A group that helps run New York’s Central Park has approved plans by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, to “erect 7,500 rectangular steel gates, each 15 feet tall with golden nylon streaming from it.” The artists have been trying to get permission for the project for 20 years “The plan still needs approval from the city’s parks department. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said he supports it.”
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Museum-building Craze Slows
Is the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s decision to put off building the ambitious redesign of its campus an act of cowardice? Or is it really the responsible thing to do? The pace of new museum projects has slowed since 2000, and this might not be a bad thing…
Tower Dreams
The WTC proposals unveiled this week by prominent architects follow some common themes. “In purely architectural terms, the big news was the triumph of the mega-skyscraper. Four of the seven design teams want to put the tallest building in the world at the site. In the end, it’s hard to imagine any scenario in which a truly successful master plan—one that’s at once architecturally inventive and a good use of urban space—is produced within the allotted time.”
March Of The First-Timers
America’s publishing houses are putting out record numbers of books by first-time writers. “Selling any novel is not easy, but rookie novels are an easier sell than most people would suppose. Publishers and editors are always searching for that new writerly voice. The hunt may be as important as the back list, for in the end the new voice, they hope, becomes a steady voice and eventually that’s what makes up the all-valuable back list — those books that bring steady sales to a publisher year after year.”
Mistry Gets Some U.S. Support
More than a month has gone by since Canadian author Rohinton Mistry cancelled the remainder of his U.S. book tour after being repeatedly singled out for “security searches” at American airports. In the U.S., it didn’t cause much of a stir, but in Canada, there was national outrage at the lengths to which the U.S. appears to be going to enhance “national security.” Now, a San Francisco bookstore which had scheduled a Mistry reading has gone ahead with the event, with local authors reading from Mistry’s work, in an effort to bring more attention to the author’s protest.
Mistry Gets Some U.S. Support
More than a month has gone by since Canadian author Rohinton Mistry cancelled the remainder of his U.S. book tour after being repeatedly singled out for “security searches” at American airports. In the U.S., it didn’t cause much of a stir, but in Canada, there was national outrage at the lengths to which the U.S. appears to be going to enhance “national security.” Now, a San Francisco bookstore which had scheduled a Mistry reading has gone ahead with the event, with local authors reading from Mistry’s work, in an effort to bring more attention to the author’s protest.
Italy To sell off Art Treasures?
Is Italy getting ready to sell off some of its archeological treasures to raise money? The government denies that preparations are underway, and that an inventory of assets is “for accounting purposes” only. But critics don’t believe the explanation,and “the scheme has raised a tempest of protest, with marches and petitions throughout the country.”
Golden Globe Nominations
“Chicago, a musical about lady killers in prison, received a leading eight Golden Globe nominations Thursday, including best musical or comedy and best actress for stars Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The Hours, a three-tiered story about women coping with sadness whose lives are linked to a novel by Virginia Woolf, had seven nominations including best film drama, best actress for Nicole Kidman and supporting actor for Ed Harris.”
Everyone Has His Favorites
“Toronto movie critics have voted Spike Jonze’s screenwriting satire Adaptation as the best film of 2002, making the wide-open Oscar nominations race even tougher to call. The 25 members of the Toronto Film Critics Association showered Adaptation with kudos in their annual list of year-end prizes, citing the film for best picture, best male performance, best supporting male performance, and best screenplay… Critic and industry groups traditionally kick-start the Oscar nominations process, and this year they’ve been all over the map in assigning glory.”
Mummy’s Curse Debunked
The curse of the mummy was supposed to kill anyone who disturbed the tomb of King Tut. And Lord Carnavon, who financed the 1923 expedition that discovered Tut did die an untimely death at age 57. But a researcher who tracked every one of the 44 people in on the discovery says there were no other early deaths – average age at death was 70 or higher. So no mummy curse…