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

Algis Valiunas: Norman Mailer: The Naked Novelist and the Dead Reputation

[Algis Valiunas, a frequent contributor to Commentary Magazine, has written this year for us about John Cheever, Edgar Allan Poe, and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.] As the second anniversary of his passing approaches, it is worth asking: How is Norman Mailer, without question the most famous American writer of the second half of the 20th century, to be remembered? It is a measure of Mailer’s effect on the culture, for better or for worse, that answering the question is a pressing and

Normandy 1944 - Then and Now

BERNIERES SUR MER Typical Norman house located along the beach at Juno Beach. (Photo : Conseil Régional de Basse-Normandie / Archives Nationales du CANADA)

Titian: The Wheeler Dealer who Created the Goddess

Titian’s 'Venus of Urbino’ is among the world’s sexiest paintings. Who was the man behind the masterpiece? There she lies, sprawled on a bed that fills the breadth of the picture, her teenage flesh sheathed in a creamy, golden glow, wearing nothing but a ring, a bracelet and a faint smile which seems simply to be saying, “Here I am – what are you going to do about it?” This is Titian’s Venus of Urbino, one of the sexiest paintings ever created, one of the masterpieces o

MI5 planned to intern top American director

Britain’s security services planned to intern the father of the actress Zoë Wanamaker in the event of a national emergency because of his communist links. MI5 and Special Branch, alerted by the US Embassy in London, kept a close eye on Sam Wanamaker, a successful actor and director, after he fled a crackdown on communism in the United States with his young family in 1951. The Wanamaker brief also shows that Special Branch kept a file on Michael Redgrave, the actor fat

Rare 900-Year-Old Sacred Bull Sculpture Added to National Art Collection (Australia)

The National Gallery of Australia today announced its latest acquisition The sacred bull Nandi, vehicle of Shiva, acquired with the generous assistance of Roslyn Packer AO. In the form of a humped Brahman bull, the Nandi is an important work of early Indian art from the 11th to12th centuries and is the only significant sculpture of the popular Hindu image in an Australian public collection. “We are very grateful to Roslyn Packer, who is a longstanding member of the Na

A Large, Magnificent Roman Building, c. 1,800 Years Old, was Exposed in the City of David

A spacious edifice from the Roman period (third century CE) – apparently a mansion that belonged to a wealthy individual – was recently exposed in the excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is carrying out in the 'Givati Car Park' at the City of David, in the Walls Around Jerusalem National Park. The excavations are being conducted at the site on behalf of the IAA and in cooperation with the Nature and Parks Authority, and are underwritten by the ‘Ir David Foundation. Accordi

Blackface, Reconsidered

I wrote a piece in yesterday's New York Times about Sophie Tucker, whose earliest recordings, some almost a century old, have been released for the first time in decades on a new CD. I describe Tucker's rise from the burlesque and variety stage circuit to vaudeville stardom and note her origins as a "coon shouter"—a performer of blackface songs. In Salon, Sady Doyle has written a response to my Times article titled "Can a feminist hero do blackface?" Doyle says

Marvel's long history now part of Disney

NEW YORK — Iron Man, Captain America and Thor may be nearly invincible, but they can also be bought. In acquiring Marvel Entertainment Inc. for about $4 billion, Walt Disney Co. inherits a bevy of comic book characters whose history is almost dramatic enough to deserve a prequel of its own. And what could be a better ending than Hulk moving in with Donald Duck? Marvel Comics, now a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment Inc., was founded in 1939, a year after Disney release

She Loves You named as best selling Beatles track

It was only the band’s second number one, issued as Beatlemania was in its infancy, but newly compiled figures show She Loves You to be the biggest-selling Fab Four track released in the UK. The 1963 single topped a chart of the act’s greatest sales tallies pushing its follow-up, I Want To Hold Your Hand, into second spot. The Official Chart Company — which puts together the weekly Top 40 — has trawled its records to pull together an all-time bestseller list of the ba

New York City's Waterfront in Photographs on View at Museum of the City of New York

The dramatic transformation of the New York City waterfront from a hub of industry and commerce to a vestigial space reclaimed for recreation and public use will be documented in historic photographs by Berenice Abbott, Andreas Feininger, and David Robbins, and contemporary photographs by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel, in an exhibition on view September 5 through November 29, 2009, at the Museum of the City of New York. The Edge of New York: Waterfront Photographs will spotlight, through 42 photogr

Lincoln's history revived at restored Ford's Theatre Museum

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Abraham Lincoln was mortally wounded by an assassin's bullet more than 144 years ago. Yet standing in front of the long black double-breasted frockcoat he wore to Ford's Theatre that night in April 1865, its plain gray buttons almost within touching distance behind a thick sheet of glass, our 16th president looms larger than life. At 6 feet 4 inches, Lincoln was quite tall for his times. But it doesn't strike you just how far above his peers he towered until you'

Reopened facility adds life to Navy history

History is often a word that people associate with textbooks and professors speaking in monotones. But with the Naval Academy Museum's complete renovation and redesign, the history of the U.S. Navy has become something real and vibrant to academy visitors and midshipmen. The museum reopened two weeks ago after undergoing an $11.6 million head-to-toe makeover. "We completely gutted this building," said Scott Harmon, the museum director. The only things left sta

NASA's Most Awesomely Weird Mission Patches

Perhaps the best thing about NASA’s military provenance is that the agency picked up the armed services’ habit of making patches.We’ve long loved the Most Awesomely Bad Military P

Most Important Viking Treasure in 150 Years is Jointly Acquired by Two British Museums

The Vale of York hoard has been acquired through a unique partnership between the York Museums Trust and the British Museum. This major Viking hoard, an important and exciting find, is joint-owned and will be displayed equally between the two partners. Highlights of the hoard will be displayed initially at the Yorkshire Museum in York (17 September – 1 November 2009). It will then travel to the British Museum. The hoard was declared Treasure and was valued at £1,082,0

National Portrait Gallery Exhibits Portrait of Ted Kennedy Painted by Andy Warhol

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery installed a portrait of Sen. Edward Kennedy by Andy Warhol. It went on view when the museum opened to the public at 11:30 a.m. in a first-floor gallery that is designated for remembrance of recently deceased individuals represented in the gallery’s collection. Warhol’s silkscreened portrait of Kennedy was created in 1980 to raise funds for Kennedy’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. A special feature of the print is War

TIME Photo: The Kennedy family visits Pope Pius XII in Vatican City, 1939

In happier times: The Kennedy family visits Pope Pius XII in Vatican City, 1939. Young Ted stands in front of his father Joseph. Related articleAfter Kennedy's Death: Silence from the Pope

Review: 'Woodstock' Is One Boring Trip, Man

In the summer of 1969, half a million people gathered in and around a 600-acre field in Bethel, N.Y., for what was officially described as three days of peace and music, and less officially as three days of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll—the Woodstock festival. If you can remember it, so the old joke goes, you probably weren't there. Former flower children who were on the scene and on psychotropics for those three fab, far-out days but are hazy on the details, and those who weren't there but wa

Great Expectations for New Ball and Chain Display at Museum of London Docklands

One of the most unusual discoveries from the Thames in recent years, a ball and chain dating from the 17th - 18th century, goes on display at Museum of London Docklands today. Museum experts believe it would have been used to shackle prisoners during transport, but it was uncovered with the lock fastened and no key. This raises the possibility that a prisoner may have slipped out of custody, although a less happy outcome would probably have awaited the unfortunate person who found

Stolen Painting by Picasso Worth $10 Million Found in Iraq

painting by Pablo Picasso believed to have been stolen during the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait has been found in the possession of an Iraqi man in Babel, south of Baghdad, the Al Sabah newspaper reported Wednesday. Police launched a sweep in Yebla, an area in Babel province, after intelligence indicated the painting was being kept by someone in the area, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources. Officers arrested the man who had Picasso's "La Mujer Desnuda,&q

Extraordinary Exhibition at the Getty to Show Iconic Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils

The J. Paul Getty Museum has organized an extraordinary exhibition, which is the result of more than 30 years of scholarly research on the working practice of the great Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) and the teaching process he employed in his studio. Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling the Difference will be on view exclusively at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center from December 8, 2009-February 28, 2010. The exhibition will explore the differences between Rembr