Surfing Now an Unrestricted Olympic Event

Internet access will be completely unrestricted for reporters during the this summers Olympics in Beijing. While the Communist government of China will continue to tightly regulate and block websites for its citizens, they are in the process of de-blocking all websites for reporter's access. BOCOG is the organizational body responsible for directly running the Beijing Games under the oversight of the IOC, which sets general policy. As the world prepares for the opening ceremony on the 8th of August, officials with the International Olympic Committee and the Chinese organizers BOCOG had been arguing over the Internet restrictions for media, with the latter saying blocked sites would remain so.

"The issue has been solved," vice-president Gunilla Lindberg said. "The IOC Coordination Commission and BOCOG met last night and agreed. Internet use will be just like in any Olympics."


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Small-town Artist Awarded Micro-fund, Gets Sculpture to Beijing Just in Time

Athletes aren't the only ones competing for a shot at making it to Beijing this August. When 38 year old Kentucky artist Brad White was chosen to have his sculpture "Salixtension" exhibited in the Chinese Biennial art exposition, he knew it was like winning a gold medal. The the curators of the first exposition of its kind were looking for spacial representations of character art... that is to say pieces that evoke the spirit of Chinese character writing. Described as an "elegantly sinuous anthropomorphic" piece, White's was one of just thirty artists chosen world wide for the event. Great news! The problem was, White's piece could also be described as "heavy" and the costs of shipping his large sculpture to China were over $1,000, which the artists simply couldn't afford. Fundraising might have not been fast enough, as Brad had to get Salixtension to Beijing by July 15th! Faced with the prospect of not being able to have his art displayed, he suggested that perhaps a fund could be established so that local artists who were invited to participate in such important exhibitions would be able to, without worrying about the high side-costs.

Happily, the town of Murray, Kentucky came to the aid of their native artist! The Louisville Visual Art Association (LVAA) has created a program of granting micro-loans to deserving artists without any of the long time-delays that other loan programs involve. White is the first loanee to benefit from the LVAA's support of artists and had his money in two hours, was able to ship his piece to China for the show.

"We loaned Brad $1,000, which enabled him to pay the import broker/expeditors in China, who in turn will obtain full release of his work, thereby getting it delivered to the museum in Beijing. The poor guy was trying to figure all of this out for seven days, while his work was held hostage and costing him a daily holding fee," said Shannon Westerman, leader of the LVAA.

The exhibit will be running the entire length of the 2008 Summer Olympics. For more information on Brad White and the LVAA, check out the original link:
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080629/SCENE05/806290332