May 15, 2002

Deutsche Bank is offering to sell 250 million shares in pay-TV broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting, part of 22 percent in BskyB held by Vivendi Universal; sale, worth $2.4 billion, pushes Vivendi's shares up by over 5 percent after months of declines (S)

John Rockwell Critic's Notebook column reviews New York City Opera's Vox 2002: Showcasing American Composers series, made up of concert performances at Church of St Paul and St Andrew; photo (M)

Many scientists and physicians say intensive monitoring of Lower Manhattan air quality and public health in wake of Sept 11 attack indicate New York may have suffered only glancing blow; say most of thousands of people who developed coughs or were nauseated by smells have fully recovered, while exposures to asbestos and other toxins were too short to cause widepread cancer or other lung diseases; others say it is too soon to tell; map of environmental monitoring sites (M)

Bobby Frank Cherry, former Klansman, is on trial in deaths of four black children, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins, in 1963 bombing of Birmingham, Ala; is expected to be last man tried in historic, flawed, four-decade probe into civil rights era crime; photo (M)

The scaly spire of the Chrysler Building in New York City is the summit of all dreams in "Cremaster 3," the centerpiece of Matthew Barney's deliriously esoteric five-part epic cycle exploring artistic creation and destruction. With its spiky Art Deco crown, that skyscraper is a potent symbol of demonically ambitious creativity in a film that celebrates the twin urges to build and destroy as inseparable (and irrational) compulsions. At its most powerful, the largely wordless film evokes this theme with thrilling rushes of imagery, music and visual humor. "Cremaster 3" is the largest and final piece in a cycle that was filmed out of order (4, 1, 5, 2, 3) beginning in 1994 and that has already been canonized as a major work of contemporary fine art. — Stephen Holden