“Gauguin lived in the village of Atuona from 1901 until his death two years later. He built his own Maori-style hut, “la Maison du Jouir” (house of pleasure), and dug a well just outside. The Marquesans did not use wells, but springs, and after Gauguin died it was filled with rubbish from his home.”
Tag: 11.29.07
Making A Space For Music
“By abandoning conventional norms defining music and space, modern artists created contemporary music. Although this class of music is considered by some to be an irreverent and unpleasant form of noise, the new rules of space are still worth investigating because they exist apart from the compositional creations that incorporate them.”
Peter Schjeldahl On The Differences Between New York And Chicago
In the Schjeldahlian universe, Chicago is “a place where you can get a perspective on the rest of the world”–sort of like a beach in the Bahamas, and about as influential. New York, on the other hand, is one of very few “transmitter” cities.
Rock Star Becomes Australian Environment Minister
Peter Garrett of the disbanded Australian rock group Midnight Oil is part of the new government. “With his wild dancing and strident voice, Garrett was one of Australia’s most recognizable singers until his band broke up in 2002, after belting out politically charged hits for more than 25 years.”
Court Throws Out Freelancer Copyright Settlement
A federal appeals court on Thursday set aside a settlement between freelance writers and a group of publishers, including New York Times Co and Thomson Corp, in a copyright case involving work posted online or in databases.
Boston Hockey Stars As You’ve Never Seen Them
A Boston artist is painting portraits of Boston’s greatest hockey stars in the nude. One Thing? Those stars disn’t know anything about their new art roles…
Moscow’s Historic Architecture Endangered
“The 860-year-old mother city of Mother Russia is treating its old streets, alleys, boulevards and squares to a facelift. And as this is the espresso-fuelled heart of a confident nation awash with brash cash, that new face comes courtesy of the bulldozer, piledriver, wrecker’s ball and rubble truck.”
Report: UK Kids Literacy Slipping
“A generation of 10-year-olds are losing confidence in books, spending fewer hours a week reading at home and enjoying it less than five years ago, the study published yesterday found. Ministers immediately announced a £5m scheme to make more books available in nurseries and promised more radical reforms to the controversial literacy strategy.”
Pynchon Replaces Kilroy At UC Santa Barbara
Last week someone started spray-painting “allusions” to the work of author Thomas Pynchon. “As the university begins its cleanup operation and the police investigation continues, two questions remain: Why? And who?”
Hollywood Musicals Find Global Audience
“If the Hollywood musical is supposed to be almost dead (or at least on a respirator) then why are there so many crowding the multiplexes — not to mention heating up the musical-comedy competition at the Golden Globes?”