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

Pontiac, RIP: A Love Affair Gone Sour

Everybody remembers his first car, and most of us remember a second coming-of-age milestone: our first new car. After years of driving around in Mom's old Chevrolet Caprice or Granddad's (may he rest in peace) Ford Torino (it too), finally came the day when you wiped your hands of automotive grease and traded in the wrenches for your first new set of wheels and breathed in its intoxicating new-car smell. Having grown up in the backseat of my father's 1957 Pontiac, I had little doubt that my firs

Pete Seeger, America’s Teacher

The January concert at the Lincoln Memorial celebrating the inauguration of President Barack Obama offered many stirring moments, but perhaps its highlight was Pete Seeger leading a chorus of hundreds of thousands of people singing "This Land Is Your Land." This is where Americans expect to see Pete Seeger, raising his voice for change, even when it’s cold outside. Seeger has been singing folk music for change for more than 70 years now, sometimes in the middle of storms,

Museum authenticity issue forged in Peru's golden history

... There is no better illustration of the duality of Peru's capital city than its two most famous private museums -- the Gold Museum (Museo Oro del Peru) and the Larco Museum (Museo Larco). Both are big tourist favorites. Both have gorgeous collections of Peruvian gold. But that's where they part company. The sleek Larco Museum has an estimated 5,000 gold objects and 40,000 pieces of pre-Columbian pottery. Begun in 1926 by collector Rafael Larco Herrera, the museum is

Boston Square Honors Edgar Allan Poe

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and poet laureate Sam Cornish are dedicating a square near Boston Common in honor of master of the macabre Edgar Allan Poe. Poe was born in Boston on Jan. 19, 1809. But the author of "The Raven" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" had an often bitter relationship with his hometown. He sometimes lied about his birthplace and voiced his distaste for its literary elite. But Boston has tried recently to show more love for Poe.

Lots of Contradictions in Birthin’ That Movie

Seventy years after its premiere “Gone With the Wind” remains at or near the top of many lists of the most seen, most loved, most admired movies, right up there along with “Star Wars,” “Casablanca” and “The Godfather.” In the bitterly fought election year of 2008 it was one of the few things that Democrats, Republicans and independents agreed upon: in a 2008 Harris poll, all three groups picked it as their all-time favorite film. “Gone With the Wind” has endured through decades of s

The barber who loved wood carving and barbering (Exhibit)

Most artists have day jobs at one point or another, sometimes for life. A few are lucky enough to enjoy their work as well as their art. Rarely do they achieve the symbiosis of creative and occupational activity enjoyed by Ulysses Davis (1914-1990), a Savannah, Ga., barber who whittled and carved wooden sculptures in his shop when business was slow. In the catalog for the excellent show “The Treasure of Ulysses Davis” at the American Folk Art Museum, he is quoted as saying: “I love

Blake 1809, Tate Britain, London

It is galling to know that, however unpleasant my review of Tate Britain's Blake 1809, it could never live up to the standards of bile set by the critic of The Examiner at the exhibition's first opening two centuries ago. Of this, the only solo show William Blake had in his lifetime, Robert Hunt wrote: "The poor man fancies himself a great master, having painted a few wretched pictures, blotted and blurred and very badly drawn." The artist's accompanying Descriptive Catal

Darragh Carville calls for post-Troubles work about the new Northern Ireland

An Irish screenwriter who has broken into Hollywood says it is time for Northern Ireland writers to move beyond "balaclava drama". Darragh Carville's latest play, This Other City, contains no references to the Troubles' legacy, tortured paramilitaries, on-the-run informers or avenging victims seeking truth and justice. Carville, whose Hollywood-backed screenplay Cherrybomb will be shown in cinemas, says it is up to writers to reflect the emerging Northern Ireland.

Channel 4's Endgame tells story of secret apartheid talks in English country house (UK)

Endgame, a "political thriller", which depicts the final days of apartheid, focuses on the talks held at an English country house in the late 1980s. At Mells Park in Somerset, Thabo Mbeki, then a member of the African National Congress, met representatives of P W Botha's white regime. The film, produced by Channel 4, and shot in England and South Africa, stars the Hollywood actor William Hurt as Prof Willie Esterhuyse, who represented P W Botha's government, a

Edgar Allan Poe and the economy of horror

Edgar Allan Poe once wrote an essay called “The Philosophy of Composition,” to explain why he wrote “The Raven” backward. The poem tells the story of a man who, “once upon a midnight dreary,” while mourning his dead love, Lenore, answers a tapping at his chamber door, to find “darkness there and nothing more.” He peers into the darkness, “dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before,” and meets a silence broken only by his whispered word, “Lenore?” He closes the door. The tapping starts

New China movie about Nanjing Massacre

In China, a big-budget movie released nationwide on Wednesday has again galvanized the emotions of Chinese over the Japanese invasion and occupation of China during World War II. The movie, “City of Life and Death,” is set during the massacre of Nanjing in 1937, in which Japanese soldiers killed about 300,000 people, according to official Chinese estimates. Many Chinese demand that Japan apologize for the massacre, but Japan has yet to do so. Xinhua, the state news agen

Cleveland Museum of Art will return tainted antiquities to Italy

The Cleveland Museum of Art on Wednesday will hand over to Italian authorities 14 artworks allegedly tainted by illegal activity in Europe. The transfer honors an historic agreement, reached last November, in which Italy said the objects had been looted, stolen or handled by traffickers before the museum innocently acquired them by gift or purchase between 1975 and 1996. Timothy Rub, director of the Cleveland museum, called the agreement with Italy "open and fair a

Hitler paintings sell for £95,000

Examples of what are thought to be Adolf Hitler's early paintings have been sold for more than £95,000. The 13 works, which were sold at Ludlow Racecourse in Shropshire, were left forgotten in a collector's garage, specialist auctioneer Mullock's said. One picture of a man sitting on a stone bridge appearing to show the Nazi leader's trademark side-parting - was sold for £10,000. The pieces were apparently found in 1945 by a soldier.

A Conversation with Laurence Rees and Robert Dallek about the new PBS documentary: The Making of WWII Behind Closed Doors

Editor’s Note: The three-part television series WWII Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West, (described in the news article, “New Film on Secret Meetings of World War II Will Premiere on PBS in May”) juxtaposes conventional documentary elements with dramatic recreations to offer viewers a new perspective on the war through the prism of hidden meetings of Stalin—first with the Nazis and then with Roosevelt and Churchill. The film premieres on PBS on May 6. The award-winning filmmaker

Coco Chanel biopic opens in France - but ignores affair with Nazi

The first of two feature films about Coco Chanel, the fashion house founder, has opened in France. But the biopic, Coco Avant Chanel, has been criticised for "ignoring" her affair with the Nazi officer, Hans Gunther von Dincklage. Instead the film focuses on what its director calls the miserable, "pure Balzac" early years of Gabrielle Chanel, nicknamed "Coco" during her failed attempt to launch a singing career.

Coco Chanel biopic opens in France - but ignores affair with Nazi

But the biopic, Coco Avant Chanel, has been criticised for "ignoring" her affair with the Nazi officer, Hans Gunther von Dincklage. Instead the film focuses on what its director calls the miserable, "pure Balzac" early years of Gabrielle Chanel, nicknamed "Coco" during her failed attempt to launch a singing career. The film sees her move from poverty to high society, from young hat-maker to her first catwalk show. But it stop

Austria returns Klimt painting taken during Holocaust

Linz Mayor Franz Dobusch has recommended the painting of a woman, believed to be worth around 15 million euros, be transferred from the city's Lentos art gallery to the descendants of Aranka Munk. It cited the findings of an independent expert, Sophie Lillie, who confirmed the painting had been seized from Mrs Munk by the Nazis after she was deported to a concentration camp where she died in 1941. The administrative commission of Linz museums and the city council were

Intact German Cold War bunkers open to the public

In the small village of Urft just south of Bonn, a single-family home on the edge of town gives few clues to the concrete and steel chambers below. But sure enough, a dank stairway hidden behind the garage leads to a secret underground bunker. This was West Germany's James-Bond-style answer to the atomic bomb. The shelter had room for 200 state officials to manage the government during a nuclear war. Nearby in Ahrweiler-Bad Neuenahr, another bunker was built to house 3

Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer (BBC documentary)

Cleopatra - the most famous woman in history. We know her as a great queen, a beautiful lover and a political schemer. For 2,000 years almost all evidence of her has disappeared - until now. In one of the world's most exciting finds, archaeologists believe they have discovered the skeleton of her sister, murdered by Cleopatra and Mark Antony. From Egypt to Turkey, Neil Oliver investigates the story of a ruthless queen who would kill her own siblings for power. This is t

W.P.A. Projects Left Their Stamp on the NY Region

WHEN the world’s finest male golfers find themselves struggling to break par at this year’s United States Open at Bethpage State Park in June, chances are they won’t blame their plight on stimulus spending. But perhaps they should. After all, the rolling hills of the Bethpage Black golf course in Nassau County are a legacy of government efforts to create jobs and public works projects during the Great Depression. And when young professionals in search of housing tour a lovely Art De