A Link Between TV and Puberty? Though there's still no definitive link between watching TV and an increase of violence, there may be one between TV-watching and puberty. "Girls are reaching puberty much earlier than in the 1950s. One reason is due to their average increase in weight; but another may be due to reduced levels of melatonin. Scientists at the University of Florence in Italy found that when youngsters were deprived of their TV sets, computers and video games, their melatonin production increased by an average 30 per cent. New Scientist 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 5:10 pm
The Secret Of London's Success (Hear That US?) London has become one of the great world cities just a decade or so after pundits were predicting her decline. What's the evidence? "An amalgam of the world language, an open culture, two of the world's top 10 universities and a vibrant cultural and intellectual life. Example: Britain now publishes more book titles than any other country. Further example: there are more Chinese students in the UK than in any other country, again more than the US. Of course, this is a UK phenomenon but it is one that is skewed disproportionately to the South-east." The Independent (UK) 07/01/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 5:00 pm
- Is London's Success Harming The Rest Of UK? Yes, London has become a powerhouse. But is it to the detriment of the rest of England? "In the last decade, the island of Britain has become split effectively into two provinces: the megalopolis of London, and everywhere else. The seeds of this north-south divide go a long way back, but the final transformation of the British Isles into an appendage of Greater London has really taken place since the start of the 1990s." The Scotsman 07/01/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 4:02 pm
New Director For Montreal MOCA "The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal announced Monday the appointment of 48-year-old, Sudbury-born anglo-francophone Marc Mayer as director, bringing an end to Marcel Brisebois's 19-year-long reign there." Mayer has been the deputy art director for the Brooklyn Museum since September 2001. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/01/04
Posted: 07/01/2004 6:27 am
Checking Out Diana's Fountain The new memorial fountain to Diana, Princess of Wales, is about to be christened in London's Hyde Park. "The memorial fountain is like this: a surprising, yet ultimately gentle drawing together of unlikely family, friends and supporters of the late princess, and design professionals. It is a very English compromise, one that will neither frighten the horses plodding around Hyde Park, nor offend any of the millions of people who will pass this way to dip a toe, as it were, into Diana's memory." The Guardian (UK) 07/01/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 6:29 pm
Bellevue Art Museum Gets A New Leader For Comeback Plan The Seattle-area Bellevue Art Museum, which suddenly closed last year, has gone out and found itself some serious new leadership to help it reopen. "Michael Monroe, the former curator-in-charge at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery, which specializes in craft such as ceramics, textiles and glass work, will become chief curator and executive director." Seattle Times 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 12:18 pm
Why Does Canada Have So Little Regard For Important Architecture? Lisa Rochon decries the treatment of architect Arthur Erickson's buildings in Canada. He "is the éminence grise of modernism in this country. He led a postwar movement of design that extends landscape through architecture, something Canada's new generation of award-winning practitioners have absorbed into their own thinking. It's easy to blame lack of money. Or zoning. Running through all of these moronic moves is a lack of will to safeguard our national treasures." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 11:11 am
Attendance Up In Cincinnati In another sign that the American orchestra crisis may be abating, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has announced a second straight year of increased ticket sales. Overall sales jumped 2% for the 2003-04 season, with a 4% jump in subscriptions and a 12% uptick in online sales. An average of more than 1,900 concertgoers attended each CSO performance. Cincinnati Post 07/01/04
Posted: 07/01/2004 7:22 am
Mourning The Rosenberg Plan Pamela Rosenberg was building a new model of an American opera company at San Francisco Opera. Taking some adverturous artistic risks, she had transformed the company in her short time running it, writes Anthony Tommasini. But she was hobbled by the company's financial woes, and so she's leaving, in search of a more financially stable situation. American opera is the poorer for that... The New York Times 07/01/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 6:39 pm
Brazil's Billion-Dollar Pirates Music piracy is a billion-dollar business in Brazil, says a new report. "Of CD's alone, six out of every 10 music discs sold in Brazil are pirate copies. "The report concluded that piracy in Brazil was heavily controlled by organised crime." BBC 07/01/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 6:08 pm
Grand Estonian Grand Ten years ago, the Estonian Piano Factory was in such disrepair it almost went out of business. But after a young entrepreneur bought the company and revamped the instruments' design, the company turned around. "Today, 90 percent of the approximately 500 Estonias handmade each year end up at U.S. dealerships. Estonias account for a fraction of U.S. sales, which were 40,000 grands and baby grands, and 57,000 smaller upright pianos in 2003." Rocky Mountain News 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 12:09 pm
Does Clear Channel Really Own The Concert Instant-Recording Idea? One of the most promising innovations in the music industry is the ability to record and sell recordings of live concerts within minutes of their conclusion. "On Monday, Clear Channel announced that this summer, it will offer some 100 live recordings of various artists who will be taped throughout the country." But beware, independent artists who want to offer the service: "Clear Channel bought the patent for the live-recording technology from its inventors, and the company now claims it owns exclusive rights to the concept of selling concert CDs after shows." Chicago Sun-Times 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 10:45 am
Is Seattle The Nation's Best Arts Town? "According to a new study by Americans for the Arts titled 'The Creative Industries,' the Seattle-Tacoma area has more arts-related businesses, institutions and organizations per capita than any area of the country... The study is the first to measure not just non-profit arts groups, but also for-profit arts businesses... Eleven metropolitan areas have more than 10,000 arts-related businesses. The New York area leads the list with 54,894. Next is Los Angeles, with 48,862, followed by San Francisco (21,232) and Washington, D.C. (16,360.)" Seattle Post-Intelligencer 07/01/04
Posted: 07/01/2004 7:35 am
Preemptive Protest in South Texas It's only a staff recommendation, but a report suggesting that funding for many San Antonio arts groups be zeroed out to help balance the city's budget is drawing early fire. The Cultural Arts Board has recommended killing all funding for the long-embattled San Antonio Symphony, the ballet, and the Jospehine Theater, and proposed heavy cuts for several other groups. "The issue of entitlement has been the largely unspoken bone of contention at the core of this funding cycle, with much of the anger from applicants focused on the peer panelists who have been called unqualified at worst and unprepared at best." San Antonio Current 07/01/04
Posted: 07/01/2004 7:28 am
Turning Ideology Into Consumable Pop Consider the various political acts which have recently burst onto the American popular culture radar - Bill Clinton's book tour; Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11; Howard Stern's self-martyring rants against the FCC crackdown; Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ - and it becomes clear that today's most successful ideologues are those who have managed to cross the line between serious political debate and pop culture mass marketing. While many Americans are still wary of anything that smacks of intellectualism, no one seems to be hesitant to voice an opinion on any intellectual issue that can be marketed on Oprah or Larry King. Is it a new era of national debate, or just the latest cynical marketing device proving its worth? Denver Post 07/01/04
Posted: 07/01/2004 6:15 am
E-Mail Intercepting Is Officially Legal When Bradford Councilman, the owner of a web site hawking rare and unique books, offered his customers a free e-mail service, he didn't tell them that he had "installed code that intercepted and copied any e-mail that came to them from his competitor, Amazon.com. Although Councilman did not prevent the mail from reaching recipients, he read thousands of copied messages in order to know what books customers were seeking and gain a commercial advantage over Amazon." However, in a surprise ruling, a Massachusetts court has found that Councilman did not violate any laws, effectively legalizing such tactics, and setting up a howl from privacy advocates. Wired 07/01/04
Posted: 07/01/2004 5:54 am
Challenging Patents For Rest Of Us The Electronic Frontier Foundation is targeting ten patents it believes have been issued in error and whose technology -in wide use - is not patentable. "These patent owners have been threatening people that just can't defend themselves. They're trying to claim ownership over some fundamental part of software of the Internet that people use every day, and they're threatening small companies or individuals that can't afford lawyers." The list includes Clear Channel's claim of patent on a process for making concert recordings available after concerts. Wired 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 5:25 pm
NYC Increases Culture Budget Earlier this year, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed cutting the city's culture budget. But this week the mayor and city coucil actually increased the budget by almost 4 percent, from last year's $118.8 million to $123.3 million. The new budget takes effect July 1. Backstage 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 10:56 am
Bringing Some Color To The WTC Memorial J. Max Bond, the architect in charge of the World Trade Center memorial, is a master of diplomacy, of bridging differences between competing artistic personalities. He is one of the most respected men in his profession. And he is African-American, astonishingly enough the first to be involved in the Ground Zero project in any way. "With the inclusion of Bond (and Richard Franklin, another African American colleague from his firm), the white male club at Ground Zero has been integrated. It is the story of Bond's life." Washington Post 07/01/04
Posted: 07/01/2004 7:08 am
The "Girl Group" Of Classical Music The Girl-group string quartet Bond has a new album out. "They think it's funny to have to explain that they are virtuosos rather than vamps, a preconception that has plagued the comely classical crossover group since their debut "Born" sold more than 2 million copies in 2001." New York Daily News 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 11:49 am
Royal Shakespeare Gets A New West End Home? "After almost a year of being just about to settle on a new London home, the Royal Shakespeare Company may have finally found one: the Albery in St Martin's Lane." The Guardian (UK) 07/01/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 9:17 pm
Aussie Pro Theatre Needs A Hit "Australia's only show-business company listed on the stock exchange, International Concert Attractions (ICA), is looking to the success of the musical Saturday Night Fever to restore its fortunes following last summer's failure of The Full Monty." Sydney Morning Herald 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 9:10 pm
A Festival That Asks: What Is Theatre? What, exactly is theatre? A festival sets up the question by inviting a diverse bunch of testifiers. "Connected in diverse ways to the performing arts, the Enquirers are an intriguingly mixed bunch, ranging from the artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company to a 14-year-old pupil at Holland Park School, and from a Buddhist monk who is the caretaker of the London Peace Pagoda to the chair of the British Council. Groups as well as individuals have been recruited. The liberating twist is that testimony need not be given as a conventional talk. It can be presented as a performance piece, or an installation, or however the testifier sees fit." The Independent (UK) 06/10/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 5:54 pm
Philly Stage - It's A Hit! Philadelphia theatres had a good year. "At a time when much of the nonprofits arts community is hurting for support, most producing theaters in the area took the decent business of the season before and, if they didn't build on it, were at least able to match it." Philadelphia Inquirer 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 11:55 am
The Magazine Boom (Will It Ever Bust?) When will there be enough magazines? Not anytime soon, apparently. "Consider Plenty, coming in November, for upscale conservationists who are into hybrid cars." Or what about Conceive, dedicated to the singular subject of, well, conception (the kind that involves babies)? "Then there's Justine, a pun on 'just teen,' which came out in April, targeting a demographic of hip, wholesome girls who don't want headlines about sex tips on a magazine cover lest they die of embarrassment in front of their fathers or boyfriends." It's all about niche marketing. Philadelphia Inquirer 07/01/04
Posted: 07/01/2004 6:45 am
Janet's Flash May Cost CBS The FCC is proposing to fine CBS the maximum allowable amount - $550,000 - for the now-infamous on-air baring of Janet Jackson's right breast during the Super Bowl halftime show. The fines would officially be levied against 20 CBS "O&O's" - affiliate stations which are owned and operated by the New York-based network. The FCC, which has been accused in recent months of being on a witchhunt, had vowed to review the incident, which prompted the recent government crackdown on supposedly indecent material airing on American TV and radio. Washington Post 07/01/04
Posted: 07/01/2004 7:13 am
Actually, On Second Thought, We're Fine, Thanks When the British government closed a tax loophole covering the private funding of major films, the UK film industry went ballistic, claiming that the change would literally kill off the nation's movie business. A few months on, however, the industry is admitting that new sources of funding have been found, and nothing has really changed. In fact, experts expect "the numbers of films and jobs in the industry in 2004 to end up roughly the same as 2003." BBC 07/01/04
Posted: 07/01/2004 5:48 am
Taking On iPod Sony plans to take on Apple directly in the coming months, launching a new digital version of its famous Walkman to compete with Apple's iPod. The company claims that its player will cost significantly less than the iPod, and will store as many as 3,000 more songs. The player, which will play only songs encoded in Sony's own format, debuts this month in Japan, and hits U.S. stores in August. BBC 07/01/04
Posted: 07/01/2004 5:43 am
Hollywood's New Archetypical Leading Man A generational change in Hollywood's leading men is producing a different figure from the macho Rambos of the previous generation. "They are always looking for the macho man, but they are pulling from this other group, who are strong but more overtly sensitive and more emotionally available, because that's what there is right now." The New York Times 07/01/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 9:13 pm
Howard Stern - Higher Ratings = More Stations Howard Stern, who has been heavily fined for indecency on air, and was dropped by Clear Channel from four markets earlier this year, is adding nine new markets, including four where his show was taken off the air over indecency concerns. Stern has been a target of an FCC crackdown on content on American radio, bhut since the controversy began his ratings across the country have gonee up. Ne wYork Daily News (AP) 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 11:02 am
Everybody Dances! The Mark Morris Dance Company's annual residency at Tanglewood has developed into one of the more collaborative projects ever undertaken at the New England music center. "The unique aspect of the Tanglewood project is that the musicians - singers and instrumentalists alike - learn Morris's choreography as well; they learn to put the music into their bodies in a different way. They not only rehearse one movement of the music they will be playing; they actually perform it, for an invited audience of staff, friends, and fellow students." Boston Globe 07/01/04
Posted: 07/01/2004 6:01 am
NY City Ballet's Low Point (We Just Saw It) Robert Gottleib is unequivocal about New York City Ballet's unleashing of a Boris Eifman Balanchine tribute: "Eifman’s Musagète may not be the worst ballet ever put on by New York City Ballet—the last 20 years have offered it lots of competition—but its premiere last Friday was without question the lowest point in the history of the company (and I’ve been following its fortunes since the beginning, in 1948)." New York Observer 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 5:33 pm
Maine Ballet Seeks New Home The Maine State Ballet wants to convert a brick warehouse into a new performance home. "The company, which has operated for 23 years without any debt, will begin a $3 million capital campaign to pay for the new home and start an endowment fund for long-term financial stability." MaineToday.com (AP) 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 5:13 pm
