When she surfaced in October in Pakistan, it was widely reported that the mummy was the Persian princess daughter of ancient Xerxes. Bidding to acquire her quickly soared to $11 million. But carbon dating of a piece of wood from the mummy’s coffin reveals it is only 250 years old. – Archaeology Magazine
Tag: 12.00
AND THE WINNER IS…
“Creating a design award can be a daunting task. The challenge involves conceiving an object that’s not only new but somehow noble, based on a genre that is essentially kitsch (think bowling trophies). At the same time the trophy should have a timeless, abstract quality that doesn’t appear too suggestive of any style or period.” – Metropolis
SELLING REVOLUTION
“As art resources become scarcer, auction houses fight to the death to get works for sale and give in to requests for high estimates and assorted ‘reserves’ demanded by vendors. Every auction becomes a lottery. Some vendors make a killing by hitting the jackpot, others kill their goods as failure to sell is broadcast worldwide. As such mishaps multiply, the credibility of the system crumbles to dust.” – The Art Newsroom
WIDOWS FOREVER
In 1905 Franz Lehar modernized opera, and made himself a fortune. His “The Merry Widow was the “Cats” of its day. “Within three and a half years of its premiere Merry Widow’ racked up more than 18,000 performances in German, English and American theaters. Twenty years on, its audience was counted in the millions.” – Opera News
PHILOSOPHY OF SELF-PUBLISHING
Self-publishing in the field of philosophy is tempting. “One problem is perceived to be that the system makes it virtually impossible for non-academics to get published, no matter what the quality of their work is.” But to the establishment, self-publishing is the kiss of death – no one of standing will take a self-published work seriously. – The Philosopher’s Magazine
TOO OLD TO COMPETE?
Oxford University is one of the world’s great universities. “Yet today there is also a sense of malaise, both inside and outside the university: a belief that Oxford finds it difficult to adapt to changing educational and social needs, a fear that it can no longer maintain its pre-eminence.” – Prospect 12/00
NOT LONG ON LONGFELLOW
Drop Longfellow into a literary conversation nowadays and you will get some odd looks. The exchanges that follow will include words and phrases like “mawkish,” “shallow,” “trite,” “mechanical,” “unadventurous,” “tame,” “jingles,” “slave to conventional modes and diction,” “the innocence of America’s literary youth,” and so on. For all that, Longfellow has been a continuous presence in our language since Voices of the Night was published in 1839, and his lines are still familiar today, though many who know them could not tell you who wrote them. – New Criterion
RATING ARTISTS
Who are today’s overrated artists? Underrated? “The terms can be harder to define than they might seem. Overrated according to whom? The critics? The collectors? Taste and fashion? “History sometimes has a different assessment of an artist than the market does. Sometimes it coincides, sometimes it doesn’t.” – ARTnews
AUSTRALIAN ORCHESTRAS WARNED
Leading new music proponents warn that Australia’s six major orchestras risk becoming marginalized and irrelevant if they don’t do better at promoting new repertoire. “I’m concerned that the former ABC orchestras are now merely an ornament in our cultural lives dedicated to perpetuating the European canon.” – Gramophone
THE DEVALUED CRITIC
Where do those amazingly obscure rave blurbs for this or that movie come from? With a proliferation of easy-to-access opinions on the internet, how does one sort out who’s credible and who’s not. – *spark-online 12/00