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How Big Can Harry Get?

When the fifth Harry Potter book is released in June, it will, of course, be the biggest literary event of the year in the English-speaking world. But how big, exactly, have Harry and his Hogwarts buddies become? “Worldwide, Amazon.com has received more than 875,000 orders for the book… The U.S. publisher of the Potter books, Scholastic, is planning a press run of 8.5 million.” The cross-promotion is rampant, as well. The two big-budget movies “are both now out on video. Harry Potter clothing, backpacks, lunchboxes and video games crowd store shelves. There’s a line of Harry Potter Lego that lets kids build their own Hogwarts Castle. Harry Potter is never out of the public eye.”

Solicited Advice

Finding a source of reliable constructive criticism can be difficult when you’re a musician waiting for your big break. After all, what friend or relation would dare to crush the dream of a lousy wannabe rock star who truly believes they’ll be on MTV someday? Enter garageband.com, burster of delusional bubbles: “Once an Internet darling bent on shaking the foundations of the crusty old music industry, Garageband is home to over 325,000 musicians and new-music hunters who review original songs in an ongoing round-robin tournament.”

The Decidedly Commercial Side of Cannes

Everyone seems to agree that, for one reason or another, this is not Cannes’s best year. In fact, things are so slow that many critics are finding themselves writing not about the movies on display, but on the ‘system’ of Cannes, and why it is the way it is. Elvis Mitchell seems to be a bit sick of the commercial side of the fest, which is seldom reported on, but dominates the scene: “Many of those pictures won’t even see the light of day on the lowest rung of cable TV. Scanning the ads here in the trade papers like Variety and Film Français, several things are immediately evident. The saddest is that American violence is still one of our most exportable products.”

Musicians Decry FCC Consolidation Move

Members of two prominent American rock bands have joined consumer groups and media watchdogs in blasting the FCC’s plan to further relax rules on media ownership in the U.S. Mike Mills of R.E.M. and Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam described the effect that media consolidation has already had on the American music scene as catastrophic, and said that the continuing domination of radio, advertising, and ticket distribution by mega-companies like Clear Channel “makes it very threatening for any band that wants to make statements contrary to the proper American way of doing things.”

‘Ten Chimneys’ Finally Opened To The Public

For whatever reason, rural Wisconsin is jam-packed with architecturally significant houses built by unbalanced geniuses and wealthy stars looking for an escape from the masses. One of the most remote and interesting structures of the bunch is known as “Ten Chimneys,” the sprawling hideaway of Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne, once known as America’s premier acting couple. From humble beginnings, “the compound grew to include a small hunting lodge moved piece by piece from Sweden, a chicken coop converted to a charming house, a swimming pool and fanciful changing house topped by a weathervane that was a gift from fashion photographer Cecil Beaton, an 18-room great house and other structures.” The house opened to the public for the first time this week.

The Evolution of “Talent”

With genetic research opening up new worlds of medical intervention at a stunning rate, there is still much virulent opposition to even the smallest suggestion of genetic manipulation in humans, especially when it comes to notions of changing not just who we are, but what we can do. But, says Slavoj Zizek, too many objections are based on our own outdated notions of humanity and what constitutes it. “The point is that both hard work and natural talent are considered ‘part of me’, while using a drug is ‘artificial’ enhancement because it is a form of external manipulation. Which brings us back to the… problem: once we know that my ‘natural talent’ depends on the levels of certain chemicals in my brain, does it matter, morally, whether I acquired it from outside or have possessed it from birth?”

Beethoven’s 9th Fetches a Joyful Sum

It has been suggested that Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is the most significant work of Western music ever composed, and even today, most people on the street could hum you a bar or two of the ‘Ode to Joy’ if you asked. But the 9th is a huge score which represents something far more significant than a single pretty melody – it was one of those pieces that broke through old taboos, advanced composition into a new phase, and inspired (and intimidated) a generation of younger composers. Still, when the only known working manuscript of the 9th hit the block at Sotheby’s this week, bidding went slowly, with the score eventually selling for £2.133 million to an anonymous phone bidder. Sotheby’s had hoped for more, but the sum was one of the highest ever paid for such a work.

Ashen Tribute?

A British artist is offering portraits of dead spouses painted with their cremated ashes as a tribute to the dead. “Why not use a fraction of the ashes from an urn sitting on a mantelpiece for a portrait, so you can have that person physically there with you. Some people may think it is a macabre idea, but personally I do not think so, as long as the portrait is done with loving care.”

Poetry Magazine Sues As $100 Million Gift Shrinks By A Third

That $100 million that Ruth Lilly left to Poetry Magazine has turned out to be about a third less than promised. And the magazine is suing the bank that was managing the money. “Court documents show that when the fund was created, Lilly stock was selling for about $75 a share. By the time the bank unloaded most of it, it was about $48 a share. According to papers filed in Probate Court in Indianapolis, attorneys for the Poetry Foundation said the $102 million ‘is a significant financial loss to Poetry and the other beneficiaries . . . and is a direct and proximate result of the bank’s wrongful conduct’.”