Category: people

“Michael Lash, Chicago’s director of public art and the person who oversaw ventures ranging from the Cows on Parade exhibition to acquisition of millions of dollars of original works for city buildings, has been fired. The dismissal came after Lash allegedly threw a cell phone, striking a co-worker in the city’s Cultural Affairs Department, where he worked. Lash also has been criticized for allegedly being a poor fit for a job that requires strong administrative skills.”

“Sir Neville Marriner, who has just turned 80, has made more than 600 recordings of 2,000 musical works, a greater legacy than any maestro except Herbert von Karajan (whose 900-odd stack contains much repetition). But where Karajan was a global media player with something going in every metropolis, Marriner played in the second fiddles of the London Symphony Orchestra and gave maestros a hard time. He was one of the lads and by no means the quietest.”

James Levine is amused that his health has suddenly become an issue. “`It seems to be a mystery to everybody,’ he said, how a tremor that’s affected his left arm for more than 10 years suddenly became so newsworthy. Through this `crisis,’ Levine – who’s been artistic chief of the Metropolitan Opera for nearly three decades – has been busy conducting Wagner’s four-night, 20-hour trilogy of operas known as the `Ring’ cycle.”

Mariss Jansons decided to leave the Pittsburgh Symphony mainly because of travel fatigue. So how will he cope with the fatigue of leading two of Europe’s top orchestras simultaneously? Very carefully: “I’ve come to one conclusion, which is to cut myself into two conductors. One works in Amsterdam, the other in Munich. Some might say, ‘You are Mariss Jansons. You can’t be two different people.’ Yes, I agree, but I can still try to work for the interests of both orchestras – repertoire, touring, everything. I’m very objective. This is my principle and I’ll try to follow it.”

The memorabilia collection of Vladimir Nabokov was auctioned off by his son this week. “That son, Dmitri Nabokov, who turns 70 on Monday, felt his own death approaching, he said in an interview, and he wanted to leave no loose ends… The collection, a few items excepted, sold on Wednesday for nearly $750,000, a lower price than anticipated. Various private collections, most from France and Switzerland, bought parts of the collection, which will now be scattered to the breeze.”

Most art collectors will only buy artworks that they know they have room to display. But for Tony Podesta and Heather Miller, two powerful Washington lobbyists whose passion is art, the space must adjust to the art, and if a newly purchased statue requires a renovation of their home, complete with structural support for the floor, well, so be it. “They are known for buying ‘awkward’ works, such as video installations that many other private collectors will not consider… To get around the [display] problem, the couple have excavated a huge subterranean vault beneath their house outside Washington – a white space five metres square and four metres high in which it will be possible to show ‘very complicated video pieces’ on all four walls.”

It seems a bit much to call Dave Chappelle’s comedy “ground-breaking.” After all, Chappelle is no Lenny Bruce or Richard Pryor, and he lives and a works in an era when comedy has busted out of the world of grimy basement clubs and onto TV screens worldwide. Still, what Chappelle is doing with his profane and ridiculous show on Comedy Central is changing the face of the network, and for the first time, bringing black viewers to a channel usually considered the province of white college students, Jon Stewart fans, and aging stoners.

Marin Alsop is getting a bit tired of talking about the whole “female conductor” thing. After all, the 47-year-old outgoing music director of the Colorado Symphony is in great demand worldwide as a guest conductor for some of the world’s greatest orchestras, and she’s achieved bona fide stardom in the UK. And besides, isn’t the classical music world too enlightened to still engage in petty sexism when a clearly talented conductor is on the podium? Maybe. But the fact that Alsop’s name still hasn’t made the short list for any of the major US openings in recent years suggests that there may still be some misogyny lurking in the wings.

“Sheikh Saud Al Thani, cousin of the Emir of Qatar, is the world’s most active collector of art and the market’s biggest spender. For the past decade, Sheikh Saud has moved through the market like a whirlwind, collecting voraciously in a huge range of fields.” Now he’s building five museums.

Paris’ Père Lachaise cemetary drew 2 million visitors last year. It’s home to many famous people. But the cemetery would love to get rid of the resident who gets by far the most traffic – rock star Jim Morrison. “We’d like to kick him out, because we don’t want him, he causes too many problems. If we could get rid of him, we’d do it straight away.” Unlike many of the tombs, Morrison’s is on a perpetual lease.