Arts & Culture
Man rips head from Hitler wax figure in Berlin
BERLIN (Reuters) - A man tore the head from a controversial waxwork figure of Adolf Hitler on the opening day of Berlin's Madame Tussauds museum on Saturday, police said.
Leukemia claims life of Canadian fiddler Schroer, 51
The Canadian music world has lost a legend in iconic fiddler Oliver Schroer. The Toronto musician and producer, best known for his fusion of folk, pop, roots and classical arrangements, died Thursday at 51 after a year-long battle with leukemia.
Tragedies pulled curtains on Toronto’s theatrical pioneers
At the turn of the 20th century in the days before radio, talking pictures and television, and with a population of 250,000 Toronto had close to 100 theatres large and small with most neighbourhoods having their own local Vaudeville theatres or mu...
National Arts Centre founder Hamilton Southam dead at 91
Hamilton Southam, founder of Ottawa's National Arts Centre, died Tuesday. Southam was also the driving force behind the new Canadian War Museum and the Valiants Memorial, the 14 bronzes of military heroes and heroines placed on Confederation Squar...
Don't Touch the Red Book at Toronto Free Library
Beginning Wednesday, the newest "librarians-in-residence" at the Toronto Free Library will be the conceptual comedy duo Life of a Craphead (Amy Lam and Jon McCurley). These are the guys responsible for installing the most remote Queen Video locati...
Toronto, ON (CNS) - The Toronto International Film Festival has announced the international selections it will screen in September's Festival. he 33rd edition of the Festival, which runs from Sept. 4 to Sept. 13, will screen 27 international title...
Canstage shines at the Dora Awards
Despite a year of financial and backstage struggles, Toronto's Canadian Stage Company walked off with the lion's share of spoils yesterday at the 29th annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards.
Nazi Jews: A Historical Paradox
Would it surprise anyone to learn that there were upwards of 150, 000 soldiers of partial Jewish descent serving in the Nazi army during World War II? I had no idea until I attended a lecture by Bryan Mark Rigg discussing his book entitled Hitler’...
Top 10 Most Amazing 3D Graffiti Artists
3D graffiti, whether it’s in chalk or paint, on walls or the street, represents a new way of combining the mastery of Renaissance art techniques with the gritty, ephemeral qualities of amazing street art. These 3D street artists gives graffiti a w...
Bacon Triptych Sells for $34.4 Million in London
Works by Francis Bacon have been big sellers at auction recently, and Christie’s sale of postwar and contemporary art here on Monday was no different. Four tenacious bidders vied for his “Three Studies for Self-Portrait” from 1975 in what became t...
bc finds out why the HK Ballet changed the colour of the French flag - Red, White and .... Lilac!
“I’m not stuck on flags in particular,” John Meehan says in his surprisingly small office overlooking a studio of dancers practising pliés and port de bras. We are in the HK Cultural Centre ostensibly talking about HK Ballet’s contribution to Le F...
Exhibiting new appeal, Hunan Museum reforms
Young visitors are attracted by an ancient vessel on display at Hubei Provincial Museum. China's museums now strive to play a bigger role in public education. Jiang Nan
Compelling piece of theatre
STRATFORD: Lope de Vega's Fuente Ovejuna is presented in a new translation by Laurence Boswell
My Coetzee moment
At this point in my writing life, I usually go to literary conferences to read a paper or be part of a panel, but on my recent visit to the University of East Anglia in Norwich I joined the “Human: Nature” conference as a listener. I didn’t mind; ...
To Have, To Hold —and To Remember Ever After
FOR Patrick Uy, a good wedding photograph is all about freezing timeless and priceless moments in a frame. Whether he’s shooting weddings, portraits, or doing ads, he likes the storytelling approach in shooting people. “I may be in Batanes or Bora...
Books: Secret passions - No longer obliged to hide his fervour for writing, Manil Suri dissects his native country's ardours
For years, Manil Suri wrote in secret. Fearing disapproval from his fellow mathematics professors if they discovered he spent his leisure time writing fiction, Suri attended writing courses clandestinely while establishing himself as a tenured aca...
CitySeen: Artist makes interesting connections with sardonic figures
If modern Chinese pop art such as the smiley-faced pictures of Yue Minjun is your cup of tea, then the quirky figurines of Fujian -born Luo Zhenhong should interest you too. Twenty pieces that the 27-year-old has created in the past three years ar...
Harry Potter 'prequel' raises money for charity at auction
LONDON -- A mini-prequel penned by JK Rowling to her blockbuster "Harry Potter" series of books fetched £25,000 (€31,600, $48,800) at a charity auction on Tuesday.
Eva Hoffman: 'The first impulse was to write about music'
Eva Hoffman's novel, Illuminations, is a love story and a novel of ideas, but it is also, says its author, a book about "a path not quite taken". While growing up in Cracow, she attended the music school, "a kind of natural environment for future ...
Books: Drummond's next contains overflow
A retired reporter for WBBM Channel 2, Drummond has interviewed countless people over the years, including mobsters, murderers, athletes and assorted Chicago oddballs. Drummond did more than just get those interviews on tape -- he also transcribed...