“For 20 years or longer, author-illustrator Maurice Sendak has claimed that child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim mercilessly attacked his 1963 book Where the Wild Things Are when it was first published, causing him and the book great damage. … But like Max’s travels in Where the Wild Things Are, Sendak’s version is almost completely imaginary.”
Tag: 10.15.09
Edmund White Smacks Gore Vidal (Back)
“I think Gore is a complete lunatic, and it doesn’t bother me what he says about me. He’s an awful, nasty man. Now he can’t write. He’s wheelchair-bound, and he’s in pain. He lost his lover of many years. … You know, he’s just an old grouch.”
To Fight Graffiti, Boston Hires Artists
Under the Boston Arts Commission’s PaintBox program, artists are painting over gray electrical boxes throughout the city with designs of their own. The $300 fee they receive “barely covers materials,” but “artists say they’re not doing the job for the money.”
Public Libraries Embrace Digital Books, And Patrons Like It
“Eager to attract digitally savvy patrons and capitalize on the growing popularity of electronic readers, public libraries across the country are expanding collections of books that reside on servers rather than shelves.”
See What Happens, Damien, When You Turn Into A Painter?
“Damien Hirst, who topped a list of the 100 most influential people in the art world last year, dropped to number 48 in the ranking published by ArtReview.”
NY Phil, In Vietnam, Hopes Visit Will Be The First Of Many
“The New York Philharmonic visit comes amid deepening economic ties between Vietnam and the U.S., now the Asian country’s biggest export market. … The visit is a way of ‘opening up relations on a cultural basis,’ [New York Philharmonic President Zarin] Mehta said.”
NBC Names An ‘Artist-In-Residence’ (And It’s Not Meryl Streep Or Yo-Yo Ma)
“Every network looks to book talent first: NBC Universal is taking the concept to a new level with the singer Jon Bon Jovi.” For two months, the network will call him an “artist-in-residence” – meaning that he “will be seen exclusively on shows on outlets owned by NBC Universal.”
New Starchitecture Provides ‘The Cultural Stature Dallas Has Long Been Craving’
Nicolai Ouroussoff: The “coolly experimental” Wyly Theater (Koolhaas/Prince-Ramus) and the Winspear Opera House (Foster), a “traditional take on civic architecture cloaked in a modern wrapper,” help fill out the city’s Cultural District “with the kind of strong, serious forms that can begin to give Dallas the cultural presence that it has never had.”