“Over Hollywood’s long-standing objections, some members of Congress are endorsing legislation that would allow DVDs to be “sanitized” — stripped of scenes that parents don’t want their children to see or hear — without first requiring the consent of studios or directors. To the movie studios, the bill is merely the most outrageous of a wave of anti-indecency legislation moving through Congress.”
Blog
Hermitage Director Blasts McCartney Concert
The director of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg has blasted a concert by Paul McCartney outside the city’s Winter Palace. “We prepared for this concert like we would for a flood, all the museum’s departments were put on alert,” the director said, contending that the noise level alone was “damaging” for some of the famous works in the Hermitage collection.”
Ray Bradbury – A Man In The Past
Ray Bradbury made his career on being a man of the future. His science fiction set the tone of the future. At 84, he now seems firmly rooted in the past. Bradbury is famously anachronistic, a science-fiction writer who has never driven a car or used a computer. “I’ve got three typewriters,” he will later tell me. “I don’t need a computer.” When I call, his line is busy, indicating an absence of call waiting.”
A Jazz Label That Makes Money
Blue Note Records, owned by another big company, EMI, is a legend in jazz recording. But though jazz isn’t a big seller, Blue Note is consistently profitable. “That financial stability gives CEO Bruce Lundvall and the label’s musicians the freedom to follow their vision and to take risks. It also means Blue Note is a force for enriching and continuing the genre. Last week, it picked up another award for Best Jazz Label from the Jazz Journalists Association – an indication that even with the addition of a broader range of artists, it hasn’t lost its roots.”
What Is The Freedom Center?
Ever since the Freedom Center was announced as one of the cultural tenants of Ground Zero, observers have been asking exactly what the center is. So far, we’ve been told mainly what it isn’t: “It will not be a palace of pro-American propaganda… or a place for sentimentally commemorating victims of the Sept. 11 terrorists.” But the center’s organizing principal – “looking at different parts of the world transitioning from tyranny to freedom” – sounds an awful lot like American flag-waving, and the center’s developer is a longtime friend of President Bush.
Doing It Old School
There are certain classical musicians who spend their lives attempting to play old music in precisely the way that the original musicians would have played it. So why shouldn’t there be period theater as well? Maybe because we won’t have any hope of understanding the accent…
Is Chicago The New Theater Capital of America?
New York’s theater scene is in an undeniable slump, and Michael Billington thinks that it may be time to acknowledge that America’s best theater is no longer centered in the Big Apple, but on the shores of Lake Michigan. “No fewer than 156 theatre companies, predominantly non-profit, operate in the city. And while New York, with its suffocating commercialism, seems increasingly hidebound, it is to Chicago that the true theatregoer now avidly looks.”
Let’s Play ‘Race The Censors’!
Movie theaters in Melbourne and Sydney are “[rushing] to release the latest film by the French director of the controversial movie Romance before its possible banning by the Office of Film and Literature Classification review board. Anatomy of Hell (Anatomie de L’enfe), by director Catherine Breillat, is described as “an investigation into the nature of misogyny” and features several explicit scenes involving a woman and a gay man who uses various objects to penetrate the woman at her request.” The film was originally set to receive an adult rating, but the Australian Family Association is appealing the rating in an effort to have the film banned outright.
Art Dealer Confesses To Import Fraud
Hicham Aboutaam, the co-owner of Phoenix Ancient Art, has pleaded guilty to falsifying documents concerning the origins of a silver drinking vessel that he later resold for nearly a million dollars. Phoenix Ancient Art is the same company which just sold an ancient bronze sculpture thought to be the work of Praxiteles to the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Afghanistan’s Bactrian Gold Found
“The Bactrian gold — 20,600 pieces of gold jewelry, funeral ornaments and personal belongings from 2,000-year-old burial mounds — has emerged from hiding intact, a shimmering example of the heights scaled by ancient Afghan culture. For years the gold was feared stolen, lost or melted down by the different forces that seized power over more than 20 years of war.”