The Korea Herald

Occupy Wall Street becomes collectible

NEW YORK (AP) ― Occupy Wall Street may still be working to shake the notion it represents a passing outburst of rage, but some establishment institutions have already decided the movement’s artifacts are worthy of historic preservation.More than a half-dozen major museums and organizations from the Smithsonian Institution to the New-York Historical Society have been avidly collecting materials produced by the Occupy movement.Staffers have been sent to occupied parks to rummage for buttons, signs

Culture Dec. 27, 2011

Japanese designer of arty kitchenware Sori Yanagi dies

TOKYO (AP) ― Sori Yanagi, whose designs for stools and kitchen pots brought the simplicity and purity of Japanese decor into the everyday, has died. He was 96.The pioneer of Japan’s industrial design died of pneumonia in a Tokyo hospital Sunday, Koichi Fujita of Yanagi Design Office said.Yanagi’s curvaceous “butterfly stool,” evocative of a Japanese shrine gate, won an award at La Triennale di Milano in 1957 and helped elevate him to international stature.The work later joined the permanent coll

Culture Dec. 27, 2011

Japanese designer of arty kitchenware Sori Yanagi dies

Dutch public raises funds to restore Napoleon painting

THE HAGUE (AFP) ― The Amsterdam Museum has raised more than 50,000 euros from public sponsors to restore a 198-year-old painting depicting Napoleon’s entrance into the city, its spokeswoman said. The public was asked to sponsor different parts on the canvas entitled “Napoleon’s Entrance,” painted by Belgian master Matthieu van Bree in 1813 and which until recently had been rolled-up since 1891.“We have 340 donors who contributed amounts ranging from between 10 euros to 25,000 euros,” Martine Wil

Culture Dec. 27, 2011

Disgraced ex-journalist fights for U.S. law license

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― A former journalist who became the subject of a Hollywood movie after he was caught fabricating articles in the late 1990s is fighting to become a lawyer in California over the objections of a state bar committee.Stephen Glass, whose ethical missteps at The New Republic and other magazines were recounted in the film “Shattered Glass” and an autobiographical novel, has challenged the bar committee’s decision to deny him a license to practice law, the San Francisco Chronicle r

Television Dec. 27, 2011

Cruise’s ‘Mission’ accomplishes box-office win

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Hollywood has picked up a little Christmas bonus.Studios generally underestimated the size of their movie audiences over the weekend, and they’re now revising the holiday revenues upward.Leading the way is Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible ― Ghost Protocol,” which pulled in $29.5 million for the weekend. That Monday figure is $3 million more than distributor Paramount estimated a day earlier.For the four-day period Friday to Monday, Paramount estimates “Ghost Protocol” will ha

Film Dec. 27, 2011

Cruise’s ‘Mission’ accomplishes box-office win

‘Staying unique, independent from fads’

U.S. indie-rock band Beirut to hit the stage in SeoulBeirut started out as a bedroom recording project of Santa Fe songwriter Zach Condon, later developing into a six-member band that combines indie, rock and folk elements into flowing ballads and harmonious instrumental interludes.While taking more upbeat, accessible turns in the years after the band’s 2006 debut, Condon’s songs have held on to their languorousness, which the band leader describes as part of the “uniqueness” he considers key to

Performance Dec. 27, 2011

Banyan, luxury in city’s heart

Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul is the first hotel the Banyan Tree Group has built in the heart of the city. The group, which operates hotels and resorts in more than 20 countries around the world, built the hotel at the foot of Seoul’s Mount Namsan last year, envisioning an “urban resort.” Home to a high-end social community of Korea, the mountain area presents a feeling of exclusiveness to those who visit the hotel. Offering an incomparable and unforgettable view of Mount Namsan and the surroundi

Industry Dec. 27, 2011

UNESCO cuts funds for Palestinian magazine

JERUSALEM (AP) ― The U.N.’s cultural agency said it is pulling funding for a Palestinian youth magazine that published an article suggesting admiration for Hitler.The magazine, Zayzafouna, published an article in February written by a teenage girl who presented four role models: a medieval Persian mathematician, a modern Egyptian novelist, the Muslim warrior Saladin and the Nazi leader.UNESCO said in a statement it “strongly deplores and condemns” the “unacceptable” material and would cease fund

Culture Dec. 26, 2011

UNESCO cuts funds for Palestinian magazine

Dig in San Francisco unearths artifacts

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― The big dig for San Francisco’s multibillion dollar transportation terminal has unearthed some artifacts from during and after the city’s heady Gold Rush days, including opium pipes from a Chinese laundry and a chipped chamber pot found in a backyard outhouse.The 70 artifacts have city archeologists eager for more and local residents pondering the ground beneath their feet.“It’s not often that you get a chance to stop for a moment and have a window into what used to be,” sai

Culture Dec. 26, 2011

U.S. soul legend Etta James in hospital

LOS ANGELES (AFP) ― Grammy-winning blues and soul legend Etta James, famous for her hit “At Last,” was taken to a California hospital on Friday for complications related to leukemia, her publicist told AFP.“Etta James was taken to the hospital night before last (December 21). She was having trouble breathing so they intubated her. Her condition remains the same,” said her publicist Lupe De Leon.Last week, De Leon said that James, 73, was in the end stage of her cancer and would not undergo furth

Performance Dec. 26, 2011

Spielberg seeks ‘old-fashioned’ spectacle

LOS ANGELES (AFP) ― Steven Spielberg’s new film “War Horse” is almost deliberately old-fashioned, pitting noble beast against the horrors of war, with sweeping, emotional set pieces ― and dividing critics as Hollywood’s awards season looms.The movie, which got a Golden Globe nomination this month ahead of its Christmas Day release in the United States, is even made on good old celluloid in a snub to the digital revolution.“I think that movies like that don’t get made much any more, you know the

Film Dec. 26, 2011

Controversial Dutch artist Johannes Heesters dies at 108

Dutch-born entertainer Johannes Heesters, who made his name performing in Adolf Hitler’s Germany and was dogged later in his long career by controversy over his Nazi-era past, died Saturday, his agent said. He was 108.The tenor Heesters made his debut on the big stage at the Volksoper in Vienna, Austria in 1934. His career took off in Berlin where, starting in 1935 ― two years after the Nazis took power ― he became a crowd favorite at the Komische Oper and Admiralspalast.He died in a clinic in t

Culture Dec. 25, 2011

Cartwheeling Alagna takes over leading role in ‘Faust’ at Met

NEW YORK (AP) ― A debuting Swedish soprano and a cartwheeling Roberto Alagna took over leading roles as Des McAnuff’s atomic-scientist production of Gounod’s “Faust” continued its run at the Metropolitan Opera.As Marguerite, the maiden seduced and abandoned by Faust, Malin Bystrom got off to a slow start Friday night with a muted “King of Thule” song and a jewel aria that was too soft-grained to sparkle.But she improved as the evening wore on, bringing pathos to the spinning song, desperation to

Culture Dec. 25, 2011

Cartwheeling Alagna takes over leading role in ‘Faust’ at Met

Queen to host royals’ Christmas, Kate’s first

LONDON (AP) ― It will be a traditional Christmas weekend for Queen Elizabeth II’s extended family, which now includes the former Kate Middleton, with the quiet holiday break to be followed by a year’s worth of festivities to mark the queen’s 60th year on the throne.Most of the senior royals, including Prince William and his wife, now formally known as the Duchess of Cambridge, will be dispatched across the globe to help the aging monarch celebrate her Diamond Jubilee in grand style.Elizabeth and

Culture Dec. 25, 2011

Winners in 2011

‘Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon,’ ‘Jekyll & Hyde,’ Super Junior top their genresAlthough bestsellers aren’t necessarily the most superior or well-made ― especially when it comes to the diverse culture sector ― sales performance is nevertheless an important barometer of public opinion.Despite the lingering impact of the economic downturn and inflation, more Koreans were willing to open their wallets to go to concerts and the movies, and buy books and records, year-end statistics show, with overall sa

Culture Dec. 25, 2011

Articles by Shin Hae-in