"Planning your next vacation and don't want to miss Lord Byron's final resting place? Want to see Charles Baudelaire's last stop? With this handy website [www.poetsgraves.co.uk] you can search by poet's name or by location, get maps to the gravesite, read a sample of the deceased's work or a brief but informative biographical note."...
ArtsJournal
mclennan
"'Analyses of 914 films released between 2001 and 2005 indicated that sex and nudity do not, on the average, boost box office performance, earn critical acclaim or win major awards,' reports a new study titled 'Sex Doesn't Sell - Nor Impress'."...
ArtsJournal
mclennan
"Punters and employees at the Eros Centre in Leipzig [will] be treated on Friday to six musicians and a singer from the city's Forum for Contemporary Music (FZML) performing 'licentious and erotic' works."...
ArtsJournal
mclennan
"While hardship will not necessarily produce better art, standing outside official patronage might at least encourage artists to kick against the establishment rather than adorn it. The art we have enjoyed over the last 12 years has been wealthy, and wealthy art is supine."...
ArtsJournal
http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference
The oral historian and radio host applied for a job with the FBI in the 1930s, but he looked like a communist to the bureau, which started a paper trail on him in 1945. "His file ends in 1990, when agents clipped a Wall Street Journal article quoting his reaction to financier Michael Milken's junk-bond scandal."...
ArtsJournal
http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference
In this era of live blogging and TiVo time-shifting, "[p]eople are, if anything, more insistent on keeping their bubbles of cultural innocence intact. Heaven forbid they should learn that, in a romantic comedy that opened three weeks ago, the guy gets the girl in Act 3."...
ArtsJournal
http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference
"According to L.A. Opera, 'The 110 Project' tells the story of four central characters as it travels through 70 years of L.A. history" in communities along the freeway. "So what will the opera sound like? You guessed it: the music is said to be inspired by freeway sounds...."...
ArtsJournal
http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference
"Studios make dumb decisions all the time. But ... the real underlying issue behind these kinds of gaffes" is homogeneity among the higher-ups. "The decision-makers at studios are virtually all white, so they don't see potential racial slights in the same light as they would if they had someone -- anyone! -- of color in the executive suite."...
ArtsJournal
http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference
"The lack of depth has led to a slew of awards-season chatter, from the expected downplaying -- all categories are cyclical -- to blanket explanations about studios making fewer awards movies in general. If the latter explanation were a factor, best actor also would be weak this year. It's not. ... So what's really going on here?"...
ArtsJournal
http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference
"It was the highest level of new business for the nation's architects since August 2008, a report from the American Institute of Architects says. 'This news could prove to be an early signal toward a recovery for the design and construction industry,' said Kermit Baker, the AIA's chief economist."...
ArtsJournal
http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference
"Jim Caviezel (Jesus), Malcolm McDowell (King Solomon) and Richard Dreyfuss (Moses) were among hundreds of actors who lined up to create 'The Word of Promise Audio Bible,' all 98 hours and 79 CDs of it." Other boldface participants: Max von Sydow as Noah, Gary Sinise as David, Marisa Tomei as Mary Magdalene and Jason Alexander as Joseph....
ArtsJournal
http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference
"The self-published novels won't be sold under the Harlequin brand, but Harlequin, which sells about 1,500 romances every year, is hoping it could become a grooming ground for future authors." That's in keeping with tradition: Over the last decade, Harlequin says, "at least 50 of its authors have come from the ranks of its readers."...
ArtsJournal
http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference
"Preservation concerns about 'Spiral Jetty' have arisen lately not only because of the work's re-emergence from the water but also because of plans announced in the last two and a half years by companies to initiate industrial projects near the site." The piece's owner, the Dia Art Foundation, is trying a tack involving weather balloons....
ArtsJournal
http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference
"More than 200 directors, producers and screenwriters withdrew 52 films from the [Thessaloniki Film Festival], undermining the state awards, which selects winners from Greek films that unspool at the fest." Filmmakers were protesting the nation's film funding laws....
ArtsJournal
http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference
"The WGA West's 2009 Hollywood Writers Report finds 'little if any' improvement in employment and earnings for women and minority writers. The report ... found that women scribes remain stuck at 28% of TV employment and 18% in features while the minority share has been frozen at 6% since 1999."...
ArtsJournal
http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference
"Composers and lyricists are among the few Hollywood creatives without a collective bargaining agreement. Services like orchestration, conducting and music performance are covered by American Federation of Musicians (AFM) agreements, but not the act of writing music or lyrics."...
ArtsJournal
http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference
"Part of the appeal of percussion music is visual." Indeed, "the extramusical elements may be the reason percussion music is so popular with audiences, and often draws crowds that are substantially younger than average."...
ArtsJournal
http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference
"The company's move last season from the tiny 50-seat Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (a.k.a. CHAW) to the much larger Sprenger Theater in the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE proved more than its budget could handle."...
ArtsJournal
http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference
"People once scoffed at the idea of reading a book on a 3.5-inch mobile screen. For many readers, though, sheer convenience trumps everything else."...
ArtsJournal
http://www.artsjournal.com/criticaldifference
"It's not often that you see a manifestation of Satan within the precincts of Westminster Abbey, but at a ceremony to unveil a memorial to the founders of the Royal Ballet, he made a striking appearance. [Two dancers] took the part of the fallen angel in synchronised performances of an extract from Ninette de Valois's Job, performed at either end of the long nave, so that the entire congregation could see something."...
ArtsJournal
mclennan