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The New Yorker

  • Goings On About Town: Venues: Radio City Music Hall@#8212 Kicking Across America

    Sixth Ave. at 50th St. 10020
    212-247-4777
  • Vince Aletti: Zwelethu Mthethwa’s photographs, at the Studio Museum.We don’t know much about the subjects of Zwelethu Mthethwa’s big color photographs at the Studio Museum except that they are South African migrant workers living outside Johannesburg. Posed informally in temporary housing, they recall the inhabitants of domestic settings in pictures by Diane Arbus, Bill . . .
  • Sasha Frere-Jones: Jason Pierce and Spiritualized, at Radio City Music Hall.Plenty of musicians do buckets of drugs while claiming to be on the hunt for transcendence. Jason Pierce, once of the drone-rock group Spacemen 3 and the leader of Spiritualized for the last twenty years, is one of the few musicians who have managed to make good on this . . .
  • Sasha Frere-Jones: Big Boi steps out.The case of the Atlanta rapper Big Boi, who makes up half of the duo OutKast, doesn’t make sense from the viewpoint of the music fan, or the cold-eyed investor. OutKast, though on hiatus, has sold more than seventeen million albums, more than all but a handful . . .
  • Nancy Franklin: Has CNN been lost in the cable news shuffle?It’s a truism in the news business that reporters and their employers should avoid becoming the story. It used to be a truism, anyway, but in the new world of technology and transparency that’s not possible. Everyone, it seems, is a media hound and a media . . .
  • Lila Byock: Torrisi Italian Specialties, in Manhattan.paragraph class="noindent">Little Italy seems to get a little littler with each passing year. This is a shame, because tourists want to visit Little Italy, and they don’t want to be packed off to Arthur Avenue or Bensonhurst or Carroll Gardens. Fortunately, this new red-sauce revival . . .
  • Goings on About Town: The TheatrePageBreak --> OPENINGS AND PREVIEWS Please call the phone number listed with the theatre for timetables and ticket information. ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S BIG, GAY DANCE PARTY Abraham Lincoln’s legacy and sexuality are questioned in a fourth-grade Christmas pageant in the sixteenth President’s home town . . .
  • Goings on About Town: Sounds of Silver8220;I got pills that make me cranky / I got pills that make me cry” is the casually debauched first line of “Teenage Lightning,” a 2002 song by the rock band Luna that also appears on “Thirteen Most Beautiful . . . Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen . . .
  • Goings on About Town: Readings and TalksgoatTitle-->WORD FOR WORD Gary Shteyngart reads from his new novel, “Super Sad True Love Story.” He’ll also discuss it with the editor David Ebershoff. (Bryant Park, Sixth Ave. at 42nd St. For more information, call 212-768-4242. July 28 at 12:30.) PARK-LIT Opium magazine . . .
  • Goings on About Town: On the HorizonNIGHT LIFE NEW FOLKS Aug. 10 The young U.K. folk trio Lau—the singer and guitarist Kris Drever, the fiddler Aidan O’Rourke, and the accordionist Martin Green—has earned praise for its rich updating of Old World sounds; the group plays Joe’s Pub. (joespub.com . . .
  • Goings on About Town: Night LifePageBreak --> ROCK AND POP Musicians and night-club proprietors live complicated lives; it’s advisable to check in advance to confirm engagements. THE BELL HOUSE 149 7th St., Brooklyn (718-643-6510)—July 28: Adler’s Appetite is a volatile Who’s Who of hair-metal has . . .
  • Goings on About Town: MoviesPageBreak --> OPENINGS CATS & DOGS: THE REVENGE OF KITTY GALORE A comedy, directed by Brad Peyton, about animals who form an alliance to fight a renegade cat. With the voices of James Marsden, Nick Nolte, and Bette Midler. Opening July 30. (In wide release.) CHARLIE ST. CLOUD Zac . . .
  • Goings on About Town: DancegoatTitle-->PILOBOLUS This quirky, always innovative troupe presents three new works in its Joyce season, which is dedicated to the memory of its co-founder Jonathan Wolken. (175 Eighth Ave., at 19th St. 212-242-0800. July 27-28 and Aug. 2-3 at 7:30, July 29-30 at 8, and July 31 at 2 . . .
  • Goings on About Town: Classical MusicPageBreak --> CONCERTS IN TOWN MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL July 27-28 at 8: New York’s summer classical mainstay returns, with Mozart’s music merely part of a diverse selection of events. The opening pair of gala concerts gives due honor to the Salzburg genius, with the “Clemenza . . .
  • Goings on About Town: ArtPageBreak --> MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES METROPOLITAN MUSEUM Fifth Ave. at 82nd St. (212-535-7710)—“Picasso in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Through Aug. 1. | “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity.” Through Aug. 15. | “An Italian Journey: Drawings from the Tobey Collection, Correggio to Tiepolo.” . . .
  • Goings on About Town: Above and BeyondgoatTitle-->“THE CONEY ISLAND ILLUSCINATION” Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey is back in Brooklyn with a one-ring summer extravaganza. (Surf Ave. at W. 21st St. 800-745-3000. Through Sept. 6.) ANIMATION BLOCK PARTY This annual festival of shorts, music videos, and experimental fare, featuring nearly a . . .
  • Elizabeth Kolbert: Is there hope for our overfished oceans?The Atlantic bluefin tuna is shaped like a child’s idea of a fish, with a pointy snout, two dorsal fins, and a rounded belly that gradually tapers toward the back. It is gunmetal blue on top, and silvery on the underside, and its tail looks like a sickle . . .
  • David Denby: “Salt” and “Farewell.”In the spy thriller “Salt,” Angelina Jolie gets quite a workout. She kicks, karate-chops, and pistol-whips about thirty men. She kills many others with such weapons as a machine gun, a broken bottle, and handcuff chains, which she uses to strangle a guy. She jumps from . . .
  • Books: “The World That Never Was.”This history follows the radical anti-authoritarians who flourished in the years between the Paris Commune, in 1871, and the First World War and the politicians, policemen, and agents provocateurs who opposed them, casting the conflict as “the first international ‘War on Terror.’ ” Butterworth shows how . . .
  • Books: “The Four Fingers of Death.”Moody dedicates this sprawling novel, about a detached human arm infected with a killer bacteria incubated on Mars, to the memory of Kurt Vonnegut, and Vonnegut’s influence is visible throughout—in the metafictional narrative, sci-fi touchstones, and depiction of a dystopian future characterized by enfeebling consumerism . . .
  • Books: “Double Happiness.”The stories in this excellent collection meander with the sureness of streams discovering their paths. Hughes keeps her prose close to her characters’ thoughts, and doles out the most crucial information on the sly. Many stories deal with women or girls coming to terms with the failings, or deaths . . .
  • Books: “Absence of Mind.”As a novelist, Robinson suffuses a finely wrought American idiom with homily and theological speculation. Her latest work, a series of lectures on science and religion, sleekly melds philosophical disquisition, caustic polemic, and becalming sermon. Robinson argues that neo-Darwinians and Freudians, in their quest to dispel the mystery of . . .
  • Goings On About Town: Venues: Zürcher Studio

    33 Bleecker St., New York, NY 10012
    212 777 0790
  • Sasha Frere-Jones: Sir Richard Bishop on guitar.Sir Richard Bishop—the honorific is deserved, but was not bestowed by any known state—helped found the band Sun City Girls in the early eighties. “Ethnic-improv” was one description the band approved of, which gives you only a vague sense of the risky, eclectic . . .
  • Richard Brody: Criterion’s “Presenting Sacha Guitry.”paragraph class="noindent">As seen in the quartet of effervescent, extroverted films from the mid-nineteen-thirties featured in Criterion’s boxed set “Presenting Sacha Guitry,” this leading actor, playwright, and stage director in France in the early twentieth century transferred his artistry to the movies nearly . . .
  • Lauren Collins: This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef, in the East Village.paragraph class="noindent">Manhattan has long been a backwater for roast beef. Chicagoans have Italian beefs, dipped beefs, cheesy beefs, beefs with giardiniera (they even have a Web site, called Greasefreak, featuring pictures of beefs that users can sort by restaurant—Fran’s Beef, Connie’s Beef . . .
  • Hilton Als: “Greater New York,” at P.S. 1.P.S. 1’s “Greater New York” is one of the season’s more emotionally rich and intellectually edifying shows: it challenges or reinvents aspects of painting and sculpture, with video and performance also high on the list of mediums that get a thorough look. While recent . . .
  • Goings on About Town: The TheatrePageBreak --> OPENINGS AND PREVIEWS Please call the phone number listed with the theatre for timetables and ticket information. ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S BIG GAY DANCE PARTY Abraham Lincoln’s legacy and sexuality are questioned in a fourth-grade Christmas pageant in the sixteenth President’s home town . . .
  • Goings on About Town: Readings and TalksgoatTitle-->MCNALLY JACKSON BOOKS Sam Weller, the author of “Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews,” talks with the great writer himself, using Skype. (52 Prince St. 212-274-1160. July 21 at 7.) “MAD. SQ. READS” The writers Emily Barton, David Gates, and Stacey D . . .
  • Goings on About Town: On the HorizonNIGHT LIFE BUSKING OUT July 30 The folk-rock group the Swell Season—featuring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who first found fame with the Irish film “Once”—drop in on Prospect Park, as part of Celebrate Brooklyn! (bricartsmedia.org/cb.) CLASSICAL MUSIC ALL TOGETHER NOW Aug . . .
  • Goings on About Town: Night LifePageBreak --> ROCK AND POP Musicians and night-club proprietors live complicated lives; it’s advisable to check in advance to confirm engagements. B. B. KING BLUES CLUB & GRILL 237 W. 42nd St. (212-997-4144)—July 27: The hip-hop group Arrested Development emerged in the early nineties . . .
  • Goings on About Town: MoviesPageBreak --> OPENING AUDREY THE TRAINWRECK Reviewed below in Now Playing. Opening July 23. (reRun Gastropub Theatre.) COUNTDOWN TO ZERO A documentary by Lucy Walker about the dangers of nuclear weapons and plans for global disarmament. Opening July 23. (Angelika Film Center and Empire 25.) FAREWELL Reviewed below . . .
  • Goings on About Town: DancegoatTitle-->PILOBOLUS This quirky, always innovative troupe presents three new works in its Joyce season, which is dedicated to its co-founder Jonathan Wolken, who died suddenly last month. (175 Eighth Ave., at 19th St. 212-242-0800. July 20-21 and July 26-27 at 7:30, July 22-23 at 8, and July 24 . . .
  • Goings on About Town: Classical MusicPageBreak --> CONCERTS IN TOWN LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL: “LA PORTA DELLA LEGGE” Now that the mighty figure of Luciano Berio has receded into history, Salvatore Sciarrino, whose style reaches for a not dissimilar mixture of lyricism and complexity, is Italy’s most significant composer, and the international . . .
  • Goings on About Town: ArtPageBreak --> MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES METROPOLITAN MUSEUM Fifth Ave. at 82nd St. (212-535-7710)—“Picasso in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Through Aug. 1. | “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity.” Through Aug. 15. | “An Italian Journey: Drawings from the Tobey Collection, Correggio to Tiepolo.” . . .
  • Goings on About Town: Above and BeyondgoatTitle-->SAND-SCULPTING CONTEST The Astella Development Corp.’s twentieth annual Sand Sculpting Competition at Coney Island celebrates the beauty of impermanence. This is more than just a shovel-and-pail operation—brushes, squirt bottles, and X-Acto knives are just some of the tools used to render . . .
  • David Denby: “Inception.”Christopher Nolan, the British-born director of “Memento” and of the two most recent Batman movies, appears to believe that if he can do certain things in cinema—especially very complicated things—then he has to do them. But why? To what end? His new movie . . .
  • Books: “William Golding.”Carey’s thorough and illuminating biography, the first of Golding, also serves as a crucial introduction to the Nobel Prize-winning novelist’s output. Golding’s novels, which include “The Inheritors,” “Pincher Martin,” and “Darkness Visible,” have always stood in the . . .
  • Books: “The Invisible Bridge.”Andras Lévi arrives in Paris from Budapest in the fall of 1937 to study architecture at the École Spéciale without knowing a word of French. Within weeks, however, he is constructing a model of the Gare d’Orsay at school and building sets at . . .
  • Books: “The Cookbook Collector.”Goodman’s charming reworking of “Sense and Sensibility” follows two sisters—Emily, the C.E.O. of a promising data-storage startup in Silicon Valley, in the late-nineties, and Jess, a tree-hugging vegan who meanders through graduate school at Berkeley while moonlighting at an antiquarian bookstore . . .
  • Books: “Not for Profit.”Nussbaum, a philosopher who teaches at the University of Chicago, candidly describes her latest book as a “manifesto, not an empirical study.” She is alarmed by the degree to which the humanities are being pushed aside—at all levels of schooling and in countries around the world . . .
  • Anthony Lane: Cary Grant in “Gunga Din,” at BAM.How many movies are based on poems? Not enough, if “Gunga Din” (1939) is anything to go by. Kipling’s rousing ballad is both expanded—many writers contributed to the genial screenplay, including Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur, and William Faulkner—and honored by George Stevens . . .
  • Anthony Gottlieb: Can theorists engineer a better way to elect candidates?Whenever the time came to elect a new doge of Venice, an official went to pray in St. Mark’s Basilica, grabbed the first boy he could find in the piazza, and took him back to the ducal palace. The boy’s job was to draw lots to . . .
  • Goings On About Town: Venues: Williamsburg Waterfront

    East River State Park, Kent Ave. between N. 8th and N. 9th Sts. 11211
    800-745-3000
  • Meghan O’Rourke: Anne Carson’s “Nox.”In 2000, Anne Carson’s older brother Michael died unexpectedly in Copenhagen. It took two weeks for the news to reach Carson, a Canadian-born classicist and poet, because Michael’s widow couldn’t find her number in her husband’s papers. Michael had run away . . .
  • Joan Acocella: The “World of Tap Dance,” festival, at the CUNY Graduate Center.The “World of Tap Dance” festival, which will take place July 6-7 at the CUNY Graduate Center, is a celebration of tap on film, a phenomenon that started when the talkies did. Before then, tap wasn’t recorded; indeed, the same has often been true since then . . .
  • Hilton Als: “Merchant of Venice” and “On the Levee.”Part of the reason that Shakespeare remains one of the handful of writers who engage generation after generation of readers has to do with the way he is taught, or, at least, was taught in the New York City public-school system of my youth. Back then, in the mid . . .
  • David Denby: James Stewart in “The Far Country,” at Film Forum.James Stewart, America’s favorite romantic and idealistic young man, changed remarkably after the war; he became angry, tough, and self-involved, and wound up, in 1958, as a malevolent obsessive in Hitchcock’s masterpiece “Vertigo.” Along the way, Stewart made five great Westerns with the . . .
  • Anthony Lane: “The Kids Are All Right” and “Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno.”Not long ago, in “Mother and Child,” Annette Bening played a controlling, easily angered woman who worked in a hospital and found her status as a parent challenged by unforeseen events. Now, in “The Kids Are All Right,” she opts for a complete change of tack . . .
  • Andrea K. Scott: Sculpture by Charlotte Posenenske, at Artists Space.In May of 1968, Charlotte Posenenske, a thirty-eight-year-old German minimalist with a thriving career, published a manifesto. The first lines read like Donald Judd (“The things I make are variable / as simple as possible / reproducible”); the last was a Dear John to sculpture (“Art . . .

New York Times

Times Magazine

  • All Blogs Must Pass"All blogs must pass away." Okay, apologies to the spirit of George Harrison for that one, but it sums up the purpose of today's post — to lay "Looking Around" to rest. I started this blog in early 2007 as a way to get beyond the weekly newsmagazine format I usually work in and to [...]
  • Tim Burton at MoMAThe director Tim Burton doesn't just make enchantingly loony movies like Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Batman and The Nightmare Before Christmas. He also makes enchantingly loony paintings and drawings, which he's been scribbling away at since his suitably alienated childhood in Burbank, California. This week the Museum of Modern Art in New York opened a big [...]
  • Toyo Ito in Berkeley — No GoThey tell us the Great Recession is in retreat, though it may not feel that way if you're unemployed. Even if it is, on the way out the door it took down a project I was looking forward to. Earlier this week the University of California at Berkeley announced that it was giving up on [...]
  • Jeanne-Claude: 1935-2009We got news this morning of the death of Jeanne-Claude, the artist and creative partner of Christo. They are of course the husband-and-wife team who wrapped the Reichstag in Berlin, ran a vast curtain fence for miles across the northern California landscape and created the completely enchanting New York City project called The Gates. She [...]
  • Raymond Carver: Another Kind of MinimalismActually, the writer Raymond Carver never cared for the word "Minimalism" as the way to describe his taut, tight-lipped short stories. But that was the term they came to be known by in the late 1970s and '80s, when he was at the height of his influence in American fiction. In this week's Time I [...]

Boston Globe

ARTINFO

Lexington Hearld Leader

  • Owner of Midway gallery focuses on local photographersMIDWAY Each day after the train rolls by, Madelein Basson adjusts her picture frames, which are shaken off center by the vibrations. That is no easy task: All four walls are covered with dozens of framed shots of horses and landscapes taken by a variety of local photographers.

    Basson is the owner of Madelein's Studio, Gallery and Gifts, which opened two months ago in downtown Midway. Basson combines photos and other artwork that represent her love for Kentucky and her South African heritage.

    An amateur photographer and former horse farm manager, Basson said she had taken photos as a hobby for years. Friends eventually persuaded her to open her own gallery. She leased a building at 120 East Main Street in early May and was open for business by June 1.

    Photos in Basson's gallery reflect her passion for the horse industry. She sells her own photos along with work of other local amateur artists who focus on horses or nature in Central Kentucky.

    "You can photograph any angle of a horse and it will be a good picture from silhouettes to just one part, like their eyes," she said. "And it doesn't have to be a picture of just the horse. You can get the whole environment in the photo, the landscape."
  • Review: Second 'Horse Mania' is worthy sequel to public-art project Paris Pike , one of 82 horses that took to the streets of Lexington last week as part of Horse Mania 2010 , was the first horse I noticed as I drove home on its opening day. Since then, walking around downtown has been like a scavenger hunt.

    "The horses were concentrated downtown so people could have a walking tour," said Jim Clark of LexArts.

    Interesting public art such as the horses will be a major draw to downtown during the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games this fall. It is "one way of involving the artistic community with this big celebration," Clark said.

    The response to the horses, which Clark said has been "incredibly positive," is obvious to anyone traveling through downtown. The horses have had a steady stream of admirers. Many of these visitors probably remember the last Horse Mania .

    It was in Lexington in 2000, reflecting the popularity of similar public art projects in other cities. Cincinnati had pigs, New York had cows, and Lexington had horses. The question was whether the project would be repeated.
  • 'Moneigh' horse paintings to be auctionedHorses won't be the only pretty things for sale at the yearling auction at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., next month.

    Abstract paintings, some made by the sires of those yearlings, will be exhibited at the Cross Gate Gallery in the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion. Sales of the 23 "Moneighs," as the paintings are known, will raise money for ReRun, a Thoroughbred adoption program.

    Works by Cigar, Fleet Indian, Flower Alley, Funny Cide, Lido Palace, Point Given and the late A.P. Jet are among those available. The paintings are made by the horses, using their muzzles, whiskers, hooves and tails, although some artists such as Funny Cide and Cigar use a paintbrush.

    For more information, go to www.rerun.org.
  • Breyer adds Lexington's blue horseBreyer, makers of popular model horses, is adding "Big Lex," Lexington's blue horse mascot, to its lineup.

    The hand-decorated 5-inch model is based on the oil painting by equine artist Edward Troye and stands on a base of painted Kentucky bluegrass.

    "Lexington, Ky., has been the home of BreyerFest for 21 years, so it's fitting that Breyer would create the official model horse of Lexington, Big Lex," said Stephanie Macejko, Breyer spokeswoman. "As an official sponsor and the creators of the official model horse of the 2010 (Alltech FEI World Equestrian) Games, we are especially pleased to strengthen our connection with the city of Lexington in this important year."

    The Big Lex model horse will be available beginning at BreyerFest, July 23 to 25 at Kentucky Horse Park.
  • Ferraris featured at this year's Concours d'EleganceThe prancing horses are coming to the Horse Capital of the World.

    The prancing horses we're referring to are the symbol of Ferrari, the famed Italian builder of sports and competition cars that have dominated racing and warmed the hearts of motor sports fans for 60 years.

    The prancing horse emblem will be out in force at Keeneland Race Course on Saturday because Ferrari will be the featured make at the 7th annual Keeneland Concours d'Elegance. Proceeds from the "show of elegance" will go to Kentucky Children's Hospital.

    Ferraris of all kinds will grace the show grounds, from racing cars that tore up the tracks in the 1950s and '60s to modern-day, super street cars that can cruise the boulevards at 200 mph.

    Numerous other rare and exotic cars from all over the world also will be on display, including cars built a century ago and some of the latest offerings of modern manufacturers. One hundred of the best will be competing for trophies under the eagle eyes of concours judges, who will be looking for the slightest blemish that could mean the difference between winning and losing.
  • 'Horse Mania 2010' a no-brainer of a sequelIn 2000, LexArts brought Horse Mania to the streets of Lexington. Area businesses and organizations sponsored the 79 fiberglass horses that were decorated by local artists and served as public art throughout the summer.

    Now the popular project has returned with 82 horses that are on display starting Thursday in Horse Mania 2010. Horse Play, a companion project gave school children an opportunity to create foals that are currently on display at Lexington public libraries.

    "Virtually all elementary, middle and high schools participated in Horse Play ," said Tania Blanich, chief operating officer of LexArts. "It has allowed us to expand and involve non-professional artists."

    Bringing back the Horse Mania project, which was one of the most successful in Lexington's history generating $1.6 million in revenue, was a no-brainer, said Steve Grossman, senior vice president of Hilliard Lyons, former LexArts board member and co-chair of Horse Mania 2010.

    "People have been asking for ( Horse Mania ) back since we took the horses off the streets," Grossman said. "Bringing it back only seemed like the natural thing to do. Plus, with the addition of Horse Play , it all becomes a great way to promote public art awareness and raise funds for charities."
  • Master of Sharpie takes pen to 'Horse Mania' projectFor Charlie Kratzer's Alice in Wonderland -inspired Horse Mania entry, LewHorse Carroll, you can thank Lewis Carroll and Johnny Depp.

    Kratzer is the associate general counsel for Lexmark who became an Internet sensation a couple of years ago after he decorated his basement with $10 in Sharpie pens. He decided on the theme of his horse when he heard that Johnny Depp, a favorite actor, was going to appear in a movie version of Alice in Wonderland .

    Kratzer's horse is one of 82 that will be displayed around Lexington starting Thursday as part of a public art project, Horse Mania 2010, sponsored by LexArts.

    Kratzer spent 50 to 60 hours on his horse, right down to the TweedleDee and TweedleDum on the muzzle (his wife Deb's idea, he notes; Kratzer has never been a fan of the quarrelsome twosome from the Carroll book).

    He used three Sharpies over a base coat of paint tinted to match the creamy color used in his Sharpie-decorated basement. The horse was decorated in said basement using transparencies of the sketches he wanted to use enlarged and reworked versions of the original Alice illustrator Sir John Tenniel.
  • Winburn students create alternative uses for CentrePointeEighth-grader Carolyn Romans had one key observation after a school field trip to downtown Lexington: "It's just really a place for adults."

    "Mmm, mmm," said a nodding Kristoni "K.K." Cross. "It's mostly just lawyers," said the seventh-grader, barely looking up from the computer where she was creating a playground to be a part of a new design for the CentrePointe site.

    Carolyn and K.K. are among about 50 kids in a special summer enrichment program at Winburn Middle School who have taken on the hefty task of coming up with an innovative project for the vacant CentrePointe site in the middle of the city.

    Divided into five teams, the kids have not only toured downtown but have researched everything from the prominent architectural styles of old Lexington to the best way to make a hotel environmentally friendly.

    White boards in each room were filled with questions that needed to be answered, calculations that needed to be made. Students were using laptop computers to virtually create their inspirations.

Arts Journal

  • The End Of Phone Calls?"We're moving toward a fascinating cultural transition: the death of the telephone call. This shift is particularly stark among the young. This generation doesn't make phone calls, because everyone is in constant, lightweight contact in so many other ways: texting, chatting, and social-network messaging."...
  • Will Washington National Opera Merge With The Kennedy Center? Unknown."There's no question that the company would prefer to remain independent. The question is whether that is possible. A merger with the Kennedy Center would certainly solve one persistent problem, the company's lack of an administrative head."...
  • A Revolution In Movie Sound Effects?"Software engineers are working on a system that would replace the traditional effects of the so-called Foley artists, who have been plying their trade ever since the 'talkies' hit the screens, with the omnipresent computer."...
  • Bookseller Of Kabul Author Loses Lawsuit. What Does This Mean For Literary Freedom?"The news that Åsne Seierstad, Norwegian author of The Bookseller of Kabul, has been successfully sued by one of her book's characters will be greeted as either a blow to artistic freedom of expression or a victory for the world's misrepresented and powerless poor."...
  • YouTube Raises Video Limit To 15 Minutes"The video website, owned by Google Inc., said in a blog post Thursday that the longer upload time was the single-most requested feature that its users have been asking for."...
  • Audubon's First Bird Discovered"Thanks to a never-say-die effort between a currency historian and a scholar studying John James Audubon (1785-1851), the famous artist's first published bird illustration has been discovered."...
  • The Penguin Paperback at 75"The great thing about them was that the economics of them meant that it only worked with huge numbers at cheap prices, so most of them are still around. But there are some great rarities, and it is not unknown for particularly rare copies to fetch around £500."...
  • Should Theatres Hire Leaders Locally?Should cultural institutions -- organic and homegrown as so many of them are -- strive to hire local for their creative leadership?...
  • Disney Sells Miramax For $660 Million"The deal ends a laborious six-month bidding process in which the founders of the storied independent film label, the brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, fell short in their attempt to regain control."...
  • Egon Schiele's "Portrait of Wally" - Hostage To Money"The distortion of artworks through their use as icons of money, power and politics has a long and notorious history."...

smArtHistory

Modern Kicks

  • the hermeneutic turn
  • a question for the googlebot. . . since the sitemeter indicates that it's the only regular visitor coming here these days (with good reason), though anyone else should feel free to chime in. I'm going to New York soon, mostly for very boring reasons,...
  • dilettanti theatricalsI've been reading a lot of blog posts about William Powhida. Perhaps you have, too. A few thoughts: I'd be ok if I didn't see anymore discussion, on anyone's part, of "insiders" and "outsiders." It is, among other things, tiresome....
  • hold your horses!Flavorwire already had this, so I presume most have seen it already, but still: love it. Catchy, too.
  • yesPretty much what I've been thinking for months now: Facebook epitomizes filter failure for me. Yes, there are ways to segment information and keep groups, but there aren’t very good ways to keep worlds from overlapping. Facebook isn’t a more...
  • two great tastes that taste great togetherI'm talking about art and historiography, of course, the chocolate and peanut butter of the mind. I was delighted to learn yesterday, via the Art History Newsletter, that the University of Glasgow has begun to publish The Journal of Art...
  • day after day, day after still dayAs this mostly dreary summer seeks to belie its dimming through a series of perfect days that can't quite hide the coming fall, a fragment from a Transylvanian idyll, long ago: "The summer solstice was past, peonies and lilac had...
  • long fallen wideTo read C.V. Wedgwood on The Thirty Years War and reflect that she herself had not reached the age of thirty when she completed her astonishing, magisterial volume it is to realize exactly how large a distance separates oneself from...

Chasing Vincent

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December 7, 2008

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