Blurring Lines Between Fact And Fiction Lead To: Censorship! The commodification of all forms of culture breeds "a growing concern that the victims of crime and their relatives be protected from distress, the emergent movement against criticism of religion and attempts to proscribe the 'glorification' of certain acts. The famous proscription against falsely shouting 'Fire!' in a crowded theatre is no longer just a matter of preventing a stampede: now, shouting "fire" can be censured for infringing the rights of the firemen, distressing the relatives of people killed in other fires, offending religions for whom fire is a sacred object, and glorifying or celebrating arson." The Guardian (UK) 10/22/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 8:53 am
The 10,000-Year Wonder-Clock A clock being built in Southern California is being constructed to be accurate for 10,000 years. "Everything about this clock is deeply unusual. For example, while nearly every mechanical clock made in the last millennium consists of a series of propelled gears, this one uses a stack of mechanical binary computers capable of singling out one moment in 3.65 million days. Like other clocks, this one can track seconds, hours, days, and years. Unlike any other clock, this one is being constructed to keep track of leap centuries, the orbits of the six innermost planets in our solar system, even the ultraslow wobbles of Earth's axis." Discover 11/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 7:31 am
Click here for more Ideas stories...
Appreciating Art - Righteous Rebellion "Over the past hundred years or so a very particular revolutionary sensibility has influenced the value system used in making and appreciating visual art. It feels to me that the art world today has its own visual dialect, a kind of educated mischievous slang that is learnt from making, looking at and talking about art for a long time and a love of being challenged or surprised. From outside, the art world must seem like a self-regarding mafia, but it relishes an assault on its values." The Times (UK) 10/22/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 9:06 am
Putting The Frieze On Art London's Frieze Art Fair is only three years old, but it's leaving traditional museum shows behind in the dust. "The Frieze Art Fair feels as if the flying circus of dealers from Basel, curators from Barcelona, museum owners from Istanbul, collectors from Los Angeles, and even the occasional artist from Hoxton or Berlin who constitute the perpetual shifting landscape of art, have given up perpetually circumnavigating the globe, and decided to turn themselves collectively into an airport." The Observer (UK) 10/23/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 8:40 am
- Measuring This Year's Frieze "The speed with which Frieze has become an essential date in the international arts calendar is testament to the buzz which surrounds British art. It was launched only three years ago, but the number of galleries represented has risen from 150 last year to 160, due to the increased quality of the 400 applications. Frieze is determinedly international, but this year there are 35 British galleries represented - second only to the Americans, who have 38." The Observer (UK) 10/23/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 8:38 am
A First Look At 9/11 Museum Plans "The plans, presented in public workshops over the past month, offer the first glimpse of an institution that is likely to become one of the country's most visited museums. The ideas are also likely to prompt sensitive questions of how to tell the story of Sept. 11." Boston Globe 10/23/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 8:33 am
Click here for more Visual Arts stories...
Chicago Symphony: Going It Slow The Chicago Symphony has a $12.5 million accumulated deficit. "In the administrative offices of Symphony Center these days, the pressure to find a new music director to replace Daniel Barenboim, who leaves in June after 15 years, is certainly being felt. So is the need to erase the CSO's string of annual deficits and to keep the orchestra moving forward artistically as well as financially. But with so much at stake, CSO Association President Deborah R. Card and Board Chairman William H. Strong are charting a course that values slow and steady over fast and furious." Chicago Sun-Times 10/23/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 8:22 am
Seattle Opera Holds A Garage Sale "The Opera parted with two tons of garments, from ankle armor to silk skirts to black-painted cowboy hats. It took several months to price all the items; some went for as little as $1, while others went for as much as $200. The goal was to raise enough money to buy a new dye vat for the costume shop. Staff members said the private sale for subscribers and donors on Friday had already raised about $10,000, enough money to replace the vat." Seattle Times 10/23/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 8:18 am
Click here for more Music stories...
National Arts Month - Are You Celebrating Yet? Here it is the last week of October, and this is the first we here at ArtsJournal have heard of the thing. "Apparently the celebration has been held every year since 1993. Organizers believed a monthlong national celebration would give fellow Americans the opportunity to explore new facets of the arts and humanities in their lives. Presumably they had thoroughly explored the old ones. More than likely, though, they saw the arts as decorative adjuncts to life. Interesting — informative, even — but not essential." The Mail Tribune (Oregon) 10/21/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 8:13 am
New York City's Arts Mayor New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is not a connoisseur of the arts. But his administration has been the most supportive administration of the arts in a very long time. "Under Mr. Bloomberg, public art has flourished in every corner of the city - from 'Element E,' a Roy Lichtenstein sculpture in the center of the former Tweed Courthouse, to a classic limestone statue in the Bronx, to 'The Gates,' set up by Christo and Jeanne-Claude last winter in Central Park, a project for which he personally lobbied for almost a decade. The city's art commission, once knee-capped by the Giuliani administration as an elitist irritant, has been empowered at the highest level, with a voice in every significant public-works project in the city." The New York Times 10/23/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 7:47 am
Click here for more Arts Issues stories...
Life After Hunter Although Hunter S. Thompson is gone, "she is still surrounded by him, weighed down not only by his papers, which entirely fill the basement, and by his fans, who still turn up from time to time, but also by his stuff, which covers every surface, and which she will never be able to throw away." The Guardian (UK) 10/22/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 8:58 am
The Man Steering The British Museum Neil MacGregor's story is "of the rise of the public man at a time when that character's obituary had been prematurely written. As a public servant, he has revivified the British Museum, making it appreciated anew as what he calls, in Ben Okri's words, the "memory of mankind". He has made a museum stuffed with artefacts plundered from less rapacious cultures (Benin, in particular, would like its bronzes back) feel good in our post-imperial age, which is no mean feat. Like the fictional occupant of another west wing, he has given the British Museum a renewed sense of principled mission." The Guardian (UK) 10/22/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 8:47 am
Shirley Horn, 71 The jazz singer, who "died Thursday night at 71 after a long illness, could swing a tune with the best of them, and often surprised fans when she did, but that approach simply didn't fit her temperament. Instead, Horn did ballads and cool, understated ruminations better than anyone except her first champion, mentor and lifelong friend, trumpeter Miles Davis." Washington Post 10/23/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 7:41 am
- The Slowest Singer In Jazz Shirley Horn was "a unique singer, with one of the slowest deliveries in jazz and a very unusual way of phrasing, putting stress on certain words and letting others slip away. She cherished her repertory, making audiences feel that she was cutting through to the stark truths of songs like 'Here's to Life' and 'You Won't Forget Me.' She wanted things just so." The New York Times 10/23/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 7:40 am
Click here for more People stories...
Louisiana Musicians Turn Down NY Gig Replacing Strikers Musicians of the Louisiana Philharmonic were excited at prospects of a 10-week gig playing at radio City Music Hall in Nw York for $1,600 a week. Since the musicians are out of work, it seems like a dream opportunity. But then the players discovered they would be replacing striking colleagues... The New York Times 10/23/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 7:27 am
Broadway Shows Top the $100 Mark "Three of New York's most popular musicals boosted their top everyday ticket price 10% this month -- exceeding the $100 ceiling that had held steady for more than four years. The increase was the first since "The Producers" spurred a wave of $100 tickets in April 2001. The latest move comes at a time of rising production costs for ever-more-elaborate shows. It helps that attendance is finally back to pre-Sept. 11, 2001, levels. Twenty weeks into the season, overall box-office receipts are up 11% from last year, and attendance has increased 6.6% in the same period." The Wall Street Journal 10/22/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 7:23 am
Click here for more Theatre stories...
Quills - Not Enough Glitz, And Yet... The Quill Awards were created to add some glitz to literary awards. "In its first year, the Quills didn't come close to the Oscars in the glamour department. There were no A-list celebrities in attendance; viewers will have to settle for actors like Cattrall and Matthew Modine, who both have their own books to promote. But supporters believe that the ceremony made some progress in jazzing up publishing's staid reputation. But it remains to be seen whether viewers will tune in — and, more broadly, what kind of influence the Quills will have on sales and the image of the book publishing industry." Los Angeles Times 10/22/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 8:02 am
Click here for more Publishing stories...
DVD Battle May Be Irrelevant? Hollywood is battling over the next format of DVDs to be adopted. But does it really matter? More and more, consumers are moving away from physical disks as a way to get their media. Online seems to be the future... Yahoo! (Reuters) 10/23/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 9:15 am
Click here for more Media stories...
Master Of The Ballet "A ballet master is the face of how the information gets transferred or initially introduced. It is the person who instills the confidence in dancers to go that extra mile. They're at the front line of any artistic direction. In other words, the ballet masters are as responsible for the beauty onstage as the dancers themselves." The New York Times 10/23/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 7:57 am
A Dance Company's Gilded Cage A Sam Walton heir puts up tens of millions to start a dance company. The dancers get decent salaries, a new studio and a full season in which to work. So why is the company's morale low? The New York Times 10/23/05
Posted: 10/23/2005 7:38 am
Click here for more Dance stories...
