“Two years after the Taliban destroyed much of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage, attempts are being made to restore what is left.” But the task has been hampered because since “US-led forces evicted the Taliban from Afghanistan 18 months ago, the international community has done little to help the government of Hamid Karzai restore the museum or get back thousands of artefacts looted from Afghanistan over the previous decade.”
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Harry Loose On The Streets
Police fear that the 7000+ copies of the new Harry Potter book stolen from a trailer earlier this week “will be illicitly distributed throughout the north-west, jeopardising the launch. The books will have a high currency among criminals because Harry Potter fans have had to wait almost three years to read the latest adventures of the boy wizard.”
Louisville Delays Bankruptcy Filing
The Louisville Orchestra, which was expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday, instead delayed its decision until today, in what may be a last-ditch effort to reach an agreement with the orchestra’s musicians to avert a shutdown. “The orchestra is out of cash and owes two banks $1.3 million in past-due loans, plus a pair of unmet payrolls to its musicians, conductors and administrative staff.” Negotiations between musicians and management broke down last weekend, with management insisting that drastic salary cuts were needed, and musicians livid over what they said was a last-second moving of management’s goalposts.
Stealing Harry By The Trailer-load
Thousands of copies of the new Harry Potter book were stolen from a trailer in Northern England. “A trailer containing around £1m worth of books was stolen from Newton-le-Willows trading estate on Merseyside at around 10.30pm on Sunday. The trailer was recovered yesterday in Salford, Greater Manchester, minus its load.”
Why Steal It? Try Wal-Mart.
In yet another bizarre story of Potter-mania, a Montreal woman somehow managed to purchase a copy of the new Harry Potter book from her local Wal-Mart this week. The book is scheduled to go on sale Saturday. Since the woman was only planning to read the book, and not, y’know, post it on a web site or something, the publisher just laughed it off as an innocent mistake. HA! No, of course they didn’t. In fact, Raincoast Books, the Canadian distributor of the Potter series, offered the woman $5000 if she would return the illicit copy. She said that Raincoast could have her copy back once she’s finished reading it.
Execs Needed In Milwaukee
Executives of several of Milwaukee’s high-profile arts groups have stepped down recently, leaving something of a power void at the top levels of the city’s cultural scene. The latest to resign is Judy Smith of the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, who has reportedly been exhausted by a massive fundraising effort she was spearheading. In fact, many of the Milwaukee execs have left their posts not because of controversy or dissatisfaction with their work, but because they were simply burned out by the intensive fundraising work required during an economic downturn.
Sontag Wins German Peace Prize
Author Susan Sontag has been named the recipient of a “Peace Prize” by the German publishing industry. “In a world of falsified images and mutilated truth, she has stood up for the dignity of free thinking,” according to the German Publishers and Booksellers Association. The award comes in response to negative publicity Sontag received in the U.S. for an article she wrote in The New Yorker shortly after September 11, 2001, in which she accused the U.S. government of manipulating the public in order to wage unjust wars.
Books, Books, More Books…Does Anybody Read Them?
“The bulging bookshelf has become a tradition in most British households – a sort of intellectual trophy cabinet, each spine potentially revealing something about the owner. For some, the bigger the bookshelf, the bigger the brain. Research has shown that few of us ever look at our old books, but at the same time would never dream of throwing them out.”
Overhaul For CanCon?
In Canada, a stringent government policy has governed film and TV productions for 30 years, aimed at making sure that Canadian culture is not overwhelmed by the American entertainment juggernaut. But CanCon, as it is known, has come under fire in recent years as being counterproductive, out of date, and too focused on the commercial benefits of cultural industries. A new report commissioned by the federal government recommends sweeping changes, including “the adoption of a new system that would be based on the costs associated with the more creative elements of the production. The model would require that the three top creative jobs — writer, director and lead performer — in any domestic production be filled by Canadians.”
Montreal Film Fest Loses Its Luster
“The upcoming 27th annual instalment of Montreal’s World Film Festival could be its most interesting yet — but less for what’s on its screens than the circumstances under which it will be occurring. For the first time in its tumultuous history, the festival will be unspooling without its A-list or “category one” status as North America’s only “non-specialized competitive festival.” Moreover, the festival admitted recently that it has yet to pay out $50,000 in prize money to the directors of two films honoured at last year’s festival.”