UPDATE: Last month we wrote The Dallas Morning News asking them why they never gave foreign films 4 stars. They denied any hidden policy against foreign films but also confirmed that their records couldn't find one that got 4 stars either. Then this month they gave their first 4 star rating to the foreign film Princess Mononoke. Strange coincidence indeed! Muesea is finding it harder and harder to believe ANYTHING The Dallas Morning News says about anything.
CORP ART BULLIES: The Hollywood Reporter trashed the Fox film Fight Club. Fox withdrew advertising in retaliation. So much for fair reviews about corp. art films. That's why we advocate art and art reviews without ads (and ad pressures on integrity!)
ART THEFTS: Slowly we are learning the scope of the art thefts during WW2. 80% of Hungary's art treasures - ONE MILLION- items valued at about $3 billion, disappeared during the war and aftermath. Invading German troops took a lot, but most was taken by special Russian military units that raided Budapest bank vaults. This is one big mess! (ARTNews.
BROOKLYN MUSEUM UPDATE. Remember NYC Mayor Giuliani trying to pull the plug on funding the outre art at the Brooklyn Museum? District Judge Nina Gershon restored city funding ruling that the Mayor violated the first amendment… (the action against the museum was) "directly related, not just to the content of the exhibit, but to the particular viewpoints expressed." City lawyer/bullies will appeal, wasting more $$$.
ARCHITECTURE: It looks like renown architect Renzo Piano has been chosen to design the Nasher Sculpture Center in Downtown Dallas. (ARTNews) And speaking of buildings: when does historic preservation to too far? If everything 50 years and older is protected from renovation or new construction without permissio (ex. Palo Alto, CA) that means all those 50's ranch style homes are going to be locked in time soon! Protect Victorian houses? That's easy to answer! But 50's? Discuss!
TV: Viacom bought CBS (channel 11 in Dallas). What comes next when Corp Art merges? Quality? LOL! Firings, of course. Weather man Bob Goosman and anchor Cameron Harper are likely history.
THE PLAY IS NOT THE THING!: More art bullying, this time in East Texas at Kilgore College (close to my hometown, Tyler). The county withdrew its $50,000 funding for the college's Shakespeare Festival to retaliate for the college refusing to call off its staging of Angels in America, a film where most of the characters are gay men. College President William Holda and Theater Dept. Head Raymond Caldwell rejected the demands as threats to artistic and academic freedom. The play opened to a packed house on October 14 and ran for four nights as planned. We salute Holda and Caldwell as this month's Camp Champs for standing up to the provincials, which in East Texas, can be a real challenge! (Reuters
ADS: The Census Bureau will spend $170 million on an ad campaign (the third largest in the country behind the 2 burger boys) to persuade Americans to be counted. Something's not right here. All this money - is this the best way to spend it? The media's lack of responsibility and civic duty (you haven't heard "civic duty" anywhere near the word "media" in a long time, have you?) - why don't they DONATE the time? Etc….and speaking of ads, I want to end with this: THERE IS NO ADVANTGAGE OR BENEFIT FOR CHILDREN IN WATCHING ADVERTISING OR READING ADS - none, zip, nada, zero. AND THERE'S PLENTY OF HARM! Musea hopes that in the next millennium to free children from the yoke and chains of ads! News reports gathered by Alden Scott Crow & Musea.
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