Blog

PAIN RELIEVER

Musicians of  Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra have suffered an unprecedented number of injuries this season. So the orchestra will cut down on the performances it gives next year, in hope of reducing repetitive stress ailments. – CBC

PULL UP A COUCH

Novelist Alain de Botton created a literary stir in 1997 with the release of his tongue-in-cheek philosophical musings in  “How Proust Can Change Your Life.” Readers praised his invention of “a new genre: part self-help, part ethics primer, and part confessional.” Now de Botton is back as host of a TV show in which guests are invited to share their personal problems – from broken hearts to road rage. Distilling 2,400 years of Western thought into an hour of advice, de Botton “seeks to show that Epicurus, Montaigne, and Schopenhauer have many sensible things to say to an anxious modern audience.” Good luck! – The Observer (UK)

FAUX SAVINGS

Until it closed last month, the 84-year-old Universal Studios Research Library was the oldest and largest collection of its sort in Hollywood – a remarkable resource for screenwriters, producers, art directors and set designers who relied on its books, magazines and indexed images to give their projects factual and atmospheric credibility. Now the library has been closed to save money, and its users worry about the fate of its collections. – San Francisco Chronicle 03/19/00

WHEN CORPORATIONS BUY ART

“No corporation will tell you it buys art as an investment. Art isn’t liquid enough for most companies, and there’s no real tax advantage to collecting. What really happens is that the nature of physical space calls for you to put things on the wall. But if you can put things up that increase in value, that’s a good financial investment. Why put up hotel art when, for relatively little more, you can invest in your community and in a point of view?” – Chicago Tribune

FAUX SAVINGS

Until it closed last month, the 84-year-old Universal Studios Research Library was the oldest and largest collection of its sort in Hollywood – a remarkable resource for screenwriters, producers, art directors and set designers who relied on its books, magazines and indexed images to give their projects factual and atmospheric credibility. Now the library has been closed to save money, and its users worry about the fate of its collections. – San Francisco Chronicle