KCRW’s radio show, The Business, has a great segment on the world’s most popular mobile phone ring tone, and its strange and backward route to the top (you can listen to the show on-line, the story is about 14 minutes in). Here’s their short description of the story: …a song made from a cell phone […]
The downside of the ”mushroom method”
A colleague of mine espouses what he calls the ”mushroom method” of managing a board of directors: keep them in the dark, and every now and then shovel crap on them (he uses an alternate word for ”crap”). That method may have been a factor at the Milwaukee Public Museum, based on the news flowing […]
Ample parking, but no atmosphere…literally
The quest for quality exhibit space has finally stretched to the final frontier with this study of possible cultural uses of the international space station (or read the Guardian story on the effort). The European Space Agency has funded The Arts Catalyst in London to carry out the project, which ends this month (so get […]
Rockonomics 101
It’s kinda cool when the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) turns its gaze in our general direction. And it’s especially cool when their work takes such a radical turn from economic policy, currency dynamics, stock markets, and international trade to talk about Rock and Roll. Rockonomics: The Economics of Popular Music, co-written by Princeton […]
Do you REALLY want to talk?
C|NET has a once-over-lightly piece on the Van Cliburn Piano Competition’s new blog and the trend it suggests for classical music marketing. Says C|NET: …like other areas before it, from politics to open-source programming, the classical music world is finding a democratic spirit online that could help shape its future….with little support from big institutions, […]
Just a short link…
No time for much today, just a quick link to weblog neighbor Greg Sandow, and his fabulous examples of how to write a classical music press release…with personality, voice, perspective, intelligence, and without the usually empty hyperbole.
For honor or cash…or something in between
At least one arts journalist in Madison, Wisconsin, is in a bunch over the name change of a local museum. After the Elvehjem Museum of Art — part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison — announced a $20 million gift for a new building and simultaneously changed its name to the Chazen Museum of Art to […]
When good donors go bad
Lots of news sources are following the second fall from grace of mega-patron Alberto Vilar, who was arrested at the airport last Thursday for fraud. Said the New York Times: But it all came crashing down Thursday. That night, Mr. Vilar, 64, flew to Newark Liberty International Airport from Las Vegas, where he spoke at […]
What gets made, what gets seen
Justin Davidson of Newsday has a two-part exploration of the production and distribution shifts in the American arts system. The first article discusses the advancement of do-it-yourself productions by artists, often called ‘vanity projects,’ which attempt an end-run around the traditional gatekeepers of culture. The second piece wonders, in this increasingly decentralized world, who decides […]
The Footprints, the Giant, and the Rotarians
I’ve now posted the Rotary speech I gave yesterday in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. It was an attempt to distill and discuss (in 20 minutes) the challenge of valuing culture in communities to an audience that hadn’t been part of the academic or advocacy conversation. Avid readers will recognize the opening joke, which I also used in […]
