Okay - we're back online. Power has been restored here in Seattle (I understand as many as 1 million people had electrical outages). The tree that met the acquaintance with the back of our house was the most impressive tree in our neighborhood. It was more than 100 years old and the trunk is wide enough to require two people linking hands to circle the base (if you were inclined to do such a thing). It is a crazy puzzle tree, with massive trunks going in all directions. It was always an unlikely bit of geometry, but it was magnificent. The … [Read more...]

Doug: I hope you got some sleep and are dug out, as it were. As for audiences: I agree, sheep-like behavior masking a lack of conviction is bad however it's manifested, and if today it's manifested as automatic standing ovations, we're agin 'em. As for my hippie roots: I was never a real hippie, whatever my parents thought. I was too busy studying (or not) for my Ph.D. orals, writing my dissertation, going to the opera and rock concerts, doing radio programs, seeking love (or its carnal equivalent) and dancing with Ann(a) Halprin, tho some of … [Read more...]

Doug: Geez, with all due respect to Art, I would think a tree, a storm, a roof, power and family safety might just for the moment trump this conversation. I'll respond to the rest of your 3 a.m. posting in a bit. Looking forward to your next message, but take care of priorities! … [Read more...]

John: I had a response all but set to publish tonight when suddenly there was a huge crash and a 60-foot cedar from our neighbor's yard toppled down and smashed the back of our house. Unfortunately there's still about a third of this huge tree standing over our house, there's a major wind storm blowing, and the entire neighborhood is without power. Plus we've got flooding in the basement. Afraid that the rest of the tree will fall right on our bedroom, we have vacated to a nearby motel, where I am tapping this out in the bathroom on my laptop … [Read more...]

Doug: The issue of audience sophistication and naivety is bound up with the democratization of the arts. The ideal, for those who believe the arts have been dumbed down by yahoo audiences (meaning rubes, not subscribers to that estimable e-mail etc. site), is of a Leo Straussian elite, guardians of the refined secrets of art surrounded and threatened by a roiling mass of dopes who can never be expected to appreciate the Finer Things. Who offer standing ovations as a Pavlovian response to most anything. And who wait for the authoritative voice … [Read more...]

John: Point taken - I'll try to focus this entry on more or less one idea. The other day I was a guest on a CBC radio show as part of a panel talking about "applause inflation." Of course it does seem that all anyone has to do anymore is walk on stage and get off without tripping over themselves to earn a standing O. Some people are upset that audiences give it up too easily, that their standards have slipped, that what used to be reserved for special occasions is now demeaned by over-use. Now, I have to confess I'm one of the stubborn sitters … [Read more...]

Doug: By actual count there are 4,217 really good ideas in your five paragraphs. Well, maybe one or two less, but they're all piquant and deserve response. Here's a start: Just as artists resent others laying their taste/biases/criteria on them, so might critics object when artists (or their enabling presenters, and I was one of those too) want the critics to genuflect before their own taste/etc. Artists are entitled to make art any which way. Critics can respond any which way, though art is more important than criticism and thus that artists … [Read more...]

For the next week, critic John Rockwell will be joining me in a conversation on ArtsJournal. John started working at the New York Times as a critic in 1972, and is currently the paper's chief dance critic. He was also the paper's first pop music critic, wrote extensively about classical music, invented a "job" prowling the capitals of Europe and writing about what he found interesting, and edited the Sunday Arts & Leisure section. For a few years in the 90s away from the Times, he ran the Lincoln Center Festival. In a few weeks he'll be … [Read more...]

We've had lots of comments on the new design for ArtsJournal - many of them positive - and then a full-throated chorus of those who find the new look wanting (ouch). I've changed a number of things based on these comments. The biggest change is restoring the topic groupings to the newsletters. Many complained that it was more difficult to scan the stories when they weren't grouped by topic. I'm going to stick for now to the mixed stories on the main page. I think it provides an easier scan of what's been updated, and anyone looking to see … [Read more...]

Actually it's more than just a new look. The entire website has been rebuilt from the ground up. Why change something that's simple and easy to use and has worked well for the past four years? Content management systems have advanced considerably since we last rebuilt ArtsJournal, and the new system will allow us more flexibility in compiling and delivering ArtsJournal. New News Format The first thing you may notice is that the traditional AJ news section is no longer segregated by topic on the home page. Insted, each story posts in the order … [Read more...]