“It’s the whitest radio audience in the world; it is the most educated audience in the world; and they make more money than everybody else. . . . I have found that when you talk to people who are white, make money, and are educated, you don’t tell them, `I’m here to educate you.’ What we do attempt to do is enlighten them.”
Tag: 06.17.04
d’Orsay In Melbourne
Forty-five major impressionist paintings from Paris’ Musee d’Orsay have been loaned to the National Gallery in Melbourne, Australia for the summer. It’s rare for the d’Orsay to loan the stars of its collection during the busy summer tourist season. “The Musee d’Orsay has put a warning on its internet site, telling people that if they want to see certain pictures they have to travel to Australia for the next three months.”
Singer Celebration (And A Little Dissent)
July marks the 100th anniversary of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s birth. The novelist and short-story writer was the only Yiddish author to win a Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1978). “Throughout the summer and fall, media and cultural centers all over the country will devote time and energy to celebrating Singer, one of the most famous Jewish writers of all time.” But not everyone is applauding…
Newt Gingrich, Super-Reviewer
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich has been “leading a secret life. Night after night for years he’s been slipping out of the headquarters of the vast right-wing conspiracy, wolfing down spy novels and then reviewing them for Amazon.com. So prolific and proficient has he been at this pursuit that he has attained the coveted title Amazon Top 500 Reviewer. Newt is number 488.”
Risking Art On What You Believe (Not!)
“Where is the artistic engagement with the huge, threatening issues that hang over us? One would have expected an intense blast of production if artists wanted to live up to the role in which they have been cast for over a century – as exponents of humane and liberal values, as revolutionaries, gadflies, the ones who see further than ordinary mortals.”
NJ Arts Philanthropist Arrested In Germany On Tax Fraud
Herbert Axelrod, the disgraced New Jersey philanthropist who sold the New Jersey Symphony a raft of rare Stradivarius violins and then “fled the country ahead of a federal tax fraud indictment two months ago, has been arrested in Germany on a U.S. fugitive warrant, authorities said yesterday.”
Public Steps Up To Support Scottish Opera
Public nsupport for Scottish Opera is rolling in. “Regular opera-goers will not be surprised by the support Scottish Opera has received from the public, because regular opera-goers have always been aware of the widespread appeal of opera. It is only those who don’t care for the art form, or have failed to grasp the affection in which a proud national institution is held, who may be a little stunned.”