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

Inaugural Balls: Ceremonial First Pitches, Then And Now

A series of photos from Taft to Sotomayor

We're Still "Over the Rainbow" for Oz

Seventy years after Judy Garland sang her way into stardom, the "Wizard of Oz" is still capturing the hearts and minds of audiences everywhere as CBS News Correspondent Kelly Wallace reports. In fact, it's considered the most watched movie of all time. Former munchkin Jerry Maren is now 89 year old. You may remember him from the movie. He sang, "in the name of the lollipop guild, we wish to welcome you to munchkinland." He remembers b

History Channel takes the reality route

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Building on three years of ratings growth, History has ordered several reality shows, including a spin-off of Thom Beers' top-rated "Ice Road Truckers." Under the leadership of president and general manager Nancy Dubuc, History recently launched its 10 highest-rated series to date. She plans to continue the network's strategy of developing informative reality shows and headline-drawing event specials... ... Another series on

Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice at the Louvre

A major event at the Louvre: powerful canvases by the greatest Venetian painters of the sixteenth century are presented side by side in Napoleon Hall in an exhibition allowing visitors to observe the play of inspiration and admiration between these geniuses as well as the competitive nature of their artistic dialogue. Including eighty-five canvases, most of which have been loaned for the occasion by prestigious museums worldwide, the exhibition brings this noble rivalry into focus through juxtap

Gregory McNamee: The Phantom Tollbooth: A Subversive Classic Hits Middle Age

[Gregory McNamee is a contributing editor for Encyclopædia Britannica, for which he writes regularly on world geography, culture, and other topics. An editor, publishing consultant, and photographer, he is also the author of 30 books, most recently Moveable Feasts: The History, Science, and Lore of Food (Praeger, 2006).] Christopher Robin and Heidi are long in the grave. The Little Prince is in retirement on some distant planet. Frodo has hidden himself away far from Middle Earth, s

Fake Dutch Golden Age Painting at Courtauld Institute Proven to be Genuine

A painting that supposedly was made by Hans van Meegeren, one of the most notable forgers of all time, dates, from the XVII Century and might have even hung in Johannes Vermeer's house, according to the Art Newspaper. The painting is titled “The Procuress” and is housed at the Courtauld Institute in London, which accepted it in 1960 as a donation from Professor Geoffrey Webb, a specialist in historic architecture. Webb, who worked in Germany after World War II, had re

In Violation of His Wishes (Film review, history of Barnes Foundation)

On Dec. 13, 2004, a Montgomery County judge gave permission for the Barnes Foundation, with its unparallelled collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Early Modern paintings by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse and others, to relocate its gallery from suburban Merion, Pa., to downtown Philadelphia. The decision overturned key provisions of the 1922 trust indenture establishing the foundation, which was created primarily as an educational institution rather than a museum. In the in

Lucy Vodden, Who Inspired a Beatles Song, Dies at 46

LONDON (AP) — Lucy Vodden, who provided the inspiration for the Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” has died in London. She was 46. Her death, after a history of lupus, was announced Monday by St. Thomas’s Hospital in London, where she had been treated for more than five years, and by her husband, Ross Vodden. Ms. Vodden’s connection to the Beatles dates back to when she was Lucy O’Donnell, a schoolmate and friend of Julian Lennon, John Lennon’s son. Julian,

Ancient Viet Nam: From River Plain to Open Sea (Houston)

Before entering "Arts of Ancient Viet Nam: From River Plain to Coastal Sea," it pays to pause in front of the 6½-foot statue at the entrance. Feet planted atop a splayed water buffalo, the male figure stands ready to attack: His eyes bulge, his right hand clutches a dagger, his legs are braced. In the ninth century, this Dharmapala guarded a Buddhist temple complex with a fierceness so great he was known to defeat death itself. Today, set against the deep purple walls of t

Keats and His 'Bright Star'

In the village of Hampstead, England, John Keats wrote most of his great odes and mature poems in a two-family house he shared with his friend Charles Brown. He also lived an acutely pent-up existence there—emotionally, mentally, and sexually. Fanny Brawne would never become Mrs. John Keats, nor would they ever consummate their love. They became engaged in 1819 but delayed marrying until Keats earned some money or realized his inheritance; he died of tuberculosis in Rome before he c

New Museum of Springfield History set to open Oct. 10 (Massachusetts)

When the long anticipated Museum of Springfield History opens to the public on Oct. 10 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a .m., the area’s contributions to the economic and social life of this country from the Industrial Revolution of the late 1800s through the present will come alive inside and outside the former Verizon office building across from the Quadrangle at 21 Edwards St. Visitors will enter the museum, renovated over a four-year period at a cost of $8.6 million, throug

Decoding Jackson Pollock

It was my wife, Marianne Berardi, who first saw the letters. We were looking at a reproduction of Jackson Pollock's breakthrough work, Mural, an 8-by 20-foot canvas bursting with physical energy that, in 1943, was unlike anything seen before. The critic Clement Greenberg, Pollock's principal champion, said he took one look at the painting and realized that "Jackson was the greatest painter this country has produced." A Museum of Modern Art curator, the late Ki

Lord Byron's dig at William 'Turdsworth'

The rather conservative Victorian clergyman who received the letters must have been a little shocked: there are details of a squalid affair with a serving girl, fruity remarks about foreigners and literary vitriol. Then again, maybe not. The sender was, after all, Lord Byron. The superstar Romantic poet's reputation for witty excess is affirmed by the sexual revelations, jibes about the Portuguese ("few vices except lice and sodomy") and barbed comments about his rival Wor

Turner and the Masters at Tate Britain, review

The subject explored by 'Turner and the Masters’ at Tate Britain is so fundamental to understanding the art of JMW Turner that I’m surprised it’s never been done before. All artists learn by copying the art of the past. What makes Turner unique is that his engagement with the old masters was so blatant, so public, and lasted throughout his career. Whether you see them as acts of homage or confrontation, every picture by him in this show is a variation on a theme provided by an old

Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Rome to be Shown at the Clark Art Institute

Through 100 photographs taken between 1850 and 1880, the exhibition Steps off the Beaten Path: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Rome and its Environs encourages a "walking tour" through Rome with recognizable sites among the out-of-the-way scenes nineteenth-century Romans and Europeans encountered in their daily lives. The exhibition opens at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute on Sunday, October 11. Steps off the Beaten Path was first presented at the American

Exhibition of Ancient Egyptian Artifacts from Brooklyn Museum Explores the Afterlife

Pyramids and Pharaohs. Sphinxes and Sarcophagi. The Ten Commandments. The Book of the Dead. Crocodiles, Cobras, and Cleopatra. What other culture evokes such rich imagination and echoes of immortality as ancient Egypt? On October 14, the Nile comes to Norfolk with the public debut of To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum. This blockbuster show, on view through January 3, 2010 in the Large Changing Gallery, promises to be one of the most extraordinary exhibiti

Carl Jung's legendary Red Book at the Rubin Museum of Art in NYC

On October 7th, Carl Jung’s legendary Red Book (Liber Novus) will finally be available to the general public. The original book will be on display at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City, the same day W.W. Norton & Company releases the book in both a German and English translation. There is quite a lot of mystery surrounding this 95-year-old unpublished work that has been locked in a safe deposit box in Switzerland ever since Jung’s passing in 1961. The author/editor, Sonu S

Charles Affron and Mirella Jona Affron: A grand history of operatic booing

[Charles Affron and Mirella Jona Affron are the authors of the forthcoming “Opera Seasons: Power and Performance at the Metropolitan.”] THE fracas during curtain calls for the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Puccini’s “Tosca” last Monday is just the latest episode in a grand history of operatic booing. Frank expressions of displeasure pierced the applause at the conclusion of Act II and exploded when the production team took its bows at the end of the opera. Many in the audie

Chess: Ex-champions meet again, but the stakes have changed

What a piece of Cold War nostalgia! Fused together by their similar names, through four marathon matches over four years, they were like Siamese twins. Karpov and Kasparov. Kasparov and Karpov. So for a schoolboy of the 1980s, to see their names paired again in Spain—where they played their final world championship match in 1987—was a Proustian experience. The match they played this past week to mark the 25th anniversary of their first world-title bout was the highlight of a chess

Magritte Painting Stolen at Gunpoint

Surreal. With a ring at the door and a gun pointed at a head, thieves stole a painting Thursday from the home of René Magritte. The Belgian artist died in 1967. But the 1948 portrait he painted of his wife is valued at $4.4 million and was hanging in a house he used to live in that is now an appointment-only museum. The two assailants did not wear masks and didn't injure anyone inside the Brussels home. "This painting, which is highly recognizable, is very unlikely to be attempted to be sol