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The Documentary That Can’t Be Shown In The US

“Eyes on the Prize, the landmark documentary on the civil rights movement, is no longer broadcast or sold new in the United States. It’s illegal. The 14-part series highlights key events in black Americans’ struggle for equality and is considered an essential resource by educators and historians, but the filmmakers no longer have clearance rights to much of the archival footage used in the documentary. It cannot be rebroadcast on PBS (where it originally aired) or any other channels, and cannot be released on DVD until the rights are cleared again and paid for.”

Big Brains At Warp Speed

The human brain was not a gradual product of evolution, says a new study. The new research suggests that “humans evolved their cognitive abilities not owing to a few sporadic and accidental genetic mutations – as is the usual way with traits in living things – but rather from an enormous number of mutations in a short period of time, acquired though an intense selection process favouring complex cognitive abilities.”

The Intellectual As Superstar

Susan Sontag was that rarest of modern intellectuals, a deep thinker who had no qualms about embracing the 20th century’s often superficial definition of fame. Sontag “had the gift of fame, which is to say she possessed charisma, which may be why she ended up being called overrated, the fate of charismatic people. I had read more about her than by her.”

2004 Looked A Lot Like 1954

With so much exciting new art in the world, not to mention the emergence of technology-based art, why did the old and familiar continue to dominate at North America’s biggest museums in 2004? “A youth movement? As if. The biggest news in the art-auction world — often confused with real art-making, or the real world for that matter — was that sale prices by the likes of Mark Rothko and Jasper Johns, artists in their prime way more than 50 years ago, have finally caught up with the mega-bucks sales by the Impressionists… The problem is no one really wants to be on edge. In this country, art is treated like comfort food for the brain.”

New York’s Aesthetics Czar

The directorship of New York’s City Planning Department is not ordinarily a high-profile position, but Amanda Burden is taking a stab at making it one. “She has not only repeatedly sent architects back to the drawing board, but also spurred commercial development in once-dormant neighborhoods… Compared with a Robert Moses, the think-big public works czar who imposed a sweeping vision on highways and parks across the city from the 1930’s to the 60’s, Ms. Burden might be considered an aesthetic watchdog,” imposing an unfamiliar discipline on development projects in a city whose style has always been “bigger, not better.”

The Definitive Holmes

A California lawyer has published a major new edition of the 56 Sherlock Holmes stories, heavily annotated with his exhaustive footnotes. “The collection, published last month by W. W. Norton is being hailed as the definitive exegesis of Holmes and his times. As a single reference work ‘The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes’ seems unlikely to be superseded for some time.”

Cooperation = Success

Canadian museums have been struggling in recent years to create exhibitions that will both generate an immediate buzz and have the longevity to make their mounting worthwhile financially. In 2004, a number of major exhibitions hit the mark, and the key to future successes may be in the trans-Atlantic partnerships which were forged this year. By joining forces with European institutions, Canadian museums “were able to split the costs of research and development of the loan list, the shipping, the catalogue production and a host of other costs that could have sunk the exhibition.”