“Planned alterations to the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank are “disastrous” and an “act of architectural vandalism”, according to the Twentieth Century Society, which protects Britain’s legacy of modernist architecture.”
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Ye Olde England In China
“In a small corner of the giant construction site that is China, something rather quaint is happening: modern skyscrapers are giving way to Georgian terraces, concrete squares are being discarded in favour of English village greens, and instead of the usual eight-lane superhighways there are winding cobbled lanes. That, at least, is the ambitiously low-rise plan for a giant new satellite-city near Shanghai that aims to recreate the most picturesque elements of a British town to lure homebuyers from China’s newly affluent middle class.”
Pulitzer Music Changes Debated
Changes in the criteria for the Pulitzer Prize for music to broaden it are provoking controversy. Defenders say: “The board has been concerned for many years that the full range of exellence in American music was not somehow getting through the process in such a way that it could be properly and appropriately considered. The changes in the wording are intended to make sure that the full range of excellence can be considered. The prize should not be reserved essentially for music that comes out of the European classical tradition.”
Town Offers Bounty To Bookstore
“In an ever-tougher business environment for independent booksellers, the town of St. Johnsbury, Mass., population 7,571 as of 2000, is offering startup money and a break on rent to a qualified person willing to open a bookstore downtown. The word is out in the book trade, and St. Johnsbury officials say calls are coming in.”
Vienna’s Museum Wars
Museum competition in Vienna has grown fierce in the past year. “Over the last year, the Albertina has emerged as the surprising victor, attracting an audience of one million in its first 12 months. It is now the country’s most successful gallery, pushing the Kunsthistorisches Museum into second place.” But some are questioning the Albertina’s aggressive tactics in growing…
The Ring Tone Charts
A new music chart will track the popularity of phone ring tones. An estimated £70m of ringtones were sold in 2003 – up from £40m in 2002. The fortnightly chart will count down the 20 most popular tones downloaded onto mobile phones and will be published in Music Week magazine. Most current pop hits are available to buy as mobile phone rings for between £1.50 and £3.50.”
Did Michelangelo Suffer From Asperger’s?
Two experts in Asperger’s Syndrome say that Michelangelo might have suffered from the condiction. They describe him as “strange, without affect, and isolated,” adding that he was “preoccupied with his own private reality. His single-minded work routine, unusual lifestyle, limited interests, poor social and communication skills and various issues of life control appear to be features of high-functioning autism or Asperger’s Syndrome.”
“The Columnist Broadway Loves To Hate”
The New York Post’s “Michael Riedel has become the columnist Broadway loves to hate. An attack dog in a world of lapdogs, this magna cum laude Columbia graduate, who reads Dante and Suetonius for fun, is an unlikely tabloid bad boy. But his twice-a-week, mean, often funny, always dishy, ruthlessly vitriolic behind-the-scenes gossip column has made him the scourge and the talk of the theater world.”
Figuring Out The Dance Theatre Of Harlem Puzzle
So Dance Theatre of Harlem’s financial woes are being blamed on inept management. “Inept management?” asks Tobi Tobias. “Mitchell, the NYCB’s first African-American principal dancer, conceived DTH to correct the virulent concept that blacks can’t do classical dancing, curtailed his own performing career to bring the company (and the school necessary to it) into being, and miraculously held these enterprises together for three and a half decades, leading the troupe to successive moments of glory and repeatedly getting it to rebound from near-death situations endemic to arts institutions. You call that inept management? I call it heroic achievement, and I think it should be acknowledged with admiration and gratitude—at the same time as the current grievous problems are being addressed.”
Abu Ghraib – New Front In The Culture Wars?
Is what happened with the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib the fault of sleazy American pop culture? Frank Rich says some are making the argument. “If porn or MTV or Howard Stern can be said to have induced a “few bad apples” in one prison to misbehave, then everyone else in the chain of command, from the commander-in-chief down, is off the hook. If the culture war can be cross-wired with the actual war, then the buck will stop not at the Pentagon or the White House but at the Paris Hilton video, or “Mean Girls,” or maybe “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.”