Do the town leaders of Jupiter, Florida have no decency? Officials there have decided to sell a group of properties, including one that houses the Burt Reynolds & Friends Museum. How will school children get access to the canoe from "Deliverance"? How will aspiring film students receive the opportunity to examine, first hand, the boots worn by Mr. Reynolds in "Smokey and the Bandit"? If you're also concerned, write this man. (We already have.) After all, it could be only a matter of time before this charcoal poster is no longer available.

It's official: Variety reports that Valhalla Motion Pictures and Legendary Pictures bought the rights to "Thieves of Baghdad," the book by controversial marine reservist Matthew Bogdanos about his effort to recover stolen antiquities in Iraq.

One thing's for sure. If a movie is made, it won't be cheap. Valhalla's the same company that brought you "Armageddon, "Hulk," and "Virus".

Reporter Catherine Foster checked on a recent e-mail blast from the Huntington Theatre Company asking for contributions to help raise $480,000 needed to balance its budget by the end of June:

"Ticket sales, the e-mail from David Wimberly, chair of the board of trustees, said, only covers 55 percent of the cost of running the Huntington and contributions are needed to fill the gap. So is the company in dire straits? No, says managing director Michael Maso. The sum being asked for is not substantially different than in years past. And these kind of year-end drives are common in the non-profit world. "We We often raise a third of our contributed dollars in the last six to eight weeks," he says. "Partly it's about reminding our friends who intend to give that it's time to do so."

Personally, the Exhibitionist finds reenactors kinda creepy. And unless you're Merlin Olsen trying to play an Amish farmer, lose the Abraham Lincoln beard. But Cate McQuaid's article - about an exhibit at Mass MoCA - is certainly worth a read. And don't forget the slideshow.

(This man isn't in the show; we just appreciate his get-up.)

That seemed to be "The Gramophone's" conclusion after learning that Warner Classics would be run by Rhino UK. "This move by Warner reduces the so-called majors in the classical record arena to just EMI, Universal and Sony-BMG," writes editor-in-chief James Jolly.

Not so fast, according to Amanda Collins, spokeswoman for Warner Classics. She tells us that Warner Classics will still exist. It will be managed by Rhino. In fact, Stefan Bown has been hired as the new general manager of Classics. She would not tell us whether the label, under Rhino, will continue to release as many classical releases than in the past. (We know Rhino for its super-cool reissues of, among others, The Monkees.) Collins also sent a statement which read, in part: "We remain committed to classical music and look forward to continuing to pioneer new ways to bring our content to consumers going forward."

One more sign that the Institute of Contemporary Art is ratcheting up for its new building: Higher membership fees. In a letter lauding the "first new museum to be built in Boston in nearly 100 years," Director Jill Medvedow writes enthusiastically about the Members' Preview Party set for September 15. Individual memberships rise from $50 to $65, family from $75 to $95. The patron-level has increased from $300 to $500 and the $500 donor level has become the $1,000 advocate. ICA officials point out that the new membership levels come with loads of new perks, from a new member tour to special discounts at the Water Café.

This from Sound Effects man Matt Shaer, who knows we just can't resist rock groupie stories...

File under Stranger Than Fiction: Playmate and rock n' roll mistress Bebe Buell is set to return to Boston for the first time in a quarter century with... The Rudds.

According to producer and engineer and Ruddster Tony Goddess, Buell asked the Boston staples to play her birthday party in NYC, and a July 22nd gig at the Mid East Downstairs. Wild.

If you haven't heard The Rudds' latest disc, "Get The Femuline Hang On," you can listen to a few of the tracks here.

The Kimbell Art Museum will return a painting once looted by the Nazis.

The New York Philharmonic is heading to Italy this week for the first time in 21 years.

When will the Detroit Symphony Orchestra hire a new music director? Mark Stryker wants to know.

Speak freely and with candor - unless, that is, you work for Ballet West.

And did you hear the Bar Harbor Whale Museum is planning to display the skeleton of a 46-foot sperm whale that was found floating in the Gulf of Maine? Wait 'til the scalpers hear about this.

In our continuing series of "Things We Feel Guilty About Not Going To That Are Either In Or Related to Brockton," here are a couple of Gerald Parker's photos, and his brief comments. He's appearing at the Old South Meeting House tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. The photos are from "Preserving Memory: Streets of My Youth in Brockton, Massachusetts," published in 2005 by the Massachusetts Historical Society. The Globe's Josh Glenn wrote about Parker earlier this year.

Barbershop Owner Joe Florio: "More than a prankster, Joe behaved in peculiar ways bordering on insanity. One minute a raving lunatic, the next minute he would be calm and reserved... He is wearing a mascara mustache and piece of black paper over a front tooth.”

School Street Barbershop: “With a collapsed economy and the new preference for long hair (during the 1970s), nobody other than old timers went to barbershops….I listened to their stories about Brockton and came away feeling that they possessed honor and dignity, but had become lost amid forces none could control.”

The expanded Minneapolis Institute of Arts will open Sunday. And we were there, at least last December.

Wondering how the Boston Pops could send 13 players to the "Late Show with David Letterman" Thursday for an appearance with My Morning Jacket when they’ve got a regularly scheduled concert - M.I.T. night, no less - in Symphony Hall that night?

Easy. They're sending players from the larger Esplanade Orchestra.

Expect to see, in formal concert attire, the following players with conductor Keith Lockhart: On violins, Lisa Crockett, Jennifer Elowitch, Dorothy Han, Clayton Hoener, Joseph Scheer, Karma Tomm, and Gregory Vitale. On cellos, Theresa Borsodi and Ronald Lowry. Also look for percussionist Patrick Hollenbeck, French horn player Kevin Owen, harpist Anna Reinersman (pictured below), and Brad Hatfield on synthesizer.

First, they installed soda machines in the caf. Now, they want to pump music onto the school bus. What's next - Nascar-sponsored dodge ball?

Bennett Simpson, associate curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, gets The New York Times treatment for an exhibition he organized for the ICA at the University of Pennsylvania. As nice as it would be to call the review a rave, Roberta Smith does write that the show's "studiously multimedia scatter exudes irksome quantities of the marketable antimarket cool that is in vogue these days". (We're almost sure that's not a compliment.)

Simpson is wearing the scarf. He's photographed with New York dealer Colin De Land and French curator Nicholas Borriaud.

The Los Angeles Times take on the David Hockney (below) show, which the Museum of Fine Arts helped organize.

Never mind Vegas, Celine. In September, a Canadian musician will get $20,000 for winning the brand new Polaris Prize.

George T.M. Shackelford, chair of the Department of the Art of Europe at the Museum of Fine Arts, has been named president of the Association of Art Museum curators.

Two projects that may have slipped under the rader as the biggies - the Museum of Fine Arts and Institute of Contemporary Arts - hog the headlines.

The Rockport Chamber Music Festival unveils plans for a performing arts center.

The new Provincetown Art Center gets a visit from Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Bob Campbell.

Our North Carolina moment of the day. Dexter Romweber plays rock 'n' roll. No chit chat between songs. He's kind of pale, might eat too many Cheetos. He sounds like Buddy Holly, the White Stripes and an F-150 that needs a new muffler. The Flat Duo Jets, Romweber's band, should have been big.

Fully understanding the challenge of being a child prodigy, we recommend giving Yi Wei her space. So mum's the word that the 18-year-old percussionist is heading to Harvard and New England Conservatory this fall. And just between you, me and a lamp post, Yo-Yo Ma called to congratulate her.