“Jie Chen, an 18-year-old pianist from China who moved to the United States with her mother five years ago, won first prize in the second biennial International Piano-e-Competition in Minneapolis. She received $25,000 and a Yamaha Disklavier (an electronic keyboard) valued at $75,000, along with a recital at Alice Tully Hall in New York and a CD on the Ten Thousands Lakes label. Pianists from 12 countries, from 15 to 31 years old, competed.”
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The Illiad In 32 Lines Of Text Msg
The “translation of the first five of the 24 Iliad books condenses 37,000 words to 32 lines of mobile telephone text message language, with sad and smiley faces and love hearts. In book three, a duel between Paris and Menelaus to determine possession of Helen, is reduced to: “Paris went 2 fight Menelaus. But he was wiv fright. Hector told im 2 b a man. Shame on him! Helen went 2 watch from da walls.”
Testing The Mobile Music Companion
A concert-goer takes a spin with a hand-held electronic Concert Companion at a New York Philharmonic concert. “It was amazing, in fact: to my untrained eye and ear, the text invariably arrived at exactly the right moment. And there was something exciting, or at least satisfying, about reading that the concertmaster traditionally plays the solo and glancing up to see said concertmaster sawing away.” And yet, there were some problems…
Prison Warden Not Guilty In Dali Theft
An assistant deputy warden at New York’s Ryker’s Island jail was found not guilty of masterminding the theft of a Salvador Dali drawing. “The $250,000 drawing, which depicts Christ’s crucifixion, was signed and dedicated by the artist to Rikers inmates in 1965, and was displayed in a case near the entrance of the Eric M. Taylor Center. The artwork has not been recovered.”
Saatchi Fire Brings Out The Hatred
A big revelation following the Saatchi art fire: “What was amazing in the days following the fire was the level of sheer hatred shown towards British art from every section of society. A nation united, pissing on the flames. People hilariously offered to crochet a new tent for Tracey Emin with their name all over it. Parents hilariously got their children to scrawl all over a piece of paper and then sent it to Charles Saatchi.”
Romano Vs. Peck At BookExpo
Is literary criticism getting too nasty? That was the topic at BookExpo in Chicago. “It seemed debatable — at least as many people seem to think that literary critics are more often too kind, or at least too polite, than not — but that didn’t stop one prominent book critic from bashing another’s brains in, figuratively speaking, for being too negative.” Critic Carlin Romano and Dale Peck sparred, with Roman railing at length against what he called Peck’s “savagery” and “shrieking denunciations,” dismissing his work as “performance art.”
The Old Book Fraud
David George Holt concocted an elaborate fraud in old books. “In e-mails heavily salted with charming, European-seeming malapropisms, he conjured aliases such as elderly Swiss antiquities dealer “Frederik Buwe” and offered precious folios at remarkably low prices, book dealers’ records show. “Dave J. Masd,” allegedly a Holt alias, advertised a vellum leaf from an illuminated mid-13th Century Bible for only $211 and a copy of the Giant Bible of Mainz (1452-53) in good condition, all pages complete, for $224.”
A Photo Of Van Gogh?
“A Scottish author believes he has discovered the only photograph in existence of Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch master painter, as an adult.
With a fixed stare and pale skin, the neatly suited man with the bristling beard glares out of the nineteenth century photograph with the intensity of a master painter.”
Cool: The Shows The Republicans Love To Hate
“The New York City Republican Convention Host Committee recently designated eight Broadway shows as fit to ply convention delegates with free tickets. There is barely a Tony nominee in the bunch. All are nice, safe musicals guaranteed not to offend mainstream American tastes or, for that matter, provoke much thought. The title song of “42nd Street” is about as risqué as it gets, with its reference to “sexy ladies from the Eighties who are indiscreet. Isn’t there marketing gold to be mined, especially in Democratic New York, by advertising these plays as shows Republicans love to hate?”
Handicapping The Tonys
“While it is easy to dismiss the Tonys as a crass Broadway publicity device or a ridiculously exclusive talent contest (only Broadway shows need apply, thank you very much), there are always a couple of genuine reasons to watch the show. It offers some competitive drama, of course, especially for avid Broadway fans, people who actually know what orchestrations are and what a musical’s book is. (Hint: it’s not a novel.) And sure enough, this year such fans can anticipate several close races, including those for best actress in a play and best actress in a musical.”