Week
of May 12-18, 2001
1.
Special Interest
2. Dance
3. Media
4. Music
5. People
6. Publishing
7. Theatre
8. Visual Arts
9. Arts Issues
10. For Fun
1.
SPECIAL INTEREST
READING
DROPOUTS: An alarming number of Americans is choosing not to
read, says a new study. "We pride ourselves on being a
largely literate First World country while at the same time we
rush to build a visually powerful environment in which reading is
not required. The results are inevitable. Aliteracy is all around.
Washington Post 05/14/01
WHEN
ART MATTERED: "The volcano-like eruption of modernism
seems distant, now that the Revolution has become a TV show, as
the Renaissance. Its doctrines are exhausted, its once
nerve-wracking fragments ensconced in museums, and the whole thing
made sleepily irrelevant by the rise of mass media. But it was the
Biggest Bang in the last 500 years of our cultural history, and if
you lean over its crater you can still hear and feel it, the
molten craziness and hurtling euphoria of that uncanny moment when
for the last time High Art still mattered enough to hate."
Salon 05/16/01
2.
DANCE
AIN'T
NO EGO HIGH ENOUGH... Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris and Paul Taylor
are on any dance company's "A" list of choreographers,
so American Ballet Theatre scored a coup when all three appeared
on the same program recently. But there was "huge trouble
when Tharp was shifted from the coveted final place in the
programme to the less prestigious opening slot. ABT's director
Kevin McKenzie gave the closing position to Morris, an act of
courage given that Tharp is not on speaking terms with Morris.
Tharp threw a tantrum and swore she'd never work with ABT
again." The Guardian (UK) 05/1/01
DANCING
ON EMPTY: The Bolshoi Ballet is in London and the news isn't
good. People are staying away in droves - only 30 percent of the
house has been full. This despite popular classic pieces on the
program. What gives? The Telegraph
(UK) 05/15/01
AILEY'S
VOLUNTEER ARCHITECT: The Alvin Ailey Company is building a $47
million new home; it will be the largest building devoted to dance
in the US. Now controversy over the choice of architect - the
son-in-law of the Ailey board chairperson. The
New York Times 05/15/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
THIRTY,
THE HARD WAY: Ballet is a tough sell in American cities, and
Milwaukee is no exception. It has a ballet company which "has
had a dozen executive directors, most of whom did not leave
voluntarily. At least six of its eight artistic directors have
been fired, sometimes amid nasty public feuding." Even so,
it's about to turn thirty, and looks healthy. Milwaukee
Journal-Sentinel 05/16/01
HATED
EXCEPT BY AUDIENCES: Robert North is the controversial head of
the Scottish Ballet. In the two years he's had the job, "he
has continually been accused of bringing the national company's
artistic output to the brink of humiliating ruin." One
problem though: "while the Scottish critics loathe him,
North's ballets have been largely popular with audiences. Sunday
Times (UK) 05/13/01
3.
MEDIA
CANNES
WINNER: An Italian movie The Son's Room, a
"stirring account of a happy family shattered by the death of
a teenage son," won the Cannes Film Festival top prize Sunday
evening. Ottawa Citizen (AP) 05/20/01
A
DRY WELL? Is this a particularly bad year for movies?
"The early months of any year are usually lean, but this was
extraordinary. It’s probably a good thing Hollywood was
preoccupied by the looming (now averted) writer’s strike;
otherwise they might have had to face the fact that the industry
seems in the grip of a creative crisis." MSNBC
(Newsweek) 05/18/01
FIGHTING
THE GOOD FIGHT: It is increasingly difficult for independent
filmmakers to find screens to show their work. The big studios
monopolize the multiplexes, and Roger Ebert says that indies are
losing the will to fight on: "I've been emceeing this panel
for 10 years or so, and never sensed such sadness on the part of
directors who have made good films and now find it difficult to
get them to North American audiences." National
Post (Canada) 05/18/01
NEW
GOLDEN AGE FOR FILM? "It used to be said that imported
films didn't play many cities; today they don't play many states.
And yet there is hope. If you look at the movies themselves and
not simply at the box office, American films are in an emerging
golden age. It is possible to see inventive and even important new
work every week of the year - if you live in a city with good
cinemas, or have a cable system that offers Bravo, Sundance or the
Independent Film Channel." The
Guardian (UK) 05/15/01
4.
MUSIC
BARENBOIM
STANDS FIRM: Most Israeli ensembles do not perform the music
of Richard Wagner, due to the composer's well-known anti-Semitism
and the potential for violent protest when performances do occur.
So Daniel Barenboim has been drawing considerable fire since
announcing that he would conduct a Wagner opera in Jerusalem this
summer. So far, Barenboim has not been swayed. BBC
05/17/01
IMPACT
OF JAZZ (THE SERIES, THAT IS): Ken Burns' Jazz
documentary series has had a big impact on interest in jazz.
"The traditional jazz market has seen at least $1 million
more in sales since the series began. Jazz sales in the United
States last autumn were roughly a little over two per cent of
sales. Since the series, we've seen the sales go up to just over
four per cent. While that might not seem like much of an increase,
for the jazz world, it's huge." The
Telegraph (UK) 05/17/01
YOU'VE
GOTTA HANG ON TO THOSE THINGS! What is it with Strad-playing
cellists and New York City cabs? Two years after Yo-Yo Ma had to
use a taxi receipt to track down his forgotten instrument, Lynn
Harrell left his $4 million Stradivarius cello in the trunk of his
cab this week. One sleepless night later, he got it back. Andante
(UPI) 05/16/01
THE
MOZART EFFECT INDUSTRY: "That classical music somehow
relaxes our brains, reorganising and clarifying thought processes
and thereby promoting a firmer intellect, is a supposition that
has acquired the veneer of accepted wisdom over the past
decade." Is it true? Who really knows, but there's a whole
industry grown up around promoting the idea. Sydney
Morning Herald 05/16/01
LEARNING
FROM THE KIROV: The Kirov's restoration to artistic excellence
in the past decade has been remarkable. Its upcoming London
residency "shimmers like a private yacht in a bog-standard
British pond of funding grumbles and grudged enthusiasm." And
companies in the West could learn a thing or two from the Kirov
about running an artistic enterprise. The
Telegraph (UK) 05/16/01
MOZARTSTER?
NAH. BRAHMSTER? UH-UH. BACHSTER? HMMM...With all the legal and
technical maneuvering for digital distribution of pop music,
what's happening with the classics? "The Electronic Media
Forum began a feasibility study that would allow the 1,800
orchestras in the United States to distribute their music
online." Wired 05/16/01
PAUSING
FOR SUCCESS: The Chamber Orchestra of Europe is an unusual
ensemble. Founded 20 years ago, its players get together only for
half of each year. "Today, the COE draws its players from 15
countries, is the resident chamber orchestra of the Philharmonie
in Berlin, and plays regularly in Graz, Cologne, Paris and
Vienna." The Times (UK) 05/15/01
HOW
TO SINK YOUR OWN CAREER: The orchestral world is full of
conductors who work wonders with small, regional orchestras, yet
never quite make the transition to the major leagues. The reasons
can be many: orchestras that are loathe to take a chance on an
unknown, musicians who take a dim view of a young hotshot come to
"save" them, etc. But, says one of America's premiere
critics, the conductor's biggest roadblock can often be his own
ego. The New York Times 05/13/01 (one
time registration required for access)
SYMPHONY
SPACE: For the longest time, it seemed that composers had
simply decided not to write full-length symphonies any more.
Orchestras commissioned short, program-opening works rather than
major pieces that might put audiences off. But in the last few
years, the traditional symphonic form seems to be making a
comeback. Peter Maxwell Davies is the latest prominent composer to
premiere a new symphony, and reaction seems to be positive. The
Sunday Times of London 05/13/01
5.
PEOPLE
SHAKESPEARE'S
PICTURE: A painting that purports to be a portrait of William
Shakespeare has surfaced. "The painting appears to be
authentic. Radiocarbon dating reveals it to be 340 years old, give
or take 50 years. It shows a ruddy-haired, hazel-eyed young man
sporting a short beard, sideburns, a hint of a mustache, and a
bilateral receding hairline of fluffy sprouts." National
Review 05/15/01
JASON
MILLER, 62: Actor and playwright Jason Miller has died of a
heart attack. In 1973, Miller was nominated for an Oscar for his
performance as Father Damien Karras in The Exorcist. The
same year he won both a Pulitzer and a Tony for his play That
Championship Season. Philadelphia
Inquirer 05/15/01
NARAYAN
DEAD AT 94: "R. K. Narayan, the literary chronicler of
small-town life in South India and one of the first Indians
writing in English to achieve international acclaim, died
yesterday in Madras, India. He was 94." The
New York Times 05/14/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
MARCEAU
SPEAKS: Marcel Marceaux has been named a United Nations
ambassador for the aged. "I make the visible invisible and
the invisible visible. People think that when we are silent, you
have nothing to say. But you can make people laugh and cry through
the tragedy and the comedy of life." New
York Times Magazine 05/13/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
PERRY
COMO DIES: "Perry Como, the crooning baritone barber
famous for his relaxed vocals, cardigan sweaters and television
Christmas specials, died yesterday after a lengthy illness. He was
87." Akron Beacon Journal (AP)
05/13/01
6.
PUBLISHING
iPUBLISH
= iHIGHWAY ROBBERY? The Writers' Guild is warning its members
to stay away from iPublish, the digital imprint of TimeWarner
Books. The Guild claims that iPublish's standard contract forces
authors to give up too many rights. Wired
05/18/01
VOLCANIC
VERSE: Tomaz Salamun is one of Eastern Europe's most
celebrated poets, yet he views himself as a "monster."
His bleak, sometimes violent poems reflect the harsh landscape of
the war-torn region he hails from, and he seems to consider his
art as much a weapon as a mode of expression. "Poetry makes a
human being more human, but it can also dehumanize, like a big
passion, a horrible obsession driven by laws that are beyond the
human." San Jose Mercury News
(AP) 05/18/01
MISERABLES
II - GAVROCHE STRIKES BACK: "Descendants of Victor Hugo,
outraged by a contemporary sequel to his 1862 novel "Les
Miserables," urged France and the European Parliament on
Tuesday to condemn the commercial misuse of literary classics...
'Does anyone think someone could commission a Tenth Beethoven
Symphony?' they asked in an open letter." Chicago
Tribune 05/17/01
BAD
FOR BOOKS: It's been a miserable few years for the Canadian
book industry. "The situation, in which the industry has been
hit by much heavier than usual returns - as staggeringly high as
60% in some cases - has undergone a bewildering sense of
disorientation, and has experienced an agonizing feeling of
betrayal, and can only get better." Publishers
Weekly 05/14/01
RULES
OF LIFE: How truthful should biographies attempt to be?
"It is striking that while biography itself goes in and out
of fashion with critics and publishers (not long ago, it was being
asserted in publishing circles that the bottom had dropped out of
the biography market: popular history was all the rage), the
debate over the rules or ethics of writing life stories never dies
away." New Statesman 05/14/01
WORDS
OF THE AGES: Do writers get better with age? "The older
an author gets, the easier it is for them to leave behind the
preoccupations of their youth, to invent freely and explore with
ambition. Thus the long-distance author shape-shifts in
mid-career." The Guardian (UK)
05/16/01
LIFE
OF THE PARTY: Academics have generally distrusted writers of
biographies. "Although biographers do pretty much the same
thing as academics - they go to libraries, find stuff out, and
then publish books about it - the two camps have always kept
themselves stiffly to themselves, held apart by a barely disguised
tangle of envy, suspicion and defensive superiority." Those
attitudes may be thawing. New
Statesman 05/14/01
7.
THEATRE
IT'S
GETTING UGLY OUT THERE: Unless you're Mel Brooks, it's a bad
time to be opening a new musical on Broadway. In addition to the
much-expected early closing of Seussical!, several other
high-profile shows are shutting down quickly, including The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which lasted less than a month. The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/18/01
WHAT
DREAMS MAY DIE: Seussical was the most anticipated show
of the current Broadway season. But the reviews were bad, business
never got going full steam, and now the show is closing May 20.
Theatre.com 05/16/01
- LOSING
BIG: The show lost $11 million, making it one of
Broadway's all-time biggest losers. The
New York Times 05/17/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
8.
VISUAL ARTS
THE
HOT NEW... Christie's New York sale of contemporary art breaks
record for contemporary sales. The New
York Times 05/18/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
MUSEUM
IN THE CENTER: A new national museum for Scotland is being
planned as the centerpiece of an ambitious new £1 billion urban
redevelopment program in Edinburgh. The
Scotsman 05/17/01
HOW
TO ABUSE A GENEROUS OFFER: Joe Brown owns the best collection
of Australian art still in private hands. He wants to give the $60
million collection to the Australian government. "The 400
paintings date from the moment of white settlement to the
present" and the collection includes 50 sculptures and 3500
art books. So why has the government not jumped at the
opportunity? The Age (Melbourne)
05/17/01
CONTEMPORARY
BATTLES: There's a battle going on over the future of Sydney's
Museum of Contemporary Art. "It has all the hubristic
elements of great drama - ambition, vanity, greed, bitterness,
upthemselves-osity etc - plus a characteristic specific to Sydney.
In this case, it's the catastrophic tendency of this city to
tangle public heritage, private gain, personal vendettas and
political ambition into a knot, which I fear will lead to us
having no MCA at all." Sydney
Morning Herald 05/17/01
RUN
LOLA RUN: The Canadian art magazine Lola has, in only
four years, risen from a no-budget 'zine to one of the influential
voices in Canadian culture. It is simultaneously slick and
substantive, and caters largely to a young demographic, but
without resorting to the sulky tone of so many other similar
publications. In fact, more than anything else, Lola seems,
well, happy. The Globe & Mail
(Toronto) 05/17/01
O'KEEFFE
PROJECT CANCELED: A long-anticipated movie biography of
Georgia O'Keeffe, which "was to have starred Linda Fiorentino
as O'Keeffe and Ben Kingsley as Alfred Stieglitz, has been
canceled, after Fiorentino didn't show up for shooting and
producers were unable to find a replacement. Producers are suing
the actress. The Art Newspaper
05/17/01
THE
GREAT POWERFUL OZ: The Sotheby's/Christie's indictments have
blown away the facade of the privileged world of art
auctioneering. "Their customers, many of them, are so rich
and careful of their reputations that trust is presumed to be at
the core of their activities. This has always been fantasy, of
course. But all illusions have been blown apart by the
strong-armed methods of the judicial system in the United
States." Sydney Morning Herald
05/16/01
DOING
VERMEER: There's something of a mini Vermeer industry going on
- a major exhibition, new books..."To read about Johannes
Vermeer and to look at his pictures is sometimes to think you have
entered a fairy-tale domain. There’s an Arabian Nights flavor
about a painter who leaves so few traces of himself (we have no
knowledge of his working methods, or who if anyone he studied
with, or if he had any pupils); dies fairly young (at forty-three,
in 1675); and is represented by a remarkably small body of
pictures, each of which is somehow a precious link in the
story." New York Review of Books
05/31/01
THE
MET'S NEW BLOCKBUSTER: The Jackie Kennedy show at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art is breaking records. And racking up
sales. "The Kennedy show's catalog, $50 in hardcover and $35
in paperback, has been selling at the rate of 600 a day and has
gone into a second printing. A CD of Mrs. Kennedy's favorite
music, including that of "Camelot," has sold 2,000
copies." The New York Times
05/15/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
RAISING
MONEY THROUGH ART: Should charities be able to sell off their
artwork in order to raise money? In England, a court will rule
this week on whether a charity can sell its prized collection of
"150 paintings, including works by Hogarth and Gainsborough."
The Independent (UK) 05/13/01
TAKING
ON THE TURNER: The Turner Prize has become one of the most
controversial arts awards in the world, thanks to the last several
winners, which included a dead and bisected calf, a mattress
soaked in bodily fluids, and other such traditionally off-putting
material. One London newspaper is on a crusade to find out how the
winners are chosen, when nominations are supposed to come from the
general public. London Evening
Standard 05/11/01
PLUS: International
Museum of Cartoon Art attempts to sell original first drawings
of Mickey Mouse, done in 1928 ~ Michelangelo
drawing found last year in England is expected to sell for £8
million at auction ~ Brazil's
religious art is being stolen at an alarming rate ~ Jeff
Koons' sculpture of Michael Jackson and his pet monkey Bubbles
was sold at auction in New York for a record $5.6 million.
9.
ISSUES
BROKE
BERLIN: Berlin has major cultural ambitions, expensive
cultural ambitions. But paying for them is quite another thing.
Fact is, Berlin doesn't have the cash. Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 05/18/01
NO
TAKEBACKS ALLOWED: In 1997 the mayor and city council of San
Antonio decided to take back a grant to a controversial arts
group. Now a federal judge has ruled against the city and says the
grant cannot be revoked. "Once a governing body chooses to
fund art, the Constitution requires that it be funded in a
viewpoint-neutral manner, that is, without discriminating among
recipients on the basis of their ideology." The
New York Times 05/16/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
A
LID FOR LINCOLN CENTER? New York's Lincoln Center is planning
a ten-year $1.5 million makeover. So what's in the works? Rumors
are flying that a dome to cover the central plaza is being
considered, among other ideas. The New
York Times 05/14/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
ALL
IN THE PLANNING: "Today, everybody needs to establish a
business plan: universities, schools, theatres, orchestras, opera
and dance companies. Since businesses run everything, it was felt
that it would generally make for smoother sailing if everything
were run like a business." So
what happens to the art? Globe &
Mail (Canada) 05/14/01
10.
FOR FUN
IF
RICHARD SIMMONS CAN MAKE MONEY... A new exercise video might
not get you to Lincoln Center, but it's a good workout. The New
York City Ballet Workout is "a new fitness tape that
combines classic ballet steps and toning moves in a well-conceived
but difficult routine. The 58-minute routine is led by the
off-camera voice of Peter Martins, the NYCB's ballet
master-in-chief, who carefully guides four dancers through the
total-body routine." Los Angeles
Daily News 05/14/01
WIN
A LITTLE MORE, LIVE A LITTLE LONGER: "Oscar winners live
nearly four years longer than either actors who were never
nominated or those who were nominated and did not win. 'Once you
get the Oscar, it gives you an inner sense of peace and
accomplishment that can last for your entire life, and that alters
the way your body copes with stress on a day-to-day basis'."
Nando Times (AP) 05/14/01
EWWWW:
Quick, name the hottest ticket in New York. Right, The
Producers. Easy one. But the second most popular show in town
is just starting to generate the buzz that Mel Brooks gets when he
blows his nose. And speaking of bodily excretions, the name of the
show is "Urinetown," and it's about corporate greed,
vanishing natural resources, and, well, you know... Chicago
Tribune 05/17/01
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