Creativity Out Of Mind Meat "It is what neurologists call the hard problem: how does physical matter give rise to subjective experience? How does meat - the goo of the brain - become mind?" says Gordon enthusiastically, talking at 100 miles an hour during a break in rehearsals. "It is an absolutely crucial question because at stake is our identity and what it means to be human. We live with the illusion that behind every face is a self. It is the essential quality that we impose upon each other. But science tells us that it is an illusion and nothing more. In reality, the self is a story we are told by our brains. We are a fiction." The Guardian (UK) 11/29/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 6:31 pm
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Whitney Biennial Goes Global "For 70 years, the sprawling Whitney Biennial exhibition of contemporary art has prided itself on its insistence on an American point of view. But as times and tastes change and art world boundaries dissolve, the 2006 biennial's two foreign-born curators have ventured across the Atlantic. Not content with just recording what's happening in contemporary art around the United States, the curators have scoured artists' studios in art capitals like Milan, London, Paris and Berlin, a first for Whitney Biennial curators... Given the proliferation of large art fairs all over the world and the speed by which images travel across the Internet, the curators said they wanted to make this biennial something more than a rambling show of new art." The New York Times 11/30/05
Posted: 11/30/2005 6:15 am
Big Basel Miami By The Numbers How big has the Basel Miami art fair become? "Miami's fair may do around $110 million this year. New York's Armory Show said it took in about $45 million in March. London's Frieze Art Fair reported October sales of $57 million, up 27 percent. Art Cologne closed Nov. 1 after taking in about $85 million. Including New York's November auctions, collectors of contemporary art this fall may have spent more than $600 million by the time Miami's fair ends on Dec. 4, based on published figures and fair directors' estimates. Bloomberg.com 11/28/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 8:57 pm
Sir Timothy's National Sir Timothy Clifford is leaving the National Gallery of Scotland a changed place. "Though his flaws are as flamboyant as his talents, he is the most naturally gifted museum man of his generation. He has stamped his own taste and personality on the National Gallery of Scotland so strongly that it is easy to forget what it was like before his arrival." The Telegraph (UK) 11/29/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 8:44 pm
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The Self-Made Virtuoso The trouble with being a solo musician is that your career is frequently at the mercy of other people's priorities, whether they be agents, orchestra managers, or whomever. Rarely does a promising young soloist have the time (or the will) to fully manage her/his own career, and the result is a descent into an exhausting and unfriendly world of bookings, recording gigs, and an endless search for more recognition. But as 26-year-old British violinist Jack Liebeck is showing, there is a way to skirt the "usual" process and emerge with both a healthy career and an intact psyche - just do everything yourself. The Herald (Glasgow) 11/30/05
Posted: 11/30/2005 5:33 am
Rostropovich Walks Out On Bolshoi Mstislav Rostropovich has pulled out of the Bolshoi Opera's world premiere production of the Prokofiev opera, War & Peace, after becoming frustrated with the lack of professionalism at the company. The cellist and conductor had reportedly clashed with Bolshoi management, and was further upset by singers he found to be unprepared, and by an orchestra that featured a continually revolving roster of musicians. The production was to have marked Rostropovich's return to Moscow's musical fold, seven years after his last performance there met with unfavorable reviews. The Guardian (UK) 11/30/05
Posted: 11/30/2005 5:26 am
Who Knew Deadheads Could Move That Fast? Bootleg recordings are a mainstay of the jam band genre, with bands regularly encouraging fans to tape their concerts and trade the resulting recordings amongst themselves. But now, the very band that led the jam band explosion, is angering its fans by cracking down on a website that offered such bootlegs for free download. The Grateful Dead, which exists these days primarily as a business in charge of marketing old product, wants the bootlegs to be available only for online listening, rather than downloading. Already, the international Deadhead community has roared into action, circulating a petition protesting the action and threatening a boycott. The New York Times 11/30/05
Posted: 11/30/2005 5:10 am
Doran Out At English National Opera After a rocky two years, Sean Doran is out as director of the English National Opera. "His inexperience was flagrantly exposed as big operas were slotted in with small, causing chaos in the schedules and disgruntlement in the orchestra." La Scena Musicale 11/29/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 5:05 pm
- Doran Out At ENO After Clashes Sean Doran's abrupt departure from the English National Opera, follows a tumultuous tenure. "His resignation, which is to take effect immediately, followed rumours of clashes with the ENO's vice-chairman Vernon Ellis. According to a source at the ENO, following a board meeting three weeks ago Ellis, chairman of consultancy group Accenture, has been taking a "close interest" in the management of the company and has been at the Coliseum most days." The Guardian (UK) 11/29/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 5:04 pm
Vancouver Symphony Boosts Audience, Ticket Sales The vancouver Symphony had a great year at the box office last year. "Subscriptions jumped 11 per cent and single-ticket sales edged up 5 per cent, putting a shine on a year that also saw a 7 per cent increase in gifts from major donors." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/29/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 5:01 pm
Air Guitar That Sounds Good Too "The Virtual Air Guitar project, developed at the Helsinki University of Technology, adds genuine electric guitar sounds to the passionately played air guitar. Using a computer to monitor the hand movements of a "player", the system adds riffs and licks to match frantic mid-air finger work. By responding instantly to a wide variety of gestures it promises to turn even the least musically gifted air guitarist to a virtual fret board virtuoso." New Scientist 11/29/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 4:43 pm
Say Goodbye To CDs "It's clearly time to move on. Think about it: No more nails-on-chalkboard-style skipping. No more secret tracks that scare the stuffing out of you 15 minutes after you think an album has stopped playing. No more fumbling around with those impossible-to-unwrap jewel cases. It was fun while it lasted. The music industry has declared war on its customers. Now it's time to fight back." San Francisco Chronicle 11/28/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 4:08 pm
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Nothing Funny About It (Yet) British comedians and satirists are struggling with the same problem that confronted American entertainers in the months after 9/11: how to acknowledge the terrorist elephant in the room without insulting anyone or bringing the mood down. For comedians, who frequently operate on the razor edge of good taste, anyway, the July train bombings in London are a delicate matter. If those comedians happen to be of Middle Eastern descent, well, then, the pressure is even more intense. Some comics are gingerly beginning to talk about the bombings, but "for all the effort at cheerful revenge, none of the dozens of acts addressing this year's hot issue know quite what to say about it." Los Angeles Times 11/30/05
Posted: 11/30/2005 6:29 am
Biting The Hand That Designed You "[Philadelphia's] Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts has sued its internationally acclaimed architect in U.S. District Court, accusing Rafael Viñoly Architects of 'deficient and defective design work' and delays that boosted the project's final cost. The lawsuit over construction of the arts center, designed to be one of the world's great venues for orchestral music, does not seek a specific amount of damages, but it cites a loss of $23 million." The center, completed in 2001 at a cost of $265 million, has struggled financially, and questions have been raised about the acoustic of its main concert hall, home to the Philadelphia Orchestra. Philadelphia Inquirer 11/29/05
Posted: 11/30/2005 5:47 am
Study: Art And Sex... They Go Together "A survey comparing mental health and the number of sexual partners among the general population, artists and schizophrenics found that artists are more likely to share key behavioural traits with schizophrenics, and that they have on average twice as many sexual partners as the rest of the population." The Guardian (UK) 11/29/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 6:24 pm
Who Will Save The Edinburgh Festival? The Edinburgh Festival is looking for a new director, but the search has been a lazy one so far. "Edinburgh stands out as the last bastion, the one place and time when Scotland can bask in the world's attention and imagine itself briefly to be Athens. The festival is not what it was, the last couple of years under Brian McMaster featuring fewer world-class orchestras and opera companies and less incisive theatre; but these shortcomings have been masked by the vitality of peripheral festivals for books, film and television and, of course, the anarchic fringe." La Scena Musicale 11/29/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 4:58 pm
Experience Music Project Turns to Impressionist Lifeline In another sign that Paul Allen's Experience Music Project is an enterprise in search of a mission, EMP has announced it will be staging an Impressionist art show drawn from the artwork in Allen's personal collection. Allen is said to have a significant collection, but Allen's "private asset management company" won't release details of the art that will be shown. Seattle Post-Intelligencer 11/29/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 4:10 pm
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Beloved Children's Author Dies "Stan Berenstain, who with his wife, Jan, churned out more than 250 books showing how the warm and fuzzy Berenstain Bears - Mama, Papa, Brother and Sister - confronted and learned from life's little crises, died on Saturday in Doylestown, Pa. He was 82." The New York Times 11/30/05
Posted: 11/30/2005 6:08 am
South African Tenor Murdered One of South Africa's best-known opera stars was shot to death by his father in an apparent murder-suicide yesterday. Tenor Deon van der Walt, 47, had performed in Salzburg, London, Zurich, and other top European opera houses, and was the first South African tenor to become an international success. SABCNews (South Africa) 11/30/05
Posted: 11/30/2005 5:21 am
Archaeologist Abducted In Iraq "A German archaeologist who earned a reputation for bravery after documenting damage to Iraq's archaeological sites was abducted Friday in Iraq. Susanne Osthoff had been engaged in humanitarian work there." Science 11/29/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 8:34 pm
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Cleveland Public Looks To Alt-Theatre For Its New Chief Cleveland Public Theatre has tapped experimental theatre artist Raymond Bobgan to be its next artistic director, beginning next April. Bobgan is only 38, but has been the #2 administrator at the city's leading alternative theatre troupe for several years. He succeeds Randy Rollison, who resigned this month. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 11/30/05
Posted: 11/30/2005 6:51 am
Wanna Rescue Your Broadway Show? Make A Lousy Movie. The movie version of the long-running theatrical hit, Rent, is not pulling much business by Hollywood standards, but the opening appears to have given a boost to the staged original, which last week had its best sales week ever. "The same thing happened last year with The Phantom of the Opera. The movie, which cost about $100 million to make, grossed just $150 million worldwide. But it lifted the fortunes of the Broadway show... As more and more stage shows are being adapted for the silver screen, theater producers are discovering that even if the movie isn't very good, the stage production benefits. The spike in ticket sales registers as soon as the trailer for the movie starts playing in theaters." New York Post 11/30/05
Posted: 11/30/2005 6:40 am
Commercial Theatre Sweeps West End Theatre Awards "From Billy Elliot, winner in the best musical category, to Harriet Walter, winner of best actress for her role as Elizabeth I in Schiller's play Mary Stuart at the Donmar Warehouse, commercial theatre accounted for 18 nominations and all six of the major category wins at the ceremony at the Savoy Hotel in London." Non-commercial theatre, and the National Theatre in particular, were shut out. The Guardian (UK) 11/29/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 6:22 pm
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Voices Of Poetry "Historic recordings of poets such as Tennyson, Yeats, Kipling, Betjeman and Sassoon are being made available through a new online initiative. The Poetry Archive also aims to ensure current leading English-speaking poets are recorded reading their own work for future generations. The free archive has been created by UK Poet Laureate Andrew Motion and recording producer Richard Carrington." BBC 11/30/05
Posted: 11/30/2005 6:24 am
Longlist Released For Bad Sex Award The prize honors the worst literary depictions of sex. Among the 11 contenders for the prize this year are some of the biggest names in literature, including John Updike, Salman Rushdie, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Paul Theroux. Of the four, Theroux's offering, from Blinding Light, is arguably the most deserving of the prize... The Guardian (UK) 11/28/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 6:36 pm
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FCC Threatening Cable Crackdown "Sexed-up, profanity-laced shows on cable and satellite TV should be for adult eyes only, and providers must do more to shield children or could find themselves facing indecency fines, the nation's top communications regulator said yesterday." The FCC's decision to threaten cable and satellite broadcasters is bound to be controversial, since the agency has historically been charged with regulating the terrestrial airwaves, but not channels carried over cable lines. But Congress is considering a new package of legislation that would increase indecency fines and give the FCC authority over cable and satellite programming. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (AP) 11/30/05
Posted: 11/30/2005 6:45 am
Decoding The Podsphere Podcasting, being the ultimate DIY technology, is a bit scattershot at the moment. Competence mixes with incompetence, and it's fairly difficult to distinguish the good from the bad without downloading and listening to everything you find. But "two new search engines offer to do for podcasting what Technorati does for blogs by letting users search podcasts by keyword to single out audio that suits their interests. Podzinger and blinkx scour audio content for keywords by translating the audio into text and creating an index for quick searching." Wired 11/30/05
Posted: 11/30/2005 5:56 am
Hollywood's Downloading Bonanza Hollywood now only makes 14.2 percent of its revenues from movie ticket sales, while 85.8 percent came from licensing or selling their products for use in the home. With downloading options expanding, the home-market video-on-demand market looks to get even bigger. Slate 11/29/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 4:52 pm
FCC Chair: Let Consumers Choose Subscription Channels FCC chairman Kevin Martin says that "letting consumers choose their subscription television channels would help shield children from inappropriate content and not necessarily lead to higher prices. His view contradicts a study the FCC issued last year that said allowing consumers to pay for only the channels they want could lead to higher charges, a position endorsed by the cable industry." Yahoo! (Reuters) 11/29/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 4:36 pm
Study: Hollywood Business Under Seige All is not well with the business of Holllywood, according to a new study. "The survey by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. depicts an industry under siege and whose outlook is murky. The entertainment industry employs nearly 250,000 people in the county, according to the report. But studios are beginning to cut jobs in anticipation of a slowdown in DVD revenues that have been so lucrative in recent years, according to the report. Studios also are grappling with softer box-office receipts, movie piracy and uncertainty over which new technology will best deliver entertainment to consumers." Los Angeles Times 11/29/05
Posted: 11/29/2005 4:31 pm
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