This week, Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul won the Nobel Prize for Literature. What a waste. His latest novel, Half a Life, has attracted an army of bad reviews, and the literary community is entertained not by the content of his prose, but his deepening senility, and the outrageous comments he makes about dead writers like Dickens. If Sir Naipaul has any sense of shame, he should do what Cuba Gooding Jr. did with his Academy statue, and offer it to someone who deserves it. CHARLES MUDEDE

Artists Win Money; Hall Applauds

Behold the harbingers of fall: the rain, the playoffs, the initial signs of seasonal affective disorder... and the Betty Bowen Memorial Awards. As usual, news of the winners rippled through the art world before the Seattle Art Museum had a chance to issue a press release. One day, gallery-hopping in Pioneer Square, I ran into Brian Murphy, who modestly (and slightly reluctantly) let on that he was the grand-prize winner, which carries a sum of $11,000. (I know some artists who can live for a year on $11,000!) Murphy's work is notable for the way he twists around what we usually think about watercolors--no Sunday sketches, these. His are large, flattened, slightly alien autopsy-style faces, with floating panels of skin tones and pleasingly distorted features.

A few phone calls revealed that the two PONCHO Special Recognition Awards ($1,500 each) are going to Seattle painter Jaq Chartier and Portland sculptor Hildur Bjarnadóttir. The awards ceremony will be held on November 8 at SAM. EMILY HALL

BAM Shows New Artists; Patrons Brave 520

I am of divided mind about the Bellevue Art Museum. On the one hand, I think it should be airlifted over to this side of the lake; on the other, there is nothing like a good show to vindicate the terrible drive over in the rain (and then having to park at Bellevue Square, get lost in the mall, and then get soaked by cars speeding along Bellevue Way).

On Friday night, I attended the opening reception for the Bellevue Art Museum's 2001 Pacific Northwest Annual, which, despite the conditions listed above, was a pleasant surprise: an exhibition full of artists I had never heard of. There was a smattering of familiar names--Lisa Liedgren, Dylan Neuwirth, Yuki Nakamura--but for the most part it was new to me. I loved Melody Owens' table full of paper crowns and Gloria Lamson's outdoor tape-and-water sculpture.

I spent some time chain-smoking outside with this year's juror, Sue Spaid, a curator at Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center. In another refreshing turn of events, she was sick of art talk and wanted to gossip and find out where the nightlife action was. I was happy to comply. EMILY HALL

In Arts News Goofs; Schmader Corrects

Two weeks ago, In Arts News had a good chuckle over a press release sent from ACT and 5th Avenue Theatre, which announced a benefit performance of their co-production of A Little Night Music and noted the poignance of the song "Send in the Clowns" in the wake of the September 11 tragedy. Turns out we fucked up.

After receiving freaked-out calls from each of the theaters' publicists, we unraveled the exceedingly intricate mystery behind the phantom notice: The "press release" came not from the co-producing theaters, but from an overzealous audience member (who happens to live in the same condo building as A Little Night Music's director, David Armstrong) who attached his own pro-"Send in the Clowns" comments to an announcement of the benefit show--then, for some reason, he sent his mawkishly bastardized version to the press. Apologies to both of the theaters and their justice-seeking publicists. I think we can reasonably promise that this will never happen again. DAVID SCHMADER

artsnews@thestranger.com