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Chloe Veltman: how culture will save the world

For The Attention Of Teetotalers, Circus Fans, and Oboists

albrecht.jpgThree thoughts today aimed at three different audiences:

1. For all you teetotalers out there: I am impressed with the amount of interest that my blog post of a couple of days ago about arts reviewers’ drinking habits has generated. One person wrote this morning to say that critics should behave like any professional would, and abstain from drinking a drop on the job. But have you ever heard of a businessman’s lunch that didn’t include at least one glass of wine if not an entire bottle?

2. For all you circus fans out there: I experienced Cirque du Soleil‘s latest touring production, Ovo, in San Francisco last night at the start of its travels. Of course the acrobatics and clowning are pretty flawless. And I saw a couple of acts I’d never seen before, including the heart-stopping combination climbing wall/trampoline finale. The free popcorn and half-time cupcakes with blue and orange frosting were a lovely bonus. And The insect-themed costumes were glorious. But all in all I found the experience to be tiring. The show was about half an hour too long. And the music, which at one point mashed Beethoven’s Symphony Number 5 against “La Cucaracha”, made my stomach lurch.

3. For all you oboists out there: As an oboist, I was thrilled to read Daniel Wakin’s coverage of a recent oboists’ get-together in New York in The New York York Times. (See picture of the event’s biggest star, Berlin Philharmonic principle oboist Albrecht Mayer, above.) Fame at last! The article makes our weird breed of midnight reed scrapers and ducky honkers feel like rockstars.

lies like truth

These days, it's becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between fact and fantasy. As Alan Bennett's doollally headmaster in Forty Years On astutely puts it, "What is truth and what is fable? Where is Ruth and where is Mabel?" It is one of the main tasks of this blog to celebrate the confusion through thinking about art and perhaps, on occasion, attempt to unpick the knot. [Read More...]

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