Doug: I hope you got some sleep and are dug out, as it were. As for audiences: I agree, sheep-like behavior masking a lack of conviction is bad however it's manifested, and if today it's manifested as automatic standing ovations, we're agin 'em. As for my hippie roots: I was never a real hippie, whatever my parents thought. I was too busy studying (or not) for my Ph.D. orals, writing my … [Read more...]

Doug: Geez, with all due respect to Art, I would think a tree, a storm, a roof, power and family safety might just for the moment trump this conversation. I'll respond to the rest of your 3 a.m. posting in a bit. Looking forward to your next message, but take care of priorities! … [Read more...]

John: I had a response all but set to publish tonight when suddenly there was a huge crash and a 60-foot cedar from our neighbor's yard toppled down and smashed the back of our house. Unfortunately there's still about a third of this huge tree standing over our house, there's a major wind storm blowing, and the entire neighborhood is without power. Plus we've got flooding in the basement. Afraid … [Read more...]

By John Rockwell Doug: The issue of audience sophistication and naivety is bound up with the democratization of the arts. The ideal, for those who believe the arts have been dumbed down by yahoo audiences (meaning rubes, not subscribers to that estimable e-mail etc. site), is of a Leo Straussian elite, guardians of the refined secrets of art surrounded and threatened by a roiling mass of dopes … [Read more...]

John: Point taken - I'll try to focus this entry on more or less one idea. The other day I was a guest on a CBC radio show as part of a panel talking about "applause inflation." Of course it does seem that all anyone has to do anymore is walk on stage and get off without tripping over themselves to earn a standing O. Some people are upset that audiences give it up too easily, that their standards … [Read more...]

Doug: By actual count there are 4,217 really good ideas in your five paragraphs. Well, maybe one or two less, but they're all piquant and deserve response. Here's a start: Just as artists resent others laying their taste/biases/criteria on them, so might critics object when artists (or their enabling presenters, and I was one of those too) want the critics to genuflect before their own … [Read more...]

For the next week, critic John Rockwell will be joining me in a conversation on ArtsJournal. John started working at the New York Times as a critic in 1972, and is currently the paper's chief dance critic. He was also the paper's first pop music critic, wrote extensively about classical music, invented a "job" prowling the capitals of Europe and writing about what he found interesting, and edited … [Read more...]

We've had lots of comments on the new design for ArtsJournal - many of them positive - and then a full-throated chorus of those who find the new look wanting (ouch). I've changed a number of things based on these comments. The biggest change is restoring the topic groupings to the newsletters. Many complained that it was more difficult to scan the stories when they weren't grouped by topic. I'm … [Read more...]

Actually it's more than just a new look. The entire website has been rebuilt from the ground up. Why change something that's simple and easy to use and has worked well for the past four years? Content management systems have advanced considerably since we last rebuilt ArtsJournal, and the new system will allow us more flexibility in compiling and delivering ArtsJournal. New News Format The first … [Read more...]

As my post below says, right after I started this blog I embarked on a major overhaul of ArtsJournal. The site hasn't been upgraded in about four years, and it was time. Of course it's taken much longer than I ever expected. The first version of AJ took about a week. I got the idea to do the site on a Tuesday, the next day I registered the name, got a web host and bought some books on html. By … [Read more...]