have big ideas and the ability to express them with a touch of poetry, when in fact he had neither. His final play, “Finishing the Picture,” was yet another rehash of the Monroe-Miller ménage in which he resorted one last time to what I referred to in this space last fall as “pseudo-poetic burble” (“What we had that was alive and crazy has been pounded into some hateful, ordinary dust”).”
Broadway Goes Jukebox Mining
Broadway shows made up of pop songs seem to be getting more popular. “The rise of the jukebox musical comes at a time when Broadway producers seem increasingly unable to consistently strike gold with either overtly campy new work (“Taboo,” “Bombay Dreams”), high-minded, chamber-opera fare (“Caroline, or Change”) or movie-inspired shows (“Never Gonna Dance,” “Footloose”). Add to that the near-complete inability of contemporary Broadway songs to crack the Top 40 list, and the appeal of the jukebox musical becomes even more apparent: here, it seems, is a prepackaged score guaranteed to be hummable and requiring no expensive stars.”
Alvin Ailey’s Children
One of the measures of greatness is how much an artist influences those who come after him. By that measure Alvin Ailey has ensured his place in dance history: he’s “spawned at least five major companies built in the Ailey image — Philadanco, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble in Denver, Lula Washington Dance Theatre in Los Angeles and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company — and many small groups, inspired by Ailey’s success.”
Georgia’s Cultural Rebirth
“Georgian artists who headed west before and during the civil strife of the early 90s have begun to reconnect with their homeland, bringing know-how, money, contacts and leadership. Georgian troupes are starting to travel abroad again. Across the entire spectrum of the performing arts, Georgians are getting to grips with the freedoms and responsibilities that a fragile democracy confers. A new culture of autonomy and self-help is being implanted – but no one expects it to flower overnight.”
Scottish Arts Council Chief: Football Is Art Too
“Foortball should be regarded as an equal art form to opera and ballet, according to the newly appointed chairman of the Scottish Arts Council. In his first statement since taking the helm of the SAC, Dr Richard Holloway, 71, criticised the “snobbish” associations that surround the Scottish art scene and insisted sports such as football and shinty deserve recognition by the nation’s cultural community.”
Sahara’s Lush Pre-Desert Life Recorded In Rock Art – Now It’s Endangered
“Before the last Ice Age, the Sahara was even larger and more inhospitable than it is today. Then, some 10,000 years ago, a shift in climate brought rainfall. In the ensuing years of plenty, a pastoral way of life thrived. The desert came back with a vengeance about 3,000 years ago and, as the remaining surface water supplies dwindled, the inhabitants were forced to dig for it below the ground.” The changes were recorded in rock art, but that art is in dancer of being destroyed by oil exploration in Libya…