Turkmenistan’s leader says if his country’s citizens want to go to heaven they should read his book three times. “A person that reads Rukhnama becomes smart … and after it, he will go straight to heaven. I asked Allah that for a person who reads it three times – at home, at sunset and at dawn – to go straight to heaven.”
Tag: 03.21.06
Robert Hughes Sums Up Modernism
“Modernism is something old that we look back on, not without nostalgia. Its ashtrays and dinner sets, the chrome-tube-and-leather-strap Marcel Breuer chairs, get revived and recirculated without comment. The idea of modernism connotes some kind of ideal and even quasi-official mindset. Seen in one light, it even suggests too much solidity: think of how the innumerable descendants and clones of Mies van der Rohe created, in their high, bland cliffs of steel and glass, the face of American corporate capitalism. That certainly wasn’t the modernité Charles Baudelaire was thinking of in 1863.”
Rijksmuseum Reopening Delayed A Year
Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum will reopen in 2009, a year behind schedule so added environmental checks can be done. “Work at Holland’s biggest museum is due to start in 2007, including plans for a cycling route under the building. It shut in 2003 after an asbestos scare forced its indefinite closure.”
French Parliament To Apple: Open Up!
The French parliament has passed legislation to force iTunes to open up its digital format. “MPs backed a draft law to force Apple, Sony and Microsoft to share their proprietary copy-protection systems by 296 to 193 votes. The aim is to ensure that digital music can be played on any player, regardless of its format or source.”
UK’s Free Museum Policy Creates Surge Of Visitors
“Since December 2001 there has been a 66% increase in visits to museums which once charged for entry. The rise comes despite a drop in visitor numbers as a result of the July bombings in London.”
Lapham Leaving Harper’s
After 28 years, age 71, Lewis Lapham is about to step down as the editor of Harper’s magazine…
A Peruvian Monument That Might Not Be What It Seems
“No one disputes that the structure, called the Inca Uyo, is hundreds of years old. Everyone further agrees that the site, in the middle of a grassy enclosure where soccer matches and bullfights were once held, has been a moneymaker for this small town on the Andean high plains, near Lake Titicaca. But what seems all but certain is that the ruin, with 86 of the carved stones inside it, is not the ancient fertility temple that many here like to say it is.”
Why Isn’t Stravinsky More Popular?
Stravinsky was one of the greatest composers of the 20th Century. And yet, he is not revered by audiences. Why, asks Anthony Tommasini: “One simple reason that Stravinsky, who died at 88 in 1971, is still waiting for his due is that audiences seldom get to hear the full range of his work.”
PEN To Tap Chernow As New Leader
The PEN American Center is expected to name Ron Chernow, the best-selling biographer of J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and Alexander Hamilton, as its next president. “Chernow will succeed the novelist Salman Rushdie, who has served as the group’s leader for two years. Mr. Rushdie, who is credited with having helped to reshape the PEN American Center’s role in defending freedom of expression and open cultural exchange after Sept. 11, proposed Mr. Chernow as his successor.”