“Underneath a German bus terminal, archaeologists have found the remains of a 2,000-year-old Roman roadside rest stop that included a chariot service station, gourmet restaurant and hotel with central heating. The building complex indicates that citizens of the Roman Empire traveled in relative comfort.”
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Ballerina Alicia Markova, 94
Dame Alicia Markova, one of the UK’s most influential prima ballerinas, has died aged 94. She died in a nursing home in Bath on Thursday morning, the day after her birthday.
Alabama Legisator Proposes Banning Gay Books
An Alabama legislator is proposing legislation that would ban books with gay characters or themes from libraries in the state. “Our culture, how we know it today, is under attack from every angle,” Gerald Allen says. “Allen said that if his bill passes, novels with gay protagonists and college textbooks that suggest homosexuality is natural would have to be removed from library shelves and destroyed. ‘I guess we dig a big hole and dump them in and bury them’.”
Film Critic Quits For Nothing
After 17 years, Sacramento Bee film critic Joe Baltake is quitting. For what? To do nothing. “That’s what’s so strange,” Baltake told Bites, fresh from reviewing Christmas with the Kranks, a film he suggested makes retiring from film criticism that much easier. “Whenever I tell somebody what my plans are–and I’ve been talking about this for a year now–the inevitable question is, ‘Well, what are you going to do?’ And I say, ‘Nothing.’ I guess the work ethic is so pronounced in this country that the idea of doing nothing seems almost a crime, or a sin or some kind of blasphemy.”
Registering Stolen Art
The Art Loss Register is a small operation. But since its founding, the company has compiled a huge database of stolen art and assisted in the recovery of millions of dollars worth of objects.
Amazon – Not Just For The Books Anymore
For the first time, Amazon, which began in the books business but has steadily diversified in recent years, has sold more of other products than books. “During the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, consumer electronics surpassed books as Amazon’s largest sales category. The milestone, set at a time when its book business also posted record sales, is an important indication that Amazon can diversify beyond media products.”
Canadian Film Industry Argues For More Tax Breaks
Members of the Ontario (Canada) film industry rally to pressure the government to increase film subsidies. Film production has declined dramatically in the province in the past two years. “My income is down to about a quarter of what it was last year, and I’ve seen it plummeting in the last three years. I’m one of the lucky ones, you know? There are actors I know who are losing their homes, (and) there are families breaking up.”
Canadian Attacks Koons Sculpture In Berlin
“Istvan Kantor, best known as the man who was banned from the National Gallery of Canada in the 1990s for tossing a vial of his own blood on the walls, has turned up in Berlin where he sprayed more of his bodily fluids at a statue of Michael Jackson yesterday. Also known as Monty Cantsin, Kantor was banned from the Art Gallery of Ontario for vomiting on a painting in 1996. Six months later he repeated the performance at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. At the time he said he was protesting the ‘oppressively trite and painfully banal’ nature of the works in question.”
China’s Third Wave Art
“In the past 25 years, Chinese artists have followed and studied the art of Europe, America and Asia’s developed countries. There has been scant contemporary Chinese art with its own distinctive language and aesthetic value that does not defer to the expectations of the established art circuit.” Now, a third wave of Chinese artists is wrking with a language that is distinctly Chinese…
A Theatre In Every Pot
A major new initiative in the UK aims to make sure there’s an ensemble acting company in every major town. “The quality of output in Britain is simply not as good as elsewhere. I’ve seen nothing in the UK over the last ten years to rival the standard of theatre I’ve seen in Krakow and St Petersburg. The object for actors nowadays is to go to drama school and get into EastEnders and if we don’t do something the industry will get even more mediocre.”