There is big demand for dinosaur fossils, and poachers have been taking advantage of their remote location to “chip the prints out of rock illegally and sell them to unscrupulous — or unaware — collectors. Worried that online sales are making it easier for poachers to sell their goods, lawmakers, geologists, and police are searching for ways to find these looters and stop them.”
Tag: 08.22.04
Remaking Boston Ballet (A Progress Report)
Mikko Nissinen has spent his first three years at Boston Ballet completely remaking it. “He didn’t waste time making changes at the Ballet. Of its 47 current dancers, he’s hired 32. He’s made a fellow Finn, Jorma Elo, the company’s resident choreographer. Elo is a highly sought-after talent at the moment, ‘and when he goes around the world to work with other companies, he’ll go as resident choreographer of Boston Ballet’.”
Where The Art Is…
Today’s Big Time Art World travels in a pack – jetting around the world to where the perceived action is. “At the center of this pack are wealthy patrons who enjoy traveling together, often in their own planes, to far-flung art destinations. Some take chances on untried artists; others embrace challenging work by well-established names. But all keep abreast of one another’s choices. A purchase by one can inspire further interest from others, directly affecting the artist’s market and stirring up greater critical discussion. Wherever they go, they are always shopping, even at ostensibly noncommercial venues like Site Santa Fe.”
Fear In the Theatre
Between politicians and Hollywood, there are a lot of people trying to scare us. “Is this the scariest summer ever? Cinematically, I mean. As the long movie season winds down, it’s hard to say. This year there do seem to be more movies than usual that, whether or not they intend to provoke fear, take fear as their subject.”
Gunmen Steal “The Scream” While Terrified Visitors Watch
Gunmen entered the Munch Museum in Oslo and ripped Munch’s “The Scream” from the wall, stealing it. “Two masked thieves pulled the work and another painting, Madonna, off the wall as stunned visitors watched. One robber threatened staff with a gun before the pair escaped in a waiting car, a museum officer told the BBC.”
On The Trail Of The Stolen Scream
Leads are coming in about the two Munch paintings stolen in Oslo this weekend. “On Sunday afternoon police found a painting frame near Carl Berners plass in central Oslo. Police believed the find could be linked to the Munch heist. One of the employees at the Munch Museum café told Aftenposten’s Internet edition that she saw two men walking with the two paintings held between them.”
A Scream Twice Stolen
“The Scream is one of the world’s most recognisable paintings. Copies of the anguished expressionist work can be found in any major poster shop and it is even the name and symbol of a popular pub chain in the UK.” It was stolen before – in 1994, and held for ransom, but was recovered before the money was paid.
Dreaming Of A Classic Cathedral In 3-D
Work began on Catalan architect Antonio Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona in 1883. “Though work resumed in 1952, it has gone very slowly. More than 50 years later, the church is still only 40 percent finished. (It now holds 4,000 people; when it reaches its final circumference, 295 by 196 feet, it will accommodate 14,000.)” It will take at least 30 years more to complete. But for those unwilling to wait to see what it will look like, a new 3-D projection has been completed.
Rewriting The Book On Kids Plays
At the recent Playwrights Showcase of the Western Region at the Arvada Center in Denver, Steven Fendrich took issue with the kinds of plays considered for young people. “At the showcase, which included four new works for young audiences, Fendrich championed age 6 as the baseline for material to be considered publishable. He admonished several authors for using sophisticated language and references to historic figures children ‘could not possibly be expected to understand’.”
How Does New Music Relate To “Classical” Music?
“One wonders how much discussions of new music have to do with the classical music world today: a collection of fundamentally conservative institutions in which predominantly old music is presented and received in reverential, churchly silence and new music, for better or worse, is too often something to sit through. Many critics deplore this situation and are deeply invested in encouraging contemporary performances from classical institutions. In essence, we’re demanding of classical music that it be a living art. But focusing as we do on the larger institutions, we’re not necessarily keeping abreast of the latest trends in composition ourselves.”