A series of mass graves in northern Mexico have yielded at least 59 bodies in a particularly grim finding in a bloody region. Police arrested 11 men on the scene and freed five people still being held hostage, reports the Wall Street Journal; the dead are thought to include a…
Continue reading …Tina Fey certainly has a lot going on for her right now: not just a new book , but a new baby. The 30 Rock star is five months pregnant with her second child, her rep confirms to People . Fey, 40, first revealed the news yesterday while taping an episode of…
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The Dutch designer’s iconic typography can be seen everywhere from posters to postage stamps – and, now, in a brilliant exhibition at the Design Museum Wim Crouwel’s iconic typography – seen on posters, postage stamps, exhibition catalogues and telephone directories – sums up Dutch design and perhaps even the Netherlands itself. Crouwel’s rational, modern visual world of grids and pure lines feels as intriguingly artificial as the painstakingly constructed Dutch landscape. His revered body of work, which spans 60 years, has a deep humanity and an artistic quirkiness that combines precision with emotion. You can see for yourself by joining the crowds of graphic designers who have been making a pilgrimage to London’s Design Museum to pay homage to the Dutch master’s work in the first major retrospective of his career held in Britain. Wim Crouwel: A Graphic Odyssey is an exhibition that anyone with the remotest interest in typography and graphic design will find utterly engrossing. There is a fascinating tension at work in Crouwel’s prolific output: between the rational and the irrational, the logical and the illogical, the scientific and the waywardly artistic. Crouwel, born in Groningen in 1928, began his career as a painter. His expressionist paintings were a stark contrast to the delight he took in the Bauhaus-inspired typography of the Swiss designers Karl Gerstner and Gerard Ifert. And yet, while he believed in the machine aesthetic espoused by the Bauhaus, he is on record as saying, the best part of 60 years ago, “the machine cannot replace the precision of the human eye and human feeling”. This is why he was also influenced by the work of Eric Gill, the English letterer, sculptor, sex maniac and type designer whose epochal sans-serif typeface Gill Sans (inspired by Edward Johnston’s display face for the London Underground) showed how a machine type could also be imbued with a humanity that came from craftsmanship. When Crouwel took to typography on an almost industrial scale with the founding of the Total Design studio in 1963, he honed a distinctive approach to design that has captivated fellow designers since. Crouwel’s work for the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam from 1964 showed how seemingly cool typography could be used to subtly evoke the characteristics of the artists on show. He had, in fact, been working on this approach since the early 1950s: his poster of 1957 for an exhibition of Leger paintings held at the Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, is so in tune with the artist that it’s not surprising that, while not quite commanding the price of a Leger in auction rooms today, you would have to pay handsomely for an original Crouwel poster. In day-to-day service, perhaps the best-known Crouwel typeface is Gridnik – a digitised version of the Politene face he designed for Olivetti in 1974. Shaped on a square grid, each letter has an elegant machine quality balanced with a playfulness that makes you want to look at it for its own sake as well as read the messages it was designed to give, most famously on the standard issue postage stamps issued by the Dutch PTT between 1976 and 2002. The Politene that became Gridnik was originally designed for Olivetti’s latest generation of electric typewriters, but as these became outmoded almost immediately, the typeface was rescued to live another life. Crouwel’s eye-boggling New Alphabet of 1967 was another historical accident of sorts. It was meant to be a purely experimental design based on cathode ray tube technology, with each letter abstractly composed of vertical and horizontal lines, some of them – g, j, s, w and z – all but unrecognisable. “The New Alphabet was over the top,” Crouwel has said, “and never meant to be really used. It was unreadable.” But, it was also great fun in a space age, computer-era way. Crouwel, busy today as an adviser to the company that has become Total Identity , is aware of the seeming contradiction in typography: the fact that many of the best-loved typefaces are looked at for their design rather than the written messages they convey. But that’s the joy of type. You can read words on the page to gain understanding of what they impart while still enjoying their form. If they become too fussy, and you spend more time looking at the curves of individual letters than reading, the type designer has failed you. Crouwel has never disappointed. He is the first to say his work shouldn’t be fetishised, but see if you can visit Wim Crouwel: A Graphic Odyssey and not be caught in this Dutch designer’s captivating grid. Design Typography Jonathan Glancey guardian.co.uk
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The Place, London Everyone knows what it’s like to be sitting in a theatre, at odds with the general mood. But I’ve rarely felt that disconnect as acutely as at this year’s Place Prize . At each of the 10 finals’ performances, audiences are invited to vote live for their favourite work, with the popular winner being given £1,000 at the end of each night (the judges’ prize of £25,000 is awarded on the final night of the run). And for me, on opening night the numbers were brutal: 43% voted for the work I admired least, just 12% for the one I wanted to win. That was Begin to Begin – a meticulously crafted, beautifully performed trio by Eva Recacha . It’s based on the traditional ballad Michael Finnegan , with the circular logic of the lyrics (“There once was a man named Michael Finnegan/ He grew whiskers on his chinnegan”) reflected in dance phrases that stop, start, embellish and repeat. With the (live and recorded) words of the song also prized open by questions such as “Who is Michael?”, “How did he die?”, the dance becomes by turns elegiac, comic and anarchic. Cameo by Riccardo Buscarini and Antonio de la Fe Guedes is another smart fusion of structural game playing and emotion. Its three dancers prowl around an elegantly furnished stage, meeting in a film noir-ish tableau of lust, violence and fear. Yet this murder mystery is one from which all causal logic has been removed – what’s left is a dark, tense abstraction. My third choice was Fidelity, which sees Freddie Opuku-Addaie and Frauke Requardt giving free rein to their choreographic instincts as they block, feint and anticipate each other’s semi-improvised moves. It’s a fascinating performance, but too insubstantial to merit the final prize. And even less deserving is Ben Duke and Rachel Meseguer’s It Needs Horses , in which two desperately down-at-heel performers abandon their tired circus acts for a money-spinning burlesque routine. A couple of beautifully finessed jokes feature in the self-conscious bump and grind that ensues. But most of the material is shockingly lazy and generalised. Or so I thought: it walked away with the audience award. Rating: 3/5 Dance Theatre Judith Mackrell guardian.co.uk
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Curator aims to challenge preconceptions with works from first world war to the present War through the eyes of men is a well-trodden artistic subject which is why the Imperial War Museum is providing something of a corrective. “I am looking to challenge some of the stereotypes and views about women war artists, yes,” admitted Kathleen Palmer, curator of a new exhibition running for rest of the year. The show, Women War Artists, explores the experiences and achievements of female artists from the first world war up to the present day. “Women artists have certainly not been afraid to confront the horror of war,” said Palmer. “There is perhaps a preconception that it’s unusual for women artists to tackle these subjects but clearly that is not the case.” There are some extremely strong images in the exhibition, not least a work by Red Cross-commissioned Doris Zinkeisen who had the misfortune to see Belsen – with its 10,000 unburied corpses and 60,000 sick and starving inmates – in 1945. Her work Human Laundry, Belsen: April 1945 is arguably the most powerful of all works which emerged from the liberation of Belsen, capturing the almost industrial nature of what was going on. The show includes well-known works by Dame Laura Knight while others are going on show for the first time, including one by Priscilla Thornycroft showing a horse impaling itself on railings after being spooked by a London air-raid warning. Some of the more recent works include drawings by Linda Kitson, who went to the Falklands, although because she was a woman in 1982 she was not allowed overnight on troop ships. One of her drawings shows Gurkhas having weapons training in the incongruously grand surroundings of the QE2′s dance hall. The exhibits go up to Turner prize nominated Mona Hatoum, whose video piece Measures of Distance addresses her enforced separation from her family during the Lebanese civil war. Women War Artists is at the Imperial War Museum from 9 April to 8 January 2012. Museums Art Women Mark Brown guardian.co.uk
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Libyan volunteers set up boot camp for revolutionaries – ‘No one knows how to use their weapon. No discipline’ Mareh Bejou was a pilot for Emirates when he flew in to Tripoli in mid-February. The next day he was a revolutionary who told his airline it had better send another pilot to take the plane back to Dubai. Now Bejou, after his own crash course in fighting and surviving on the battlefield, is one of those in charge of a military training camp attempting to turn the volunteers of Benghazi into soldiers against Muammar Gaddafi “I came to do my part in a peaceful demonstration but we were met with guns. For four days they were shooting at us, even using anti-aircraft guns. So I learned how to use a Kalashnikov and an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] on the battlefield,” said Bejou, who has been a pilot for 30 years. “I spent three weeks on the battlefield and it wasn’t organised at all. No discipline. No one knew how to use their weapons. We set up this camp to change that.” At the training ground inside a former Gaddafi military base on the edge of Benghazi on Thursday more than 1,000
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For grieving families hoping for closure as well as justice, the death penalty with its endless delays and appeals can be cruel On Tuesday, death row inmate Cleve Foster was granted his second stay of execution this year. His first came on 11 January, just moments after Foster – who maintains he is innocent and would have been the first Texan executed with a cocktail containing a chemical used to euthanise animals – had eaten what he believed was his last meal; that’s when the call came, informing him that the US supreme court would consider an appeal. The parents of Rachel Urnosky, a 22-year-old woman whose murder Foster was charged with (though never tried for, being found guilty instead of a related homicide ), found out about the decision after making a long trip across the “lone star state”, when they arrived at the prison where Foster’s execution was supposed to take place. Terry Urnosky, Rachel’s father, a therapist, told The Texas Star-Telegram how shocked he felt: “It’s like – if you’ve ever played football – getting hit in the stomach with a helmet in the gut. […] We were expecting closure. But unfortunately, we’re reliving all the thoughts, the trials, the evidence. […] The nightmare continues.” Death penalty proponents argue that executions help victims’ family members feel that justice has been done, and indeed, Terry Urnosky said back in 2003 that he thought the death sentence was part of God’s plan for Foster. But others who’ve endured similar tragedies oppose the capital punishment, arguing that the agonising appeals process that so often accompanies a death penalty case exacerbates their pain and, far from helping them overcome their loss, keeps it in the forefront of their minds. No judge wants to be responsible for allowing the execution of an innocent person, which helps explain why there tend to be an unusually high number of appeals in a capital case. But appeals are costly – and not just figuratively, for victims’ families, but literally, for taxpayers. North Carolinians, for instance, pay $2.16m more for every death row inmate than for those sentenced to life, and Florida spends $51m more annually than it would if life-without-parole were the most severe sentence allowed there. More to the point, the long, slow appeals process exacts a toll from victims’ families. Sure, some survivors do say things like, “I was really looking forward to sitting in the front row while they executed this guy,” (as Karen Bond told the Chicago Tribune after Illinois Governor Pat Quinn commuted her son’s murderer’s sentence). But others want the criminals who ruined their lives to get nothing less than … life. For instance, last month 82 relatives of murder victims signed an open letter to Connecticut lawmakers , saying: “The death penalty is a false promise that goes unfulfilled, leaving victims’ families frustrated and angry [and] wastes millions of dollars that could go toward much needed victims’ services.” Similarly, Laura Porter from Equal Justice USA , a grassroots organisation working to improve the justice system, increase services for families of homicide victims and repeal the death penalty, says: “I work with many murder victim’s family members […] and I’m hearing more and more voices calling for repeal of the death penalty, citing the fact that the endless appeals process harms victims.” Or take it from Walter Everett, a 76-year-old retired minister whose son was killed when a crack addict shot him point blank. He recently told the Connecticut Post : “There is an incredible cost of the death penalty […] emotionally for families of victims because they tend to wait seemingly forever, for the execution.” That doesn’t sound just. Emotional closure is going to be difficult, under any circumstances, for people who have suffered as he and the Urnoskys have. But the legal case, at least, is more likely to be closed quickly if it’s a question of a life prison sentence rather than a penalty of death. Capital punishment Texas United States Prisons and probation US supreme court Maura Kelly guardian.co.uk
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Foreign ministry insists security authorities acting lawfully as family claim ‘economic’ investigation is politically motivated China’s foreign ministry has insisted that a police investigation into artist Ai Weiwei has “nothing to do with human rights or freedom of expression” after an international outcry against his detention. Relatives say official claims that the 53-year-old is being investigated for “economic crimes” are absurd, claiming the accusations are politically motivated because of his record of activism and social criticism. Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news conference that it was his “understanding that the public security authorities are investigating Ai Weiwei according to law on suspicion of economic crimes”. State news agency Xinhua had previously published a one-line report announcing the probe, only to delete it within the hour. Asked about criticism by western governments, Hong added: “China is a country ruled by law and will act according to law. We hope that the countries concerned will respect China’s decision. “This has nothing to do with human rights or freedom of expression.” Chinese law states that police must inform an individual’s relatives or place of work within 24 hours of detention, unless there is no way to do so or it would “impede the investigation”. His family say they have yet to be informed. In a letter to police, Ai’s wife Lu Qing demanded to know her husband’s whereabouts and condition and why he was being held. “As of 8am today [Thursday], it has been 96 hours since Ai Weiwei was taken away from Beijing airport, and I haven’t heard a single word about him,” she wrote. The police have not answered media queries about the artist, who has been missing since Sunday, or his friend Wen Tao, 38, who was also reportedly detained that afternoon. “The economic crimes report is absurd, because the way he was taken and then disappeared shows it’s nothing of the sort,” Ai’s older sister, Gao Ge, told Reuters. “This is more like a crime gang’s behaviour than a country with laws.” She said the artist had previously told relatives he might one day be jailed for his activities. “He was very clear that we shouldn’t try to meddle and stop him speaking out … My mother cried,” she said. Ai’s mother, Gao Ying, said the “economic crimes” allegations were being used to stifle his activism, adding: “If he’s not released, this will be the start of a long struggle.” She said her son was unlikely to accept charges to win a swift release. “If he’s not given justice, he’ll refuse to come out, I think. That’s his character,” she said. Human rights groups say similar accusations of financial wrongdoing – such as tax-related charges – have been used to intimidate activists in the past. In an interview last year, Ai told the Guardian that he recognised the state might take action against him and said security officials had visited his bank. But he added: “I also have to speak out for people around me who are afraid, who think it is not worth it or who have totally given up hope. So I want to set an example: you can do it and this is OK.” Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer who has worked with Ai, said that “economic crimes” was a wide-ranging description and it was not clear what the actual accusations were. Ai’s detention comes amid a crackdown that has seen scores of activists, dissidents and lawyers criminally detained, formally arrested or simply disappear. Twitter users reported that police detained human rights lawyer Ni Yulan and her husband Dong Jiqin on Wednesday and a contact of the couple confirmed they had been taken. Ni was disbarred after helping residents who were being evicted, and is disabled as a result of being badly beaten after filming a forced demolition. Her own house was bulldozed and she was jailed for interfering with public administration . On her release, the couple were blocked from renting a flat or staying with friends. For several weeks last year they lived in a tent in a park. As attention to their case grew, police moved the couple to a hotel, but authorities cut off their power and water several months ago. Police did not respond to faxed queries about the couple. A receptionist at the Yuxingong hotel said he did not know about the situation. Ai Weiwei China Human rights Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
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Corporation also confirms it will reduce property usage as part of ‘Delivering Quality First’ cost-saving programme Nine layers of BBC management will be reduced to a maximum of seven, the corporation said on Thursday, as executives gave more details of the corporation’s £700m cost-savings plan. Caroline Thomson, the BBC’s chief operating officer, conceded that the “complexity of the BBC” had long been an issue and that the new seven-layer rule would apply from “the director general to the most junior staff”. She would not say how many jobs would be at risk, but with the BBC typically using eight and sometimes nine layers of management, the expectation is that some middle managers will lose their jobs or responsibilities as a result. Thomson was speaking after BBC employees were updated as to the progress of the “Delivering Quality First” programme – the BBC’s plans to contend with the licence fee freeze imposed on the broadcaster by the coalition government last year. In a sketchy briefing, Thomson offered no new information about any cost savings that would be immediately be noticed by viewers, saying that BBC was still considering proposals including dropping overnight programming, cutting sports spending and increasing repeats. However, the chief operating officer did confirm that BBC will to reduce its property usage by at least 25% and possibly 30%, largely by cutting down on the number of buildings it uses in west and central London, including the White City block currently used by Mark Thompson, the director general, for his principal office. Thomson could not immediately say how much would be saved by the office space cuts, and she stressed that the building rationalisation programme was not intended to lead to a reduction in the BBC presence in cities and towns outside London, where the broadcaster’s offices are used for local radio stations. “This is not about cutting local radio,” she added. The BBC is now evaluating the remaining cost saving proposals, and further details are expected to emerge over the coming weeks and months. •
Continue reading …Corporation also confirms it will reduce property usage as part of ‘Delivering Quality First’ cost-saving programme Nine layers of BBC management will be reduced to a maximum of seven, the corporation said on Thursday, as executives gave more details of the corporation’s £700m cost-savings plan. Caroline Thomson, the BBC’s chief operating officer, conceded that the “complexity of the BBC” had long been an issue and that the new seven-layer rule would apply from “the director general to the most junior staff”. She would not say how many jobs would be at risk, but with the BBC typically using eight and sometimes nine layers of management, the expectation is that some middle managers will lose their jobs or responsibilities as a result. Thomson was speaking after BBC employees were updated as to the progress of the “Delivering Quality First” programme – the BBC’s plans to contend with the licence fee freeze imposed on the broadcaster by the coalition government last year. In a sketchy briefing, Thomson offered no new information about any cost savings that would be immediately be noticed by viewers, saying that BBC was still considering proposals including dropping overnight programming, cutting sports spending and increasing repeats. However, the chief operating officer did confirm that BBC will to reduce its property usage by at least 25% and possibly 30%, largely by cutting down on the number of buildings it uses in west and central London, including the White City block currently used by Mark Thompson, the director general, for his principal office. Thomson could not immediately say how much would be saved by the office space cuts, and she stressed that the building rationalisation programme was not intended to lead to a reduction in the BBC presence in cities and towns outside London, where the broadcaster’s offices are used for local radio stations. “This is not about cutting local radio,” she added. The BBC is now evaluating the remaining cost saving proposals, and further details are expected to emerge over the coming weeks and months. •
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