Thursday's Art Notes

_Mythical animals on the eaves of a pagoda are silhouetted against a near full-moon at a park in Beijing. December 31, the last day of the year and the decade, will see the rare occurance of the second full moon in a month, something that happens only once every two or three years, and because of its rarity been called a_ "'blue moon'":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kyMdi0K7i4, _even though the moon actually stays exactly the same color as a regular full moon. Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images_ * A painting by Degas "has been stolen from an exhibit in Marseilles":http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8436577.stm. The painting, which is worth over a million dollars, was missing Thursday morning when the museum opened. * Of all professions, "architects were hit the hardest by the recession":http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34579183/ns/business-careers/ in 2009, reports MSNBC. * The man who wrote the book on New York architecture, the authoritative AIA guide, has died. Norval White, an architect himself, "passed away at age 83 in France":http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/nyregion/30nwhite.html?_r=2&ref=design. * The Associated Press "says goodbye":http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-ye-deaths-arts-abridged,0,5835396.story to many of the artists and entertainers who died this year. "NPR Music reminisces":http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121776270 with a great multimedia interactive, where you can listen to a clip for each musician who passed away.