National Book Awards Finalists

“The National Book Foundation announced the 20 finalists for the National Book Awards, at the Library Company in Philadelphia by author and social critic Camille Paglia. Authors including Joshua Ferris, Tim Weiner and Christopher Hitchens are among the finalists and three of the finalists, Edwidge Danticat, Robert Hass and Ellen Bryant Voigt, have all been finalists in the past.”

Peace Breaks Out In St. Paul

“With a flurry of pen strokes and a group hug, the leaders of four of St. Paul’s major arts organizations put their signatures to a cultural armistice that they said would end nearly a quarter-century of sniping, bad blood and obstinacy. They called it a ‘master agreement,’ but the 34-page document is more akin to a peace treaty among the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Opera and the Schubert Club.”

When No-Increase Arts Funding Is A Cut

There’s been celebrating in the arts community that the British government didn’t cut arts funing. But “there is no getting away from the fact that even if the money is – as promised – handed on to the arts, this is standstill funding at best and a cut in real terms from a government that enjoys the kudos that the cultural industries bring, but doesn’t want to make the investment that allows them to thrive.”

Tate Modern’s Crack

There’s a 500-foot crack in the concrete floor of Tate Modern. “I’m with an architect and a couple of builders, and we are examining the crack from a wide variety of angles and sticking our fingers inside and giving it a damn good poke and generally trying very hard indeed to work a few things out. The first is: how on earth did it get here? The second is: could it be dangerous? This being the Tate, we also feel obliged, finally, to consider the possibility that it might be art.”

Game Show Canceled After Woman Admits To Murder

A Colombian TV game show called “Nothing But The Truth” has been canceled after a contestant confessed to hiring someone to kill her husband. “On the Colombian version, dollar-desperate contestants confessed everything from drug smuggling to homosexual prostitution before a studio audience packed with unsuspecting loved ones. It drew high ratings and spurred a boom in polygraph usage among private companies trying to screen employees and protect themselves from infiltration by Colombia’s well-organized mafias.”