- Are We Losing Our Sense Of Distance? Our Ability To Reflect? Have we lost our critical distance from the cultural things with which we interact? "American culture as a whole has grown increasingly spellbound by electronic media to the point where now every other person we see wears a headset, has a cell phone to one ear or eyes fixed on some porthole of cyberspace. The critical distance that once appeared to be a virtue, or at least an advantage, now appears to be one more illusion, or perhaps a mere spasm of arrogance on the artist's or the critic's part." San Francisco Chronicle 06/08/03
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7000 Spaniards Strip Naked For Spencer Seven thousand Spaniards strip for photographer Spencer Tunick in Barcelona, the most people he's used for one of his photos. "There was a festival-like atmosphere among the crowd even though many of the models became quite cold from standing around naked for 90 minutes in temperatures of 15 degrees Celsius." The Age (Melbourne) 06/09/03
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ChiTrib's Top 50 Magazines With 17,500 magazines published in the U.S. across countless genres and directed at dozens of different demographics, is it even possible to select a list of the top examples? The Chicago Tribune thinks so, and is out with a ranking of the top 50 magazines. #1 might surprise you, #2 probably won't, and #3 will probably appreciate the thought, since its editor is currently a bit distracted by some pesky legal problems. Chicago Tribune 06/12/03
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It's A Date - When Van Gogh Painted Experts have known that Van Gogh's painting of a field of haystacks in Provence, France, was painted "sometime in the summer of 1889, toward the end of the most productive, but troubled, period of the artist's life. However, the precise date of its creation has vexed art historians for many years. Now, Southwest Texas State University astronomers Russell Doescher and Donald Olson, along with Olson's wife, Marilyn, an English professor, have determined that Van Gogh was working on the picture at 9:08 p.m. on July 13, 1889." Wired 06/11/03
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Who Said What About Iraq Museum Looting? It is obvious now that the Iraq Museum was not looted of all its art. So what accounts for the reports that it had been, and statements made by t6he museum's director, Donny George? Says George: "There was a mistake. Someone asked us what is the number of pieces in the whole collection. We said over 170,000, and they took that as the number lost. Reporters came in and saw empty shelves and reached the conclusion that all was gone. But before the war we evacuated all of the small pieces and emptied the showcases except for fragile or heavy material that was difficult to move." This indictment of world journalism has caused some surprise to those who listened to George and others speak at the British Museum meeting. "Donny George himself had ample opportunity to clarify to the best of [his] knowledge the extent of the looting and the likely number of missing objects. Is it not a little strange that quite so many journalists went away with the wrong impression, while Mr George made little or not attempt to clarify the context of the figure of 170,000 which he repeated with such regularity and gusto before, during, and after that meeting." The Guardian (UK) 06/10/03
