Ideas Welcome To The TV Revolution "Time-shifting has progressed to the point that millions of viewers rely not on a VCR but on a digital video recorder, which makes it easy to find anything on those hundreds of channels and watch it anytime while fast-forwarding through the ads. The revolution that started in analog is now exploding in digital, and suddenly everything about television is up for grabs - the way we watch it and the ads that pay for it, the kinds of programs we get and the future of the networks that carry them." Wired 09/03 Posted: 09/17/2003 11:10 pm Visual Arts A Change In WTC Direction There have been significant changes in architect Daniel Libeskind's plan for rebuilding the World Trade Center site, which includes the world's tallest structure. The new plan now calls for slimmer office buildings and the shifting of office and other development. AJ blogger Jan Herman reviews changes... Straight Up (AJBlogs) 09/18/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 9:02 am Why Art Deco Endures There's an Art Deco revival going on. But wait, there's always an Art Deco revival going on. "It's easy to explain why the stuff is always popular: It's gorgeous. The furniture is made of expensive natural materials -- glossy wood, ivory, marble -- and combines light and dark in a way that became unpopular in the all-white futuristic 1960s. It's nice to touch, unlike the practical plastic and aluminum of contemporary neo-modernist design. Art Deco satisfies the hipster's urge for modern shapes and lines -the sleek, the geometric, the angular - and yet is much more luxurious and ornate than the puritanical Bauhaus-inspired mid-century modernism that followed it." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/18/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 7:44 am US Congress Votes Insurance Increase For Museums The US House of Representatives has voted to substantially increase the amount of insurance available to US museums to insure artwork borrowed from abroad. "The indemnity program, administered by the National Endowment for the Arts on behalf of the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, was created in 1975 to minimize costs American museums pay to insure international exhibitions. Unlike standard commercial insurance, government indemnity covers the effects of terrorism both in transit and on site. The program has been flooded with requests from museums trying to organize ambitious international shows at a time when insurance costs have risen as much as 500 percent." The New York Times 09/18/03 Posted: 09/17/2003 11:44 pm Major Artifact Recovered In Iraq One of the most precious pieces of art stolen from Iraq's National Museum - a 5000-year-old sculpture - has been recovered. "The 20-centimetre high marble sculpture, dating from 3000 BC, depicts the head of a woman. It was fashioned in the southern city of Warka during the Sumerian period, and was among the five most precious pieces still missing since the museum was sacked after the April 9 fall of Saddam Hussein." The Mercury (Australia) 09/18/03 Posted: 09/17/2003 11:41 pm From The Front: Looking For Iraqi Art Matthew Bogdanos is a marine helping to recover art stolen from Iraq's National Museum: "To date over 1,700 items have been returned pursuant to the amnesty program, [but] there have been problems here, as well--specifically, the perception among the Iraqi people of the museum staff's identification and association with the former regime and the Baath Party. Time and time again when individuals would turn property over, they would make it clear that they were turning the property over to the U.S. forces for safekeeping until a lawful Iraqi government could be elected. The raids and seizures have resulted in the recovery of over 900 artifacts." OpinionJournal.com 09/18/03 Posted: 09/17/2003 10:14 pm Music Pittsburgh Symphony's Uncertain Opening The Pittsburgh Symphony opens its season this weekend. But a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the opening. The musicians' contract expired, and it's clear that compromises will have to be made because the orchestra is struggling financially. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 09/18/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 8:55 am Shifrin Steps Down From Lincoln Center Chamber Music After 12 years, David Shifrin steps down as director of the Chmaber Music Society of Lincoln Center. "New York's loss may be Portland's gain. Shifrin is a familiar figure here, having directed the city's Chamber Music Northwest festival each summer since 1980. By shedding his New York position, he will be able to devote more time to Portland as well as to his solo career as a clarinet player, to his family (he has a 10-year-old son) and to teaching music at Yale University." The Oregonian 09/18/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 8:27 am NEA Offers Help To Small Orchestras The National Endowment for the Arts has started a new program to help struggling mid-size and small orchestras. "The program will award a total of $250,000 to 25 orchestras, including the Augusta Symphony in Georgia, the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra in Biloxi, Miss., the North Carolina Symphony in Raleigh, the Stockton Symphony Association in Stockton, Calif., and the Virginia Symphony in Norfolk. The NEA, the country's largest supporter of the arts, does not expect the individual grants of $10,000 to solve financial shortfalls in themselves. The idea is to boost programs that might attract other donations." Washington Post 09/17/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 12:20 am Saving Classical Radio In South Florida When Miami station WKAT-AM changed formats from Spanish language to classical a year ago, classical fans were ecstatic. "The first three months were a honeymoon with the audience. They were appreciative that classical was back. And they had a high level of tolerance for what we were doing. But a few months later, the hero worship was morphing into anger: Listeners didn't like that the playlist included non-classical works and that many of the classical pieces the station did play were truncated..." So a makeover was in order... Miami Herald 09/17/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 12:02 am My Lunch With Tony Hall Tony Hall has been running London's Royal Opera House for a couple years now. "There might have been a time when running an opera house presented unique opportunities for leisurely lunching, schmoozing with business grandees desperate for a favourite seat in the orchestra stalls, perhaps the odd feisty exchange with the prima assoluta of the day. But that was then and this is now, and Hall is the epitome of the modern manager: brisk, fast-talking, affable and relentlessly upbeat." Financial Times 09/18/03 Posted: 09/17/2003 11:30 pm Carnegie's New Hall - A Lot At Stake "Carnegie Hall has decided that the best way to break down the barriers between classical and pop music, jazz and rock is to mix everything up in a brand-new hall situated below the Isaac Stern Auditorium and above the Seventh Avenue subway. Carnegie’s new real-estate venture, which opened Sept. 12, is an early test: Will this game of musical chairs yield real artistic and commercial dividends? Will it reinvigorate our civic concert life?" New York Observer 09/17/03 Posted: 09/17/2003 10:37 pm Arts Issues A Festival For The Anti-JLo's "In a postliterate age the New Yorker Festival stands as the maypole of a dedicated and ferocious demographic, fanatics who view the author Zadie Smith as far more dynamic and adorable than J.Lo..." The New York Times 09/18/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 12:07 am People Oundjian - From Violin To Podium Peter Oundjian has been appointed music director of the Toronto Symphony. But first he's got a couple of seasons to play out leading the Colorado Symphony. "That's on top of guest-conducting engagements this summer with such premier orchestras as the Boston Symphony and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and his two ongoing posts of artistic director of the Caramoor International Music Festival in New York and music director of the Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam." Just eight years ago, Oundjian wasn't a conductor, but a violinist with the Tokyo String Quartet. Denver Post 09/18/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 7:34 am Theatre O'Neill Closes Open-Door Policy "The O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford is suspending its open-submission policy, under which anyone could mail in a play for consideration for the following summer's conference. Because of budget cutbacks, there will no longer be direct submissions, ending a 35-year policy. Instead, a group of 150 professionals throughout the theater community and across different geographical regions will nominate the work of 250 playwrights. That group of 250 will then be judged by the O'Neill's own selection committee, which will choose 15." Hartford Courant 09/18/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 8:42 pm O'Neill Playwright Festival Policy Change Angers Many "As might be expected, the announcement of the policy change has caused great consternation in the playwriting community. On one prominent, Web-based email service, dramaturgy.net, word of the policy change preceded the O'Neill's formal announcement by a week, during which time dramatists took out their frustrations. Among the charges: By moving to a who-you-know-based nomination/submission process, the O'Neill shuts the doors on the unknown playwright who doesn't happen to be well-connected enough to actually know one of the nominators, and that the new policy, in effect, only serves to solidify the American theatre as a closed, exclusive, artistic plutocracy." Backstage 09/17/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 8:38 am Publishing Small Publishing Is Big Business Sometimes it seems like big publishers increasingly own everything in the book world. But a new study reports that small publishers are a rapidly growing group. The report estimated total revenues last year for the smallest publishers of $29.4 billion and sales that have grown by 21% a year for the past five years. Publishers Weekly 09/18/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 9:25 am Ashcroft: Patriot Act Library Provision Hasn't Been Used In response to enormous criticism, US Attorney General John Ashcroft says that the controversial Patriot Act provision giving federal authorities the ability to check on library and book store records has never been used. "Critics have said the FBI's authority to obtain the records threatens the privacy and First Amendment rights of library and bookstore patrons, as well as other businesses. Law enforcement officials say the power is rarely used, properly supervised by judges and essential to combat terror." Yahoo! (AP) 09/18/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 9:21 am Stephen King: I'll Treasure Literary Award Stephen King is thrilled to be getting an honorary National Book Award for lifetime achievement. "This is probably the most exciting thing to happen to me in my career as a writer since the sale of my first book in 1973. I'll return the cash award to the National Book Foundation for the support of their many educational and literary outreach programs... . The medal I will keep and treasure for the rest of my life." Philadelphia Inquirer (AP) 09/18/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 8:44 am King Award Is Controversial The selection of Stephen King for an honorary National Book Award has been greeted by some with dismay. "Told of Mr. King's selection, some in the literary world responded with laughter and dismay. 'He is a man who writes what used to be called penny dreadfuls. That they could believe that there is any literary value there or any aesthetic accomplishment or signs of an inventive human intelligence is simply a testimony to their own idiocy'." The New York Times 09/15/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 8:36 am Cover Art - Book Design Master "In the hitherto esoteric world of book-jacket design, Chip Kidd has achieved an unusual fame, earning the awe and enmity reserved for genius. In hailing Kidd as 'the world's greatest book-jacket designer,' thriller king James Ellroy was merely adding his voice to a loud chorus of praise. Art critic Robert Hughes and novelist Paul Golding have been equally effusive." National Post (Canada) 09/18/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 8:09 am Booker: A Surprising Year This year's Booker shortlist is something of a mystery, eschewing plenty of big names. "All but one of the big names in fiction, including that of Martin Amis, once the darling of literary London, were culled. Instead, the judges came up with one of the most surprising lists in the 35-year history of the prize. It includes the highest number of both first novelists - three - and women writers - four." The Telegraph (UK) 09/18/03 Posted: 09/17/2003 11:57 pm Media Film Critics Just Wanna Have Fun Rex Reed's had it up to here with film festivals. "It used to be called entertainment—an element so sadly missing from film festivals that you couldn’t spot it with a telescope on loan from the Hayden Planetarium. This, according to hard-core festival mavens, is as it should be. You go to Cannes or Berlin or Toronto, they remind you, to see innovative visions of the world you will never see again, not the standard Hollywood fare coming soon to a shopping mall nearby. I’ll buy that, but doesn’t anybody have any fun anymore?" New York Observer 09/17/03 Posted: 09/17/2003 10:38 pm Lining Up Against The FCC The coalition opposing Michael Powell and the FCC's new relaxation of media ownership rules is as broad as any issue's ever seen in Washington. Yet despite a Senate vote to block the new rules and wide opposition, Powell is still intent on pushing ahead. But the battle's not over yet... The New York Times 09/17/03 Posted: 09/17/2003 10:24 pm Dance The NEA's Gloomy Forecast For Dance A new NEA report suggests that "not-for-profit dance companies may see as much as a 30% loss of earned income in the next few years, and even a heavier fall in contributions." Backstage 09/11/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 12:23 am Size Matters? The Saga Of The Large Bolshoi Ballerina Volochkova weighs in at just under 110 pounds on a 5-foot-6 frame. How could Bolshoi Ballet star Anastasia Volochkova be too heavy at 110 pounds on a 5'6" frame? The Bolshoi fired her this week for being too big. "In the anorexic world of ballet, that qualifies her as a virtual Amazon, as one U.S. reviewer called her after a performance at the Kennedy Center earlier this year. And in the conspiratorial world of Russian ballet, her abrupt dismissal qualifies as a scandal of major proportions, flavored by a lively debate over her physical shape, the mysterious public disappearance of her onetime dancing partner and dark hints of shadowy money men quietly pulling the strings from backstage." Washington Post 09/18/03 Posted: 09/18/2003 12:10 am Protesting Scottish Ballet Move "Scottish Ballet plans to move out of its historic home in Glasgow's west end and into the Tramway venue in the city's south side, provoking outrage among the visual arts community. It would mean the closure of the Tramway as an internationally renowned venue. Leading artists and gallery owners described the move as 'vandalism' and 'a tragedy', and promised a campaign to save it." Glasgow Herald 09/18/03 Posted: 09/17/2003 11:50 pm