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

Behold the Beer Can, Its Beauty Faded in the Eyes of the Young

HUBERTUS, Wis. -- Kids collect a lot of things these days: Transformers action figures, American Girl dolls, baseball cards. Then there's 10-year-old Randy Langenbach. He collects beer cans. "I just like how they look," Randy says of the 200 cans that line the walls of his bedroom here. And, no, "he doesn't drink the beer," his father says. The problem for the once-thriving hobby of beer-can collecting is that Randy is a rarity: a collector under the

Perspective on: Inspirations of African art

Scholarly and artistic focus: An art historian and practicing artist from Nigeria who has had more than 35 one-person and group exhibitions around the world, Okeke-Agulu's research focuses on classical, modern and contemporary African and African diaspora art history. He is the co-curator of the exhibition"Life Objects: Rites of Passage in African Art," currently at the Princeton University Art Museum. His most recent book,"Contemporary African Art Since 1980," co-written with art curator and hi

Berkeley reconsiders landmark status

With more than 300 landmark buildings, Berkeley loves its architecture. But the City Council is ready to tell the landmark commission today that it went too far when it bestowed the hallowed status on a concrete, flat-roofed Berkeley building loosely linked to Bernard Maybeck. For only the second time in at least a decade, the council is expected to send a landmark decision back to the panel for further review, based on an appeal by the building's owner and a recommendation by the c

Fredericksburg museum is victory for history

FREDERICKSBURG — When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Bob Jensen was 17 and assigned to the USS Maryland. The battleship, one of eight in the harbor that day, was struck by two bombs; four men lost their lives. Jensen doesn't like to talk about that day or his experiences fighting in World War II. He doesn't watch war movies anymore. And during a visit Monday to the George H.W. Bush Gallery of the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, he passed th

English Village Tries to Milk a Connection to Its Cheesy Past

STILTON, England -- This small hamlet shares its name with a famous curd. But under European Union law, it's illegal to make Stilton cheese in Stilton. The bar on producing Stilton cheese here is a curious consequence of EU efforts to protect revered local foods by limiting the geographical area where they can be made. The EU's protected list of more than 800 foods and drinks includes famous names like Champagne and Parma as well as lesser-known delicacies such as Mouta

Fifty Years of Second City

More than 500 people have approached The Second City's co-founder Bernard Sahlins over the years to assure him that they were among the 120 present at the improvisational comedy troupe's opening night in two former storefronts on Chicago's Near North Side. They even remember the date: Dec. 16, 1959. And who's to say? Perhaps half a century from now thousands will be moseying over to Andrew Alexander, The Second City's co-owner since 1985, swearing that they were among the 350 in the

Raphael Breaks Year's Record; Sells for $48 Million

A rare Raphael chalk drawing of a woman's head sold for a record £29.1 million, or $48 million, at Christie's in London – the highest price paid all year for a work of art at auction. In the same sale, Christie's sold a Rembrandt portrait that hadn't been seen in public for nearly four decades for a record £20.2 million pounds, or $33.2 million. Raphael's "Head of a Muse" sold to an anonymous buyer for double its high estimate, a sign that collectors are willing to chase a

Altogether more than a footnote: reviewing Joe Sacco's new graphic novel, "Footnotes in Gaza"

The first thing that comes to mind when holding graphic novelist and journalist Joe Sacco’s new book, “Footnotes in Gaza,” is the colossal amount of work that went into it. Not only is this pen-and-ink graphic novel almost 400 pages long, the subject too is heavy: The Israeli military’s massacre of Palestinian civilians in Khan Younis and Rafah (Gaza), during the 1956 Suez Crisis. The Malta-born American researched and reported on the subject for seven years, making two extended trips to Gaza –

James Gardner: The George W. Bush Presidential Library Is So … Conservative

[James Gardner, formerly the architecture critic of the New York Sun, now writes on culture for several publications.] To put the matter politely, presidential libraries tend not to inspire very good architecture. One generalization that can be made about the twelve libraries already in existence is that they tend to err on the side of dullness, like the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda and the Bush 41 Library in Texas. And when the architects reach for edginess, they come up with a tam

De Niro, Springsteen Receive Kennedy Center Honors

This weekend, a surprise list of star performers celebrated Bruce Springsteen, Robert De Niro, director Mel Brooks, jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck, and opera singer Grace Bumbry at the Kennedy Center Honors. Three hundred guests, including Jack Black, Edward Norton, Sting, and Martin Scorsese, attended a reception in the East Room of the White House to celebrate the occasion. "I think when all my awards go to eBay, it will be the last," Brooks said of his Kennedy Center medal.

Groundbreaking for $10M Jefferson Davis library (Miss.)

Bertram Hayes-Davis says the $10.5 million project to rebuild the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum is another opportunity to show his great, great grandfather's legacy shouldn't be limited to a fight to preserve slavery. ``In the American people's minds, that specific association is the only factor they know about Jefferson Davis. I'm working to educate the American public on all of the great accomplishments of this American patriot,'' Hayes-Davis said in an interview

Honolulu museum brings Pearl Harbor Day history to life

The Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor takes you back to Dec. 7, 1941. It's early Sunday morning. The red-and-white control tower stands over the Ford Island Airfield in the middle of Pearl Harbor. You feel the percussion of Japanese attackers' bombs as they fall on Ford Island and the ships anchored nearby. Sailors, soldiers and airmen dodge the bullets as they rip through the glass windows of burning aircraft hangars. You are there where bravery overc

'White Christmas' and the reasons it endures

It was a peaceful song that became a wartime classic. Its unorthodox, melancholy melody—and mere 54 words, expressing the simple yearning for a return to happier times—sounded instantly familiar when sung by America's favorite crooner. But 67 years after its introduction, some still are surprised to learn that Bing Crosby's recording of the Irving Berlin ballad "White Christmas" became not only the runaway smash-hit for the World War II holidays, but the best-selling record of all time

An Actor Nails the Cadence and the Charm, a Review of "Invictus"

MORGAN FREEMAN has been cast as God — twice — so he evidently has no trouble projecting moral authority. The challenge of portraying Nelson Mandela, then, was not the size of the halo, but knowing the performance would be measured against the real, familiar Mandela, and his myth. “If we can say any part of acting is hard, then playing someone who is living and everybody knows would be the hardest,” Mr. Freeman said in a phone interview. The role has defeated actors as varied as Dann

Russia and Georgia Go to War Again — on Screen

More than a year after Russia and Georgia clashed in a short but brutal war, the two countries are continuing their dispute on the movie screen. Russian filmmakers have already released a slick documentary as well as a romantic feature that depicts Georgia as a genocidal aggressor. Now, the Georgian government is supporting Renny Harlin, the Hollywood director who made Die Hard 2, for its own take on the conflict, complete with Andy Garcia as the embattled Georgian President standing up to Russ

Italy: Is that Caravaggio hiding in that painting?

ROME – It is the sort of intriguing, self-referential clue that author Dan Brown would have his hero, the cerebral “symbologist” Robert Langdon, chasing after in one of his bestselling books. But the tiny self-portrait that Italian art historians believe they have found in an oil painting by Caravaggio is real. The painting, “Bacchus,” was completed by the Renaissance master in 1597 and depicts the mythical god of wine. On a table in front of him is a carafe of dark red

Heather Wilhelm: Is Ayn Rand Bad for the Market?

[Ms. Wilhelm is vice president of marketing and communications at the Illinois Policy Institute, a free-market public-policy organization.] Say what you will about Ayn Rand, but one thing is certain: She had no use for common niceties. A grimly precocious, friendless Rand declared her atheism at age 13. "Atlas Shrugged," Rand's secular sermon-as-novel, boils with revulsion toward the "looters" and "moochers" who consume public funds. Rand scornfully exc

Are Mattel's New Dolls Black Enough?

With so few black dolls on toy-store shelves, many black parents had high hopes when toy powerhouse Mattel Inc. released So in Style, its first line of black dolls with wider noses, fuller lips, sharper cheekbones and a variety of skin shades. Now, despite the company's efforts to solicit input from a group of high-profile black women, including Cookie Johnson, wife of former basketball star Magic Johnson, some parents are saying the dolls aren't black enough. They complain that fiv

Doha's treasure trove of Islamic history

Through time the art and architecture of the Islamic world has defined a civilization that once extended from Cordoba in Spain to the Mogul empire in China and India. Today a new cultural landmark in Qatar brings together 14 centuries of that history under one roof at the Doha Museum of Islamic Art. Designed by architect I.M. Pei, best known for his glass pyramids at Paris' Louvre museum, the stunning building houses 3,800 square meters of treasures, spanning three cont

China vs. Disney: The Battle for Mulan

China is moving to take back one of its own — even if it is legend. Mulan is the Middle Kingdom's gender-bending heroine, its Joan of Arc. The character from folktale is a daughter who disguises herself as a male soldier to take her father's place in the conscription army. The problem for the Chinese is that, since 1998, the definitive version of the story has been Disney's. Indeed, because of the animated Disney film, the character Mulan has become one of the most recognizable symb