Lit Idol

Want to be a literary star? Lit Idol is based on the format of TV’s Pop Idol. “Writers must submit up to 10,000 words from the opening chapters of their novels and a synopsis. Professional readers will choose a shortlist of five following the competition closing date on 14 January. The final five will then have to read their work in front of judging panel. A public vote will also take place, which will account for 25% of the final decision.”

An Alternative Universe View Of The New MoMA

“We just had an election that turned, in part, on cultural values—and we Blue Staters lost! Now we have a new modern art museum with a $20 admission fee to divide us further. The paper called MoMA ‘indispensable to our shared cultural legacy,’ but there’s nothing ‘shared’ about the culture on view inside. If the dominant institution in the Red States is the church, then welcome to MoMA, where the Blue States pray! And what a cathedral to Blue State values it is! Looking around the new MoMA, all I saw was sex, death, longing, misery, anguish—and that’s just the café menu.”

Italy Returning Obelisk To Ethiopia

Italy is finally sending a stolen obelisk back to Ethiopia. “The monument is one of a group of six obelisks erected at Axum when Ethiopia adopted Christianity in the 4th century A.D. It was stolen by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1937 and turned into a symbol of fascist power during his short-lived efforts to revive the grandeur of imperial Rome. Despite signing various agreements that promised to return the 1,700-year-old monument, the Italian government showed no signs of doing so until the obelisk was badly damaged by lightning in a thunderstorm in 2003.”

The Software Art Connoisseur

A group of Dartmouth researchers have developed software they say can detect whether artwork is authentic or not. “There are properties in an artist’s pen and brush strokes that aren’t visible to the human eye, but that are there nonetheless. And we can find them, through mathematical, statistical analysis.”

The British TV Crisis

British television is in trouble. “Everything about British broadcasting at the moment points to too much television relying on the unsustainable business model of the 30-second ad slot. The current industry woes are mere detail against the broader ongoing issues of imminent analogue switch-off, BBC Charter renewal and the droning cultural lament about the general depravity and worthlessness of current screen fodder. We know from experience that crises are a cyclical part of the business, but the changes in technology, audience behaviour and the expectation society has of its linear media mean that we are now at a turning point for our great broadcasting institutions, some of which, at least, will not survive the next decade.”