The Harvard Effect

What is it with the American obsession with Harvard? “At the heart of the American obsession with the Ivy League is the belief that schools like Harvard provide the social and intellectual equivalent of Marine Corps basic training—that being taught by all those brilliant professors and meeting all those other motivated students and getting a degree with that powerful name on it will confer advantages that no local state university can provide.”

Getty Antiquities Dealers Quits After Loan Questions

Embattled Getty antiquities dealer Marion True has resigned after the Getty raised questions about her failing “to report certain aspects of her Greek house purchase transaction in violation of Getty policy. ‘In the course of the Getty’s discussions with Ms. True on this matter, she chose voluntarily to retire.’ True, 56, faces trial in an Italian court on charges that she conspired with dealers who were trafficking in looted antiquities. In its statement, the Getty said she was retiring to devote her full energies to her defense. Internal Getty records obtained by The Times show that museum officials knew three years ago about the loan True obtained for the vacation home. The Getty declined comment on the documents.”

Chicago Chamber Orchestra Folds

The Chicago chamber orchestra Concertante di Chicago is “suspending operations after 20 seasons because of the increasing difficulty of attracting new audiences and raising its budgets in an uncertain arts economy, officials said. In recent years Concertante has had trouble filling that 400-seat facility. ‘We looked into the future and were concerned about what we saw with audiences. We play to a generally older crowd, and frankly they were falling by the wayside. When we looked to see who was coming up behind them, we were not encouraged’.”

Rare Map Thefts Rock Libraries

Rare map dealer E. Forbes Smiley III has been caught and charged with the theft of maps from Yale’s library. Smiley, who has been “buying and selling rare North American maps and atlases for more than a decade, scheduled to make another court appearance here on Monday, the case is turning into an embarrassment for prestigious libraries and elite collectors from Chicago to London. A field marked by tweedy scholarship in quiet, climate-controlled vaults has been rattled by disclosures of maps disappearing amid lax security and suspicions that big-money deals were being made with too few questions asked.”

Gund Bails Out On WTC Memorial

Agnes Gund, one of New York’s leading cultural figures, has resigned from the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation board. “Governor Pataki (and it saddens me to say, Senator Clinton has joined him) has caved and virtually ensured that there will be no cultural component to the redevelopment. I hate to walk away from this situation and leave it to you and the others to sort out. But I am afraid that the governor and those few family members have succeeded in destroying what could not be destroyed on that awful Tuesday, which is our hope.”

Going Nuclear – What “Atomic” Sounds Like

“A montage of sounds runs through the score: alarms, screams, strange metallic grindings, scratchy tunes poking through radio static. In the orchestra, the tension jumps from tectonic timpani rumbles to dry staccato sprints in the strings, to gelid woodwind chords. Occasionally, Adams’ score rises to a raging shout, and at other times it relaxes into arias of consolatory beauty. But it never ceases to quiver.”