The Guide
This summer's pop culture is not all Dumb and Dumberer. Among the highlights:
MUSEUMS
Look and learn at these new museums. The only thing minimalist about the Dia: Beacon (diabeacon.org) is the artwork. Located 60 miles north of New York City in Beacon, the world's largest contemporary art museum showcases vast installations, including Louise Bourgeois's 21-foot-tall steel spider and Richard Serra's bending sculpture, Torqued Ellipses. Not only does the Vermont Covered Bridge Museum in Bennington look like a covered bridge; it celebrates the 106 protected overpasses in the state (vermontcoveredbridge museum.org). The mod glass and concrete home for Cincinnati's Lois and Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art (contemporary artscenter.org) is the first U.S. art museum designed by a woman--London architect Zaha Hadid. Starting, appropriately, July 4, visitors can brush up on history at Philadelphia's interactive National Constitution Center (constitution
center.org). - Vicky Hallett
DVDS
You can bet your sweet bippy (if you still have one in this economy) there are plenty of laughs in Best of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In ($50, three disks, June 24), with six episodes of the zany '60s series, and King of the Hill Season One DVD box set (July 1, $40), which offers the first 13 epsiodes of the sly animated sitcom set in Texas. The Laugh-In set has interviews with stars Ruth Buzzi and Arte Johnson. And King creators do commentaries on several episodes. The dog days of summer bring Oscar faves: chicago and Bowling for Columbine (August 19), and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (August 26). Extras abound. In Columbine, love-him-or-hate-him filmmaker Michael Moore discusses his jeered anti-Bush speech at the Oscars. -Kenneth Terrell
MUSIC
Country music ambassador Marty Stuart has billed his Electric Barnyard tour as a no-frills roadshow, stopping at state fairs and small towns. He'll share the stage with old hands like Merle Haggard. With a groovin' new single, Aretha Franklin is on the road for her "semiretirement" tour. Real oldies, like Camelot's "If Ever I Would Leave You," are the goodies. The five founding members of British pop phenom Duran Duran have regrouped to mark its 25th anniversary, with two stateside concerts in July, the first on the 16th in Orange County, Calif., the second site to be named. David Daniels, the countertenor who wins raves for his distinctive voice--a darker version of a woman's alto--is touring in August. Both live and on his new CD, A Quiet Thing, he performs with only a guitarist. And superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma, whose July 29 CD is Obrigado Brazil, will show how the cello can samba at various U.S. venues. -Dan Gilgoff -Vicky Hallett, Kenneth Terrell and Dan Gilgoff
Book 5 alive!
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix drops at 12:01 a.m. on June 21. Are you ready? A brief guide:
PLACE TO BE: Author J. K. Rowling will read to a crowd of 4,500 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Can't scalp tickets from the queen? Watch the live webcast: www.msn.co.uk/harrypotter, June 26, at 11 a.m. EDT.
FAN FACTIONS: Is Draco Malfoy a misunderstood child or an irredeemable sociopath? Potterphiles are divided.
PARTY TIME: Get info about midnight bookstore parties at www .muari.org. Chat up guests about the rumor that a major character dies.
FUTURE FROLICS: Check out the Nimbus 2003 fan symposium in Orlando this July. Does that mean we'll finally learn how to steer our broomsticks? -Ramin Setoodeh
This story appears in the June 23, 2003 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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