Culture & Lifestyle | 30.12.2004 Fires, Films and Fashion
The News Review:
- Culture & Lifestyle | 30.12.2004 Fires, Films and Fashion
- A year in culture
- How well do you know 2004?
- Motorsport.com: News channel
- Today’s highlights in history
Culture & Lifestyle | 30.12.2004 Fires, Films and Fashion
Deutsche Welle – Dec 30, 2004
While the Berlin Film festival in February marked a triumphant return to form for the German film industry and the capital’s seven-month MoMA exhibition went down in history as Europe’s most successful exhibition ever, the fire in late summer at the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar wreaked havoc on one of the country’s most outstanding cultural treasures. Berlin might have been basking in its new-found glory as a breeding ground for cutting-edge art and fashion, but its hip reputation didn’t translate into profits. Amid much discussion about radio quotas to boost home-grown pop, the German music industry pinned its hopes of recovery on Popkomm, one of the many international trade fairs to relocate to Berlin in 2004. In autumn, the 15th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall served as reminder that reunification is still a very touchy subject — while a visit from Britain’s Queen Elisabeth in November unearthed some even older resentments. DW-World takes a look at 2004’s tops and flops — the most memorable moments in a year that saw Germany tentatively reclaim a sense of national pride.
A year in culture
Al-Ahram Weekly – Dec 30, 2004
The "oriental jazz" band Wist Al-Balad, extremely popular throughout Cairo, have yet to produce a cassette or CD of their music. Yet aside from the occasional gesture of solidarity with Iraq or Palestine, the "independent scene" that has emerged in the last few years — its centres include, apart from the Townhouse, the Diwan bookshop in Zamalek and the After Eight restaurant-disco downtown, where Wist Al-Balad regularly perform — maintained its distance from regional life throughout the year. Since it contributes to the dissolution of class barriers and the assimilation of Western culture — within a confined if not entirely impenetrable circle — the increasingly confident growth of such a scene cannot be entirely discounted. But as yet there is no hard evidence with which to establish the benefits it imparts to Egyptian cultural life as a whole. More worrying is the gap that separates it from an institution like Miret, which, though similarly independent and unhappy with the status quo, wraps the banner of its ideological commitments round its head and jumps at any suspicion of "normalisation"…
More worrying is the gap that separates it from an institution like Miret, which, though similarly independent and unhappy with the status quo, wraps the banner of its ideological commitments round its head and jumps at any suspicion of "normalisation". That said, together with the Alexandria-based occasional magazine Amkena, Miret has done more for the literary and cultural vanguard than any state- supported or private-sector publisher. While the next issue of Amkena is unlikely to be out before the new year, through the year Miret championed such fascinating if as yet tentative literary developments as the emergence of a home-grown magic realism in the novel and the growth of vernacular poetry in prose. Never mind that the books still have no readership beyond their writers: the accessibility and interest of the new work promises a gradual breakthrough. Yet perhaps only the long-awaited opening of Al- Azhar Park — an Aga Khan Foundation project begun in 1984 — challenges the Frankfurt presentation to the position of cultural event of the year. The 74- acre area in Al-Darb Al-Ahmar in Fatimid Cairo is a tribute to the city: pretty, meticulously maintained and vast. At last, when the culturally oriented individual is frustrated with Cairo and all that it has to offer — not an unlikely occurrence, after all — he can at least look forward to the pleasures of a public park.
How well do you know 2004?
Cape Argus – Cape Argus (subscription) – Dec 30, 2004
However, the figure in the contract does not include match fees and win bonuses. MARCHShe’s a star not a monster – in fact she became a South African heroine. Who is she? Charlize Theron, the first home-grown actress to win an Oscar, for her role as the killer Aileen Wuornos in the film Monster. She also won a Golden Globe for the same performance. A knife handed in as evidence during a Cape High Court murder trial in March, was used in what horror crime?The Sizzlers massacre in Green Point in January 2003 in which nine men were killed. Trevor Theys and Adam Woest were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Al-Qaeda was almost certainly behind the 10 Madrid railway blasts in March that killed at least 200 commuters and wounded another 1 200, but the Spanish government first blamed which other group that was a lot closer to home? ETA, the Basque separatist group.
Motorsport.com: News channel
Motorsport.com – Dec 30, 2004
Barcelona’s inhabitants will have the opportunity to celebrate the victoryof Catalonia’s home-grown champion, Nani Roma, who will open the 27th Dakarrally sporting the number 1 ensign. And Spain, which has for years beenclosely involved with the Dakar rally, will renew its great love affair withthe event. Barcelona is likely to provide an unforgettable reception for theworld’s greatest motoring rally. Memories of the rally’s passage through thecity in 1987 and 1989, when a million people turned out to watch the driversrace through its streets will further deepen the emotion of Barcelona’srenewed connection with the Dakar rally. GAULOISES SCHLESSER FORDJEAN LOUIS SCHLESSER N300JOSEP MARIA SERVIA N301Twice winner of the Dakar (1999 — 2000), Jean-Louis Schlesser, who will bedriving an evolution of his Ford powered buggy, has once again set hissights on overall victory in the car class.
Today’s highlights in history
Topeka Capital Journal (subscription) – Dec 30, 2004
Six singles and three doubles matches will be played again, plus three women’s matches and some junior boys matches. 50 years agoWhat’s it like in the murky depths of the Kaw River? A home-grown deep sea diver who is becoming adept at his newly adopted profession was finding out here this week. He was Clyde Wasson, 149 N. Buchanan, a World War II veteran, who has built his own diving outfit and has developed it to where he can stay underwater for 30 minutes or longer. Griest and Ekdahl, architects for the new pediatric ward to be built at Vail Hospital, announced that plans for the new wing are 70 percent complete, and that it is expected they will be completed and bids can be sought by early September. 60 years agoThe Santa Fe Railway obtained a permit to erect a signal repair shop at 301 N.