In Brief

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to good things in Blogville and Beyond.

• With hat tip to ArtsJournal, Nicolas Joël has been in the hospital recovering from a stroke since August. You may recall that Joël, the director of the Opéra de Toulouse, was appointed to succeed Gerard Mortier as general director of the Opéra National de Paris. The news has not appeared in the French papers, and the Ministry of Culture has not made any comment on it. Health and family issues are mostly kept strictly private in France, even for public figures, but the news has leaked out from Agence France-Presse, which says that Joël is only now "beginning to walk again." How this may affect his move to Paris remains to be seen. [Musical America]


• Allow me to second Marja-Leena Rathje in congratulating hard-working blogger Mark Woods on his eighth year writing his always interesting site. He is a source of inspiration. [wood s lot]


• I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You can listen to one of the best shows on radio, The Book Guys, by podcast online. Last Sunday the guest was fine book maker Henry Morris. [The Book Guys]


• The grand rabbi of Haifa, Shear Yashuv Cohen, recently became the first Jewish cleric to address a plenary meeting of the synod of Catholic bishops: "There is a long, hard and painful history of the relationship between our people, our faith, and the Catholic Church leadership and followers -- a history of blood and tears. I deeply feel that my standing here before you is very meaningful. It brings with it a signal of hope and a message of love, co-existence, and peace for our generation, and for generations to come." Read what else he had to say. [Whispers in the Loggia]


• We've been following the avant-garde exploits of Belgian conceptual artist Wim Delvoye for a few years, for his Cloaca shit machines and his other crazy projects including a tattoo on the back of a man named Tim, which was sold to a collector (to be acquired when Tim dies). Delvoye's latest fascination is with the past, specifically Gothic architecture, forms of which he reproduces to decorate giant pieces of construction equipment. He has also constructed reproductions of a Gothic chapel, to be filled with stained glass pieces he makes of X-ray and pornographic imagery. The latest news is that Delvoye has arranged to buy the Château de Corroy for €3.3 million, where he plans in 2009 or 2010 to have an outdoor exhibition of gigantic bird houses designed by the world's major architects. So far he has agreements from Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron and Zaha Hadid, with plans to approach Jean Nouvel and several others. [La Libre Belgique]