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

Archive of rich musical history in Cuba

When Cuba celebrated the 54th anniversary of its communist revolution last week there was a special discovery from its cultural past. [It was an archive of original recordings of scores of top artists like Nat King Cole. Click on the SOURCE link above and scroll to"Cuba's beat goes on."]

1934: The Plot Against America (BBC Documentary)

The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression. Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat t

"Talk to Me" filters the turbulent past through a man and his microphone

Jive-talkin' Petey Greene was Washington, D.C.'s favorite DJ in the late 1960s, an ex-con turned streetwise radio ranter who struck a chord, and a nerve, with his inner-city listeners. He was the antithesis of Dewey Hughes, the WOL-AM station director who put Greene on the air after much badgering, a buttoned-down company man determined to function smoothly in the white world. Greene, with a knack for speaking uncomfortable truths, was just the controversial boost Hughes' station needed.

Filmmakers to spotlight Czech Legions' history

American filmmakers Bruce Bendinger and John Iltis don’t mince words when stating the purpose of their current project. “The Czech Republic had its history stolen,” Bendinger says matter-of-factly. “We’re trying to give a country back its history.” This week, the two Chicago-based men will begin filming for a TV documentary about the Czechoslovak Legions. The history of the Legions, small armies that fought with the allies during World War I and played a significant part in C

"No End in Sight": In the Beginning ... Focusing on the Iraq War Enablers (Documentary)

So far, some of the best documentaries about the war in Iraq — “Gunner Palace,” “The War Tapes” and “Iraq in Fragments,” for example — have concentrated less on politics, policy or military strategy than on individual, in-the-moment experiences. As if to balance a climate of argument thick with generalization and position-taking, these films push debate aside in order to bring home the sensory details of daily life for American soldiers and Iraqi civilians. “No End in Sight,” Charle

"Camden 28": A Draft-Board Break-In That Put Activism on Trial (Documentary)

Concise, inventive and unabashedly partisan, “The Camden 28” is a small movie that contains multitudes. Directed by Anthony Giacchino, the film is specifically about a Camden, N.J., antiwar group’s 1971 plot to break into a draft-board office and destroy government records, and the long trial that ensued when the protesters were caught by the F.B.I. It is also about the tradition of left-wing Roman Catholic activism (the Camden 28 was composed mainly of working-class priests and you

Film gives kamikazes chance to remember

"Wings of Defeat," a documentary about Japanese kamikaze pilots, comes at a time when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seeks to revise the country's wartime history. The film, directed by Risa Morimoto, a Japanese-American living in New York, takes a kinder view of kamikazes -- a Japanese word commonly translated as "divine wind" -- typically depicted as fanatics filled with hatred for the United States and ready to die for their god and emperor. In "W

French plan to lure more French visitors to museums raising hackles

With the Louvre receiving more than eight million visitors last year and other French art collections drawing millions more, further incentives would hardly appear necessary to attract people to the country’s museums. On weekends and during summer vacations the Louvre, for one, often resembles a crowded railroad station, with the Mona Lisa predictably a top destination. Yet for the French government, there is a bit of a problem: At the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay and othe

Exploring America by Studying Its Nature (Exhibit/N-Y Historical Society)

Ah, summer. Time to venture into the great American outdoors — or at least consider the concept by paying a visit to the New-York Historical Society. Because, as the exhibition “Nature and the American Vision: The Hudson River School” argues, the notion of an American landscape brimming with sacred sites is as much a cultural invention as an accident of nature. You quickly get the point at the start of the show, where Thomas Cole’s epic series of imaginary landscape paintings, “The

The popularity of biography

This past spring, Hermione Lee delivered the Lionel Trilling Seminar at Columbia University on the subject of literary biography in general and the life of Edith Wharton in particular. Such an event would not have taken place when I came to the university two decades ago. In those days, literary theory was all the rage, and biography was condescended to as an "undertheorized" and therefore unserious genre--a higher form of gossip that belonged on the beach-house bookshelf with bodice-r

The Duke (John Wayne) rides high into history museum's exhibit

He may be gone, but John Wayne is not forgotten – especially in Valley Center. In celebration of the centennial year of his birth, the Valley Center History Museum has a special exhibit for the former resident. The exhibit opens at 1 p.m. Saturday and will be on display through the end of the year. A special guest attending the opening will be Valley Center resident and John Wayne look-alike Stan Deskovick. The movie star, who went by the name of Duke Morrison, moved to

Bayreuth is the epicentre of Wagner worship

Bayreuth is the epicentre of Wagner worship, a heaven for opera lovers and the scene for a battle over who is to control the legacy of the controversial German composer. With an 87-year-old desperately clinging on to power, a horde of ambitious Valkyries waiting for him to give up his claim to authority, and a tumultuous battle for succession, Bayreuth has it all. The annual festival of Richard Wagner's music has been run by his grandson Wolfgang for 56 years. It's curt

Too much history lesson, not enough Goya in "Ghosts"

"Goya's Ghosts" is a decidedly odd film coming from such a prestigious group of filmmakers, which includes writer-director Milos Forman, renowned screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere and producer Saul Zaentz. Its central figure is the great Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco de Goya, in many ways the world's first modern artist. Yet the film displays only passing interest in his art. Its focus instead is on Spain during the horrific period of the Inquisition and Napoleo

The Inquisition in Spain: Expected and Even Hailed (movie review)

“Goya’s Ghosts,” the new feature from the director Milos Forman (“Amadeus,” “Man on the Moon”), is an unwieldy mix of political satire and lavish period soap opera. Set in 18th-century Spain, and covering the last phase of the Inquisition and Napoleon’s occupation, it resembles the Oscar-baiting epics that Miramax used to release: white elephants like “Chocolat” and “The Cider House Rules” that mixed art-house swagger, Hollywood glitz and shout-outs to liberal common wisdom. The tal

Cameras Roll On Tom Cruise Film

Yesterday, one day before the 63rd anniversary of the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler, filming began in Germany on “Valkyrie,” starring Tom Cruise, as Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, the disillusioned Nazi officer who planted the explosive at a staff meeting, Agence France-Presse reported. A spokeswoman for Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam, outside Berlin, said the crew of the $80 million production, directed by Bryan Singer (“The Usual Suspects”), spent the day south of the city at an unu

Norman Mailer, Unbound and on Film: Revisiting His Bigger-Than-Life Selves

... Norman Kingsley is the main character in a movie called “Maidstone,” and the alter ego, avatar and namesake of the film’s director, Norman Mailer (whose middle name, by the way, is Kingsley). “Maidstone,” shot in the Hamptons in the summer of 1968 and released in 1971, is the third of four feature-length films Mr. Mailer directed, following “Wild 90” (1967) and “Beyond the Law” (1968). The fourth, an adaptation of his 1984 novel “Tough Guys Don’t Dance,” is the only one in which Mr. Mailer d

Andrew Wyeth is not dead

"The most important thing is Andrew Wyeth is not dead," Victoria Wyeth tells the 20 people gathered in the lobby of the Farnsworth Art Museum. "I just talked to him five minutes ago. So I guess he's not dead." SHE'S an art object herself, layers of white and black: slicked-down platinum hair, black shirt, white skirt and, on her feet, black Ferragamos. Her words come fast; "hyper," she calls herself. She gives the basic genealogy: How Andre

Auction house finds 'old master'

A forgotten masterpiece may have surfaced at a Leicestershire auction house after being mistaken for a copy. Gilding's of Market Harborough described the painting of a black clad man as "18th century continental school" with an estimate of £300-£500. But on the day a bidding war pushed the price to £205,000. The buyer is believed to be from the London art trade and the picture is suspected of being by 16th Century artist Titian and worth upwards of £5m.

Tintin books moved from children's section over racism charges

Following their British counterparts, Borders bookstores in the United States are moving “Tintin in the Congo,” The Associated Press reported. Published in 1931 as the second in a series of 23 adventures of the intrepid Belgian boy reporter Tintin and his dog, Snowy, the book is being reissued in the United States in September to commemorate the centenary of its creator, Hergé (Georges Remi). David Enright, a London-based human-rights lawyer, told The Associated Press, “The material suggests tha

Pagans to use 'rain magic' on Homer Simpson

Pagans have pledged to perform"rain magic" to wash away Homer Simpson, the cartoon character, who was painted next to their famous fertility symbol, the Cerne Abbas giant, yesterday. The 17th century chalk outline of the naked, club-wielding giant is believed by many to be a symbol of ancient spirituality. Many couples also believe the 180ft giant, which is carved in the hillside above Cerne Abbas, Dorset, is an aid to fertility. A Homer Simpson brandishing a doughnut was painted next t