The Mosul Museum in Iraq has been looted. “The looters knew what they were looking for, and in less than 10 minutes had walked off with several million dollars worth of Parthian sculpture. “Iraq has a great history,” said the museum’s curator. “It’s just been wrecked. I’m extremely angry. We used to have American and British tourists who visited this museum. I want to know whether the Americans accept this.”
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Mona Lisa At 500
The Mona Lisa turns 500 this year. “Over the centuries, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa has been denounced as a femme fatale, celebrated as the paragon of womanhood, inspired three suicides, and survived a theft. Yet that serene smile staring at us behind bulletproof glass in Paris’s Louvre museum remains mysterious.” And yet, some of her mysteries have been solved…
Apple Computer In Talks To Buy World’s Largest Recording Company
Is Apple CEO Steve Jobs about to become the most powerful man in the recording business? “Apple Computer Inc. is in talks with Vivendi Universal to buy Universal Music Group, the world’s largest record company, for as much as $6 billion, sources said. Such a seemingly unlikely combination would instantly make technology guru Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder and chief executive, the most powerful player in the record industry.”
Australian Recording Industry Institutes Ratings System
The Australian recording industry has decided to initiate a ratings system that will restrict sales of some recordings to adults. “The industry’s ruling body, ARIA, last week announced that its new system will prohibit the sale of CDs and tapes containing potentially offensive lyrics or themes to under-18s. Calls for stricter classification have followed complaints about US death-metal outfit Cannibal Corpse. Over the top to the point of absurdity, their lyrics are all but indecipherable, the vocals sounding like the Cookie Monster in a sink.”
Sondheim & Friends Trying To Keep NY Critics Away From Show?
Stephen Sondheim, John Weidman and Harold Prince are New York theatre legends. And they have a new show. It’s opening in Chicago. And they don’t want New York critics to come see it. “The three Broadway bigwigs are trying to keep the national theater press away from their new musical, ‘Bounce,’ which will have its world premiere June 30 at the Goodman Theater in Chicago. They have instructed the theater not to invite – or make press seats available to – any critic or reporter outside the Chicago area. Nice try, boys, but no dice.”
Small Publishers’ Stock Trades Up
Business analysts say that small publishers are sometimes a better business than the big publishing houses. “If these companies are publishing for the professional or children’s book market, they don’t need one big hit a year. They might publish hundreds of books that sell 10,000 copies each, and that’s fine. They can make a profit because the books tend to be pricier than other kinds of books and because, particularly with universities and other professional markets, institutions have to buy large numbers of these books, whether they want to or not.”
Your Ad Here
It seems like every public space and event has a corporate sponsor these days. “The marketing idea behind this trend is consumer impressions. The more often we see a company’s name, the theory goes, the more likely we’ll trust that company and, in turn, buy its products or services when the opportunity arises. Thus, we get corporate names on the sports facilities and concert venues we attend, ubiquitous product placement in the movies, TV and cable shows we watch, even in the air we breathe (thanks, Fuji blimp).” But instead of complaining, maybe we should see this as an opportunity. “The biggest untapped avenue for sponsorship may just be us. Individuals. You and me…”
Shakespeare In A Sex Clinic?
“While it hasn’t yet shaken the stage-driven foundation of traditional theatre and dance, site-specific theatre is certainly rousing a state of artistic excitement on Canada’s West Coast. The charge is being led by innovative young companies that all agree site-specific theatre should involve more than just plunking a script into an offbeat locale.”
Some Fear Archaeological Looting In Iraq
Many in the art world are concerned that Iraq’s cultural treasures will be looted after the war ends. “After the last gulf war a lot of treasures disappeared onto the black market and archaeologists in Britain and the US are concerned this will be repeated on a much larger scale in the power vacuum after the fall of Saddam Hussein, as happened in Afghanistan. For poor Iraqis the temptation to sell stolen antiquities will be greatly increased if it is known there is a ready market in the west. Alarm bells had been set ringing by reports of a meeting between a coalition of antiquities collectors and arts lawyers, calling itself the American Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP), with US defence and state department officials before the start of the war. The group offered help in preserving Iraq’s invaluable archaeological collections, but archaeologists fear there is a hidden agenda to ease the way for exports post-Saddam.”
Guthrie Layoffs
Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theatre is laying off employees in an attempt to shore up the theatre’s budget. “The layoffs, combined with voluntary resignations, union wage concessions and hiring freezes, could save about $3 million and will help the theater reach its $17 million budget.”