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

Myth world: ancient Babylon visits Britain

A tower which has haunted the imagination of artists and writers for thousands of years will rise again in the first exhibition devoted to the art, archaeology and dreams of ancient Babylon. "When we asked people about Babylon many weren't quite sure whether it was a real place or a kind of fairytale, but what they had heard of was the Tower of Babel and the Hanging Gardens," said Irving Finkel, curator of the British Museum exhibition. "We have lavish evidence for on

A Trove of Golden Broadway Images, Stuck in a Tangled History

It was a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story set amid the rumbling gangs of New York, and Leo Friedman had an idea how he might capture it, grit, romance and all. Half of a legendary Broadway partnership, Mr. Friedman, then a 38-year-old former war photographer, positioned the young lovers holding hands on a street of tenements, fire escapes and garbage cans near his studio. “I’m going to make a mark on the sidewalk,” he recalled telling them. They were to run toward it.

"America, Empire of Liberty" launches on BBC Radio 4

On Monday afternoon, Radio 4 launches one of its most ambitious history projects of recent years. America, Empire of Liberty will tell the story of the United States – from the times of the first settlements in the country back in 12,000 BC, through to the present day. It will consist of 90 fifteen-minute episodes, split into three runs of 30 episodes each. Among Radio 4’s history series, only the Nineties’ This Sceptred Isle, a history of Britain, and Neil MacGregor’s forthcoming history of the

Gunter Demnig lives out of a van as he assembles a massive monument to Holocaust victims: stones

I first heard about the project in Israel, when based there. I first encountered it a couple of days after arriving in Berlin, literally tripping over in Mitte's Gipsstrasse. This morning I finally got to see Gunter Demnig in action, laying down his 'stolpersteine', or stumbling stones. They are small brass plaques, about the size of a beer mat, laid into pavements, cobbled paths, driveways and squares all over Germany. On each is recorded the name of a victim of the Nazis - usually

Writing the Myth of Moses (Robert Moses)

ARTHUR NERSESIAN, a 49-year-old playwright, poet and novelist whose wavy gray hair gives him the look of a 1960s English professor, rummaged through the black messenger bag lying next to him in a booth at the Moonstruck Diner in the East Village. Then he gleefully pulled out what appeared to be three coverless, battered paperbacks and slid them across the table. Closer analysis revealed these volumes to be, in fact, three parts of one eviscerated book, taped together and covered wit

Mahatma Gandhi's 'mobile toilet' recreated

A replica of the mobile lavatory used by Mahatma Gandhi has been recreated at his Sabarmati retreat in western India. The lavatory was built after tourists visiting the house, which holds memorabilia and artifacts from Gandhi's life, asked to know where he attended the call of nature. It will now be placed at a prominent spot in the ashram-turned-museum in Ahmedabad in Gujarat state from where it was removed over two decades ago after being deemed inappropriate for the

Mahatma Gandhi's 'mobile toilet' recreated

The lavatory was built after tourists visiting the house, which holds memorabilia and artifacts from Gandhi's life, asked to know where he attended the call of nature. It will now be placed at a prominent spot in the ashram-turned-museum in Ahmedabad in Gujarat state from where it was removed over two decades ago after being deemed inappropriate for the surroundings. The museum authorities believed it "spoilt" the ashram's ambience. Gandhi, who

Hadrian exhibition: Look on this work, ye mighty, and despair

In post-imperial Europe empires usually get a bad press. Yet they continue to haunt our collective imagination. It is hard to look at the ever-expanding EU without thinking of the Roman empire, which successive conquerors have sought to recreate ever since. It was hard not to be conscious of the reviving power of imperial China during the Olympic opening ceremonies in Beijing. That was surely the point? The upside of empire is order, stability, trade and prosperity, the spread of im

Academy of the Fine Arts shows the art of war (Philadelphia)

From slogans of"taxation without representation" to paintings of noble patriots dying in battle for the greater good, words and images have long served as powerful tools to influence American public opinion during wartime. A new exhibit at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts tracks the course of the second-longest conflict in U.S. history — the American Revolutionary War — and the ways art helped rally support for independence from the British and promote the values of the eme

Winston Churchill painting unearthed in attic

The picture, painted in the 1930s, before the Second World War, is of Windlesham Moor, a house in Surrey which was later let to the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip after their marriage in 1947. The auctioneers have spent 10 months establishing the provenance of the oil on canvas, which features the estate's Brown Lakes, arched stone bridge and the main house. The painting was originally passed to Lord Taylor, who served Sir Winston during the war as director o

BBC to air Rushdie fatwa documentary

BBC2 is to screen a feature-length documentary marking the 20th anniversary of the publication of The Satanic Verses and the fatwa on author Sir Salman Rushdie. Rushdie himself declined to take part in the as-yet-untitled 90-minute film, although it is understood he is not against the programme being made and his son and sister will take part. However, it is understood the BBC has run into some trouble among those who were involved in the original publication of the boo

NYT Pays homage to first nuke reactor with photo display

A radiation warning posted at the perimeter of the B Reactor site hints at the history -- and the dangers surrounding the first major nuclear reactor in the world. The United States government purchased the 586-square-mile Hanford Nuclear Reservation in 1943, and it was the source of plutonium for the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. Last month, B Reactor was designated a national historic landmark.

Rare photograph of Florence Nightingale for sale

The black and white image of the silver-haired nursing pioneer shows her in the imposing bedroom of her home just off London's Park Lane, before her death in 1910 at the age of 90. The photograph was taken by Lizzie Caswall Smith, who was a noted studio photographer in the early 1900s, who also took portraits of well-known subjects including George Bernard Shaw and JM Barrie who wrote Peter's Pan. The photograph is all the more remarkable because, despite her fame, Flor

Rare Islamic ewer expected to fetch over $5 million

- A 1,000-year-old carved rock crystal ewer, one of only seven known surviving examples, will be offered for auction next month at Christie's Islamic art sale and is expected to fetch over 3 million pounds ($5.3 million). The auctioneer said the ewer was made for the court of the Fatimid rulers of Cairo in the late 10th or early 11th century, and has been embellished in enameled gold mounts made in 1854 by a French silversmith. The ewer is the same one that came up for

Skeleton in Britney Spears' family closet

She is the former teenage pop sensation from Louisiana better known for her painful divorce and erratic behaviour than her music. But as America’s tarnished pop princess Britney Spears celebrated a triumphant comeback, sweeping the board at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night, details emerged of a secret scandal buried in her family history that would have overshadowed even her well-publicised personal troubles. Last week The Times traced the 26-year old singer’s ancestry ba

Famous dead men walk again at London film festival

George W Bush, Richard Nixon, Che Guevara, Hunter S Thompson and Bobby Sands will all be appearing at this year's London film festival, the full programme of which was announced today. The annual event, which kicks off on October 15 with the world premiere of Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon, about David Frost's famous TV interviews with the disgraced US president, will this year feature a record 15 international premieres. Oliver Stone's much anticipated biopic W, starring Jo

Versailles goes kitsch as Jeff Koons's giant Lobster moves into the palace

The palace of Versailles will undergo a kitsch revolution with the opening of a controversial exhibition by pop artist Jeff Koons, amid cries from traditionalists that it is sacrilegious to bring works like his inflatable lobster into the palace of the Sun King. Some 17 oeuvres have been hand-picked by the 53-year old"king of kitsch" to hang in the 17th century chateau and home to the French monarchy until the Revolution. Among those on display in the Grand Apartment, the

KFC shoring up security for secret recipe

Pssst. The secret's out at KFC. Well, sort of. Colonel Harland Sanders' handwritten recipe of 11 herbs and spices was to be removed Tuesday from safekeeping at KFC's corporate offices for the first time in decades. The temporary relocation is allowing KFC to revamp security around a yellowing sheet of paper that contains one of the country's most famous corporate secrets. The brand's top executive admitted his nerves were aflutter despite the tight security he lined up for the oper

Scholar finds 'Beethoven's last piano work' in library

An Australian musicologist has discovered what he believes to be the last piano work written by Beethoven. Peter McCallum, associate professor of musicology at the University of Sydney, found the 32 bars of handwritten music while looking at one of the composer's sketchbooks in Berlin's state library. Most of his books have been studied in detail but the final one has attracted less attention. McCallum said that he didn't know instantly that it was a piano piece because

Collector's vast model ship armada on display

HAMBURG, Germany: For Peter Tamm, the passion that launched a thousand ships — and Hamburg's newest museum along the port city's old docks — began with a gift from his mother in 1934. "A 500-gross tonnage coaster from the North Sea-Baltic line," Tamm said, rattling off specs of that first vessel in his possession. Of course, 500 gross tons was a little too big for a 6-year-old. What Tamm's mother gave him was an inch-long (2.5-centimeter) model of the cargo ship."Then came the se