COLOR ME DANCE

“The notion of otherness implicit in the term “black dance” insures that it has remained a loaded and highly controversial concept a good two decades or more after it was coined. Is black dance work created by artists who happen to be black? Is dance “black” because it draws from black Caribbean or West African cultural forms and traditions or black American social history?” – New York Times

MICKEY MOUSE TO THE RESCUE

London’s Millennium Dome has been ailing – critics have been harsh and the crowds are staying away in droves. So the British government has sacked the Dome’s director and replaced her with a Mouseketeer – a top executive from EuroDisney. – Sunday Times (UK)

  • DEPARTURE follows a series of shouting matches between Dome company executives and ministers ordered by the British Prime Minister to rescue the failing project and make it work. Relations between the company and the Government were said to have become untenable, as the Dome has turned into a major embarrassment for Tony Blair’s Labour Party. – The Telegraph (UK)

  • Just how did such a project get built? And who’s to blame? (take credit?) – BBC

PAINTING RETURN

“After confirming that one of its most prized paintings had been stolen by the Nazis during World War II from an Austrian Jewish art collector, the North Carolina Museum of Art announced plans this week to give the painting back to its rightful owners, two sisters in Austria.” – New York Times

MIDI-MOZARTS

New generation of music software effectively allows anyone with a computer to be a musician. “The current technology allows someone without any musical knowledge to effectively collage together music out of other people’s music,” says one software pioneer. “Forget about home studios and samplers. Increasingly sophisticated software and a slew of new beat-generating synthesizers have further democratized music-making, putting professional production tools in the hands of anyone, no formal training required. It doesn’t even cost much: Some of the software can be had for 49 bucks.” – Philadelphia Inquirer