Work of the four artists who are finalists for this year’s Turner Prize goes on display this week.”Among the pieces on display is an interactive digital reconstruction of Osama Bin Laden’s base in Afghanistan, created by artists Langlands and Bell. But one piece of their work has been removed because it features an alleged Afghan warlord who is currently on trial at the High Court in London.”
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London’s Contemporary Frieze
London’s Frieze Art Fair opens for its second year, and it looks like a hit. “When the so-called Young British Artists appeared in the 1990s, there was no main conduit to buy their works, but the Frieze Fair has filled the gap, giving international dealers an opportunity to sell their art in one room, under the banner of the art magazine Frieze.”
A Mayor Who Transformed Her City’s Landscape
How much can a mayor affect the landscape of the city they serve? Quite a bit, writes Randy Gragg. Portland, Oregon’s Vera Katz has transformed the city during her time in office. “She helped lay the foundation for a new Portland, newcomers and prospering longtimers in equal parts.”
That Broadway Melody (A History)
A three-part TV series on the history of the Broadway musical runs on PBS this week. “If the series has one major theme, it’s that the Broadway musical has always been subversive, ahead of its time in form and subject matter.”
Radar Gets On The Screen
Radar Magazine, which put out two “test” issues last year and has been involved in a long search to find funding, has found $25 million to open. Radar aims to be a general interest magazine aimed at capturing “the interest of young, single people who live in urban areas and are tastemakers in their own right” The first issue under new ownership will appear next April, with issues to follow every other month for the rest of the year before the magazine moves to a monthly schedule in 2006.
Lincoln Center’s New Jazz Palace
Lincoln Center opens its new theatre complex devoted to jazz. Ben Ratlif says that while it’s too soon to pass judgment on the complex’s finer points, “already these rooms impressively translate into bricks-and-mortar reality how the planners of Jazz at Lincoln Center have raised the stakes for jazz to become visible and powerful in the city.”
Are National Book Award Noms Too Obscure?
People are still puzzling over the nominated field for the National Book Award. “Consider some of the writers who were eligible this year: Philip Roth, Tom Wolfe, Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike, Cynthia Ozick. And the nominees are: Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Christine Schutt, Joan Silber, Lily Tuck, and Kate Walbert. All of the authors are women, and each lives here in New York City. According to the Times, only one book has sold even two thousand copies.”
Hollinghurst Nabs Booker
Alan Hollinghurst has won this year’s Booker Prize for his novel The Line of Beauty. “I hardly know where I am. My whole psychological technique for dealing with this evening was to convince myself I wasn’t going to win it.
Starbucks Brews Up New Music Biz
Starbuck’s has unveiled its new music business, which lets customers select and burn CDs while they sip their brew. “Coffeehouse customers use computer tablets to select from 150,000 tracks, which include reggae, world music, jazz and religious songs. The tablets transmit the selections to the CD-burning machine, which can burn two discs at a time.”
Hollighurst By A Booker Nose
The result was a split vote, with Hollinghurst, odds-favorite David Mitchell and Colm Tóibin’s The Master, a fictional portrait of the author Henry James, “all very close”.