Music is probably not the first profession that springs to mind when one thinks of the problem of performance-enhancing drugs. And yet, the use of an anxiety-reducing drug called Inderal to get an increasing number of classical musicians through stressful auditions and solo performances is a hot-button issue in the industry. The drug is legal, non-habit-forming, and has no serious side effects, and yet, many musicians believe that using it amounts to a kind of cheating every bit as serious as an athlete’s use of steroids.
Tag: 09.27.04
Unusual Library Mulling Cross-Country Move
The Brautigan Library in suburban Boston may be the only library conjured into existence by a 1960s counterculture novel. It is almost certainly the only library to consist entirely of unpublished work: “From 1990 to 1996, the Brautigan Library accepted manuscripts from all over the world, as long as the authors paid binding costs.” But like all good ’60s icons, the Brautigan collection looks likely to spend its mature years in Northern California – specifically, in the Presidio Branch of the San Francisco Public Library.
French Impressionism Impresses Australians
A blockbuster exhibit of French Impressionist paintings in Melbourne has shattered Australian attendance records for an art exhibition, drawing 333,000 patrons in the three months it has been on display at the National Gallery of Victoria. The state government is touting the attendance record as evidence that it was “the right move to invest in the Winter Masterpieces exhibition – a move to be continued next winter with works of the Dutch golden age from the Netherlands’ Rijksmuseum.”
This Is Why You Don’t Mix Football And Art
A famous nude, painted in Paris in 1875 by Jules Lefebvre, was damaged over the weekend as it hung behind glass at the Melbourne hotel which has displayed it for decades. Chloe, as the painting is known, suffered scratches to its canvas when an individual attending a football rally at the hotel stumbled into the glass, shattering it. Experts say that the damage is reparable.
Africa’s Next-Generation Bookmobile
A digitally outfitted bookmobile funded by a grant from the World Bank has spent the last year traversing some of Africa’s poorest rural areas, and providing the youth of the continent with print-to-order copies of great children’s books. The project has proved wildly popular with the kids, and now that the initial grant has run out, the bookmobile is working with librarians and various foundations to keep the presses rolling.