Week of  November 19-25, 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

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1. SPECIAL INTEREST  
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#specialinterest
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ATTACKING ACADEMIA: An advocacy group whose founders include Lynn Cheney, wife of American Vice President Dick Cheney has been collecting what it claims is evidence of "unpatriotic behavior" by US academics. "Calling professors 'the weak link in America's response to the attack,' the report excoriates faculty members for invoking 'tolerance and diversity as antidotes to evil' and pointing 'accusatory fingers, not at the terrorists, but at America itself'." The New York Times 11/24/01 (one-time registration required for access)

A POEM IS LIKE... Why study poetry? Billy Collins suggests that "to study poetry was to replicate the way we learn and think. When we read a poem, we enter the consciousness of another. It requires that we loosen some of our fixed notions in order to accommodate another point of view - which is a model of the kind of intellectual openness and conceptual sympathy that a liberal education seeks to encourage." Chronicle of Higher Education 11/19/01

CREATIVITY IN ITS MANY FORMS: Art and science are both expressions of mankind's creativity. "Any work of art or science necessarily draws on many different, apparently unconnected areas. Such highly creative thinking may be likened to a mosaic of many tiles. In Picasso's and Einstein's cases, we have identified, among others: cinematography, geometry, technology, aesthetics, X-rays etc. Both men were concerned with the same problem – simultaneity and spatial representation." The Independent (UK) 11/21/01

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2. DANCE
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#dance
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WHAT BECOMES A CLASSIC? It's always hard to pick a classic. Modern dance is a particularly difficult art form to figure out what will endure. "You're never sure of your decisions. People even tire of the Mona Lisa and `Hamlet.' That doesn't mean they aren't masterpieces." The New York Times 11/18/01 (one-time registration required for access)

A BARBIE NUTCRACKER: Has it come to this? Is Barbie cashing in on the popularity of The Nutcracker or is this some misguided hope that more little girls will take to dance if their little plastic pal is a dancer? "The computer-animated Barbie in the Nutcracker is a higgledy-piggledy mix of dialogue, action adventure and dance that owes as much to Disney as it does to Tchaikovsky or ballet. If you took a Barbie in your hand and made it fly through the air, you'd get a fair idea of how stiff the animated figures sometimes seem, not a good sign for a film in which Barbie plays a ballet dancer who performs the role of Clara and dances a pas de deux with Prince Eric, played by Ken." The New York Times 11/22/01 (one-time registration required for access)

BATTLE-TESTED: Alina Cojocaru had only been with the Royal Ballet one year when she was promoted on-stage - a signal honour, comparable to battlefield promotion for a soldier - to the rank of principal. And she's only 19, daughter of the Romanian proletariat, chosen as a child by Russian ballet masters for training in Kiev. Is she really that good? The Telegraph (UK) 11/21/01

PREPARING NOT TO DANCE: "Old dancers never die, the saying goes, they just shuffle off. First a knee goes, then an ankle, then a hamstring. The paychecks get to be too skimpy. Or the traveling gets to be too much. Not all dancers can or want to choreograph or teach. But dancers possess traits like discipline and vitality that are treasured by employers." The New York Times 11/25/01 (one-time registration required for access)

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3. MEDIA
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#media
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A WAY WITH ART: Critics hated entertainer Rolf Harris's show on art Rolf on Art last Sunday, deriding its "patronising format and embarrassing, simplistic script". Evidently the TV audience disagreed, though. More than 6.8 million people tuned into the show on BBC1, the most ever for any cultural show on any channel. The Guardian (UK) 11/23/01

• UNDER THE INFLUENCE: The show was seen by 6.8 million, "compared to the 800,000 who watched Robert Hughes' American Visions on the BBC in 1996. The Australian artist and musician appeared to have done more to interest the masses in art than any of the more lofty television critics such as Hughes or Andrew Graham-Dixon." The Age (Melbourne) 11/23/01

WHY FILM SCHOOLS FAIL: "Film schools are flourishing, but that their graduates seem rarely to realise their filmmaking ambitions, despite shelling out the same fees as a medical or law student - up to $100,000 - but with a roughly 5% chance of recouping a cent. Film schools, are essentially factories whose primary product is not film-makers per se, but rather the smelly little orthodoxies of modern film-making." The Guardian (UK) 11/23/0

TRAILING EDGE: Want to see the Harry Potter movie? Wait. Literally. Warner had so much clout with this hit that it forced movie theatres to show twice the number of trailers usually shown before the movie. And theatres are loading up on commercials before the feature starts, so after eight or nine trailers and commercials, 15 minutes or more has gone by before the movie begins. Washington Post 11/25/01

WHO CARES ABOUT THE CRITICS? When a blockbuster movie like Harry Potter comes out, who cares about the critics? Masses of people will go to it no matter what. For that matter, what use are newspaper movie reviewers anyway? "In these days of massive promotional campaigns and instant Internet buzz, has the newspaper reviewer gone the way of shepherds and 8-tracks? Does the consumer really need yet another guide? In short, movie boy, rationalize your existence, justify your salary." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/24/01

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY ELVIS: What becomes a classic? Advertisers would like us to believe that anything we've heard of a few times qualifies. A new TV program "takes real things, but shows how we imbue them with meaning which they never had and how that becomes an important part of who we are as Americans," thereby making them classics. Christian Science Monitor 11/23/01

TIME STEALER: A new machine that discreetly shortens live TV programs by fractions, allowing stations to insert extra commercials has irked producers of programs, who object that their content is being altered. "The device, which sells for US$93,000, is able to generate millions of dollars in extra advertising revenues for the stations, but it comes at the expense of discreetly altering the content that people tune in to see." National Post (Canada) 11/21/01

THIRST FOR MOVIES: Crowds packed a Kabul movie theatre Monday as the theatre reopened with first movie to be shown in Afghanistan in five years. The departed Taliban had banned entertainments such as movies. "Hundreds of people were turned away from the packed theater, which was showing the popular Afghan film Ascension. Finally, soldiers with rifles intervened, pushing the crowd away from the front gate." Nando Times (AP) 11/19/01

NOT JUST THE POPCORN: A Toronto filmmaker is deconstructing the movie-going experience in an attempt to find out how movies take hold of an audience. He "believes movies have a direct conduit to our emotions through our eyes. That's because humans rely on subtle movements of facial muscles to tell them how others are feeling, and a movie screen, of course, is like looking through a magnifying glass at an actor's face. If the actor is convincing, then it enables us to suspend our disbelief by plugging us directly in to the emotional content of the film." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/20/01

BOOSTING RATINGS WITH THE ARTS: The UK's channel 5 is known for its tacky lowbrow fare. But with ratings slipping and advertising down, the channel is trying a surprising tactic - going up-market with new arts programming. The Independent 11/18/01

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4. MUSIC
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#music
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UNITING THROUGH MUSIC: Afghanistan has a rich heritage of music and art, and before the Taliban took over and banned such creative expression, "the nation's radio, more than any cultural bond beyond Islam itself, had helped unify the country's 32 tribes, which enjoyed their respective ethnic sounds too." Now that radio and music has been restored, will there be a new flowering of artistic expression?" Village Voice 11/21/01

SOMETHING ABOUT FINLAND: In the past decade Finnish conductors and performers have become prominent on the world stage - prominent out of all scale to the country's tiny size and population. But as for composers, Finland has still been considered a one-composer country - and Sibelius stopped composing 50 years ago. Now a new generation of Finnish composers looks to emerge just as performers did in the 90s. The Telegraph (UK) 11/22/01

WHERE'S THE BUZZ? Just as the Tate Modern helped make contemporary art cool, so must classical music find a way to reinvent itself and acquire some buzz, warns the head of Britain's BBC Radio 3. "Standing still is not an option. Simply because organisations... have existed for a number of years does not mean that they have a right to continue as they have since they were founded, their work unchallenged." The Independent (UK) 11/22/01

PLAYER PIANO: It's a misconception that pianos just got progressively bigger and more powerful since their invention in the 1820s. The Frederick Historic Piano Collection in New England has collected up a good sampling of instruments from across the eras, and unlike most museums, this one invites you to come try and hear for yourself what the differences are. What, for example did Liszt's music sound like on instruments of the day?. The New York Times 11/22/01 (one-time registration required for access)

CRACKING BACH'S CODES: A new cd that tries to unravel the compositional codes Bach used in writing his famous Partita in D Minor, has become a hit on the music charts. "As presented in Morimur, Bach was musically inspired, like Elgar, but went for symbolism, like Shostakovich. With chorale and partita movements set side by side, the listener must crack open all preconceived notions about the partita to hear references between the two. Close, repeated listening is needed. And something this heady is now so hot on the charts?" Philadelphia Inquirer 11/25/01

CUTTING TO THE MUSIC: "The portable stereo has become an integral tool for surgeons, who say the soothing strains of Bach, and Van Halen, improve their performance in the operating room. Scientific research supports his theory. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, background music chosen by doctors helps them excel in their work." National Post 11/24/01

FACTOR OF EIGHT: "Few besides students of music theory are aware that in 1600 what has become our modern scale was regarded as a heretical notion, which sought to substitute many of the numerological harmonic principles, passed down from the ancients as theological truths, with the inferior and unworthy demands of practical expedience. Its introduction was fiercely contested and still occasionally rejected as late as 1800. Without tempered tuning, however, the classical and romantic movements could not have found expression." The Economist 11/23/01

THE SKY IS FALLING...ISN'T IT? Sure the classical music world's got troubles. Most businesses do these days. But why are so many people running around predicting the end of classical music? "Perhaps classical leaders are so pessimistic because they feel they are guarding something more important than the kind of commercialism that guides their pop-music counterparts. After all, if the execs at MTV need to goose up revenues, they figure out what's selling, develop product, and send it to South Beach in a bikini. Classical leaders don't have that much flexibility, and, more important, they feel the weight of being flame-keepers of an important body of culture." Philadelphia Inquire 11/20/01

WILLING TO PAY: Legal battles over transfers of digital music continue. But an industry consultant says sales of online music will top $1.6 billion by 2005. "There's a growing population of music enthusiasts that are ready to embrace paid downloads, streaming on demand, and online radio" Nando Times (AP) 11/19/01

PLAYING IT SAFE: Composer John Adams, reflecting on the Boston Symphony's canceling one of his pieces, thinks one of the reasons classical music has lost its way is its wariness about taking risks: "I was concerned about what the reasons given for the cancellation had to say about classical music. I do think that symphonies and opera companies are very skittish in this country, and I'm sorry that they are, because it confirms the distressing image of symphony-goers as fragile and easily frightened. That's really a shame, because I want to think of symphonic concerts as every bit as challenging as going to MOCA or to see 'Angels in America'." Los Angeles Times 11/20/01

THE SOUND OF MUSIC: Is sound art music? "If there's such a thing as sound art then it's certainly sound art as well. Sound is the consequence of an idea, and maybe that's sound art; and if you take that sound and make something else of it then maybe that's music." The Guardian (UK) 11/18/01

TORONTO OPERA PROJECT REVIVED: Toronto has been trying for some time to put financing together to build a new opera house. The project was presumed dead last year after long delays and political deadlock. Now Canada's federal government has approved $25 million for the project, and its fortunes are suddenly revived. Toronto Star 11/19/01

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5. PEOPLE
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#people
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RICH BUT UNKNOWN: Who's the richest painter in Britain? Forget the usual suspects - it's Andrew Vicari. This year alone he sold a series of paintings to a Saudi company for $28.6 million. "Unlike his rivals in wealth, though, Vicari is practically unknown in his homeland. No matter that in China they hold loving retrospectives of his work, or that there are three museums devoted to his oeuvre in Saudi Arabia. Or that Vicari is the official painter for Interpol and the CRS, France's much-hated elite police force. No matter at all." The Age (Melbourne) 11/25/01

DEPRIEST TO GET TRANSPLANT: James DePriest, conductor of the Oregon Symphony, will get a kidney transplant December 3. DePriest has been on dialysis for two years, and the donor "is a close, personal friend of his" who wants to remain anonymous. The Oregonian 11/21/01

ARGERICH CANCELS: Pianist Martha Argerich has canceled all her concerts through February, on the advice of doctors. "The 60-year-old Argentine-born pianist, whose melanoma was believed to have gone into remission, had been scheduled to perform in New York, Paris and London. But those concerts have been canceled." Chicago Sun-Times (AP) 11/20/01

CURATOR JAILED: A former curator with the Wisconsin Historical Society Museum was sentenced to 15 years in jail for stealing American Indian artifacts from the museum. He took items "valued at more than $100,000, including a rare war club, beaded buckskin bag, cradle board cover, quiver and silver earrings." New Jersey Online (AP) 11/19/01

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6. PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#publishing
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SUBSIDIZING THE WRITING LIFE: The sad fact is that even good writers with reputations can't make a living from their art these days. They have to subsidize their writing with other jobs. "Forget about the National Endowment for the Arts or Humanities. What underwrites culture in America are libraries, newspapers, schools, foundations, magazines, flop films and, yes, tips in restaurants. And let's not forget spouses. If an author isn't making a living, the wife or husband often is." Dallas Morning News 11/19/01

NO-STYLE SCHOOL: Why do so many writers on today's bestseller lists have no style? In great literature - that is, the swirling, surprising and sometimes unsettling prose that saves souls and redefines reality - plot, detail, language, characters, point of view, truth, beauty and other intangibles all clamor to be at the top." The no-style school of writing goes "for a rhythmless beat, and a straightforward approach to writing that ranks zippy, superinventive plot first, stating the obvious second, concrete details third, and language, artistry, character development and the exploration of universal truths somewhere near the bottom of the list." Washington Post 11/19/01

BE-LITTLED: Why did Lingua Franca Magazine fold, despite its glowing reputation? Because it's a little magazine. "The problem with little magazines is that they're little. Their limited subject matter consigns them to audiences so small no one can make money off them. Big magazines make their money on advertising, but advertisers aren't interested in little-magazine-size audiences." The New York Times 11/20/01 (one-time registration required for access)

ALL ABOUT ME: In an increasingly globalised world, where chain stores and franchises replicate and spread with only scant reference to pre-existing culture, where is the value in going anywhere?" So travel writing has increasingly become more about the traveler than the place. "This sense of the travel writer inserting his or her personal frame of reference into the narrative is so commonplace these days that it seems obvious." The Age (Melbourne) 11/22/01

WHAT STUTTGART ASPIRES TO BE: "Until now, Stuttgart, the urban center of Swabian diligence and pietistic inwardness, has been better known as a stronghold of the visual arts and theater." But the city has just opened a new writers' center called Literaturhaus, and meant to be "a meeting ground for modern culture." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 11/22/01

BOOK SALES DOWN: "With terrorism, war and the threat of recession dominating consumers' attention this autumn, the major publishers are having decreases in their sales of as much as 15 percent from the lackluster levels of last year, according to executives at several big publishers and distributors. . Publishers say that sales of the best-selling novels, even by blockbuster authors, are off by 25 percent to 40 from last year." International Herald Tribune (NYT) 11/21/01

PLEDGE DRIVE PUBLISHING? "Non-profit book publishing has long been largely dependent on foundation money. But as grants dry up and sales become increasingly unreliable as a source of revenue, many literary non-profits are turning to an area they once ignored: The individual contributor. The result, experts say, is a model that every day looks less like that of, say, an art gallery and more like the democratically funded approach of public television." Publishers Weekly 11/19/01

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7. THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#theatre
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GOLD STANDARD: Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman have filed a $5 million lawsuit against producer Scott Rudin, claiming he is trying to kill a musical they have been working on for nearly 10 years. GOLD! was scheduled to open in Chicago next year, but the pair say legal threats by Rudin have scared off the director and the theater operators." Nando Times (AP) 11/23/01

BACKSTAGE ETIQUETTE: What should you say to your friend the actor when you go backstage after the show? Careful, It's "a diplomatic minefield. In fact it's a nightmare. What should you say? How frank should you be? Speak honestly? Lie through your teeth? Or adopt a middle way, seasoning your praise with a few genuine observations in the hope they'll be helpful? Like, "The more you can smile, the better it is." My advice is to lie through your teeth. Actors require only one thing - to be told that they were superb and that the piece as a whole was a life-changing experience." The Guardian (UK) 11/22/01

TAKING THE BARD TO THE HOME OF THE BARD: Shakespeare is the most-performed playwright in America. Now, for the first time, an American company has been invited to perform at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Stratford home. "Exchanges like this are a good way of overcoming the purely artificial prejudices which say that Americans can’t do Shakespeare.” The Times (UK) 11/19/01

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8. VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#visualarts
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CRISIS IN PRESERVATION: "The combination of preservation legislation and explosive growth in the Southwest over the last decade has created an archaeological boom that has completely overwhelmed the region's museums and anthropological centers, archaeologists, museum executives and government officials say. Their institutions cannot handle all the artifacts found and excavated during publicly financed projects. The logjam is so bad that some museums like Northern Arizona are closing their doors to the resource materials, and others are limiting what they will accept, while a third group has increased their fees for cataloguing, analyzing and storing them by as much as 10-fold." The New York Times 11/24/01 (one-time registration required for access)

THE BIGGER THEY ARE... The Guggenheim has been the highest of the high flyers among museums in the past decade. But that just means the crash is louder when times turn bad. And bad they apparently are: "Admissions are down by almost 60 percent, revenue is running about half of what it is supposed to be, and as of Friday 80 employees — roughly one-fifth of the staff — had been given pink slips in what [director Thomas] Krens described as the initial round of layoffs. Besides the staff cuts, which reportedly may reach 40 percent, the museum has scaled back its exhibit schedule, postponing exhibitions by Matthew Barney and Kasimir Malevich. Its SoHo museum on Prince Street will close at the end of the year, and the fate of its $20 million Web site, guggenheim.com, is still unclear." The New York Times 11/20/01 (one-time registration required for access)

A BIGGER BUDDHA: A group upset at the Taliban's destruction of the giant Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan earlier this year has announced a plan to rebuild the statues, only larger than before. "The desire is to show that 'an act of international destruction cannot erase the memory of those things which are valuable to humanity and its heritage'." But UNESCO is opposed to the idea saying that "an international agreement - the Venice charter - forbids the reconstruction of monuments that have been destroyed." Nando Times (AP) 11/21/01

OPTICAL ILLUSION: "The hottest, and most contentious, topic in art history at the moment is the longstanding but murky relationship between painting and optics. And painting exhibitions all over the place now boast a photographic element." The New York Times 11/24/01 (one-time registration required for access)

CHINA TO BAN FOREIGN ART TRADERS: China has introduced a new law that would ban foreigners from the antique business. "The ban includes auctions, and covers both wholly foreign-owned enterprises and joint-ventures. The National Relics Bureau specifically mentioned Sotheby’s and Christie’s as a target." The Art Newspaper 11/21/01

THE WHITNEY'S 113: The Whitney announces the lineup of artists for next March's Whitney Biennial. With 113 artists and collaborative teams, the 2002 edition will be the largest since 1981. Whitney.org 11/01

BRASSED OFF: The Churchill Society - dedicated to preserving the memory of the great British prime minister - is protesting a new sculpture commissioned by the Victoria & Albert Museum for its newly refurbished British galleries. The complaint? Cornelia Parker's Breathless is composed of brass instruments the artist had crushed in the hydraulics of the Tower Bridge. "The society is angry because, it says, instruments that might have been repairable were sacrificed on the altar of conceptual art." The Society calls the piece an "act of vandalism". "Little wonder that extremists in the Muslim world think western civilisation is decadent ... we are breathless with disbelief." The Guardian (UK) 11/20/01

FAKE ARTWORK SEIZED: French police have confiscated about 40 works from a Paris gallery purported to be by the French sculptor Cesar. "Police say several dozen fake works have been sold in France and in neighbouring Belgium, with estimated gains running into the millions of dollars." Cesar, who died in 1998, made sculptures by compressing car wrecks into cubes. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/23/01

BLIND BID: London's Royal College of Art is having a secret-art auction. The art is by students and well-known artists whose work sells for hundreds of thousands of pound. Buyers can see the postcard-size art but "the identity of the artist remains a secret until the time it is bought. The artist signs the picture on the back and it is only revealed once it is taken off display and given to its new owner." BBC 11/21/01

THE ART OF MONUMENTS: "Some people still think monuments should be monumental, with classical architectural references - big and white and grand." But "a new generation of artists and architects has grown skeptical of traditional monumental form. This generation questions the assumption that big, concretized forms can tell people how to think and remember. Christian Science Monitor 11/23/01

THE SAD TRUTH ABOUT CONTEMPORARY ART: "Despite contemporary art's massive propaganda, public funding, seeming popularity and apparently accepted cultural importance, most people are not sure what it is supposed to do or be; in their uncertainty they remain silent, and in their silence their numbers are counted by the Tate to legitimise the now ludicrous Turner Prize." London Evening Standard 11/19/01

WHEN ART MOVES: "Contemporary art as a whole has become more like film, dealing with duration and movement and with problems of realism and representation." Organisers of next year's Documenta debate the role of film in contemporary art. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 11/18/01

THE ARTIST WITHIN (THE SCREEN): Can't draw or paint? Want to be an artist anyway? Producing or manipulating digital images on a computer has become a popular at-home art. "Doctoring images - or Photoshopping, as its practitioners call it - is a booming online pastime for hobbyists and graphic designers whose altered documents have taken up residence in the popular imagination alongside political cartoons and satirical text." Wired 11/19/01

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9. ISSUES
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#issues
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LAYOFFS ARE JUST A START: A new study quantifies the losses of New York arts groups since September 11. The challenges are many: Attendance is down, "city and state budgets have been slashed, individual giving is being re-directed to September 11–related causes, annual fundraisers are being dropped or pulling in a lot less money than anticipated, public schools are canceling field trips and cultural program contracts in all five boroughs, and capital campaigns have all but ground to a halt." Center for an Urban Future 11/01

DOES MULTICULTURALISM EXIST? A professor at Pennsylvania State University argues that multiculturalism doesn't exist. His "criticisms of the multiculturalist project are novel precisely because he does not find fault with the tenets of the movement, but doubts the very existence of multiculturalism in American life. True multiculturalism, he argues, would demand an understanding of and immersion in cultures so radically different that deference to all of them would cause major rifts in society." Partisan Review 11/01

TELLING THE FUTURE: "In a funny turn, trends are a hot, new trend. Trend-spotting – the art and science of identifying new trends and predicting future trends – is a booming industry filled by a swelling rank of new professionals who go by a grab bag of titles. Trend-spotter, cool-hunter, pop futurist – all these new-fangled terms to describe what amounts to one of the world's oldest professions: fortune-telling." Dallas Morning News 11/24/01

TEACHING HUMANITIES IN A TIME OF WAR: "When colleagues and graduate students who are teaching this term gather, the conversation often turns to how to bridge the chasm between the syllabus - whatever it contains - and the students who are looking for help in figuring out how to sustain a humane connection to a world that's overwhelming them. I listen to these conversations, then I look at recent issues of scholarly journals in my field, and I feel as if I'm in two different worlds. For years, literary scholarship has been refining the art of stepping away from humane connection." Chronicle of Higher Education 11/19/01

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10. FOR FUN 
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#forfun 
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SELLING CENSORSHIP: After a Baltimore radio talk show host attacked Andres Serrano's Piss Christ earlier this month for "defiling a sacred image" and denounced the Baltimore Museum of Art for selling post cards of the image, a listener bought the museum store's remaining 13 post cards "to prevent anyone else from being offended by the controversial photograph. You could call that a form of private censorship, since the person who bought the images did so for the sole purpose of precluding anyone else from seeing them. But it raises a knotty problem for whoever took them off the market: Now what? Destroy them? Keep them? Return them to the publisher?" Baltimore Sun 11/20/01

 

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