IDEAS
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Learning To Love Literature - Are Today's Students More Sophisticated? Andrew Motion, the poet laureate, recently attacked the way English is taught in schools. He attacked the "educational rat wheel" that taught young people to read set texts and pass exams, but did not teach them to love literature, and gave a list of classics his students did not know. But maybe instead of leaning great literature by rote, today's students are better, not less, equipped to read. Perhaps "it is unrealistic to expect A-level students to have read great swaths of English literature." Maybe "schools can only give them their bearings and an ability to read the compass if they want to make the journey later. It's making it accessible and saying 'you have got the skills to go away and read anything - and you will cope with it, you will make sense of it, you will enjoy it'." The Guardian (UK) 04/01/03
Art As Therapy "In contemporary culture, the idea that the practice of art making is inherently beneficial to the human psyche is a surprisingly controversial one. It is only slightly less verboten in the mental-health professions, where it is grudgingly accorded a support role to more serious verbal or pharmaceutical therapies, with the caveat that if things get too touchy-feely, it's back to kindergarten with the finger paints and the modeling clay. Nevertheless, due to its repeatedly demonstrated effectiveness, art therapy has managed to adapt itself to every corner of the mental-health profession." LAWeekly 04/03/03
Can Tragedy Live In Today's World? There was a time when tragedy meant something. Now it describes missteps of the most trivial nature. On the other hand - have critics elevated notions of classic tragedy too high? "It is the critics who have disdained modern life's suitability for the tragic mode, and have made an aesthetic virtue out of suffering in the past, persuading themselves that what was horrible then can be metaphysically pleasing now and that present-day suffering is undignified and uninteresting. Past pain is thus sanitised while that of the present is dismissed as beneath attention - a useful strategy for those who have lived through the bloodiest century in human history and would prefer not to look at it too closely." The Guardian (UK) 04/01/03
From Apolitical To Artistic Activism "For the past decade, the New York art world seemed to have retreated into an exceptionally apolitical version of postmodernism, convinced by a combination of theory and action movies that a digitally enhanced future would favor spectacle over reality. Now, with the advent of an all-too-real war presented as mere spectacle by television, artists are suddenly faced with the very surrealistic task of making reality real. So it's not surprising to see—both in works on view at galleries and in the strategies of the burgeoning anti-war activists — a reprisal of the imagery and the sincerity of earlier periods of art history." Village Voice 04/01/03
A Marketplace of Reputation Of what are artistic fortunes made? Why do some artists' reputations move up, while others fall? "Beethoven has definitely slumped as Mozart has soared. Is this because we prefer humane elegance to transcendental striving - or is the potent myth-making of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus to blame? When I was a student 25 years ago, E M Forster was considered among the most profound and influential of 20th-century novelists. Now that homosexuality is no longer much of a battleground, his liberal humanism holds little appeal, and we have become mesmerised by the more aggressive complexities of Kipling instead." The Telegraph (UK) 04/02/03
Are Our Universities Being Bought? "Just how far have industrial sponsors actually gone in seeking to use higher-education institutions and professors for their own commercial ends? How willing have universities been to accept money at the cost of compromising values central to the academic enterprise? Now more than ever, they [universities] have become the principal source of the three most important ingredients of progress in a modern, industrial society: expert knowledge, highly educated people, and scientific discoveries. At the same time - in a depressed economy, with the federal budget heavily in deficit and state governments cutting investments in higher education - campus officials are confronting a chronic shortage of money to satisfy the demands of students, faculty members, and other constituencies." Chronicle of Higher Education 04/04/03
ARTS ISSUES
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As Dana Gioia Sees His New Job... In the latest of a series of interviews this week, new National Endowment for the Arts chairman Daniel Gioia says: "The worst thing I could do is come to Washington and pontificate on things artistic and political. I plan to serve by building a huge new consensus to support the arts. I am not going to do that by dividing people, by polarizing people. Arts education - by which he means broad-based proselytizing for the arts - is not a left or right issue, a Democratic or Republican issue. It's good civic common sense." Los Angeles Times 04/04/03
- Who Is Dana Gioia? "He is a graduate of Stanford and Harvard who dislikes elitism, a newly minted member of a Republican administration who speaks a Whitmanesque language of populism and free expression. Gioia is also a poet who dresses like the successful businessman he once was (before retiring to be a full-time writer), and his poetry is as immaculate as his suit. Yet there is a strange dissonance between a man in a tie and a mind capable of imaginative excursions into the head of a young killer or the heart of a lonely woman. It's glib, however, to say he's a man of contradictions." Washington Post 04/04/03
Decline In Lottery Funding = Decline In Architecture? As lottery funding for the arts declines in the UK, "architects and planners are anxious that the fall in this source of funding could reimpose conformity and 'cheapest option' building which marked many big public projects in pre-lottery days." The Guardian (UK) 04/04/03
Is It Okay To Be Entertained While There's A War Going On? "Anecdotal evidence and a slumping box office indicate many Americans are feeling conflicted about the luxury of leisure. After two weeks of war, many are torn between an obligation to be informed and the need to take a break from it. Observers say that, people's short-term reactions will probably center on a desire to be entertained, rather than creating high art. They add that it will take years - even decades - before the fine arts respond either to the war or to cultural shifts brought on by it and, even more profoundly, by Sept. 11." Christian Science Monitor 04/04/03
LA's Uber-Underground "L.A.'s notoriously fragmented underground nightlife is coagulating more often lately, producing a new category, an über-category, if you will, of event where everyone - the Punks, the Desert People, the Anthropologists, the Beat Junkies and the Hip-Hop Kids and Artists - can find something." Los Angeles Times 04/03/03
Australia Ponders Arts Funding Cuts The Australian has concluded a review of its arts spending, and will likely make funding cuts for the country's major arts institutions. "The 15 institutions reviewed receive $75 million a year for depreciation of their buildings, equipment and collections. The institutions include the National Gallery of Australia, the National Library, the Australian Film Commission and the National Portrait Gallery, and all have been apprehensive since late last year when the Government confirmed a review of funding had started." The Age (Melbourne) 04/03/03
The Arts - Where We Go From Here? Challenges for the performing arts are everywhere. Musical America talks with notable figures in the arts world to get a view of the future... Musical America 2002
Instant Messaging Is Eroding Kids' Writing Skills Parent and many educators are becoming "increasingly alarmed by the effect of Internet communication on the writing skills of U.S. teens, who spend an average of 12 hours a week online, according to an America Online survey. Much of that time is spent exchanging 'instant messages' with software offered by AOL, Yahoo and MSN. This informal instant communication lends itself to linguistic shortcuts, shoddy grammar and inappropriate or absent punctuation." USAToday 04/01/03
Art Of Protest "In recent months, Bay Area peace activists have infused their dissent with creativity, bringing music, elaborate costumes, sculpture, guerrilla theater and performance art to numerous rallies, marches and vigils. The predominance of art has allowed activists to cross language and cultural barriers and has added spunk, humor and powerful visual images to events that used to be filled with long speeches and chanting. At times, the artwork has diffused tense confrontations with police." San Jose Mercury-News 04/01/03
War Is Good For Art? War may be terrible, but it’s good for art, writes Jan Dalley. The 20th Century “produced in the western world a rich array of art inspired by war, and invented or exploited new art forms with which artists of all sorts could express their responses. War is, let's face it, a great subject. And once the subject was liberated from the constraints of previous centuries - that was, the adherence to right-thinking patriotic norms that demanded unconditional and uncritical support ("my country right or wrong") - there was a flowering of art in response to conflict.” Financial Times 03/28/03
Saving Music Education? With budget cuts across America, music education programs are being cut. Supporters are rallying to try to save them, but it's a hard sellRecognizing that parents nationwide are facing the same battle, a coalition of national music groups launched a new Web site this month to help them make their case. SupportMusic.com provides local groups with research and tips. San Jose Mercury-News 03/31/03
DANCE
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Nureyev Was My Mentor... Royal Ballet star Sylvie Guillem had a special connection to Rudoph Nureyev. "Guillem was one of the dancers who benefited most dramatically from Nureyev's mission to galvanise the Paris Opera. Her talent was let off the leash by the radical new repertory he commissioned and her ambition could barely keep pace with the speed at which he promoted her. Sometimes, however, she found Nureyev's style disorienting. She thought he was pushing her too fast into some roles while withholding others from her." The Guardian (UK) 04/04/03
Prince Charles Named President Of Royal Ballet Prince Charles has become president of the Royal Ballet in London. "The prince is taking on the role previously held by his late aunt, Princess Margaret, the ballet announced on Thursday. The prince is well-known for his broad love of the arts, enjoying contemporary movies, rock concerts and stage shows as much as classical entertainment." BBC 04/03/03
Tharp On The Move Twyla Tharp is busy these days with several projects at once. But, she tells Frank Rizzo, "Multi-tasking is not healthy. Nor is it ultimately productive. I don't look at [what I do] as multi-tasking. I look at it as quick shifts of gear." Does she miss having a home base to work out of? "What is this word `home' you keep using?" It would be a lovely thing, but I never had a home. I'm basically still moving from studio to studio..." Hartford Courant 04/03/03
Where Is Mark Morris Heading? A series of Mark Morris performances leaves Robert Gottlieb wondering which direction the choreographer is headed. Morris "seems to have reached a difficult moment in his creative life. It’s clear now that he hopes to absorb everything in the universe, but his response to his latest interests is less full and resonating than his response in his early years to the work of Handel, Bach, Vivaldi, Purcell, Monteverdi. Their music, you feel, is where he really lives. Morris is now at the age Balanchine was when New York City Ballet came into existence, with Apollo, Serenade, Concerto Barocco, Symphony in C behind him and 35 years of masterpieces to go." Morris "throws himself at new enthusiasms, digests them, and moves on. This season suggests, at least to me, that he doesn’t yet know what he’s moving on to. He’s as fecund as ever, and as fluent, but not as focused." New York Observer 04/02/03
New Funding For UK Dance Education The British government has decided to inject new funding for dance education. "The £3 million package for music and dance announced by the education secretary, Charles Clarke, will make sure that hip-hop and street dance are promoted alongside jazz, tap and ballet. Although dancing is a compulsory part of the primary school curriculum it is rarely taught by specialists and lags far behind music in popularity." The Guardian (UK) 04/02/03
MEDIA
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The Dictator's Filmmaker "North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il has a passion for cinema. But he could never find a director to realise his vision. So he kidnapped one from the South, jailed him and fed him grass, then forced him to shoot a socialist Godzilla..." The Guardian (UK) 04/04/03
War Games - Ultimate Reality TV The unprecedented convergence of up-close access to troops and new whiz-bang tools of the TV trade has turned many living rooms into domestic war theaters. And as the coverage marches on, opinions of it are firing back. "We're watching this war as though it was a video game. It seems to be an entertainment instead of war coverage," Dallas Morning-News 04/03/03
Radio Industry Survey: Americans Happy With Radio Programming The American radio industry, working to get Congress to relax rules on ownership even more, releases a study that says most Americans like the radio they get now, proving, the industry says, that ownership consolidation hasn't harmed programming. "Among 1,203 surveyed adults, says Zogby, 81% are satisfied with their local radio. A third of poll respondents reportedly said there is more diversity now than there was five years ago, while 40% said they hear about the same and 17% said there is less." New York Daily News 04/03/03
TV - More Choice Leads To Shorter Attention Spans "Today's teens are growing up in a far more varied and alluring entertainment environment than previous generations - a world offering endless video games, the Internet and hundreds of cable channels. They're used to getting what they want when they want it. So they're impatient. They move around a lot. They have short attention spans." Chicago Tribune 04/03/03
Toronto FilmFest's New Home Unveiled "The new, year-round home of the Toronto International Film Festival, scheduled to open by September 2006, will be a four to six-storey 'podium' at the base of a condominium tower that could be as high as 38 storeys. [But] details of the festival's home and the tower it will anchor were sketchy at a well-attended media conference yesterday announcing the start of a $120-million capital/endowment campaign for the TIFF facility, currently being called Festival Centre." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/02/03
So Is This The War, Or A Very Special "Fear Factor"? The ever-increasing blur between news and entertainment on television is either fascinating or horrifying, depending on how you look at it. With 'reality' shows competing with actual reality for viewer's eyeballs, watching TV has become intensely disturbing and confusing. "On the one hand, CNN presents strategic maneuvers in Iraq as if it's covering the Olympic Games; on the other hand, paratroopers - I mean contestants - take the leap for cash prizes on NBC's 'Fear Factor.' It's one big interwoven mesh of reality, unreality, and - when it comes to 'Flipper'-like news segments on mine-sensing dolphins - surreality." Boston Globe 04/02/03
NPR - Is Growing 300 New Member Stations Reasonable? National Public Radio has ambitious goals - 300 new member stations and 5 million new listeners by 2010. But where are they going to come from? "In today's crowded radio market, increasing the number of NPR stations by half can seem far out of reach. Most large and medium markets lack room for new frequencies. Licensees such as state universities have no money to buy frequencies anyway." Current 03/24/03
Clear Channel Accused Of War-Mongering American radio giant Clear Channel Communicarions "finds itself fending off a new set of accusations: that the company is using its considerable market power to drum up support for the war in Iraq, while muzzling musicians who oppose it." Is Clear Channel keeping musicians with political opinions of which the company disapproves off its stations? The New York Times 03/31/03
MUSIC
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Deal On Webcasting Royalties The recording indsurty and bug webcasters have made a deal on royalty rates for internet music streaming. "The two sides agreed Thursday on how much big webcasters like Yahoo!, America Online, Microsoft and RealNetworks must pay to broadcast songs over the Internet during 2003 and 2004. The new deal, if approved by the U.S. Copyright Office, will allow the two industries to avoid a lengthy arbitration process to set the royalty rates." Washington Post (AP) 04/04/03
Recording Industry Sues Students For File Trading The recording industry has sued four students who run Napster-like file-sharing sites at three universities. "The suits ask for the highest damages allowable by law, which range up to $150,000 per copyright infringement or, in other words, per pirated song. If awarded, the judgments could run in the millions of dollars. 'Frankly, we are hopeful this round of lawsuits will send a message to others that they should immediately cease and desist'." Washington Post 04/04/03
San Antonio Symphony Misses Another Payroll The San Antonio Symphony has paid its back-owed payroll, but then failed to make payroll this week. "The symphony office has begun calling early subscribers to let them know the money they've paid for next season will be needed now." San Antonio Express-News 04/02/03
Fistful Of Bohemes In the past ten years, American opera companies have staged 189 productions of Puccini's "La Boheme". This weekend, New Yorkers have their choice of three Bohemes - at the Met, at New York City Opera, and on Broadway... Anthony Tommasini checks off the goods and bads... The New York Times 04/04/03
Carnegie Hall's New Hall Carnegie is opening a new, $100 million 644-seat third concert hall, underneath its main auditorium. "The hall is preparing to open at a difficult period for the arts, when the weak economy has hurt charitable giving and advance ticket sales. Indeed, Carnegie Hall delayed Zankel Hall's opening for a year because of the difficult economic climate after the terrorist attacks. Budgeted at $50 million, the new hall eventually cost twice that; all the money has been raised." The New York Times 04/03/03
Getting Down With Classical Music "Recently, there have been signs all over the place that the wall between classical and rock music is finally beginning to crumble. If much of this development is due to the rise of a better class of rockers who have warmed up to Olivier Messiaen, a lot of it is also owed to an eagerness by young classical musicians to get down and lighten up. Not surprisingly, the classical prime movers are two California maestros — [LA Philharmonic conductor Esa-Pekka] Salonen in Los Angeles and his counterpart with the San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas—and the Golden State’s unofficial composer in residence, John Adams." New York Observer 04/02/03
Paris Opera Pulls Newspaper Ads Over Bad Reviews The Paris Opera has been getting bad reviews from critics of the newspaper Le Monde. So the company has pulled its advertising from the paper. "Le Monde appreciates almost none of our productions, with its critics describing the Opera's current productions as 'old-fashioned' and lacking all spirit of innovation. In these conditions it would be inhuman to impose paid advertisements on Le Monde inviting the public to see shows it condemns so forcefully." Expatica 04/02/03
Houston Symphony Musicians End Strike Musicians of the Houston Symphony have ratified a new contract, ending their 23-day strike. "The players made significant financial concessions. They include a reduction in annual minimum salary in the first three seasons covered by the agreement, achieved via unpaid furloughs of from one to three weeks per year. The agreement expires Sept. 30, 2006. However, the two sides agreed that salaries will return to the median of all full-time United States orchestras in the following contract." Houston Chronicle 04/01/03
Alabama Symphony: Riding Out The Storm Five years ago the Alabama Symphony was in bankruptcy. And with no executive director currently and a music director preparing to depart, ticket sales and endowment down, the orchestra is working hard to keep things going. "Yet in the face of reports nationwide of unprecedented deficits, curtailed seasons, canceled concerts, layoffs and bankruptcies, ASO is holding up quite nicely, thanks to loyal support from corporate sponsors and dedicated board members and musicians." Birmingham News 03/31/03
Classical Chill? Throw It Back In The Deep Freeze Rupert Christiansen ventures to a London club to sample the new phenomenon of "chill" music. "It sounded vile. I hasten to add that I write this without prejudice. I may be the paper's opera critic, but I am not a musical purist. Some opera bores me rigid, and there's plenty of rock and pop, from the Beach Boys to Coldplay, that I adore. But, as demonstrated by Anne Dudley and the BBC Concert Orchestra, classical chillout struck me as execrable. The Trades Description Act should be invoked: classical fallout would be a more appropriate and accurate title. Essentially, the two-hour performance consisted of nothing more than a medley of tunes mangled through samplers and synthesisers and then spewed out at a pitch of amplified volume associated with nuclear explosions." The Telegraph (UK) 04/01/03
Music And Meaning - These Notes Mean Something As good a movie as Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" is, it fails in representing the music, writes David Patrick Stearns. "How could anybody emerge from five horrific years of hard labor and starvation in World War II Warsaw with such clean, crisp, emotionally unclouded renditions of Chopin?" The answer? They couldn't, and the real-life Wladyslaw Szpilman, whose memoir was the basis of the film, was profoundly changed, and with it his performances. "Such performances gain impact because the music's lack of specificity allows it to be invaded by meaning in unpremeditated ways. Popular music, in contrast, has a verbal element that can serve as a political rallying point, but one that can render the music obsolete." Philadelphia Inquirer 03/30/03
How "The Pianist" Lit Up The Oscars How did a film that only grossed $20 million come away with big Oscar wins? "As usual in Hollywood, marketing and politics played just as big a role in this success story as the evident quality of the film." Newsweek 04/07/03
Sony Will Lay Off 1000 Sony CEO Andy Lack, who succeeded Thomas D. Mottola about three months ago, "plans to eliminate 1,000 jobs in the United States and abroad as part of a broad cost-reduction plan that would try to cut expenses by more than $100 million a year, people close to the company said yesterday." The New York Times 03/31/03
Nervous Tension It had been 30 years since Roy McDonald had played as an extra in Ottawa's National Arts Center Orchestra. So when he was asked to audition for an extra role in Symphony Nova Scotia, he was flattered...and a lot nervous. But "I was told the audition would be casual, which I incorrectly interpreted to mean friendly. I pictured me and the conductor in a brightly lit rehearsal hall - introductions would be made, smiles, a couple of handshakes, and then someone would say, 'OK, Mr. McDonald, let's hear you take a whack at the Beethoven.' I had also imagined I would steadfastly avoid falling into the trap of getting nervous: I had nothing to lose." Boy was he wrong. National Post (Canada) 03/31/03
Sony CEO: CD Sales Could Drop 15% In 2003 Andy Lack, the new CEO of Sony, says that his company predicts that CD sales will fall 15 percent this year. "We've prepared for a scenario that acknowledges that industry sales may be down as much as 13-15 per cent this year." The drop in sales could lead to layoffs of 1000 employees this year. Yahoo! (Reuters) 03/30/03
Where Did All The Critics Go? "Time was you knew where you stood with pop critics. There were certain bylines in the pop press that you could trust with your life, and more importantly, with the future health of your record collection. What strikes me about pop criticism of late - and this afflicts the broadsheets as well - is the tyranny of received opinion. What gives here? Maybe writers are too hidebound by the notion of providing their readers with glorified consumer guides rather informed criticism. Maybe the sheer doggedness of the reviewer's task dulls the senses, precludes reflection and encourages the quick response. Are there so many mediocre albums coming out that, were reviewers to be honest, their negativity would send readers scurrying to the news section in search of some light relief?" The Observer (UK) 03/30/03
PEOPLE
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Michael Kelly, 46 Michael Kelly, editor-at-large of the Atlantic Monthly, has been killed in a Humvee accident in Iraq. "Kelly is credited with revitalizing the respected but sometimes dull Atlantic, which won three National Magazine Awards last year and carried many high-profile cover stories, including a three-part series on the cleanup of the World Trade Center site. He took the reins after Washington businessman David Bradley bought the Atlantic from Mort Zuckerman in 1999. Kelly stepped down as editor last fall and also planned to write a book about the history of the steel industry." Washington Post 04/04/03
SaatchiWorld Who is Charles Saatchi? The most important figure in British art in the 1990s. The Guardian has packaged a portrait of Saatchi - the artists he's discovered and helped, the art he's championed... The Guardian (UK) 04/04/03
Lessons From L'affaire Quincy Troupe Quincy Troupe's fall from his position at the University of California, San Diego after he lied on his resume "raises questions about whether academic credentials really matter in certain fields, like poetry and art. Should one lie ruin someone's credibility and career? Some say there's no question that it should. Plagiarism, faking academic credentials, stealing research - all deal a serious blow to academic integrity, and a high price must be exacted. Mr. Troupe is hardly the first professor or college administrator to be caught fabricating his résumé." Chronicle of Higher Education 04/04/03
Margaret Atwood: What's With America? Margaret Atwood is a a great admirer of America. Or at least she used to be. "You were Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront, you were Humphrey Bogart in Key Largo, you were Lillian Gish in Night of the Hunter. You stood up for freedom, honesty and justice; you protected the innocent. I believed most of that. I think you did, too. It seemed true at the time. You are not only our neighbours: In many cases - mine, for instance - you are also our blood relations, our colleagues, and our personal friends. But although we've had a ringside seat, we've never understood you completely, up here north of the 49th parallel." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/01/03
PUBLISHING
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The Danger That Is McSweeney's "The 'New Yorker short story' is no longer the hegemon it may once have been. In fact, this collection of 'thrilling tales' actually serves as a more effective counterbalance to an entirely new phenomenon. Call it the 'McSweeney's short story' — younger and hipper and more experimental, but no less influential. In some ways, McSweeney's has been a useful counterpoint to the mainstream publishing scene. Regardless of whether its self-referential play is to your taste, it's the first bona fide literary movement in decades—with all the old-fashioned energy that such a term implies. But the quality of the work inside McSweeney's has yet to live up to the promise of the magazine's gloriously designed packaging." Slate 04/03/03
Classics: Where The Money Is "Measured against a best seller in its first flush, sales of any classic book are piddling, of course (unless the classic has just been made into a blockbuster movie, in which case all bets are off). But the overall sales picture resembles the proverbial tortoise-and-hare scenario: As the race goes on, the classics win out. This may seem intuitive; but what's surprising is that often the race doesn't have to go on long at all." Slate 04/02/03
Are We Reading More Poetry Than We Used To? "On almost any day these days, somewhere in Chicago and its suburbs, a poet is conducting a reading. A poet in residence is opening a world of words to a class of wide-eyed 5th graders. An editor in a cluttered, cramped home office is lovingly cobbling together a poetry journal that will be seen by a tiny audience appreciative of its presence, concerned for its survival. A boisterous bar crowd is giving encouraging applause or withering hisses to contestants in a poetry slam. "That sure wasn't the case in the '70s or '80s. Every once in a while, there'd be a reading, but not all that often." Chicago Tribune 04/01/03
Study: As Book Review Space Declines So Do Book Sales The book business is hurting in Canada. Could it partly be because book review space in newspapers is shrinking? A survey of eight major Canadian papers (including four owned by the CanWest chain) found that "in the CanWest papers, 14 per cent fewer books were reviewed last year than five years earlier. The decline at CanWest most keenly affected Canadian authors, who received half the reviews in 1997 but only 42 per cent of a smaller total last year. Books from small presses were 18 per cent of 1997 reviews at the CanWest papers, versus 11 per cent in 2002. Reviews in the other four papers rose by 17 per cent over the same period. The Star published 100 reviews over three months last year (a 1 per cent increase), the Globe & Mail published 155 (up by 2 per cent), while the Halifax Chronicle Herald tripled its reviews from 19 to 57." Toronto Star 04/01/03
The Cool New Magazine A new magazine started showing up in bookstores last week. "In lieu of a title page, there is an unsigned list of the monthly magazine's intentions, including a 'focus on writers and books we like' and a nod to 'the concept of the Inherent Good'; and an editor says they also hope to include an interview with a philosopher in every issue. On the back cover, there is only a small hint at the cool orbit in which the Believer already spins." It's the new McSweeney's endeavor... Los Angeles Times 03/31/03
Examining The Poetics Of Protest On March 5, Poets Against The War presented Congress with 13,000 poems protesting the drive to war on Iraq. "To say that this was an unprecedented publishing event is putting it mildly. It may have been the beginning of a sea change—not only in the way that poems are published and circulated, but in the way that they are thought of in terms of their cultural role. The presentation capped off the most visible organized poetic protest against war with Iraq." Publishers Weekly 03/31/03
The Poetic Pope The Pope has published another book of poetry. So how is it? Dan Chiasson is impressed: "It's hard to get a sense of the pope's poetics, in the broadest sense, but I can say that he seems to favor end-stopped vers libre—surprising, given his investment elsewhere in order and hierarchy. There are biblical cadences, to be sure, but mostly the poems strike the secular-didactic tone of self-help literature. Very little hellfire; what we get instead is mostly 'Chicken Soup for the Aging Pontiff's Soul.' Still, what I've read of 'Roman Triptych' is rather good, in the way most celebrity poetry is rather good." Slate 03/31/03
THEATRE
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Seattle Rep Cuts Staff, Season Seattle Repertory Theatre is the latest arts organization to make cutbacks. "Managing director Benjamin Moore said a full-time work force of 102 annual and seasonal employees will go down to 93, and the number of productions next season will decline from nine to six. Moore is projecting income of between $6.5 million and $7 million next season, down from revenues of $8 million this year." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 04/04/03
Pasadena Playhouse - How One Theatre Makes The Cut Pasadena Playhouse is cutting staff and changing its schedule in an attempt to shore up its budget. "Donations to the playhouse in 2002 fell short of a $1.4-million goal by $300,000, and the 2003 season has attracted 9,842 subscribers, compared to 11,249 at this time last year. As a result, out of 43 full- or part-time staffers, 10 whose salaries were higher than $35,000 took temporary pay cuts of 20% starting in late January. Two box office workers were laid off, after the box office and telemarketing offices were merged. The playhouse's director of development left in February and has not yet been replaced. The playhouse's publications editor was laid off, a publicity firm's contract was not renewed, and the playhouse newsletter was suspended." Los Angeles Times 04/04/03
Cast Travels To O'Neill's Home For a Touch Of Reality The Broadway cast of Eugene O'Neill's "A Long Day's Journey Into Night" - including Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Dennehy - take a field trip to Connecticut to visit the playwright's childhood home. "It's nice for me to have certain things here in my head. It just gives me a visceral sense of what things mean. Like when [the character of the younger son, Edmund, says], `I don't want to go upstairs until she's gone to bed,' suddenly means something else when you've seen how oppressive the ceilings are. Suddenly you have a mental picture for what it means to these boys to go upstairs. Of course, I'd stay up until 4 in the morning drinking if it meant avoiding going up there." Hartford Courant 04/03/03
The Broadway Producer Who Made It Broadway producer Cy Feuer's memoir of life in the theatre is the classic American story. It's an old - and compelling - message: "This is America, where any kid can become president, or at least producer of "Guys and Dolls," "Can-Can," "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" and "Cabaret." That's what Cy Feuer did."
Washington Post 04/03/03
Seattle's ACT Theatre Raises Half Of The Money Needed To Stay Open Seattle's ACT Theatre, which declared an emergency and said it would close if it wasn't able to raise $1.5 million, says it has raised half the money. "The theater has received pledges of $750,000 out of the $1.5 million needed to keep the organization going. That amount includes gifts of $5,000 to $100,000 from 15 individual donors, all Seattle-area residents. "We're cautiously optimistic about making our goal of raising the full $1.5 million by April 15. We've approached people in a very targeted way and have actually heard only one 'no.' Everybody else has said yes'."
Seattle Times 04/03/03
Broadway Box Office Down Broadway box office was down in the second week of the war (is there really a connection between how many tickets Broadway sells and the war on Iraq?). Anyway..."Total box-office receipts for the 27 shows on Broadway skidded to $12.5 million, down from nearly $12.9 million the previous week." Hartford Courant (AP) 04/02/03
Scottish Minister Announces A New National Theatre - Critics Laugh The Scottish culture minister promises that the government will fund the long-awaited National Theatre in the next session of parliament. Ha! roar the government's critics. That's what the government promised at the last election. "Opposition politicians said the timing of the announcement, in the run up to the election, smacked of political opportunism rather than any real desire to invest in the arts. Critics also pointed out that the establishment of a national theatre was a key policy commitment of Labour’s first term in office. Its abandonment has been seen as one of the key failures of the Scottish Executive." The Scotsman 03/31/03
Closing Notice For "Urban Cowboy"...Uh, Forget that - We're Staying Open... The musical 'Urban Cowboy' opened Thursday to bad reviews. On Frida, producers decided to close the show Saturday. Then changed their minds on Saturday. "For the better part of Broadway's history, shows regularly closed after one or two performances. In recent times, however, it has been highly unusual for a Broadway musical to close in one weekend, no matter how damning the reviews. Even shows with scathing notices, like this season's $12 million flop, 'Dance of the Vampires,' can eke out a few weeks and have enough cushion money to run television advertisements to fight reviews." The New York Times 03/31/03
A Revolution In Stage Design For The 21st Century New 3-D computer technology is about to revolutionize the live stage. With it, designers can create sets that would be impossible to afford otherwise. "Britain’s most wanted stage designer reckons his use of 3-D computer animation will transform theatre for the 21st century, and his claims cannot be doubted by anyone who saw his set for Tom Stoppard’s epic Russian trilogy The Coast of Utopia at the National Theatre." The Times (UK) 03/31/03
VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/visualarts
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A Graffiti Park? Lock 'Em Up And Throw Away The Key A Los Angeles group holds a graffiti party and want to build an "aerosol art park with an art supply store and big canvas panels. Once embraced by the mainstream and given a legal place to work, poor graffiti artists could stop risking their lives tagging freeway signs and start holding museum openings." But a Los Angeles Times editorial makes fun of the idea: "Please, hold the breathless praise for graffiti artists.' They have defaced the sides of too many elementary schools, scarred the trunks of beautiful old sycamores, destroyed sorely needed benches in already scarce parks. In neighborhoods used as canvases for graffiti, people tend to call it vandalism, not art. They don't throw a party; they call the police." Los Angeles Times 04/04/03
Security Concerns Strand Seattle Sculpture One of Seattle's most-loved sculptures - and the namesake for Seattle band Soundgarden - is on the grounds of a government facility - the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration campus. That means, since September 11, the public has not had access to it because of increased security. And the sculpture is degrading, because NOAA doesn't have a budget for upkeep. So what will happen to an important piece of public art? "We're not a museum. Taking care of art is not a priority. We're not going to let any of these sculptures fall over, but our mission is science and research, not art." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 04/04/03
Only In LA - Underground Parking Lot Art Three Los Angeles artists are "using military GPS technology to create a new kind of art form - the urban story space." They've staked out a patch of land in the city and "visitors to the site are given headphones, a handheld global positioning system (GPS) device, and a tablet PC with special software to help guide them around the industrial landscape, which was a vital area during the early to mid-20th century.The equipment works much like the headphones with wands that museums supply visitors for tours, but here, the GPS shows people the 'hot spots' of information on a digital map. When visitors stand near a hot spot, the software triggers a story about that site." Christian Science Monitor 04/04/03
Small French Auction Houses Beating The Big Players "When the French Parliament threw open the auction business to competition in 2001, ending a 500-year government monopoly, it seemed certain that the big winners would be Sotheby's and Christie's. The two giants dominate the global market, with more than $2 billion in annual sales each, and have been eager to establish a firm foothold in France. Yet to everyone's surprise, it's private local dealers such as CalmelsCohen, which was founded only last year, that are grabbing the lion's share of the spoils. And investors betting on the liberalization of the $600 million French market for fine arts are lining up to back these upstarts." BusinessWeek 04/07/03
In Memoriam: Piecing Together The World Trade Center "Though New Yorkers have publicly, sometimes acrimoniously, debated how to build memorials to 9/11, people in communities from Fawnskin, Calif., to Franklin, N.J., quietly have been getting to work. Across the nation, they have incorporated World Trade Center steel into more than 250 tributes to the dead. Girders carefully stacked like Lincoln Logs have become the centerpieces of municipal gardens. Church bell towers display an incongruous mix of battered metal and smooth stone. Civic reflecting pools shimmer with wavy images of cold, hard steel." Los Angeles Times 04/02/03
The Saatchi Decade - What Did It Mean? The new Saatchi Gallery is provoking discussion of what all that art of the 90s meant. "In the past 10 years, as never before, art has been seeking attention, getting itself noticed, making it big. Once it was an elevated but hardly obtrusive feature of the landscape, dropping the occasional branch in the public road (those bricks, etc). But since the early 1990s art has arrived with a crash, become one of the fallen trees that block our streets, suddenly massive and unavoidable. Yes, it may have come down in the world a little. But heck, look at the visibility. We all know the names carved in the bark. Damien Hirst. Young British Artists. Sensation. The Turner prize. Tracey Emin. Tate Modern. Serota. Saatchi. What happened? What caused this spectacular arrival, that turned art into one of those things that are understood to be newsworthy with no further explanation, like pop, sport, soaps, supermodels?" The Independent (UK) 04/02/03
Iraq's Treasures - Inevitable Destruction Those hoping Iraq's archaeological treasures won't be destroyed By the American invasion will be disappointed. "There are so many archaeological sites in Iraq that it's like a dart game - wherever you throw a dart, you'll hit a site. Frankly, at this point, wherever the war's soldiers move, they will be doing damage to archaeological terrain." Fort Worth Star-Telegram 04/02/03
- A Record Of Destruction From the Acropolis to the Bamiyan Buddhas - the list of cultural wonders destroyed by war is a long one... Fort Worth Star-Telegrapm 04/02/03
That Shipping & Handling Charge Will Get You Every Time "In the past 18 months, museums' insurance rates have shot up as much as 50 percent, and in New York, where museums borrowing works from abroad have had to buy costly terrorism coverage, they've doubled. At the same time, the price of shipping art is rising, in part because of higher air freight costs and the increased demands of lenders reluctant to let their art travel at a time of global unrest... Those higher costs, coming at a time of budget cuts and drops in revenue, are causing some museums to scale back the number of big touring exhibitions they present and the shows they create with borrowed works." San Francisco Chronicle 04/02/03
Will The Real Bierstadt Please Stand Up? "Missing for nearly 140 years, a painting of the Yosemite Valley by the widely admired landscapist Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) has been found and put on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington — along with two curious copies that at first glance seem indistinguishable from the original." One of the copies is a chromolithographic print of the original, albeit a high-quality one. The other is an actual hand copy by an anonymous New York art student. The Corcoran doesn't go out of its way to point out which painting is the genuine article, but doesn't completely hide it either. The New York Times 04/02/03
Beck's Takes Turn For The Radical This year's Beck's Futures show opening Friday at London's ICA has taken a turn for the radical, writes Andrew Renton. "Just when the four-year-old award appeared to have been bedding in as the alternative Turner, it has reinvented itself with a streamlined short list of artists who are hardly visible outside the art world and hard to define within it..." London Evening Standard 04/01/03
- The Anti-Art Art Competition "This year’s Beck’s Futures, a sort of crazy teenage Turner Prize for grown-ups, is so angrily anti-artworld that most of the artists shortlisted didn’t bother taking any actual art to the exhibition space." The Times (UK) 04/02/03
Attack On Cradle Of Civilization "It may have only a single official Unesco listing but, with 1,000 acknowledged archaeological sites, Iraq is one huge world heritage zone. And on to this in the past few days have poured 740 Tomahawk cruise missiles, 8,000 smart bombs and an unknown number of stupid ones. One of the first acts of the war was an attack on the museum in Saddam's home town of Tikrit. To an Iraqi regime eager for ammunition for propaganda, this was proof of American and British barbarism. The allies preferred to see it as a symbolic strike at the personality cult of Saddam." The Guardian (UK) 04/02/03
Breton's Apartment Broken Up Despite impassioned protests, surrealist Andre Breton's flat in Paris has been emptied and its contents organized for auction. "Thousands of paintings, documents, photographs and personal souvenirs were carried away to warehouses, destroying what was seen as a surrealist work of art in itself." The Observer (UK) 03/30/03
Claim: Artworld Has Passed Saatchi By Is Charles Saatchi struck in the 90s? Some think so, after seeing his new gallery in London. "Art has moved on, declared Philip Dodd, director of the Institute for Contemporary Art, to internet sites that allow angry Iraqis in Baghdad to virtually bomb Washington and London, moaning one-eyed mummies, and performance artists who sew balsawood soles to their feet. I think Saatchi was about a time and a place. His gallery is a monument to the 90s, and a museum in some ways to a time when he dominated the scene." The Guardian (UK) 04/01/03
Defacing Goya Or "Rectifying" Him? Artists known as the Chapman brothers have "drawn demonic clown and puppy heads on each of the victims" on a rare set of prints of Goya's apocalyptic "Disasters of War". "Some experts believe that what the brothers call their 'rectification' of the prints is a fresh spin for the Manga generation. Others do not. Robert Hughes: Goya "will obviously survive these twerps, whose names will be forgotten a few years from now ... Maybe it's time they put Mickey Mouse heads on the Sistine Chapel." The Guardian (UK) 04/01/03
- Defacing Goya Prints "Two years ago, the Chapmans bought a complete set of what has become the most revered series of prints in existence, Goya's Disasters of War. It is a first-rate, mint condition set of 80 etchings printed from the artist's plates. In terms of print connoisseurship, in terms of art history, in any terms, this is a treasure - and they have vandalised it." The Guardian (UK) 03/31/03
Art Deco As A State Of Mind Art Deco was one of the most pervasive styles of the modern era. “But what is art deco? It is easier to say what it isn't, for there was never any coherent theory, principle or aesthetic to it, nor any clear and particular source. Art deco, if anything, was simply the celebration of eclecticism as a virtue and stylistic opportunism as a principle. It scoured the world and the ages for its sources, from tribal Africa to Japan, and ancient Egypt to Peru, and then looked to contemporary high art, to cubism, futurism and the Ballets Russes for present excitements and stimulation.” Financial Times 03/31/03
Interest In Iraq Art Soars The British Museum reports that visits to its Iraqi exhibitions have tripled since the war on Iraq began. The British Museum has the greatest collection of Mesopotamian art outside Iraq. A spokeswoman confirmed that visits to its Mesopotamian and Assyrian galleries had risen significantly. 'It's just general curiosity from what's going on (with the war). Members of the public are coming from all over the world." BBC 03/31/03
Sotheby's Catches Up To Christie's After two years, Sotheby's has caught up with rival Christie's in art sales. "Annual turnover figures published this month show that in the year ending 31 December 2002, Sotheby’s sold $1.77 billion (£1.11 billion) worth of art, while Christie’s announced sales of $1.9 billion (£1.3 billion). But the Christie’s figure included private treaty sales of $120 million, so for auction sales the two companies are about even." The Art Newspaper 03/28/03
Looted Art On Display In Moscow An exhibition of paintings taken from a German castle by Soviet troops after World War II went on display in Moscow this weekend. "A campaign by mainly Communist members of Russia's parliament has kept the 364 works in the country, though many Liberals back the idea of returning them to Germany. Returning war booty has long been a sensitive issue in Russia, where memories remain keen of more than 20 million Soviet war dead during a four-year campaign against the Nazis. The Moscow Museum of Architecture has held the 362 drawings and two paintings - which include works by Rubens, Degas, Delacroix and Goya - in safekeeping for 43 years."
BBC 03/30/03
Celebrating Vincent's 150th Birsthday Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum celebrated the painter's 150th birthday Sunday as thousands of fan came to pay their respects. BBC 03/31/03
Two Van Gogh Paintings Stolen Two Van Gogh paintings have been stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. "The stolen paintings are well known to art lovers: 'View of the Sea at Scheveningen' and 'Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church at Nuenen.' Both from the artist's early period, they were executed in 1882 and 1884, respectively. Police have not yet put a value on them. But Van Gogh's later works have sold at auction in recent years for tens of millions of dollars." BBC 03/31/03
Tracking Down Some Maleviches In a few weeks the Guggenheim Museum will open a show of Malevich paintings with important works that have never been seen in the West. But the tale of how the paintings ended up getting out of Russia and into the show is a tangled one. "The art dealers, the Guggenheim and Russian officials all deny having done anything improper. It is through their efforts, they argue, that superb art hidden for decades is finally being seen." But still, there are questions... The New York Times 03/31/03
Dispensing Art From Machines (Who Needs Dealers?) Would you take a chance on buying art out of a vending machine? "The Art-o-Mat offers miniature paintings, sculptures and other tiny trinkets for not much more than a pack of Parliaments. The concept has hooked accidental art investors with refurbished vending machines in art galleries, coffee shops and grocery stores nationwide. We're wanting to reach quality investors who haven't taken art seriously before, and to support artists trying to make a living."
The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis) (AP) 03/30/03
