“A generation of ambitious, serious artists and writers have been applying vast amounts of their creative energy into a milieu which is essentially the visual equivalent of the rock opera: the “graphic novel”—that is, a full-length book in comics format (cartoon drawings with word balloons for dialogue) printed between hard covers or glossy soft-cover. The idea is not new.”
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Touched By The Music
A new electronic music interface makes creating music easier and more physical. “In terms of the style of play it encourages, it’s easier to improvise a more expressive style of play. Because it’s physical, there’s also a dynamic that engages the audience. They can actually see what the performer is doing. The Audiopad is projected on a special table equipped with radio sensors that track the position and movement of half a dozen plastic discs, or ‘pucks.’ Most of the pucks control a series of preprogrammed tracks – the rhythm, the bass line, the melody and so on.”
The Skinless Child Of Edinburgh
“Organisers of an exhibition involving the skinless body of a child have insisted it will go ahead today, despite being refused a venue by Edinburgh City Council. The professor, who claims that he turns human bodies into works of sculpture when he injects them with plastic to preserve them, faced criticism from politicians and bereavement support groups who called for a boycott of the exhibition.”
Report: Online Music Sales Won’t Make Up For CD Declines
Sales of online downloadable music are picking up. But a new study says the sales won’t make up for the decline in CD sales. “Online analyst Jupiter Media has slashed its estimates for the amount record companies will be able to generate from online sales in 2003 to $800m (£490m). Although the figure refers only to the more developed US market, it spells bad news for record companies hoping to shore up declining CD sales worldwide.”
Cambodian Cultural Sites Destroyed
The pillaging and destruction of Cambodian temples has accelerated at an alarming rate. “As the latest holes testify, anyone wishing to pillage the remaining hidden riches will encounter few obstacles. Experts fear the decades-long looting for artefacts across Cambodia is now so rampant there will soon be little left outside the splendours of the Unesco world heritage site at Angkor. Almost all sites of antiquity and temples far from towns are being destroyed…”
Russian Writers Protest Removal Of Books
Top Russian writers are protesting plans by their government to remove Russian literary classics about the repression of the Soviet era from school curriculums. “The protesters allege that bureaucrats are trying to keep literature dealing with the purges of the Soviet era away from schoolchildren, presenting an anodyne version of the nation’s former imperial glory.”
When Stalin Tried To Kill John Wayne
A new book reports that Stalin was so enraged by the anti-communism of movie actor John Wayne, he tried to have him killed. “John Wayne – The Man Behind the Myth, by British writer and actor Michael Munn, says there were several attempts in the late 1940s and early 1950s to kill the man known to audiences around the world as Duke.”
Opera House At Ground Zero Looking Unlikely
It’s looking more and more unlikely that New York City Opera will find a home in the performing arts center planned for the World Trade Center site. Space for the center has been reduced by 20 percent. “Given the reduction in the space available and the footprint that City Opera says it needs, it would seem that a significant change in plans would be needed to accommodate an opera house. The opera has proposed a new house with a 60,000-square-foot footprint, Paul Kellogg, general and artistic director of the opera, said in an interview yesterday — so 40,000 square feet would appear to be severely inadequate.”
A Rollicking, On-The-Edge History Of Libraries
So you thought libraries were staid, quiet places? “In Library: An Unquiet History, Matthew Battles, the Harvard rare-books librarian tells the story of that peculiar institution, whose fortunes, since man first etched a symbol in stone, have been governed as much by mass uninterest and bureaucratic incompetence as by war and natural disaster. ‘Libraries are as much about losing the truth … as about discovering it,’ writes Battles, pointing out that much of what has survived through the ages is owing not to public institutions but to private collectors, who were better able to weather the tides of biblioclasm – the destruction of books – that have periodically swept the world.”
Iraq Art To Tour US
Having invaded and occupied Iraq, the United States is planning to assemble some of Iraq’s greatest art treasures for a traveling exhibition to tour the US within the next six to eight months. Artwork will include “the so-called treasures of Nimrud, a collection of Assyrian jewellery dating back to the 8th century BC, which has never been shown abroad before.”