How Diversity Breeds Greatness
"Great cities throughout history have held an attraction for outsiders drawn by both the urges to make something of their lives and the freedom to lose themselves in the crowd, and it is from these restless, marginal groups that many of the social, economic and cultural breakthroughs that shape our life have emerged. But how much do cities themselves know and understand of this phenomenon?"
The Guardian (UK)
02/23/05
Posted: 02/22/2005 8:57 pm
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Why McBank Architecture Is Bad For Us
"Banks used to be about ritual and permanence. They resembled Greek or Roman temples, with the banker playing the secular priest, dispensing loans instead of benedictions. Banks inspired awe, though their built-for-the-ages classicism was salesmanship, designed to convince depositors that their money would be safer in the vault than stuffed in a mattress. No more. Now banks want to look like Starbucks, not the Parthenon." As branch banks approach omnipresence, can their new designs balance customer-friendliness with character?
Chicago Tribune
02/23/05
Posted: 02/23/2005 5:00 am
While The Gates Wave, Colorado Waits
"The Gates" might have New Yorkers all abuzz, but you might excuse the state of Colorado for wondering what happened to their Christo/Jeanne-Claude project. "In the "artworks in progress" section of the artists' Web site, the only project listed besides 'The Gates' is 'Over the River,' a plan to suspend several miles of shimmering fabric panels above a stretch of the Arkansas River in Colorado during a summer." But ever since The Gates hit the front burner, Colorado hasn't heard a thing from the pair.
The New York Times
02/23/05
Posted: 02/22/2005 9:33 pm
Caravaggio The Budding Cinematographer
Caravaggio's paintings are hot in the UK right now, thanks largely to a genuine blockbuster exhibition featuring 16 of the master's surviving works, and even today's masters of light and perspective are impressed. In fact, a generation of filmmakers counts Caravaggio as a major influence in their work, specifically in the area of light and its effect on a scene.
The Times (UK)
02/23/05
Posted: 02/22/2005 9:13 pm
Are Crowds And Dullards Killing The Museum Experience?
There is no shortage of blockbuster exhibitions being mounted in London this season, but between the long lines, the timed ticket entries, the crush of tourists, and the packs of gawkers with audioguide headphones plastered to their heads, is anyone really getting a chance to experience the paintings anymore?
The Guardian (UK)
02/23/05
Posted: 02/22/2005 8:43 pm
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Which Instrument Is That? Whisper In My Ear.
"Every concertgoer has wished at one time or another for a little guidance while listening to an unfamiliar piece of music -- an experienced voice that could subtly whisper, 'Here comes the second theme again,' or, 'That's a bass clarinet making that rumble' at the relevant moment. Now, thanks to wireless technology, that voice is available. Sotto voce, of course." The hand-held Concert Companion was inspired by art-museum audio guides and operatic supertitles.
San Francisco Chronicle
02/23/05
Posted: 02/23/2005 6:46 am
Barenboim's Successor? Symphony Takes The Question To The People
"At Tuesday night's packed Chicago Symphony Orchestra town meeting, the dominant tone was exceedingly civil -- more akin to placid chamber music than a crashing symphony. The gathering at Symphony Center's Buntrock Hall was called to let the public sound off on the CSO's search for a new music director to replace Daniel Barenboim after the 2005-06 season. ... Many had specific names in mind -- Pinchas Zukerman, Erich Kunzel -- to fill Barenboim's podium. One man delivered a prepared paean to National Symphony Orchestra conductor Leonard Slatkin."
Chicago Sun-Times
02/23/05
Posted: 02/23/2005 4:50 am
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Arts Leaders Beg, But Is Anyone Listening?
Minnesota artists and their supporters gathered at the state capitol in St. Paul this week for an annual day of organized lobbying designed to bring legislators around to the idea that cutting the arts to balance a budget is not a good way to run a state. But even as organizers declared the day a success, some observers are wondering whether such efforts make any real difference. Two years ago, when Minnesota was in the throes of a budget crisis, more than 1,000 people participated in Arts Advocacy Day, and the legislature still slashed the arts budget by 32%.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
02/23/05
Posted: 02/22/2005 10:00 pm
Aussie Arts Groups Fight Changes To Federal Funding
Australia's federal Arts Council is preparing to undergo a major restructuring which would see grant money parceled out based as much on an applying group's business plan as on its artistic product. "The council itself would decide on funding for strategic projects, rather than leaving it to the boards of individual art forms. The council has faced outrage from staff and arts organisations about the lack of consultation on the changes," and now, the revolt is gaining some serious momentum.
Sydney Morning News
02/23/05
Posted: 02/22/2005 9:53 pm
Trimming Overhead... Permanently
One of the toughest challenges of managing an arts organization is dealing with the high fixed costs of doing business: office rental, computer costs, security, etc. So it's worth asking just how many of these "essentials" are actually still essential in the digital world. "Of course, arts organizations need control of many assets to do what they do...since often what they do requires lots of physical space. But there are signs in the world that new options are available, if an organization is really serious about rethinking its fixed costs, its overhead, and the 'stuff' it thinks it needs to do its work."
The Artful Manager (AJ Blogs)
02/22/05
Posted: 02/22/2005 9:04 pm
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Novelist Infante, A Cuban Exile, Dies At 75
"Guillermo Cabrera Infante, a Cuban novelist in exile whose lavishly textured prose conjured the country he knew before the revolution he once supported, died on Monday at a hospital in London, where he had lived for 39 years. He was 75."
The New York Times
02/23/05
Posted: 02/23/2005 8:12 am
Thompson's Death May Overshadow His Life's Work
The manner of Hunter S. Thompson's death Sunday night could pull the focus away from his literary and journalistic merit, perhaps permanently. "Thompson's suicide may now make it easier for the forces of reaction to dismiss his achievement. See what you get, they'll say, for taking drugs, for mocking authority, for making yourself part of the story? It took Hemingway's reputation years to recover from his suicide, and he's still not all the way back. Death is only a good career move for the romantic and the obscure. For the hard-living, or the already famous, somebody's always ready to spin suicide into a cautionary tale."
San Francisco Chronicle
02/23/05
Posted: 02/23/2005 6:55 am
Smithsonian's Small, Prosecutor At Impasse Over Sentence
"More than a year after he pleaded guilty to buying tribal art made from the feathers of endangered birds, Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small has not started the 100 hours of community service he was sentenced to by the federal court, in part because of a disagreement with the U.S. attorney over what he should do." Small became Smithsonian secretary two years after the 1998 purchase.
Washington Post
02/23/05
Posted: 02/23/2005 4:24 am
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Charity To 'Jerry Springer': Go To Hell
"A cancer charity has refused a donation from 'Jerry Springer - The Opera' after a religious group threatened to protest. ... Christian Voice said it had warned the charity that accepting cash from a show full of 'filth and blasphemy' would be a public relations disaster. The show's star, David Soul, accused the religious group of 'strong-arm tactics' and blackmail - adding cancer was not just a Christian problem." The show's cast had waived their wages for a special benefit performance Feb. 18.
BBC
02/23/05
Posted: 02/23/2005 8:05 am
There's A Little Shakespeare In All Of Us
Who is Shakespeare? With Bard fascination having become a cottage industry, and new theories concerning his life and work springing up as fast as their proponents can score book deals, it's a question worth asking. Interestingly, many of the scholars, actors, and directors who know the playwright's work best respond to the question the way many people would respond to the question, "Who is God?" Case in point: "As every age has re-invented him, so I have cast him in my own private image. As I am a gay man brought up in a Catholic family in Lancashire, so Shakespeare for me is a gay Catholic who spent some time in Lancashire."
The Guardian (UK)
02/23/05
Posted: 02/22/2005 8:47 pm
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OED To Embrace 'Wife-Beater'?
"Coming soon to a dictionary near you: 'wife-beater.' Not the abusive husband, mind you -- but the sleeveless, white undershirt. The 'wife-beater' -- frequently spotted on Kid Rock, available at your neighborhood Gap -- is soon to be immortalized in the Oxford English Dictionary. It'll likely be added, somewhere between 'whip' and 'women's lib,' next month."
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
02/23/05
Posted: 02/23/2005 5:56 am
The New Generation Of Teen Lit
Author Francesca Lia Block "writes in a style that she says is influenced by Greek myth, the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez and the modernist poetry of T. S. Eliot and H. D. Her stories abound with sudden transformations, fairies, genies and ghosts." But her novels, aimed at a young adult audience, also contain plenty of frank discussion of drugs, sex, and the other temptations confronted by teens and college students. As might be expected, not everyone is happy with Block's subject matter, but her books are flying off the shelves, and winning awards on their way to the cash register.
The New York Times
02/23/05
Posted: 02/22/2005 9:43 pm
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Podcasting Poised To Change Radio -- Quickly
Podcasting "promises a future where anyone can make radio, instead of just listen to it. The biggest podcast audiences now number in the mere tens of thousands. Yet real radio, the kind with bona fide mass audiences, is starting to use the technology to make its shows available for download. Several US public radio stations, as well as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the BBC, are experimenting with the medium. ... Given that podcasting didn't exist nine months ago, this adoption curve is impressive. Podcasting - unregulated, low-cost, on-demand radio - is heading for a tipping point." Wired
02/23/05
Posted: 02/23/2005 7:54 am
Will Blog For Food
New York web designer Jason Kottke has quit his financial-services day job to devote himself full-time to blogging. Kottke's financial plan for his blog -- and thus for himself -- does not include advertising, which he fears would be a barrier between his readers and himself. Instead, he is following prominent journalist and blogger Andrew Sullivan's lead and calling on those readers to support him with donations. Wired
02/23/05
Posted: 02/23/2005 7:41 am
The Art Of Twiddling Your Thumbs
Video games are not what most parents would consider an art form, no matter how many hours their children might choose to spend in front of them. But according to the Art Gallery of South Australia, many games have reached an artistic level of creative achievement, and a new exhibition, held in conjunction with the Adelaide Film Festival, is highlighting some of the best in the field. Adelaide Advertiser (Australia)
02/23/05
Posted: 02/22/2005 8:23 pm
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Erin Go Dance
"The main reason for Ireland's historical disregard for dance is that this is a country where literature, poetry and theatre maintain an absolute hegemony at the expense of non-verbal art forms. But equally to blame is Catholicism, which led to dance being regarded as immoral, sinful and degenerate... The final impediment was Irish folk dance, enshrined as the only public form permissible by the Dance Halls Act of 1935." But choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan is finally introducing Ireland to modern dance, almost single-handedly defying decades of disinterest and forging a dance movement that is simultaneously classic, anarchic, and distinctly Irish.
The Guardian (UK)
02/23/05
Posted: 02/22/2005 8:53 pm
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