"I saw Lon Chaney walking with the Queen."
-- Warren Zevon, "Werewolves of London."

When the new ICA does open, it'll cost a little more than before to get in the door. Ticket prices for adults will rise from $7 to $12, and from $5 to $10 for college students and seniors. The ICA will continue to be free Thursday nights, and, the last Saturday of every month, will offer free admission to adults accompanied by children. One other wrinkle: In the past, the ICA has allowed kids 12 and under in for free. In the new building, that threshold rises to 17 and under.

Need a little perspective? The Walker Art Center charges $8 for adults, and $5 to students and teenagers. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art charges $12.50. And then, of course, there's the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which charges adults $20 to check out their de Koonings.

Two conversational moments worth repeating.

Had a chat with a prominent museum director about blogging. (She's from outside Boston and is on this list.) She told me that she's not so impressed by the quality of writing in blogs. Perhaps she's right.

In an effort to become more literate, we offer this.

Our second pop culture complaint came from Chris Hillman, the founding member of the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers. He confessed, during a phone conversation, to watching "Rock Star: Supernova." Then he confessed that he had to stop watching Supernova. To paraphrase, everybody looked and sounded way too ridiculous. Perhaps.

But we respectfully offer some perspective.

Apparently, not only the French are obsessed with Jerry Lewis.

The San Diego Museum of Art returns a stolen painting to the Mexican government.

A big, fat story on Anish Kapoor.

The MFA starts selling those gigantic banners used to advertise shows.

An artist's court battle against Fidelity may have reached its end.

Is there anything as cute as two teenagers fighting in court over a lost iPod?

The big Bob Dylan story that's making headlines today, a week before his latest album gets released, is how much he hates the sound of his new CD. Okay, actually he hates the sound of all CDs. Don't get too bent of shape. After all, we’ve heard this song-and-dance before.

Now the important stuff. And if you don’t understand why a new Dylan record matters, feel free to click here. Phew. Got rid of those jokers. “Modern Times” comes out next week. Thankfully, somebody slipped it into the Exhibitionist’s grubby paws.

Let the rock intelligentsia ruminate on the multiple levels of meaning. We're sticking with numbers, and short phrases. Six ballads, four blues. Lyrics created, stolen, melded, mashed. Crabby, late-period voice. Falsetto. Rivers and levees and a nearly nine-minute final cut.

“Modern Times” belongs, spiritually, with “Time Out of Mind” and “Love and Theft.” Now we better listen again.

Tyler Green points out the excellent series of slideshows showing construction of the new Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art. (It opens Sunday.) The ICA has a slideshow showing construction of its soon-to-open new home, though it's nowhere near as extensive and you have to click your way through.

Okay, so this Larry Ellison thing was kind of a bummer, but at least Harvard can depend on the generosity of Patricia Cornwell. Yes, the crime novelist has given a bunch of works by Walter Sickert - the man she has decided was "Jack the Ripper" - to the Harvard University Art Museums.

Only one of the works (below) is now on display at the museum, on the second floor of the Fogg. But Harvard tells us that anybody can make an appointment with the Mongan Center to see works on paper. To see the paintings, you have to make special arrangements with the paintings department.

Walter Sickert (British, 1860–1942), Portrait of Thérèse Lessore, Venezia, c. 1928. Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 66 cm. Courtesy of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums. Loan and Promised Gift of Patricia Cornwell, 1.2005.1. Photo: Photographic Services © President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Sometimes, it does actually pay to read press invites. By doing just that, Joel Brown noticed that the Huntington and ART scheduled openings on the same night, Sept. 13.

We've heard this story before, and the excuses, but somehow it's hard to believe anybody involved wanted the calendar to shake out this way.

The New Yorker still won't let you read - at least for free - Justin Davidson's article on conducting. But the magazine has posted this sweet clip narrated by Davidson.

Boston musician Halsey Burgund is setting up microphones at a bunch of museums, and asking visitors a series of questions. (Why are you here? What is art?) From there, Burgund is going to sample the voices for new music.

The sound sample tour hits MASS MoCA this weekend, and the DeCordova Oct. 15, with stops in New York in between.

Saturday, the North Shore Music Theatre will hold auditions for the lead role of Tracy Turnblad in the theatre's production of "Hairspray." That's the Rikki Lake (below) role in the John Waters film.

"NSMT is looking for a female, Caucasian, 5'3" or shorter, who can play high school age. The character of Tracy is heavyset, outgoing, unstoppable, and good-hearted with a vibrant, lovable, spirited personality. She loves to dance, becomes a teen heroine, and is a strong pop belt singer and a great mover."

You will be auditioning for director Barry Ivan and NSMT's Associate Producer John La Rock. "Hairspray" opens Oct. 24.

Here's a big surprise: The Cleveland Museum of Art signs on with Starbucks, and local coffee houses complain.

Two interesting examples of how opera companies are trying to be more accessible. In New York, the Met is holding an open house in September, and will allow the public into the final dress rehearsal of "Madama Butterfly," conducted by James Levine. And across the country, the Seattle Opera went all "American Idol" for its Wagner competition.

Has it really been a year since Bob Moog died?

Overwhelming guilt arrived after we had pointed you to Hilary Hahn's dental musings and realized Byrne's journal had passed by without a nudge.

1. He moves from Lenine, the living Brazilian singer, to Lenin, the dead Russian leader, to Lampião, the dead Brazilian outlaw.

2. Decapitated heads on display.

3. He pastes a picture of a woman in a bikini in Tel Aviv over a photo of bombed-out Beirut. Slanted, yes, but at least we know where Byrne stands.