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ArtsJournal: Daily Arts News

Vote's In: The World's Oddest Book Title
5 Sep 2008 at 3:55pm
The impenetrable-sounding book, a comprehensive record of Greece's postal routes, is published by the Greek Hellenic Philatelic Society of Great Britain, which "exists to encourage the collection of Greek stamps and to promote their study"....
Study: The Music You Like Says A Lot About You
5 Sep 2008 at 3:52pm
"Fans of indie music, for instance, were found to have low self-esteem and little motivation, but described themselves as creative. Rap enthusiasts, on the other hand, tend to think a lot of themselves and are extremely outgoing... The study's most remarkable discovery is that refined lovers of classical music share a high number of personality traits with those who prefer rocking out to heavy metal."...
Trial For Men Accused Of Ransoming Leonardo Painting
5 Sep 2008 at 3:45pm
"Five men have appeared in court accused of demanding �4.25m for the safe return of a Leonardo da Vinci painting. The Madonna with the Yarnwinder was taken from Drumlanrig Castle, near Thornhill, Dumfries and Galloway, in August 2003. Its disappearance from the stately home became Britain's biggest art theft."...
A "Strangely Placid" Venice Film Festival
5 Sep 2008 at 3:35pm
"In recent years, Venice has had a stronger programme than either of its immediate rivals, Cannes or Berlin. The fact that this year's selection seemed so patchy may have been due to factors beyond the festival's control. However, in a dull year, at least the better movies stick out all the more."...
British Exam Board Censors Poem
5 Sep 2008 at 3:25pm
"Britain's biggest exam board has been accused of censorship after it removed a poem containing references to knife crime from the GCSE syllabus. Officials at the AQA board said their request that schools destroy the anthology containing the Carol Ann Duffy poem Education for Leisure had been triggered by concerns in two schools about references to knives."...
Why The Censors Have More Difficulty With Poems
5 Sep 2008 at 3:24pm
"Poems are often brief and ambiguous. Exam boards might more easily tolerate a novel about an adolescent who considers stabbing someone, because 200 or so pages would probably encompass debate, payoff and a clear message distancing the author from their character."...
London's Cultural Olympics - Substance Over Kitsch?
5 Sep 2008 at 3:11pm
"The major projects include a World Shakespeare Festival, which is to be spearheaded by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Critics have voiced fears that the events may follow the pattern of the handover ceremony in Beijing, which, with its song and dance routine and its brief appearance by David Beckham, was derided as kitsch in some quarters."...
Sony To Broadcast Final Performance Of Rent To Movie Theatres
5 Sep 2008 at 2:51pm
"This is the first time that a Broadway show has been available in movie theaters across the U.S. and Canada, and I can't think of a better occasion than the closing of 'Rent.'"...
Five Years On, Crackdown On File Sharing Still Provokes Questions
5 Sep 2008 at 12:37am
"Despite the crackdown, billions of copies of copyrighted songs are now changing hands each year on file sharing services. All the while, some of the most fundamental legal questions surrounding the legality of file sharing have gone unanswered. Even the future of the RIAA's only jury trial victory -- against Minnesota mother Jammie Thomas -- is in doubt. Some are wondering if the campaign has shaped up as an utter failure."...
UK Regulator Bans Angelina Jolie Ad
5 Sep 2008 at 12:34am
"We considered, that because the ads featured a glamorous actress, action poses, several images of or related to guns and aspirational text, they could be seen to glamorize the use of guns and violence,"...
Songbirds Fight With Music
5 Sep 2008 at 12:32am
Harmonious bird songs may sound pleasant to people, but a new study has found that at least some birds fight by singing, using melodic tweets to defend their relationships and territories....
Portrait That Was Almost Trashed Wins Top Art Prize
5 Sep 2008 at 12:28am
"A self portrait that was nearly torn up by the artist has won Australia's most prestigious prize for drawing. Virginia Grayson, winner of the $20,000 Dobell prize for drawing, said she realised a few months ago that she had been working too hard on No conclusions drawn -- self portrait." And she nearly destroyed it......
Researcher: Women Are Turned On By Fancy Cars
5 Sep 2008 at 12:25am
The researcher "subjected 40 men and women to the sounds of a Maserati, Lamborghini and Ferrari, then measured the amount of testosterone in their saliva. He found everyone had higher levels of the stuff -- a measure of their arousal -- after hearing the revving exotics, but the amount the women had was off the charts. The econobox, however, left everyone colder than a January day in Nome."...
Album Sales Are Improving (A Bit)
5 Sep 2008 at 12:23am
"Right now, according to the numbers published at Billboard.biz, album sales are down about 10.8% year to date. Through early June, they were down 11.7%. Through a stretch in June and early July, album sales were down 9.8%, and through late July and August they are down 9.3%. Those numbers show continued format substitution and challenges for the album format. The year-over-year improvement in the latter half of the year is a recurring trend over the last few years."...
Vinyl Records? Really? I Mean, Really??
5 Sep 2008 at 12:16am
"Yes, we all know old-school plastic records have a certain charm. But so do old churches, horses, the monarchy, salt and shake crisps and pre-decimal coinage. That doesn't mean we want the return of threepenny bits, droit du seigneur, witch burning and streets knee-deep in dung from the royal family's horses, does it? The resurgence of vinyl is a symptom of the dread diseases of authenticity and nostalgia - the terrible co-joined twins of cultural decline."...

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