Great art’s demands are more important than the wishes of the mere collector who bought it. The fabric of our culture has been rent in twain, and no one will donate to a museum ever again. I’ve heard it all already.
Frankly, I think they should have left the Barnes Collection where and as Barnes left it. It was the Barnes Foundation board that needed to be packed up and transplanted to the juvenile detention facility (conveniently, the future site of the Barnes Museum). Those inept, self-important idiots ran that place into the ground, creating unnecessary crises through decades of obstinate mismanagement. They have betrayed Barnes’ own legacy and wishes, and they keep on doing it.
Barnes was crazy, a crackpot, a rude, difficult parvenu, so what? He had a tremendous eye for art (yeah, sure, there are an awful lot of mediocre Renoirs, and even more portraits of fleshy nude women), yet he was snubbed royally and mocked by the Philadelphia establishment of his day. His Collection and the restrictions he placed on it were a reaction to this small-minded and snobbish mistreatment.
Decades later, the judge just handed Barnes’s legacy–which nobody in Philadelphia wanted during Barnes’s lifetime–over to the same names that once shunned him. If only Barnes had lived long enough to see Scarface–“First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women.”–he’d have realized what step he was skipping.
Does it matter where this painting hangs? [Um, Yes, Roberta. NYT]
Tyler has a Barnes Newsraising [Modernartnotes]
Where’s the When NBA Fans Attack DVD?
“Brilliant! Best PowerPoint of The Year!” -Peter Travers, Rolling Stone.
The Indianapolis Star has a play-by-play account of the investigation into the Pacers-fans brawl during the Detroit Pistons game Nov. 19. To announce charges against both fans and players, the prosecutor’s office in Pontiac, MI created an elaborate PowerPoint presentation full of witness quotes, video clips, and a breakdown of the incident.
My staff worked countless hours, and many nights past midnight,” Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca said. “I don’t know how much it cost, other than it being a helluva lot.”
Dude, you put all that on the DVD, along with the game footage of the shot itself, and even 0.001% of the Sportscenter commentary, and you’ll recoup your production costs in NO TIME.
Elaborate PowerPoint presentation culminated extensive brawl probe [IndyStar.com, via fimoculous]
The Junket Aquatic
Cinecultist Karen is at it again, this time working the crowd of above-the-line talent at the The Life Aquatic junket. No word on the buffet, which I would expect to contain smoked salmon, shrimp cocktail, or some other agua-themed items.
Gothamist on the [The] Life Aquatic Junket [gothamist]
Cinecultist: Crazy For Movies
[update: a-ha. the catering details are on Cinecultist. Fresh fruit and lukewarm coffee.]
DVD Box Set Short(er)list
What, no Amazon links? The little red critics over at the Voice have put together their list of the best DVD’s and DVD collections for 2004, and then they didn’t add shoppertainment links. Here’s my distilled list:
The Five Distractions: Best DVD Sets of 2004 [VV]
Another 10 [VV]
2004-12-20 and 27, These Weeks In The New Yorker
Issue of 2004-12-20 and 27
Posted 2004-12-13
THE TALK OF THE TOWN
COMMENT/ INVASION VS. PERSUASION/ George Packer on the making of democracy in Iraq and Ukraine.
THE DIPLOMATS/ JUST WHISTLE/ Ben McGrath on a scandalous peacekeeping memoir.
LAB NOTEBOOK/ MEET THE BEATLES, AGAIN/ Nancy Franklin tests the physiological effects of acute Beatlemania.
THE BENCH/ HIGH TEA/ Jeffrey Toobin on the legal plight of a religious beverage.
THE FINANCIAL PAGE/ PUSH AND PULL/ James Surowiecki on how the market is shaping drug research.
FICTION/ Ian McEwan/ “The Diagnosis”
LIFE AND LETTERS/ Robert Lowell/ Dear Elizabeth/ One poet writes to another.
FICTION/ Edward P. Jones/ “Adam Robinson”
THE CRITICS
BOOKS/ by Peter Schjeldahl/ The Painting Life/ Looking again at Willem de Kooning.
A CRITIC AT LARGE/ Dave Eggers/ Sixteen Tons of Fun/ Eric Idle brings the Holy Grail to Broadway.
THE THEATRE/ John Lahr/ Troubled Waters/ August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean.”
THE CURRENT CINEMA/ David Denby/ High Rollers/ “The Aviator,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Hotel Rwanda.”
FROM THE ARCHIVE
ANNALS OF LITERATURE/ Elizabeth Bishop/ The Art of Losing/ A set of correspondence from the poet/ Issue of 1994-03-28
FICTION/ William Maxwell/ “Homecoming”/ Issue of 1938-01-01
PERSONAL HISTORY/ John Updike/ Christmas Cards, an essay/ Issue of 1997-12-22
FICTION/ James Thurber/ A Visit from Saint Nicholas (In the Ernest Hemingway Manner)/ Issue of 1927-12-24
Get Me Bret Easton Ellis On The Phone Moto
Over at TMN, “Rick Paulas has tips for turning your art-house script into big money.” The future? In one word: product placement.
Of course, unlike, say, American Pyscho, which placed so many products it could’ve been a Bond film, [wait, didn’t American Psycho come first, so the era of Total Bond Sellout could’ve been a Bret Easton Ellis novel? But I digress.] Anyway, Paulas’s “art house script” sample sounds suspiciously–and promisingly–like a spec script for CSI.
I think this boy’s got a hi-res future, Wednesdays at 9.
Using Product Placement In Your Serial Killer Script [TMN]
Your Homework For The Day
I’m a bit crazy with an offline deadline, so I’ll just give you your assignment:
Starting with the prospect that wax does not, in fact, melt when submerged in the fiery pits of hell for all eternity by a wrathful God, please plot rank the following in order of sheer implausibility:
Nativity scene from hell [via towleroad]
odd, that: Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s [Times of London]
Canadian Flags AreThe Next Trucker Hat
That whole “Canadian Flags On Backpacks” craze is so 2003.
If you’re gonna be all embarassed by American folly and all weary of explaining the Bush administration to every foreigner you meet, at least try to look like you’ve been doing it for a couple of years already.
Uh-oh, Canada: unpacking the CFOB phenomenon [feb. 2003]
Tom Ford and Matthew Barney on CFOB
Don Knotts. IS. Dubya.
When I saw this link the other day, I didn’t click on it. Execution couldn’t be any funnier than the concept, I figured. Boy, was I wrong.
Dubyamovie.com [via Jason, Andy, ]
Living The Life Aquatic
The Gothamist Life Aquatic contest is over, and Congratulations! Everyone’s a winner. A few people won more than the rest, obviously. And G-mist and Cinecultist’s Karen–whose brainchild this publicity coup was–got the big prize, a phone interview with director Wes Anderson himself.
Eerily enough, it sounds like he’s right there with her at Lucky Strike.
Karen came to last night’s Reel Roundtable screening of After Life [thanks, Elizabeth!], by the way; and on Jan. 17, she’s starring in a Reel Roundtable screening of Kieron Walsh’s When Brendan Met Trudy, so clear your calendars.
Today is Wes Anderson Day! [cinecultist]
Wes Anderson: he knows where you are [Gothamist]
Reel Roundtable’s Film & Blogs Series [reelroundtable.com]
I See Dead People
Bush has been haunted by the Ghost of Churchill before he went to Canada.
Seriously, though, is there some kind of running bet among the wireservice photographers, whoever discovers the exact shot Scott Sforza has designed for them first, wins a, a what? I have no idea.
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants [wonkette, via MAN]
Bush speech at the Library of Congress Churchill Exhibit, with backdrops on loan from The White House Collection[whitehouse.gov]
Why Greggy Can’t Read
So I’ve been writing a few pieces for The New York Times lately, which is great, but I can’t read them. Or almost any stories at the nytimes.com site, for that matter. Whenever I click on a NYT link, the login screen pops up, then refuses to log me in because my browser (Mozilla) doesn’t accept cookies.
The problem first popped up [sic] a few months ago when the Times hired a Utah research/survey firm to monitor user activity via their own cookies, which were rejected by my Moz “accept cookies only from the originating server” restrictions.
But lately, even after I thought I’d already laid back and thought of England, cookie-wise, I’ve still been rejected. Turns out that I still had the “cookies expire after 90 days” setting , and the Times wanted to place one 6-month, three 1-year, and one 10-year cookie in my browser.
To which I can only say, “Um, yes ma’am?”
All I Want For Christmas Is Stanley Kubrick’s Lens
In order to shoot interior scenes of Barry Lyndon entirely by candlelight, Stanley Kubrick had two extremely fast Zeiss photo lenses from NASA custom-adapted for a motion picture camera. There is a third Zeiss lens in existence, un-Kubricized, and Justin at Chromogenic would like it for Christmas, please. With a Nikon mount.
I don’t know if Justin has been naughty or nice, but he’s sure gotta be nicer than Vincent Gallo, who had–and tried to sell on ebay–another lens Kubrick had custom-built for Barry Lyndon, an Angenieux 20-to-1 zoom.
Speed Demon [Chromogenics.net, via Kottke]
Buy it and make something good with it [greg.org on gallo]
Two Special Lenses for “Barry Lyndon,” by Ed diGiulio (President, Cinema Products Corp.) [American Cinematographer, via Visual Memory]
US Film Festival Goes International, Changes Name
Apologies for the scarce posts lately; I’ve been busy with offline writing and real work. Still, I don’t know how I missed this: The US Film Festival is now called the Sundance Film Festival?? I guess since they added two world cinema competitions for docs and narrative films, the USFF name just didn’t make sense anymore.
Here’s this year’s list of films [minus the shorts, set for release Monday] which all sorts of folks are unpacking. Meanwhile, David Hudson unpacks the unpackers at GreenCine.
Gothamist’s The Life Aquatic Contest For Special Needs Moviegoers
First they ran a contest for Miramax’s Hero which had such obscure questions about Jet Li minutiae that not even his agent–or even Li-fanatic-from-birth Jen Chung–could answer, even with a lifetime subscription to IMDb Pro.
Now Gothamist gets all Disney publicity sock puppet on us again, this time with a contest for Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic, distributed by Touchstone.
The prize? Tickets to a 12/7 preview screening of the movie. The contest? Just fill out your name and email already. I guess Wes’s fans aren’t the kind who pay attention to nitpicky cinematic details. Oh, and this time, Gothamist employees aren’t eligible to enter. Jen, I guess you’ll have to go to a private screening.
Gothamist The Life Aquatic Contest [Gothamist.com]
Related: Matt goes all Milton Glaser and Dylan on the Life Aquatic poster. [lowculture]