What books are the British public checking out of libraries? “On the top 100 titles list, the authors who started their careers most recently are JK Rowling and Kathy Reichs (whose debuts came out in 1997 and 1998 respectively); Rowling is the only author under the age of 40. It seems that book borrowers feel that Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella, Cathy Kelly and other voguish bookshop favourites will have to pay their dues, so to speak, for a while longer. Nor are borrowers particularly partial to literary fiction.”
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Blockbustering Back To Our Roots
Three new blockbuster shows open in London. They’ll draw mobs. “But is that the true purpose of a museum or art gallery? For there exists a growing disquiet in the curatorial world that in the process of launching an ever more high-profile temporary exhibitions, part of the deeper function of the museum – as a place of reflection free from the everyday maelstrom; as a public sphere with a different ethos to the marketplace – is being lost.”
Italians Struggle To Return Ancient Obelisk
After years of pressure from the Ethiopians, Italy agreed in 2002 to return a 1,700-year-old obelisk that was stolen by Mussolini and placed near the Coliseum. “So late last year a team of experts carefully dismantled the obelisk, dividing it into three pieces each weighing between 40 and 70 tonnes. The pieces were wrapped up and stored in a hangar near Rome. But now the Italian authorities have run into a hitch. They say they cannot find a plane big enough to transport the pieces safely.”
Did Boston MFA Sell Out In Vegas?
The venerable Boston Museum of Fine Arts, has lent 21 Monets to a gallery at Vegas’ Bellagio Hotel. Now the museum is “accused of having sold out to commercialism and flouted national curatorial guidelines in the name of profit. In the words of one critic, the Monets have not been loaned, they have been rented out. Under the terms of the arrangement, the museum should make at least $1 million from the expected 1,000 visitors a day during the run of seven and a half months. Admission is $15.”
Criminals Bargain With Police Over Stolen Art
In the UK “stolen art masterpieces are being used by crime gangs as ‘get out of jail free cards’ to trade for more lenient sentences. The criminals stash paintings and other works of art and use them in plea bargaining for other offences, the head of the Metropolitan Police’s arts and antiques unit has revealed.”
Can’t We Applaud While We’re Sitting? (Please)
Timothy Mangan says enough with the standing ovations. “At every concert that I have attended for the past several years (and I do mean every single one), there has been a standing ovation (either by some in attendance, or all). The standing ovation is as ubiquitous as smog. Performers are beginning to smirk at it. When someone writes to me complaining about a review I wrote and asks, ‘Didn’t you notice the standing ovation? I laugh.”
Book Sales Up, But Traditional Books Falter
American book sales were up 18 percent in December. But “despite the supposed good news, the meat and potatoes of the industry, adult hardcover fiction and nonfiction and their paperback counterparts, continue to stagger. Despite robust increases in December — 11.9 percent and 27.7 percent, respectively — sales for both categories were below 2002 marks. What scored the big gains last year were “electronic,” “religious” and “juvenile hardcover,” that last segment’s 28.5 percent rise attributed primarily to “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”
Joyce Descendent Threatens To Sue If Dublin Reads Ulysses
It’s the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses. Dublin “has planned a three-month festival of celebrations costing about £700,000. Unfortunately, the only living direct descendant of Joyce has promised to disrupt the festival by banning any public readings of his work. Stephen Joyce, the writer’s grandson, has informed the Irish government he will sue for breach of copyright if any recitations take place.”
Trying To Discern The Australian Mind Through Magazines
“Australians, the most enthusiastic magazine buyers in the world, have perhaps become so discriminating that it is difficult to generalise about their tastes.” So what to make of “the mood of Australia when we discover that the fastest growing magazines by readership over the past year dealt with movies, pop singers and property, while the biggest declines were in gardening, shares, home repairs, and naked women?”
In RoadTrip: Tough Day In Vienna
Sam Bergman on tour with the Minnesota Orchestra: After a great reception in New York, the orchestra moves on to Vienna, and Sam finds the orchestra in a funk before a concert in the Musikverein. “Like I said, you’ve got to learn to shake off the hard days, or they’ll eat you alive. Consider me well-shaken.”