Is the North Shore Music Theatre coming back from the dead? The Salem News says so, quoting a Rhode Island theater owner on his plans to buy the property of the now defunct institution and revive it in the spring.

A crowd outside the closed North Shore Music Theatre attends the property’s auction.
(Lisa Poole for The Boston Globe)

Sometimes, you get lucky and discover something wonderful in your own backyard. For me, that moment came tonight in Arlington, where we stumbled into 13Forest Gallery. I'm not saying I loved everything, but I found myself particularly drawn to the work of Yossi Veissid. (I've got a thing for these kinds of detailed, ink drawings on paper.)

Into the Void
digital print, 26 1/2" x 20 1/2"

Apollo Magazine names Malcolm Rogers, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, its personality of the year. We'll post chunks of the interview as soon as we get it. For now, here's the cover.

Michael Rush, the former director of the Rose Art Museum during the messy, public drama, returns to the area with a show at MIT's List Visual Arts Center in February.

He will curate "Virtuoso Illusion: Cross Dressing and the New Media Avant-Garde," which "explores what has traditionally been called gender crossing (drag) or cross-dressing as a tactic for media artists that has been central to the development of the current avant-garde. The show explores how experimental art has been invigorated and advanced by artists who cross dress for many different reasons as part of their conceptual process."

The exhibition will include videos, photographs and performances.

It's worth noting that Jane Farver, director of the List, was one of the speakers at this event honoring Rush earlier this year.

(Globe file photo/Dominic Chavez)

I wasn't kidding when I praised Greg Cook yesterday while we were participating on a panel at the annual New England Museum Association conference. In that spirit, here are four entries on Cook's blog worth clicking to.

- Cultural facilities grants from the state.
- Bernie Toale's space being revived by Anthony Greaney.
- Pope.L up for big prize. (That'll pay for a lot of dried hot dogs.)
- Reviewing the Rose.

Two excellent letters over the last couple of days.

First, Sydelle Gomberg, wife of the late, great Ralph Gomberg, takes issue with our coverage of James Levine's medical issues. "How could Geoff Edgers be so insensitive to publish Peg Monahan-Pashall's comments about James Levine? Did it occur to Edgers how Levine might feel reading the negative and critical words? Where are his feelings for a man facing serious problems? Levine deserves an apology."

Next, a New Hampshire man wonders why he can't lose himself in Beethoven's Ninth. Make sure to click on the comments.

Scanning the “25 Most Stylish Bostonians,” I was struck by the interview with João Ribas. In particular, I wondered about the claim by the new curator at MIT’s List Visual Art Center that he doesn’t own a pair of jeans. That doesn’t sound like the guy I talked to a few weeks ago. Ribas seemed personable and funny.

Turns out, he was surprised to see how he came across in the piece, too, and by the criticism he’s received on-line.

“I was poking fun at me being on the list,” he told me. “Because I’ve only been here for a month, and I thought it was great. I thought it was flattering and wanted to have fun …. If you feature me in something like this, my instinct is to ridicule my inclusion with people who probably are indeed stylish and fashionable. I’m a nerd.

On your blog today you put up a definition of “parody.”

Yeah, because I was parodying myself. Just parodying the idea of being someone who doesn’t really think that much about fashion.

If you could do it all again, would you have excised the word “couturier” from your vocabulary?

I would hope that things said in a joking matter and meant to be lighthearted and fun would be taken that way.

And this jeans thing you said… it’s kind of an exaggeration, right?

It’s a total exaggeration.

Your jeans, though, are they special? Do they have something on them that would make them special?

No, not at all. They’re just a pair of jeans.

You were taken aback and upset about the response to this feature by some people.

I was trying to have a sense of humor about it. I don’t spend a lot of my time thinking or dealing with fashion. But it was nice to be asked. I thought it was a great welcoming gesture.

João Ribas, newly minted curator at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, has been recognized as one of Boston's 25 most stylish, according to the Globe.

Read his entire interview here.

And then there's my favorite Q & A:

Where do you shop? I don’t. I detest the entire experience. I find it to be the most tedious activity. So most of my things are bespoke. I have a fantastic and brilliant couturier who I work with, Craig Robinson in New York. Either that or it’s been inherited from my father and grandfather. I have an abhorrence of both consumer culture and infantilism, which is why I don’t own a pair of jeans.

(Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff)

Here's a reminder why we, the print industry, need to maintain a healthy stable of critics. Look at the contrast between Jeremy Eichler's view of the Lorin Maazel substitution with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the sentiment of Allan Kozinn.

Eichler wasn't pleased with the man subbing for injured BSO music director James Levine. "The orchestra played brilliantly and with utter professionalism, but Maazel’s interpretations of the Sixth and Seventh symphonies left at least this listener decidedly unmoved," he wrote in his review of the Oct. 30 Symphony Hall performance.

Kozinn, in his review of the BSO's Carnegie Hall performance, wraps up with the following nugget:

Maybe destiny’s wires were crossed. Perhaps if Mr. Levine had taken over the Philharmonic, and Mr. Maazel had spent the last seven years in Boston, everyone would have been happier.

Today's award for best-titled event goes to the organizer's of "Goethe Your Hand Off My Heine." That's the German art song cabaret being held by OperaHub on Nov. 14 (in Boston) and 15 (in Harvard Square.) Give credit to Jordan Rodu, who is one of the company's original founders, for coming up with the title.

It has taken a while in his sluggish economy, but it appears that the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is pushing forward on its building project. Boston Business Journal reports on Moody's rating of the museum, which is going to use bonds to pay for the Renzo Piano building planned for the Fenway site. ArtDaily reports that the Gardner has raised more than $100 million for the project. The design of the new building should be made public in 2010.

The Daily News Tribune's account of the Rose Art Museum's opening portrays a pretty colorful night. You have Brandeis University President Jehuda Reinharz letting everyone know the "Rose is open." Then we have his wife not so pleased with students who aren't so sure of what exactly the opening signifies. Finally, we have a Brandeis graduate handing out pamphlets for a reading of her new book. It's title: "The Rape of The Rose."

(Essdras M. Suarez/ Globe Staff/ File)

Yes, we have headed to Twitter. It's like a blog, except with less substance!

I hate it now. In fact, a few years ago I took my vinyl copy and threw it on my Victrola with one of those thick needles meant for a shellac 78. Ever tried that? The needle scrapes through the LP grooves leaving delicious, black, vinyl shavings behind. I can take Bruce in doses, but BITUSA needs to be sent to that sonic graveyard shared by Men Without Hats and Howard Jones. And please, don't tell me to listen to the demos!

Here's a box set I won't be owning... at least, until my next Powerball win.

Sony is putting out a Yo-Yo Ma set with his complete recordings. That's 90 CDs. And this thing ain't put together with balsa wood and Bubble Yum. The set comes in a velvet-lined box with a 312-page hardcover book.

And here's my favorite part. As some of you might know, reviewers often receive free copies of new releases. For the sake of scholarship. But Sony, naturally, can't do that with a project this expensive. Instead, Sony is offering the "friends and family" discount record company workers receive.

That means instead of paying the standard list price of $789, we experts could receive the box for $475.

Music Director James Levine will not be able to return by Oct. 30, the Boston Symphony Orchestra reports in a press release. That means the conductor, who recently had back surgery for a herniated disc, will miss the orchestra's entire Beethoven cycle. Lorin Maazel, most recently the music director of the New York Philharmonic, will conduct the BSO from Oct. 30 to Nov. 7, including the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth Beethoven symphonies.

Just recently, Levine told the Globe he expected to return for the Oct. 30 concert.

Maazel is also going to conduct the BSO at Carnegie Hall on Nov. 2, which will include the sixth and seventh symphonies. The BSO, in its press release, states that Levine will be back Jan. 28 - his next scheduled appearance in Boston - for a program featuring works by Carter, Berlioz, and Ravel.

More from the press release:

In his first performances with the Boston Symphony since 1973, Mr. Maazel will lead the orchestra in Beethoven’s Sixth and Seventh symphonies on October 30 and 31, repeating that program at Carnegie Hall on November 2. Mr. Maazel will also conduct Beethoven’s Eighth and Ninth symphonies on November 5, 6, and 7. Soloists for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony include soprano Christine Brewer, contralto Meredith Arwady, tenor Matthew Polenzani, and bass baritone Eike Wilm Schulte; the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, John Oliver, conductor, will also be featured. As previously announced, Julian Kuertiwill conduct Beethoven’s Third and Fourth symphonies on October 27 and 29. All of the BSO’s Beethoven cycle concerts, October 27-November 7, at Symphony Hall in Boston are sold out, with no tickets remaining for those programs.

"It would be a mistake 'to come back before my body is ready.' " -- James Levine, BSO and Metropolitan Opera Orchestra music director (Michele McDonald/ File)

A Far Cry readies to launch its season. But what's on Jae's iPod?

Do we need another Beatles tribute band? These guys say we do.

And there's an inspiring musical development at NEC and it's not on stage.

James Levine, on why he's waiting until Oct. 30 to return to Symphony Hall:

“My doctors think these things are unrelated to one another and that I am going to be back in the saddle. But one thing that would clearly be a terrible mistake is to come back before my body is ready.’’

Read more...

James Levine, BSO and Metropolitan Opera Orchestra music director (Michele McDonald/ File)

No, the "Hope Obama" artist had nothing to do with that balloon chase. But over the weekend, Shepard Fairey made big news with an admission: He lied about which images led to his famous Obama creation. The question now is how this will impact his lawsuit against the Associated Press. It certainly provides ammunition for the anti-Obey lobby.

The Associated Press photo of Barack Obama and right, Shephard Fairey's poster. Photo: AP

James Levine won't be back, as previously hoped, for the Boston Symphony Orchestra's first two programs of Beethoven symphonies, according to an announcement made this morning.

Levine abruptly announced late last month that he would need surgery for a herniated spinal disk, marking the third time in five years leading the BSO that he would miss time due to injury. His manager had said he would return most likely by Oct. 22, when the BSO began a cycle of Beethoven symphonies programmed by Levine.

Today, the BSO announced that Levine's doctors want him to delay his return until Oct. 28. The Oct. 22, 23 and 24 concerts (Beethoven Symphonies 1, 2 and 5) will be conducted by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, and the Oct. 27 and 29 concerts (Beethoven Symphonies 4 and 3) by BSO Assistant Conductor, Julian Kuerti.

The BSO states that Levine will return for the rest of the Beethoven cycle, starting Oct. 30.

“We’re thrilled that James Levine is well on the road to recovery from his back surgery, and we look forward to having him return to the BSO podium for performances of Beethoven’s Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth symphonies at the end of the month,” said BSO Managing Director Mark Volpe in a statement. “Though we are all disappointed that he will miss the first two programs of the BSO’s Beethoven cycle, Jim’s full recovery is the first priority. We look forward to his return to the BSO podium and to the incredible focus, drive, and commitment we’ve all come to expect from his singular music making with the BSO. We are very grateful to Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and Julian Kuerti for graciously stepping in to cover the first two Symphony Hall Beethoven programs.”