Protesters gathered outside the Paris auction house where the contents of Andre Breton’s apartment were being auctioned off. “The flat was an expression of Surrealist thought. Selling it off piecemeal in 4,100 lots is like taking apart a Rimbaud poem word by word and scattering them to the winds. Once broken up, the collection has no meaning.”
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Education – Ticket To Nerd-dom
Some communities in America have great distrust of “mindwork.” “There was lots of room for people who wanted to learn to become mechanics or electricians, for those were tangible, practical jobs that existed in the world. Mind work, beyond figuring the price of cotton or how to pay bills or the technicalities of being mechanics or electricians, was troubling, not well understood, and generally to be feared. There was a strange inconsistency in that persons educated out of practical usefulness still served as a source of pride to their families. Folks could respect you, for example, for earning a doctoral degree and could exclaim loudly to neighbors about your success; they just had little practical use for you and many times didn’t know what to do with you. To become thus educated is to become a nerd, and black nerds are strange creatures indeed.”
Kids Shows – All About The Merchandise
“With the death of Fred Rogers in late February, the children’s television industry said good-bye to one of the last creators who didn’t sell merchandise to finance his show. Today, more than 20 programs draw on his pedagogical legacy to educate the preschoolers he gently welcomed to ‘Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,’ but with one big difference: Unless kids buy the goods, their favorite shows and characters disappear.”
This Year’s Pulitzer – The Little Play That…
Nilo Cruz’s little-known play “‘Anna in the Tropics” wins the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, triumphing over high-profile Broadway competition – Edward Albee’s “The Goat or Who is Sylvia?” and Richard Greenberg’s “Take Me Out.” “Anna” was born when Cruz got the idea of writing a play about a cigar-factory tradition brought years ago from Cuba to Florida.
Reading On The Radio
As people find themselves with less time and less inclination to read, a digital radio station called Oneword is filling the gap with a simple and soothing format idea: reading stories aloud. “I defy anyone stumbling across it not to draw up a metaphorical chair, pour a mug of virtual cocoa and snuggle. If everyone needs a bosom for a pillow, Oneword is it, down-filled and probably frilled.”
Where Are Broadway’s Musicals?
There have been plenty of plays this season on Broadway, but only a few musicals – and none besides “Hairspray” (and maybe “La Boheme”) – have emerged as genuine hits. Why?
What Will Happen If Oregon Zeroes Out Arts Funding
The Oregon state legislature is considering zeroing out the state arts commission. Arts commission director Christine D’Arcy says her agency would try to reinvent. “You could see the commission continue as a service agency rather than a grant maker. We?re clearly looking at partnerships, revenue resources. I would say there is a lot of creative thinking under way.”
Arts As Economic Engine
“In an era when public and private coffers are depleted, it’s easy to ask why arts investment should be a priority.” Real estate consultant Wendi Wheeler writes: “Culture helps build community by influencing commercial and residential development, which in turn attracts workers and residents. When companies make decisions to relocate, they seek markets with concentrations of talented workers. In turn, the power of industry to attract talented workers depends largely upon a city’s quality of life.”
Hemingway/Dietrich Letters To Kennedy Library
Thirty of Ernest Hemingway’s letters to Marlene Dietrich are being donated to the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston. “The letters, never made public, will remain sealed for four years, according to the wishes of Dietrich’s heirs. ‘We didn’t know the collection existed,’ said Deborah Leff, director of the Kennedy Library.”
Beethoven Ninth For Sale
Sotheby’s is selling a manuscript of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. “In three bound volumes of 465 pages, the offering includes virtually the complete score of that symphony in manuscript. (Two fragments of the same manuscript reside in the Beethovenhaus in Bonn and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.) The hands are mainly those of two copyists, but Beethoven scribbled corrections and changes throughout. The manuscript may have been used at the work’s premiere, in 1824, and it was the basis for the first printed edition, in 1826.”