“Salvatore Licitra is one of several looking to fill the voids left by two of the Three Tenors, and he’s making it look easy. Though he’s still establishing himself in major opera companies, he’s already on his first recital tour. His commitments to the big opera companies of the world now go through 2009. Besides being one of the world’s most promising singers, he’s probably the most fun. He hasn’t been famous very long – for that matter, he hasn’t been singing all that long – and as hard as he tries, his lips stay only partly buttoned.”
Blog
The Seattle Solution (A Public Nude)
A computer analyst dies in Seattle, leaving the city $1 million for public art on the condition that an artist be commisssioned to create a male nude and place it in a prominent place. The city’s solution? It approached sculptor Louise Bourgeois, and plans to place the work in the Seattle Art Museum’s new sculpture park…
Toronto’s Theatre Sound Like A Shopping Directory
Toronto’s theatres are taking on corporate names. The latest is the New Yorker Theatre, which is becoming the Panasonic Theatre. The company reportedly paid $4 million for the deal, spread out over 10 years. “The theatre’s lobby alone will be equipped with $250,000 worth of state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment from Panasonic, including its latest 65-inch high-definition plasma TV.”
Fox Censors Out Cartoon Butt (We’re Scared Of The FCC)
The Fox network is censoring out the butts of cartoon characters now. “Fox felt it had to pixelate the bare bottom of animated tot Stewie in an episode of “Family Guy” that aired a couple of weeks ago. When Fox ran the episode about four years ago, before Janet Jackson exposed her breast at the Super Bowl, endangering the moral fiber of American youth, it did not blur the shot of Baby Stewie’s behind. ‘FCC guidelines are not clear; we are now second- and third-guessing ourselves’.”
Rock Ruled (In The Past, But No More)
Once, rock music was the dominant format of American radio. Not any more. “With baby boomers switching to other formats and younger listeners increasingly bypassing radio altogether, once-dominant rock stations are withering and in some cities dying.”
Back To The 80s (We’re Talkin’ East Village)
New York’s East Village was an art phenomenon of the 1980s. But, writes Peter Schjeldahl, “there was something toxically facetious about the East Village versions of avant-gardism and la vie bohème which heralded a shift to arch self-consciousness in American culture. But the half-cooked epoch was significant in ways that merit closer consideration than it has received.”
Repatriating Remains – Let’s Understand Why
Aboriginals are asking for return of remains in museums. But the returns are controversial. “Large-scale and unique collections of valuable material could be destroyed, when very little is known about an object’s provenance.”
FBI Forms Art Theft Unit
With art theft on the rise, the FBI is forming its first art theft unit. “The eight agents, who will be deployed around the country, are learning not just about art theft, but about art itself, including art history and how to distinguish artists, periods and styles.”
Morocco Opens World’s Largest Movie Studio
Morocco now boasts the biggest film studio in the world. “Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis and Rome’s famed Cinecitta Studios have teamed up to create CLA Studios, which stretches over 371 acres with two shooting stages of 19,380 square feet each. Bigger than any studio in Hollywood or Europe, the site will be able to accommodate two major movies a year.”
Art Of The Blind
“The Helen Keller award began in 1933 as an essay competition, after the famous American campaigner visited Scotland, and has been an art award since 1992. Anyone can enter, as long as the art is on the subject of deaf-blindness; this year over 200 entries were sent from across the world. To create a level playing field, the judging panel – including, this year, sculptor Kenny Hunter – aren’t told which artists are deaf or blind, both or neither. This presents challenges, both for the judges and the organisers.”