• CANADIAN JUDGE BANS BROADCAST OF FILM nominated for top Canadian film honor while Saskatchewan murder trial is on. CBC 10/29/99

• EXPLAINING NATURAL PHENOMENA IN CULTURAL TERMS: John MacDonald's inaugural speech as head of Australian art at the National Gallery of Australia. Sydney Morning Herald 10/28/99

• BLOWING UP THE TRADITIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL: If a madonna playing an accordion was too much for the last Adelaide Festival, wait till next year. Australia's largest festival reinvents. Sydney Morning Herald 10/26/99 

• IF YOU WANT TO GET AN ARTS GRANT know your terms. A Montreal artist applied for a grant to write a book about the porno company he works for. He didn't get it. Next time call it "erotica." Toronto Globe and Mail 10/26/99

• CHAMPION OF CONTROVERSIAL ART: Legendary arts educator Philip Yenawine says the professional art world has failed the public and themselves. Brooklyn brawl is all too sadly familiar. Salon 10/25/99

• CRITICAL EDGE: These days, knocking an Australian product - including art - is regarded as disloyal and unhelpful in nation-building. Where are the critics? 
  Sydney Morning Herald 10/25/99

• ART IN ISRAEL: Is the country's mainstream art becoming too commercial? AND: Trance music captivates Israel - has authorities worried. AND: Building a major international museum from scratch in few short decades. New York Times 10/24/99(registration required for access)

• CREATING A HOMEGROWN CULTURAL INDUSTRY: Canada's Canadian content rules are just a game everyone plays - lip service so you can make an American deal. Toronto Globe and Mail 10/23/99

• BRITISH PARLIAMENT will appoint committee to investigate whether British Museum should return the Elgin Marbles to Greece. BBC 10/21/99 AND: CBC report

• ARTIST PROTEST: Tuesday, artists hung a giant "censored" sign over a billboard promoting the arts in Hartford after city officials pulled a piece of artwork from a show at a public gallery. Hartford Courant 10/20/99

• CROSSFIRE: Schuyler Chapin, New York's commissioner of culture, is caught between a peeved mayor and arts supporters clamoring for Chapin's support in the Brooklyn Museum debacle. 
  New York Times 10/20/99 (registration required to access)

• OWNING THE AIR: When the New Zealand government wanted to auction off part of the wireless transmission spectrum earlier this year, the indigenous Maori claimed it as property granted them under 19th Century treaties with settlers. The government rejects those claims.  Wired 10/19/99

• PIRACY PRESCRIPTION: Russia -where copyright piracy is rampant - agrees to align its copyright laws with the European Union. Variety.com 10/19/99

• WRESTLING MARTHA STEWART: The doyenne of do-it-yourself and the World Wrestling Federation venture onto the floor of the stock market with initial public stock offerings. Variety.com 10/19/99

• US CUSTOMS SERVICE opening a new center to combat theft of intellectual property. Seizures of stolen movies, software and music have nearly doubled since 1994. CBC 10/18/99

• OUTOFBUSINESS.COM: Hollywood literary agents rallied to shut down a new internet site that promised overnight review of scripts submitted to the industry for bidding. Variety.com 10/18/99

• HARTFORD HAS ITS OWN "BROOKLYN": Familiar reruns on the Art Controversy Network. Why do these things always seem to play out the same way? 
  Hartford Courant 10/17/99

• IN BOSTON: A new cultural center is much needed - so why is the process of trying to build one so  confusing and convoluted?  Boston Globe 10/17/99 

• CALIFORNIA PASSES CHILD ACTOR LAW to safeguard earnings of young actors. Backstage 10/15/99

• CANADIAN GOVERNMENT SPENDING LESS ON CULTURE: according to a new government report. CBC 10/15/99

• NO INCREASE IN NEA BUDGET: The US Senate's supporters of the National Endowment for the Arts decide not to fight for an increase in the arts agency's budget. Washington Post 10/15/99

• BUSINESS FOR THE ARTS: The Australian government has come up with a bureaucratic alphabet - the "Business Case for Cultural Investment Guide" and the "Cultural Products Menu" - as it tries to promote business investment in the arts. Sydney Morning Herald 10/14/99

• POLITICS OF MUSIC: Last week's concert in Miami by Cuban band Van Van provoked huge demonstrations outside. Intense media attention was partly to blame. Miami Herald 10/14/99 

• POTTER PROOF: Kids are putting away the video games and devouring the sorcery of Harry Potter. Some parents worried about the wildly popular stories have persuaded South Carolina's Board of Education to review whether the books should be allowed in the classroom.  (AP) Philadelphia Daily News 10/14/99

• SYDNEY'S OLYMPIC ARTS FESTIVAL: On putting together the cultural program to accompany the Olympic games, its director says: "I felt the program should have scale, be youthful in tone and be a bit quirky because that's how Australia is perceived." Sydney Morning Herald 10/13/99

• FRANCE IS LOBBYING to get culture off the agenda in next month's international talks on world trade. France wants TV and film kept off the negotiating table, fearing Hollywood will swamp the Euro industry. Variety.com 10/13/99

• CULTURE WARY: threats about investigating violence and pop culture may make good politics, but (thanks to polls and lobbyists) American politicians are unlikely to pass new laws regulating the entertainment industry. 
  New York Times 10/13/99 

• NO ARNOLD OR BRUCE OR SYLVESTER: Planet Hollywood's stars stayed away from court as the restaurant chain filed in bankruptcy court to close nine of its restaurants. 
  (Reuters) Contra Costa Times 10/12/99 

• HOT CUBAN BAND VAN VAN plays Miami Saturday to protests from thousands of demonstrators. Miami Herald 10/10/99

• EUROSTROIKA: The grand great contemporary arts of Europe - observations by David White. New York Times 10/11/99

• DUELING ARTS CENTERS: The Barbican and South Bank are London's two one-stop arts centers. But while there's a rivalry of sorts, business is booming for both. Financial Times 10/8/99

• BUSTED: A Tower Video clerk in Dallas who sold a porno tape to a police officer gets charged with obscenity. I can't believe community standards are different from California's, a Tower exec told the cops. Dallas Observer 10/7/99

• AVENUE OF THE ARTS: A decade ago, urban decay. Philadelphia's recasting of a downtown street as a mecca of culture has been more successful than anyone thought possible. Now a plan to extend it. Philadelphia Inquirer 10/7/99

• WORLD'S FAIR: Disney opens its Millennial Village at Epcot in a blaze of color. Tampabay.com 10/5/99

• HIGH TECH MILLIONAIRES have sprouted in the rain forests of Seattle, leading to a boom in philanthropic giving. AP (Yahoo Daily News) 10/5/99

• DISNEY MAKES MIDDLE-EAST PEACE ACCORD: The Happy Kingdom backs down on portrayal of Jerusalem and averts Arab boycott. Washington Post 10/1/99

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