Ideas That Exceed Our Abilities "Sometime in the next 20 or 30 years, we're going to have, because of Moore's law, machines that will have the computational power and memory of humans." Even now, many of today's new engineering achievements are so complex, they can't really be designed by people - they're invented by sophisticated computers that exceed our own abilities. "But we don't know how to program them yet to interact naturally with people. So it's all a software problem." Discover 02/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 7:48 pm
Man Glues WTC Picture To Met Museum Painting A former museum guard defaced a famous painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Washington crossing the Delaware by glueing a picture of the World Trade Center's twin towers to the bottom of the famous Revolutionary War scene last weekend. The painting was undamages and has been restored. New York Daily News 01/24/03
Posted: 01/24/2003 8:54 am
Asian Museums Hurting For Money Japan's art museums are facing a serious cash crunch. As the economy has stalled, money for art has become scarce. "In the profligate 1980s, Japanese businessmen lavished money on art, and when in 1987 the Yasuda Insurance Co bought Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers for more than US$36 million the purchase rocked the global art market. Those days are long gone." Asia Times 01/24/03
Posted: 01/24/2003 8:49 am
Christo Project Warmly Greeted By New Yorkers Why, after 24 years of rejecting the proposal, did New York City agree to let Christo do his "Gates" project in New York's Central Park? “People don’t realise the reason for the rejection the first time was that the park was in deplorable condition. It was neglected and so worn out that most of us thought—whatever the merits of the project—the park just couldn’t stand it. Since then, the Central Park Conservancy has been established and now the park is in wonderful shape. The proposal has been scaled down and at this scale I think it can work and will be most beautiful.” The Art Newspaper 01/24/03
Posted: 01/24/2003 6:53 am
- Previously: Christo Gets Okay For Central Park Project Since 1979 Christo has been trying to get permission for a big project in New York's Central Park. Now the city has approved it. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says "the project would attract some 500,000 visitors and generate $72 million to $136 million in spending. 'When our natural instincts are to retreat to the comfortable and the familiar, we have to reassert the daring and the creative spirit that differentiates New York from any other city in the world'." The New York Times 01/23/03
Italy To Return Parthenon Fragment Italy will return a fragment of the Parthenon to Greece as a "gesture of goodwill". "The fragment is part of the statue of Peitho, the daughter of Mercury and Venus, which once adorned the eastern side of the Parthenon. A 14-by-13.6- inch piece of marble, it depicts the goddess's foot and a portion of her tunic. The frieze was regularly purchased by the museum between 1818 and 1820 from the widow of Robert Fagan, the British consul for Sicily and Malta" and has nothing to do with the Elgin Marbles. Discovery 01/22/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 7:58 pm
Houston Symphony Says Pay Cuts Are Essential Houston Symphony management says an agreement on a contract with the orchestra's musicians can't happen without wage cuts. "The symphony has a near-term financial crisis and a longer-term structural problem of recurring deficits. The society is projecting a deficit of $2.3 million on a $23 million budget, with orchestra costs making up about 50 percent of the budget, management said." Houston Chronicle 01/24/03
Posted: 01/24/2003 9:40 am
Opera In Your Living Room "Ask the man on the street to define opera and you're likely to get adjectives like grand, foreign, expensive. Ask a New York opera patron about opera beyond the Metropolitan and City Operas, and you might get a mention of the Amato Opera, the stalwart 107-seat theater on the Bowery that's been putting on tiny productions of classic operas since 1948. But none of these quite covers the broad spectrum of indie opera companies that produce fully staged opera around New York City in living rooms, church basements and city parks." The New York Times 01/24/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 11:26 pm
Australia Music Sales Down Sales of CDs in Australia were down 5.5 percent last year. The Australian Record Industry Association "blamed several factors, including online and offline piracy, increased interest in DVDs and computer games, and tough economic conditions. The newest threat was backyard piracy, in which thousands of CDs were manufactured on home computers." The Age (Melbourne) 01/24/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 4:23 pm
Arts Funding Cuts In The Real World What does the 62 percent cut in Massachusetts' state arts funding mean in real terms? "Almost no arts organization - from giants such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra to the smallest local arts groups - has avoided the knife. While no group has lost all its state funding, each has been given less money. These include programs that provide after-school art classes and low-price tickets for students. Some of the toughest cuts are being felt at the council itself. Eight of its 12 core programs have been cut and it has laid off 11 of its 41 full-time employees." Boston Globe 01/24/03
Posted: 01/24/2003 7:08 am
Medical Journal Argues Arts Are Good Medicine An editorial in the British Medical Journal argues that "the government should divert 0.5 per cent of its £50 billion health care budget into the arts, equivalent to an additional £250 million for the sector. Where health professionals are trained, they should be surrounded by art. They should regard it as one of their duties in later life to see that hospitals, for the benefit of patients, their relatives, visitors and staff, contain art." The Scotsman 01/24/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 11:33 pm
London To Cut Arts Funding In Favor Of Sport London theatres are protesting the London arts councils' decision to drastically cut arts funding and give the money to sports. "The ALG, which gives £27 million a year to a wide range of community groups and social service providers, said the changes were necessary if it was 'to properly meet the needs of Londoners'." Arts groups say the cuts will force some groups to close. The Guardian (UK) 01/24/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 11:21 pm
The Kennedy Center's New Toll Plaza Jack Shafer thinks the proposed new $400 million plaza for the Kennedy Center looks like little more than...a New Jersey-style toll plaza. Why is it being built? "Isn't the design a tad reminiscent of something out of Albert Speer? It shares the Kennedy Center's coldness and its monumental bombast." Slate 01/23/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 10:55 pm
Dreaming Of A New Lincoln Center New York's Lincoln Center is planning a renovation/expansion. What should the new campus achieve? "The goal is still to expose the American citizen to art and music, but the emphasis has changed. Arts institutions no longer see themselves as beneficent agents of acculturation and middle-class homogenization. Instead, they are scrambling to adapt to a crowded entertainment market and recast themselves as democratic, youthful, relevant and diverse. As Lincoln Center rebuilds, its planners are searching for ways to open it up, make it more visible, transparent and permeable." Newsday 01/23/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 9:06 pm
Bill Viola - Careful Screening "It's been a long journey for Bill Viola, from the small fringe world of video art in the early 1970s to his current position as one of the most highly regarded artists working in any medium, but his odyssey has always been closely tied to the cutting edge of technology." LAWeekly 01/23/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 11:43 pm
Will Broadway Continue To Employ Live Musicians? Broadway musicians are getting ready to negotiate for a new contract. The musicians' union says the negotiation will be about whether theatres continue to use live musicians. "They have made direct statements to me that they are or will be prepared to replace us with mechanical devices. They're going to walk in with a proposal to eliminate minimums, and behind it will be the threat to replace us should we go on strike." Backstage 01/23/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 10:35 pm
National Theatre Slashes Ticket Prices Nicholas Hytner, incoming director of London's National Theatre has plans to slash ticket prices - to £10 tickets for many of the large productions. "What I want to do is find a way of getting people in to try what we have got to offer, the same way you feel able to try a movie at the weekend even if you do not know much about it." BBC 01/23/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 5:22 pm
- A Bold Start "Hytner's first season is full of bold thinking. The news that in the biggest of the NT's three auditoria, the Olivier, two thirds of the ticket prices will be slashed to £10 for six months couldn't be more welcome. It should attract new audiences, and also let people who already attend do so more often. The theatre will be stripped back to basics, and offer "accessible", no-frills productions in this epic ampitheatre space." The Telegraph (UK) 01/24/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 5:14 pm
The Theatre Fanatic Sisters The Dalton Sisters are dedicated theatre-goers. They go over and over to the same shows, and even cut back on lunch so they can afford tickets. "Their favourite show by far is 'Les Miserables'. The Dalton sisters have seen Les Mis more than 500 times. They've travelled overseas and interstate to see it, paying $60,000 for the pleasure, watch every performance intently, know all the lines, and notice if they're delivered differently. Joanne still cries at every session." A fascinated documentary-maker has made a film of their obsession... The Age (Melbourne) 01/24/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 4:28 pm
Renewal And Renovation In Ottawa The National Arts Centre in Ottawa today will kick off a major renovation project for its 900-seat theatre, which plays host to a variety of dance and theatrical productions. The venue has often been overlooked in the NAC's larger plans, because the centerpiece of the complex, the NAC Orchestra, performs in the larger Southam Hall. The renovation is expected to cost CAN$3 million, $2 million of which must still be raised from patrons and donors, and the project will be completed by 2006. Ottawa Citizen 01/23/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 6:10 am
Robbie Burns - Still Big Business These days culture is big business. Yes, that extends to poets, too. Even dead poets. A BBC documentary estimates that Scottish poet Robert Burns brings about £157m a year into the country."The biggest single source of income is Burns-related tourism. It brings in £150m, two-thirds of which goes straight to Ayrshire where Burns was born and lived most of his life." BBC 01/24/03
Posted: 01/24/2003 9:15 am
New NYT Arts Editor To Shake Things Up How will the New York Times' cultural coverage change under new Arts & Leisure editor Jodi Kantor? "I do think you'll see us playing around with the format, thinking up novel ways to cover culture, and developing more regular features and columns." Staffers are eager to see how Kantor reshapes her influential section, deals with senior critics and shakes up the ranks of freelance contributors while navigating the paper's often-choppy waters. New York Daily News 01/24/03
Posted: 01/24/2003 9:00 am
Frankfurt Fair To Stay In Frankfurt The Frankfurt Bookfair is staying in Frankfurt. The fair had threatened to move to Munich because Frankfurt hotels had inflated their prices. Last week, representatives of the book fair, the city of Frankfurt, its hotel and gastronomy industry, the German publishing association and the operator of the Frankfurt fair came to an agreement." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 01/24/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 5:55 pm
How Literary...Or Is It? "What constitutes literary publishing? Is there such a thing as a purely literary publishing house? Is there a literary DNA or special skill set required to publish so-called literary fiction and nonfiction as opposed to broad mainstream books? Some publishers can be driven absolutely crazy by the notion that they aren't considered literary enough. The reality is that there is no longer any such thing as a purely literary publishing house." The New York Times 01/23/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 4:55 pm
Bestsellers Before The First Page Is Published Books like the upcoming Harry Potter become bestsellers long before they even hit stores. "The growth of pre-sales is an interesting development in publishing. Of course in the eighteenth century an author could pre-sell his book by subscription as a way of supporting himself, but this is a different kettle of fish. Publishers love it because it lets them lock in sales without having to worry about returns. With enough hype or a strong enough brand name the whole enterprise can turn into a form of print-on-demand. It's quite a testimony to the importance of marketing." GoodReports 01/23/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 4:50 pm
Would You Pay $5 To Check Out A Book? Would you pay $5 a book to check out books from your public library? That's what the State of California proposes. Under Governor Grey Davis' proposal released Friday, "the state would cut in half the amount of money it gives California's 179 library systems, reducing annual subsidies from about $32 million to $15 million a year. To recoup some money, Davis proposed legislation allowing county libraries to charge $1 to readers who check out books in libraries outside the county where they live, and $5 to readers who have a book sent to their home library from another county." The Press-Democrat (Santa Rosa) 01/23/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 4:44 pm
Consolidators, Unlimited Should media companies be allowed to own newspapers, radio and TV stations? The Federal Communication Commission is "studying whether decades-old media ownership restrictions are appropriate in a market altered by the growth of the Internet, satellite broadcasts and cable television. Media companies say outdated regulations restrict their ability to grow and stay competitive. Critics warn that mergers resulting from looser rules could leave a few huge companies in control of what people watch, hear and read." Nando Times (AP) 01/23/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 11:06 pm
Judge Throws Out Writer Age Discrimination Suits A judge has dismissed class-action lawsuits brought by Hollywood writers who claim that entertainment studios have refused to hire them because they are older. "The writers, all of them over 40, claimed they were 'gray-listed' by networks, producers and agents who systematically refused to hire or represent them because of their age.
Backstage 01/23/03
Posted: 01/23/2003 10:41 pm
The Royal Ballet's Popular New Leader "When Monica Mason was confirmed as head of the Royal Ballet just before Christmas her room filled so thick with flowers that, weeks later, the fragrance still lingers. Hers was a hugely popular internal appointment, a healing unguent after the rough and ready rule of the Australian Ross Stretton who lasted less than a year, leaving abruptly last September." La Scena Musicale 01/23/03
Posted: 01/24/2003 9:32 am
