A concert at the Vatican featuring the Pittsburgh Symphony and an international cast of performers was performed for the Pope with the purpose of fostering understanding between the world’s major religious faiths. “The inter-faith theme of the concert was echoed among the performers – a mixed choir consisting of singers from the London Philharmonic, from Turkey, from the Pope’s own home town of Krakow in Poland and from Pittsburgh in the United States. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra was under the baton of Gilbert Levine, an American who used to direct the Krakow Symphony Orchestra and who is a personal friend of the Pope.”
Tag: 01.18.04
Spalding Gray Still Missing
Spalding Gray was working on a new piece when he went missing last week. “His family last saw him Jan. 9, when he walked away from his SoHo apartment without his wallet after having seen the movie “Big Fish” with his wife, Kathleen Russo, and one of his sons. There have been subsequent reports that he was seen on the Staten Island ferry later that night, and Russo has said she fears he may have tried to jump off the boat.”
Dave Barry: I’m “Clueless” About Art
Dave Barry willingly acknowledges he’s a “clueless idiot” when it comes to art. But he doesn’t understand some of the art he saw recently at Art Basel Miami: “Anyway, in the corner of one container there was a ratty old collapsed armchair – worn, dirty, leaking stuffing, possibly housing active vermin colonies. I asked the gallery person if the chair was art, and she said yes, it was a work titled “Chair.” I asked her what role the artist had played in creating “Chair.” She said: “He found it.” She noted that “Chair” had been professionally crated and shipped to the art show.”
A Barnes Conundrum
Should a judge allow the Barnes Collection to move from its current suburban home to Philadelphia? There’s been little evidence to convince critic Edward Sozanski that the move would work out for the best. The judge “can’t let the Barnes perish, and he must also contend with two situations, over which he hasn’t any control, that militate against staying put.”
Ode To Emily Dickinson
“Dickinson’s fame has always been fed by myth. She was the virgin poetess dressed in white, the tremulous daughter who never left her father’s house, the maiden who turned to art because she was thwarted in love. Hard-working biographers notwithstanding, myth often wins out.”