- How much did the rich, privileged world of art auctions
need some good news? Über-rich people gathering in swanky places and bidding
more money on a sculpture or painting than 99 percent of people walking the
planet will make in their lifetime is crucial to society and after last
week’s lackluster auctions of Impressionist and modern art at Sotheby’s and
Christie’s, a rebound was needed. That rebound came this week at Sotheby’s,
which kicked off a week of post-war and contemporary auctions with a big sale
on Tuesday night. The star of the night was Mark Rothko’s “No. 1 (Royal Red and
Blue)’’ from 1954. Considered a classic Rothko canvas and as much of an
overpriced conversation piece/“Look at me” purchase as a ridiculously rich
person could find, the painting sold to a telephone bidder for $67 million, or
$75.1 million with Sotheby’s fees, well above its estimate of $35 million to
$50 million. Yes, $8 million in fees sounds bloated, but all final prices at
the auction house include the buyer’s commission to Sotheby’s: 25 percent of
the first $50,000; 20 percent of the next $50,000 to $1 million and 12 percent
of the rest. Rothko’s works have become highly-prized items over the last five
years and his abstract canvases have pulled big numbers at both Sotheby’s and
Christie’s. David Rockefeller sold a 1950 painting for $72.8 million at
Sotheby’s in 2007, a record price for one of Rothko’s works that last until
this past May, when a 1961 work titled “Orange, Red, Yellow” fetched $87
million at Christie’s. Yes, there is nothing like the image of filthy rich
people gathering on the east side of Manhattan and spending nearly nine figures
on something they will hang on their wall and look at occasionally, whenever
they aren’t summering in the Hamptons or relaxing at their villa in the south
of France……….
- Streaming music online is an increasingly popular choice
for music fans and Spotify has quickly become one of the more popular services
in this area. Currently, the music streaming outfit offers members a small selection of listening
options, including a stand-alone desktop application and mobile apps for
Android and iOS, both supporting offline play – as long as one is willing to
pay up for a premium membership. Curiously, Spotify does not currently offer a
Web-based version of its service, but that is about to change. A browser-based
option would seem to be a first step on the way to everything else, but Spotify
has worked backwards in that sense. It hopes to fill in the missing link in its
chain in the near future and Spotify executive Graham James confirmed recently
that the company has already started testing a beta Web-based version on a
small scale. James suggested that the new service will be beneficial for users
who are on a different computer, maybe at the office where they can’t install
new apps without the approval of the techno-Nazis from the IT department, and
still want to access their normal Spotify content. There is no firm launch date
for the Web-based Spotify service, but if the company hopes to continue growing
as fast as it has during its first 18 months-plus in the United States,
diversifying its offerings would be a large step forward. Record labels will
undoubtedly be anxious for the new product to hit, as Spotify was the second
largest source of revenue for labels this year as of a few weeks ago, according
to industry sources………
- The early season is not going well for the UCLA basketball
team is not going the way coach Ben Howland expected. Howland’s team was
counting on prized recruit Shabazz
Muhammad to help lead them to a bounce-back season, but Muhammad can’t get on
the court because the NCAA has declared him ineligible. Without him on the
court, the Bruins needed double overtime to defeat lowly UC-Irvine in its second
game of the season Tuesday night. They may be 2-0 against inferior competition,
but there is no way they’re getting anywhere in the postseason without
Muhammad. Knowing that, UCLA filed an appeal with the NCAA on Wednesday on
behalf of its star freshman, Howland confirmed. "At this time, I'm
optimistic and hopeful that everything is going to work out," Howland
said. "That's about all I can say. Hopeful is a big part of that."
Hope may be a good thing, even the best of things, but hoping that a player who
has been declared ineligible for competition by the NCAA, which investigated
and determined that he had received improper benefits in the form of lodging
and travel expenses for unofficial visits during the recruiting period, might
not be the best strategy. If the appeal is successful, Muhammad would likely be
reinstated immediately, but if it is rejected then the school will have to request
reinstatement. Even if he is reinstated, the NCAA would likely require a
punishment in the form of a suspension and ask Muhammad and his family to repay
the benefits he received. Having a star player benched hours before the season
opener is never good, but losing the No. 2-ranked recruit in the nation
declared ineligible before he has played a single game suggests that something
shady is going on. UCLA’s results aren't likely to improve this weekend when
they play on national television in the Legends Classic at the Barclays Center
in Brooklyn unless Muhammad’s fate changes quickly. His teammates aren’t
exactly helping matters, including Kyle Anderson, Tony Parker and Jordan Adams,
who mimicked Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea prior to the UC-Irvine game
when they wore light-blue "Free Shabazz" T-shirts, with Muhammad’s
face emblazoned on them. Stay strong, fellas………..
- Violence against bus drivers is becoming a disturbingly
common phenomenon worldwide. Cleveland, Ohio has such an issue that city
officials are considering installing Plexiglas cages on all of its buses to
protect drivers from enraged/drunk/high passengers. But compared to what went
on Thursday in Mozambique, the scene in Cleveland is actually tame. The sh*t
hit the fan when bus fares were increased and the impoverished youths who count
on the bus as their primary method of transportation (other than walking)
decided to riot. Their uprising escalated quickly and hundreds of youths violently protested bus fare hikes by
burning tires and attacking bus drivers, forcing buses off the streets. The
festivities kicked off Thursday morning as the youths constructed hastily made
roadblocks around the main roads leading to the capital Maputo and its
neighboring city, Matola. Their next move was hurling stones at drivers and
when there were no drivers to chuck rocks at, they burned debris in the road
after most workers had arrived at their jobs. Groups of protesters shouted:
"We have no money to pay for transport!" A municipal bus company and
other privately owned minibuses were the primary targets of Thursday’s rage after
authorities announced that longer bus routes in the region would be increased
from 7.5 meticais (25 U.S. cents) to 9 meticais (30 U.S. cents). Price
increases on shorter routes were also enacted and although five cents does not
seem like a huge amount, to Mozambicans it clearly is. Thousands of them had to
walk home from work because of the stoppage of bus service, with most drivers refusing
to go out on the roads out of fear of being attacked. Riot police eventually
intervened and armored police vehicles patrolled neighborhoods, filled with
heavily armed officers. Police arrested 12 protesters, said Arnaldo Chefo, a
spokesman for Maputo's police command, who added that there had been no
reported injuries from the uprising. Maybe next time………
- Music and drugs have been synonymous for decades. The
Beatles became icons right around the time Bob Dylan introduced them to pot and
they became big fans of LSD and most every illegal substance they could get
their hands on. Bands like the Sex Pistols and Ramones have penned odes to
drugs and Aerosmith recorded entire albums high on various drugs. Hinder may
not be in the same category as any of those bands, but the arena rockers are
still embracing the drug legacy of rock n’ roll and their new album is heavily
influenced by drugs. Hinder frontman Austin Winkler admits that "a really,
really dark drug binge" drove the songs for the group's fourth album,
"Welcome to the Freakshow." In a direct response to a question about
where the album’s dark slant came from, Winkler admitted he was struggling
mightily with drugs when it was written and recorded. "I was in a very,
very, very dark addiction," Winkler said. "I think you can definitely
hear the turmoil in my voice. As soon as we got the record done I went into
treatment to get help, and it's interesting to go back and listen to it now.
Coming back, I have a whole new look on all of them and they mean something
completely different to me now, too, so it's pretty cool. That's the beauty of
music." Yes, much like hearing a drunken voicemail you left someone after
that hellacious bender the night before, listening to music you wrote and
recorded while stoned must be quite a trip. The first single off the album, "Save
Me," came out in October and Winkler pointed to it is a prime example of
the narcotic-centric approach of “Freakshow.” "I was kind of in the mindset
of 'Get out of my face. I'm too far gone to be saved' kind of thing," he
said. "I had a really nasty attitude in that song, but I had a blast
singing and recording it. I think it's our heaviest single yet, and we're
getting a pretty good response." That good response could indicate that there
are a lot of drug addicts who are also Hinder fans, but maybe there isn’t a
link in that way. The album is due out Dec. 4 and the band is planning a full
tour in support of it next year………
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