Rise Of The Arty Class "Until recently, the abilities that led to success in school, work, and business were characteristic of the left hemisphere. They were the sorts of linear, logical, analytical talents measured by SATs and deployed by CPAs. Today, those capabilities are still necessary. But they're no longer sufficient. In a world upended by outsourcing, deluged with data, and choked with choices, the abilities that matter most are now closer in spirit to the specialties of the right hemisphere - artistry, empathy, seeing the big picture, and pursuing the transcendent. The Information Age we all prepared for is ending. Rising in its place is what I call the Conceptual Age, an era in which mastery of abilities that we've often overlooked and undervalued marks the fault line between who gets ahead and who falls behind." Wired 02/05
Posted: 02/20/2005 7:00 pm
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Missing The Park, Resenting The Gates Michael Kane doesn't like Central Park with the Christo Gates in it. He's "Gates hatin': The park was better before. It was a peaceful oasis in a grid of metal and concrete. The spindly trees, the sweep of the lake, even the curvature of bridges, stone walls and steps blended organically into the backdrop. Now, in the interest of art, Christo bolts down jarring, squared-off frames (in orange, no less) throughout this vital sensory escape. So aesthetically insensitive. So rectangular. So lame." New York Post 02/20/05
Posted: 02/21/2005 6:07 am
Record Price For Elephant Art "Eight elephants in northern Thailand have painted their way into the Guinness Book of World Records after an art lover living in the United States shelled out a jumbo 1.5 million baht ($39,000) for their canvas creation — the highest price ever paid for elephant art. Himalayan Times (Kathmandu) (AFP) 02/20/05
Posted: 02/20/2005 6:33 pm
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Welsh National Opera's New Digs For the first time in 60 years, the Welsh National Opera has a home of its own. "In its opening weekend at its new home, WNO threw down its gauntlet, offering two trademark shows: Traviata, a company show that foregrounds the talents of its chorus, and a new production of Berg's Wozzeck from director Richard Jones and conductor Vladimir Jurowski, a partnership that has provided WNO with some of its most visionary stagings in recent years." The Guardian (UK) 02/21/05
Posted: 02/21/2005 6:19 am
Night Of the Living Dead (That's Germany's Music Biz) Germany's recording business is the third largest in the world. But it's having problems, says a leading exec. "The problem the music industry has got is that they aren't willing to accept that the classic way of doing business is over and out. So the music industry in its current form over here is pretty much in the state of a zombie."
BBC 02/21/05
Posted: 02/21/2005 6:15 am
Rappin' To The War "If rock 'n' roll, the sounds of Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and Creedence Clearwater Revival, was the music of American service members in Vietnam, rap may become the defining pulse for the war in Iraq. It has emerged as a rare realm where soldiers and marines, hardly known for talking about their feelings, are voicing the full range of their emotions and reactions to war. They rap about their resentment of the military hierarchy. But they also rap about their pride, their invincibility, their fallen brothers, their disdain for the enemy and their determination to succeed." The New York Times 02/20/05
Posted: 02/21/2005 6:11 am
A Soapbox Issue: Where's The New Music? Andrew Druckenbrod likes the Pittsburgh Symphony's new season. But he's dismayed there's so little contemporary music. "This has became a soap-box issue for me out of concern for the field, not for selfish reasons. I love the classics as much as anyone, but if the industry stagnates, it will fall off the map. Not die, just become less and less important, and ironically, fewer canonical works will be heard. Presenting the canon is good for marketing and subscriptions in the short term, but years of that shortsightedness creates lack of relevance that eventually does show up in the box office, as it has for orchestras and the PSO even before Sept. 11." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 02/20/05
Posted: 02/21/2005 6:06 am
France's New Choral Craze "Singing, like most social activities in France, is driven by the whims of fashion. Suddenly, it has become le dernier cri de tout Paris. There is talk of young execs switching their gym cards for lunchtime choir practice. Parents are reported to be moving children to schools with better sol-fa teaching. The French Institute of Choral Art, with some 280,000 choir members, has been swamped with new applications. Choir practice is becoming to bourgeois Paris what the book group is in suburban London. The cause of the singing craze is a low-budget local film which, to industry astonishment, out-grossed Harry Potter, Spiderman and Shrek 2 across France, selling nine million tickets and 1.2 million soundtrack CDs." La Scena Musicale 02/18/05
Posted: 02/20/2005 7:17 pm
World Music Through Downloading Downloading may be killing the rock star, but it's doing great things for world music in the US. "Before the digital revolution, the cross-border import of indigenous music was inefficient, cost-prohibitive and logistically challenging. The market for some content was too small for major labels to justify importing it through the usual channels, so the music generally could be found only in specialty stores -- which are not always opposed to selling pirated material. But legitimate online music services are beginning to feature larger selections of world music." Yahoo! (Reuters) 02/20/05
Posted: 02/20/2005 7:06 pm
The Classical Music Blogs If space for writing about classical music in newspapers is shrinking, it's growing online. "Suddenly, a whole new world of writing about classical music has cropped up. Not everyone agrees, but some plotters of this revolution predict the blog- osphere will create an entry point for new listeners, because blog writing often is informal, energetic, underground-ish -- without the deadening preachiness that infects much classical music writing, driving people away. Seasoned journalists and critics blog, but so do musicologists, composers, performers, arts administrators, amateur writers and everyday concertgoers." San Jose Mercury-News 02/20/05
Posted: 02/20/2005 6:18 pm
Outsourcing The Beethoven So the Cleveland Orchestra will be the new Miami Performing Arts Center's resident orchestra? Outsourcing comes to the orchestra world. "Much as American companies enlist overseas workers at considerably cheaper wages, so too the lack of a full-time professional symphony orchestra in South Florida has given way to paying outside ensembles such as the Cleveland Orchestra to provide Beethoven, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky to the region's seasonal audience members. On the surface, it seems like a win-win situation..." The Sun-Sentinel (Florida) 02/20/05
Posted: 02/20/2005 6:11 pm
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Is British Council Exhibit Racist? Two national newspapers ran full-page article last week accusing the British Council of depicting Britain as racist, violent and impoverished in a traveling exhibition. "British Council staff were flabbergasted because the exhibition has been mounted successfully since 2003 in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia. The reaction in there was positive for the UK, and it received lavish praise." The Guardian (UK) 02/21/05
Posted: 02/21/2005 6:21 am
Key To A Better Cleveland? Are major development projects the key to a better Cleveland? "The U.S. Census Bureau has ranked Cleveland the poorest big city in the country. The city school dis trict, which says it needs a new tax levy desperately, is near a financial meltdown. When the econ omy was stronger a decade ago, Cleve land built the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and new, major- league sports facilities. Now the city seems to have stalled, despite surprisingly strong pockets of new and renovated housing." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 02/20/05
Posted: 02/21/2005 6:08 am
Cultural Toppers Attack British Arts Policy British cultural luminaries are attacking the government for its arts policies. "The Government is facing a backlash from some of the most important figures in British culture, who accuse it of betraying promises to support the arts. In a move that will alarm ministers just weeks before an expected general election, arts leaders have spoken over their concerns about the potentially devastating impact of a spending freeze." The Independent (UK) 02/21/05
Posted: 02/20/2005 6:39 pm
- Frayling: Gap Between Arts And Government Growing Arts Council England chairman Christopher Frayling is disappointed in government attitudes towards the arts. "The arts often remain an afterthought in government policy - and the arts are often the first to suffer when money is tight. To make matters worse, governments can also interfere in the arts. Lately, I have sensed the distance between the Arts Council and the Government is narrowing. The Government clearly thought we were being ungrateful after the big uplifts to arts in previous spending rounds. We felt betrayed that the Government had decided not to continue with its investment of new money - despite all the success. A strange decision, since the upward curve of the arts was one of country's good news stories. It was up to then an uncompromised record - so why start compromising now?" The Independent (UK) 02/21/05
Posted: 02/20/2005 6:37 pm
Art-As-Homework? Hmnnn... How much ought you to know about an artwork before seeing it to get the maximum appreciation? "There are compelling arguments for appreciating an artwork on its own terms. Some people refuse to read movie reviews for fear that not only surprise endings but also subtle textural details will be revealed and spoil an otherwise fresh encounter. If they want to dig deeper into a film or an opera or a dance, they wait until they've seen it, then double back and do their research. But the sedimentary texture of knowledge, the layerings of appreciation, can provide pleasure on a first encounter, too." The New York Times 02/20/05
Posted: 02/20/2005 6:22 pm
Arts Council Chairman: Scottish Opera Funding A Disgrace Scotland's new Arts Council head says he'll fight hard for the arts, and that Scottish Opera's funding crisis is a national disgrace. "Richard Holloway, speaking out in his first week as chairman of the Scottish Arts Council (SAC), said he regretted the national opera company was about to enter a year of enforced silence. The former Bishop of Edinburgh said he would use his position not only to press for extra funding for Scottish Opera but for a "massive infusion" of cash for the arts in general." The Scotsman 02/20/05
Posted: 02/20/2005 6:07 pm
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Hunter S. Thompson (67) Kills Himself Hunter S. Thompson shot and killed himself at his home in Aspen Sunday night. "Juan Thompson found his father's body. Thompson's wife, Anita, was not home at the time." The New York Times (AP) 02/20/05
Posted: 02/21/2005 6:16 am
Childs' Play David Childs has won some major commissions in recent years. But he is "no longer content to be the pet architect of the mainstream development world: he now longs for the kind of critical recognition that has so far eluded him. Increasingly, in seeking it he has begun to position himself as a worthy rival to the more daring architects from whom he once sought to distance himself." The New York Times 02/20/05
Posted: 02/21/2005 6:12 am
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Charlotte Rep To Shut Down Charlotte Repertory Theatre, that city's major regional theatre, says it has lost its fight to survive, and will shut down. "It is very unfortunate that there was little community support for a core cultural organization -- the Rep -- in our city. We feel that it is a tremendous loss to the quality of life for our entire region ... a major cultural loss that will be felt for many years to come." Charlotte Observer 02/20/05
Posted: 02/20/2005 6:30 pm
Producers Takes Top Prizes At Oliviers "The Producers won three prizes at the UK's most prestigious annual theatre awards, while Mary Poppins won two. Alan Bennett's The History Boys was the big winner in the straight theatre categories, picking up three trophies." BBC 02/21/05
Posted: 02/20/2005 6:30 pm
Uganda Bans Vagina Monologues The African nation of Uganda has banned The Vagina Monologues following a concerted push by Christian church groups which consider the performance pornographic and derogatory towards men. "Rarely-used powers of censorship have been reinvoked to demand drastic script alterations, including the deletion of references to lesbianism and the removal of the crucial word 'vagina' from the title." The Observer (UK) 02/20/05
Posted: 02/20/2005 8:47 am
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Snob Appeal - The Power Of Books "No one ever went broke overestimating snob appeal. It's one of the most marketable vicarious pleasures. And it colors writing well beyond Cinderella fiction. Biographers are often drawn to elite subjects. Chick-lit heroines are perennially obsessed with status. The coming-of-age memoir gets more attention if its narrator learned about life at a socially prestigious school. And a diet book has more cachet if it cautions against too many tartes aux pommes rather than too many Twinkies." The New York Times 02/21/05
Posted: 02/20/2005 11:26 pm
Finalists For Booker's First International Lifetime Prize "Nobel laureates Saul Bellow, Gunter Grass and Gabriel Garcia Marquez were among 18 finalists announced Friday for the first ever Man International Booker Prize, a lifetime achievement award worth around $115,000." Yahoo! (AP) 02/20/05
Posted: 02/20/2005 7:09 pm
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Hollywood's Dirty Little Military Secret Not much is spoken about the cozy relationship between Hollywood and the American military. "All a producer needs do for assistance, it seems, is submit five copies of his script to the Pentagon for approval, make whatever script changes the Pentagon suggests, film the script exactly as approved by the Pentagon and preview the finished product for Pentagon officials before it's shown to its broader audience. And many do this gladly. It is Hollywood's dirtiest little secret, and the long-term effect on generations of young Americans is an unknown. How many of those killed in Iraq died because they joined up after they saw what was presented in a film?" The Age (Melbourne) 02/21/05
Posted: 02/21/2005 6:22 am
The Gay Simpson "In an episode titled "There's Something About Marrying," a longtime character on Fox's 15-year hit - it was Marge Simpson's sister Patty Bouvier, a closely held secret until the 8 p.m. broadcast - came out of the closet while Homer Simpson conducted dozens of same-sex weddings after small-town Springfield legalized the unions in a bid to increase tourism. As television's longest-running situation comedy, "The Simpsons" is no stranger to hot-button social, religious and political issues, mocking wardrobe malfunctions, Hollywood liberals and born-again Christians, among other targets. But when a show as mainstream and popular as this takes on one of the most divisive issues in American society, it is certain to attract attention." The New York Times 02/21/05
Posted: 02/21/2005 6:18 am
South African Film Wins Berlin A South African reworking of the Carmen story has won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival. "U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha, which moved Georges Bizet's story to a township and translated the lyrics into Xhosa, was a surprise winner of the Golden Bear." BBC 02/21/05
Posted: 02/21/2005 6:13 am
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City Ballet From The Nose-Bleed Section The best place to see New York City Ballet? Gotta be the fourth ring. Not only can you see the structure of the choreography, there's also Miriam Pellman... The New York Times 02/20/05
Posted: 02/21/2005 6:04 am
Dancing Through Christo's Gates Christo's Central Park Gates are art, sure. But they're also a kind of dance through the park, writes Tobi Tobias. "The project as a whole makes a major part of its impact through repetition. This repetition, as you tread The Gates’ paths, deftly turns footfall into drum- or heartbeat. Martha Graham used the same steady-pulse phenomenon in the formally paced entrances and exits that frame the sections of her Primitive Mysteries. Laura Dean, choreographing to the music of Steve Reich, made it the keystone of her contribution to postmodern dance." Seeing Things (AJBlogs) 02/21/05
Posted: 02/20/2005 7:35 pm
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