Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ... Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits

Cyrus the Great coming into the limelight

Iranian director Hormoz Emami plans put the spotlight on the founder of the Persian empire, Cyrus the Great, in a documentary series entitled “The Eagle of the East”. The film will cover parts of the historical events in Persia, Mesopotamia, Lydia which resulted in rising Cyrus the Great to the power. Shooting is scheduled to begin in September and Emami will travel to many countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, C

Wisconsin: Museum With Focus on Blacks’ Struggles Is Closing

Financial problems are causing America’s Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee, a museum started by a lynching survivor, to close its doors on Friday after 20 years. But the museum’s board chairman, Reggie Jackson, said he was certain that reconfiguring the board, a new fund-raising effort and increasing awareness would allow the museum to open again. “We have every intention of reopening the museum once we get a plan in place,” Mr. Jackson said. The lagging economy, building debt, a revolving doo

Hidden Portrait Found Beneath Van Gogh Painting

A previously unknown portrait of a woman by Vincent van Gogh has been revealed in a high-tech look beneath another of his paintings, it was announced today. Scientists used a new technique to peer beneath the paint of van Gogh's "Patch of Grass." Already it was known there was something there, likely a portrait of some sort. Van Gogh was known to paint over his work, perhaps as much as a third of the time. Behind the painting, done mostly in green

First images of Lindsay Duncan as Lady Thatcher

The BBC film, Margaret, is "an intimate portrayal of a woman on the brink of ruin", according to its makers, who liken the story to a Shakespearean tragedy. Lady Thatcher is shown fighting for her political life as Cabinet colleagues plot her downfall, leading to her resignation as Prime Minister in 1990. The drama "intimately explores the strengths and tragic flaws of Margaret Thatcher's character that led to her closest political allies turning on her

Queen Victoria's bloomers sell for $9,000

A pair of Queen Victoria's bloomers, with a 50-inch waist, were snapped up for $9,000 by a Canadian buyer at a central England auction Wednesday. Auctioneer Charles Hanson said Queen Victoria's underpants belonged to "a very big lady of quite small stature with a very wide girth." She was said to be 5 feet tall. The handmade knickers — which date back to the 1890s — bear the monogram "VR" for Victoria Regina. They are open-crotch style, with separate

Widow of German actor Klaus Kinski sues lunatic asylum

The widow of German actor Klaus Kinski has launched legal proceedings against a former lunatic asylum in Berlin which released records claiming the famously eccentric performer was a "psychopath". Minhaoi Loanic, who was Kinski's third wife before he died in 1991 aged 65, has begun the case after the Karl Bonhoeffer Nerve Clinic in Berlin released archive files from 1880 to 1960. The documents are now part of the Berlin state archives, against which Loanic is

100-year-old Levi's jeans 'found in goldmine' put up for sale on eBay

A pair of 100-year-old Levi's jeans that lay undiscovered in a California goldmine have been put up for sale on eBay. The trousers are covered in wax drops from a candle carried by their original owner to light the mine but are generally in “excellent condition”, the seller claims. The vintage blue jeans are size 34 waist and 33 leg, according to the attached "Levi Strauss & Co" label. The colour has partially faded on the seat and on the front of the leg

100-year-old Levi's jeans 'found in goldmine' put up for sale on eBay

A pair of 100-year-old Levi's jeans that lay undiscovered in a California goldmine have been put up for sale on eBay. The trousers are covered in wax drops from a candle carried by their original owner to light the mine but are generally in “excellent condition”, the seller claims. The vintage blue jeans are size 34 waist and 33 leg, according to the attached "Levi Strauss & Co" label. The colour has partially faded on the seat and on the front of the leg

Review of "Man on a Wire"

An illegal conspiracy is hatched. A training camp in a foreign land provided the springboard. Co-conspirators frequented transatlantic flights. Reconnaissance missions proved strategically fundamental. A covert operation is carried out. Dreams of conquering the World Trade Center (WTC) are realized. It is the crime of the century. You would be forgiven for believing the year to be 2001 (or even 1993). Yet the year is actually 1974. The difference being that Mohamed Atta

Terra cotta warriors and horses come to Beijing for Olympics

The world-famous terra cotta warriors and horses, which were buried more than 2,200 years ago as the army guarding China's first emperor's afterlife, have come to Beijing for an exhibition ahead of the Olympics. Set in the Capital Museum, the exhibition,"the memory of China: treasures along its 5,000-year civilization", is open to the public on Tuesday. It will run to October 7."It's the best greeting from the ancient country to the modern Olympics," said Yao An, vice presiden

Say So Long to an Old Companion: Cassette Tapes

There was a funeral the other day in the Midtown offices of Hachette, the book publisher, to mourn the passing of what it called a “dear friend.” Nobody had actually died, except for a piece of technology, the cassette tape. While the cassette was dumped long ago by the music industry, it has lived on among publishers of audio books. Many people prefer cassettes because they make it easy to pick up in the same place where the listener left off, or to rewind in case a certain sentenc

Oliver Stone's movie about George W. Teaser Trailer

Are you ready for this? George W. Bush that drinks and gambles? The first teaser trailer for Oliver Stone's W. biopic has just hit and it's not that bad! I'm not sure it will be any good either, but I'm going to leave that judgment up to you. I'm amazed to see that they're showing him in such a revealing light throughout all of this trailer. He looks like a troublemaker and the trailer poses an interesting question - how did he get into the White House?! W. tells the life story of our 43rd Presi

Saving Pompeii From the Ravages of Time and Tourists

Citing threats to public security and to the site itself, the Italian government has for the first time declared a yearlong state of emergency for the ancient city of Pompeii. Nearly 2,000 years after Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii under pumice and steaming volcanic ash, some 2.6 million tourists tramp annually through this archaeological site, which is on Unesco’s World Heritage list. Frescoes in the ancient Roman city, one of Italy’s most popular attractions, fade unde

Maria von Trapp returns to home that inspired The Sound of Music

"I'm back home again," said Maria von Trapp in Salzburg, after spending several nights in her childhood home, which has been transformed into a hotel. Located in an upmarket district of Salzburg, the "Villa Trapp" once belonged to the von Trapps, who gained global fame in the 1965 blockbuster starring Julie Andrews, which tells the story of a trainee nun who captures the heart of a lonely widower after introducing his seven children to the joy of music.

Maria von Trapp returns to home that inspired The Sound of Music

"I'm back home again," said Maria von Trapp in Salzburg, after spending several nights in her childhood home, which has been transformed into a hotel. Located in an upmarket district of Salzburg, the "Villa Trapp" once belonged to the von Trapps, who gained global fame in the 1965 blockbuster starring Julie Andrews, which tells the story of a trainee nun who captures the heart of a lonely widower after introducing his seven children to the joy of music.

Writing in Paris just six months before his death, Walter Benjamin produced for Max Horkheimer in New York a report on the literary situation in France

Completed in Paris six months before his death, Walter Benjamin’s final report to Max Horkheimer on the literary situation in France is published here for the first time in English. It was the third ‘literature letter’ that Benjamin had drafted for the Institute for Social Research in New York; the earlier two (3 November 1937, 24 January 1939) can be found in the Gesammelte Briefe. Almost twice as long as these, the Survey of 23 March 1940—Hitler’s troops would take Holland six weeks later—was

Iran to highlight Rudaki

Tehran is holding an international conference in commemorating the 1150th anniversary of the birth of Rudaki in October. Sponsored by the Research Center of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO), the conference is organized to review the biography and works of Persian poet Abu Abdullah Jafar ibn Mohammad Rudaki (858-941). “Rudaki in Iran and in the world”, “various sources on Rudaki and his works”, “wisdom and philosophy in Rudaki’s w

Modernist development at British Museum will destroy key period details, say critics

A plan by the British Museum to build a £130 million exhibition centre in its northwest corner has provoked anger from heritage groups that claim it will destroy some of the 19th-century building’s most beautiful period details and vistas. The ambitious scheme for the rear of the building in Bloomsbury, Central London, would provide 17,000 square metres (183,000 sq ft) for shows and conservation. The museum has become the country’s most popular cultural attraction drawi

Kerouac Got an A

AFTER lunch one summer with my grandmother, years ago at her Connecticut farmhouse, she asked me to retrieve an inconsequential item from a closet in my grandfather’s study, and something else caught my eye. At first it didn’t look like much: a set of three slim ledgers with marbleized covers, perhaps a journal of expenses or a record of household bills. But in it were pages and pages of names, methodically scribed in pen and ink. I had found a roster of my grandfather’s students ov

Acropolis now ... Athens's new museum is spectacular, even without its star exhibits

Walking through bright sunshine and crowds of tourists in an Athenian street, I glanced down and read the publicity blurb in my hand. The story was there, contained in just a few words: "Museum mission: to house all the surviving antiquities from the Acropolis within a single museum of international stature." Actually the entire story is distilled into one word: ALL. But they might have added that it has been a 207-year mission to return the so-called Elgin Marbles - the first being cu