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Thursday, January 30




Ideas

Limits Of Nurture "I have never encountered anybody who claims that will, education, and culture cannot change many, if not all, of our genetically inherited traits. My genetic tendency to myopia is canceled by the eyeglasses I wear (but I do have to want to wear them); and many of those who would otherwise suffer from one genetic disease or another can have the symptoms postponed indefinitely by being educated about the importance of a particular diet, or by the culture-borne gift of one prescription medicine or another." However, "If we have been raised and educated in a particular cultural environment, then the traits imposed on us by that environment are ineluctable. We may at best channel them, but we cannot change them either by will, further education, or by adopting a different culture." Chronicle of Higher Education 01/26/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 9:31 pm

Visual Arts

American Museums Boost Education Spending "The nation's museums spent more than a billion dollars in 2001 to educate schoolchildren, according to a survey released Wednesday. The Institute of Museum and Library Services reported that the median museum expenditure on K-12 programs increased to $22,500 in 2001, from $4,000 in 1996. The survey showed that museums dedicate about 12 percent of their median annual operating budget on K-12 programs, up from 3 percent five years earlier." Rocky Mountain News 01/30/03
Posted: 01/30/2003 6:15 am

Why Choose Just One Plan? As New York City prepares to choose one of the many plans submitted by some of the world's top architects to replace the World Trade Centers, Lisa Rochon says there's no reason not to combine two of the plans, each of which stands out for a different, and important, reason. Daniel Libeskind's design for the huge plaza would bring to the Ground Zero space "a carcass of stone that could become the most meditative public space in the world." And the Think team's design for two huge latticework towers could reach "beyond the security of a nation to a new security in our minds -- to an architecture that invites intellectual curiosity and the possibilities for cultural humility." The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 01/30/03
Posted: 01/30/2003 5:53 am

Comparing Rubens' Models For the first time in a century, in London's National Gallery Rubens' "Massacre of the Innocents" will be on a wall beside another Rubens, 'Samson and Delilah", dated by scholars as being from the same time, 1609-1610. "The juxtaposition enables visitors to play a 'spot the same models' game." Rubens saved money by reusing models from one painting for the other. The Guardian (UK) 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 7:04 pm

Music

Nagano Has The Critics' Vote Kent Nagano, strongly rumored to be the leading candidate to replace Charles Dutoit at the helm of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, seems to have Canadian critics and audiences eating out of the palm of his hand these days, and his latest performances with the MSO are garnering rave reviews. "The audience was now enamoured. Coughs were stifled and allowed to burst forth only between the movements (instead of peppering the music with an independent staccato), and when the work was done, the crowd roared its approval. Musicians beamed, Nagano beamed and the audience was determined to show him they'd love him to bits if only he said yes." The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 01/30/03
Posted: 01/30/2003 5:46 am

Ray Charles Won't Cross Springs Picket Line Legendary bluesman Ray Charles has cancelled an appearance in Colorado Springs this weekend, citing the presence of the Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra, which was sponsoring the event, on the "Unfair List" of the musicians' union. Charles is a longtime union stalwart who appeared on the cover of a recent issue of the national union's monthly newspaper. The CSSO is in the midst of an acrimonious dispute with its musicians over the future of the organization. The two sides are hoping to agree to third-party mediation in the near future. Denver Post 01/30/03
Posted: 01/30/2003 5:35 am

The New Castrati? There are, of course, no more castrati, male singers castrated in their youth so as to preserve their high, immature voices. And while no one would ever suggest a return to the barbaric practice, music historians have long lamented the loss of the unique sound such performers produced. In the last century, the parts originally written for castrati have been largely sung by countertenors, men singing in highly developed falsetto. But many of the most difficult Baroque castrato operas have been all but abandoned for lack of skilled enough performers in the countertenor range. Until now. Chicago Tribune 01/30/03
Posted: 01/30/2003 5:31 am

Tulsa Phil To Shutter Another small American orchestra is expected to shut its doors forever in the next few weeks. The Tulsa Philharmonic, the only full-time professional orchestra in Oklahoma, is struggling under a $1 million accumulated debt, and is not planning to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The orchestra has been playing concerts for 54 years. Channel Oklahoma/KOCO-TV (AP) 01/30/03
Posted: 01/30/2003 5:06 am

Houston Symphony Musicians To Strike Musicians of the Houston Symphony are planning a one-day strike Saturday, canceling a performance with guest soloist Midori. "The musicians said they scheduled the strike for Saturday because it's the day management intends to impose a 14 percent salary cut, raise health-insurance premiums and begin reducing the orchestra by five players through attrition." Houston Chronicle 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 7:58 pm

New Music - Reluctance To Take Risks In the next six months in London there are only eight premieres by British composers. "That's eight out of roughly 500 works being performed by the country's symphony orchestras until the end of the season (not including repeat performances on tour). A minuscule proportion - about 1.6% of performed works, if you want to be pedantic about it. Why is new work so thinly represented? Largely, it is because orchestras are reluctant to take risks. Programming new work is expensive. You have to pay the composer..." The Guardian (UK) 01/30/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 7:44 pm

Why San Francisco Opera Is Hurting What's the cause of the financial problems at San Francisco Opera and the resulting change in the way the company does business? Janos Gereben has done a little digging, and offers a list of contributing factors. San Francisco Classical Voice (2nd item) 01/28/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 6:24 pm

Is Salvatore Licitra The Next Big Thing? Last year Salvatore Licitra was hailed as the world's next great tenor when he substituted for Pavarotti at the Metropolitan Opera. Was it all just hype? No, writes Charles Michener - he's the real thing. "Listening to Mr. Licitra, I thought of something that one of Renée Fleming’s teachers, Arleen Auger, said to the soprano when she was just starting out: 'Imagine the different registers of your voice as a series of hotel floors, each with its own character.' Mr. Licitra navigated the ascent to each floor with seamless ease, finding new colors in each room and demonstrating the peculiarly Italian gift of expansiveness that gives a sense of vistas opening up. New York Observer 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 6:09 pm

Arts Issues

Scottish Arts Exec Calls For Arts Funding Inquiry After a disappointing announcement of flat funding for the arts by the Scottish government, "the chairman of the Scottish Arts Council has called for a public inquiry to stave off financial catastrophe in the arts and to nurture the sector for future generations." The Scotsman 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 8:09 pm

Delusions Of Greatness What do we mean by greatness? "The distinction is easier to identify in the performing arts than scientists might credit. Greatness is by definition rare, and fast becoming rarer. Perhaps because so much of the art of interpretation is fakable on film, the magnetism of high performance has been dulled and mediocrity can pass, on first impression, for mastery, while genius is obscured by cheap gesture. Since human nature abhors a vacuum, greatness gets bestowed on whoever catches the public eye." London Evening Standard 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 6:34 pm

People

Georges Sand In The Pantheon? In France there's a campaign to get writer Georges Sand reburied in the Pantheon on the 200th anniversary of her birth. "If Sand joins this Gallic dead white men's club - one that nevertheless includes a couple of men of color - she would only be the second woman among the 70-odd people buried there to be admitted 'on her own merits.' The first was the physicist Marie Curie (1867-1934) who was 'panthéonized' in 1995 with her scientist husband Pierre." OpinionJournal.com 01/30/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 6:47 pm

Theatre

Would Frequent-Goer Discounts Bring More People Into the Theatre? How about this for a plan? It works for airline tickets - People who buy their theatre tickets well in advance get big discounts. The founder of EasyJet, the discount airline, says: "I am sure that going to the theatre is as price-elastic as going to the movies. If you reduce the price, more people will go. Someone should try it with the theatre some day."
The Scotsman 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 9:23 pm

Star Power Is casting Hollywood celebrities in plays a good thing beyond goosing up the box office? "On the whole, I think the impact of these star performances on London theatre has been overwhelmingly positive. It creates a buzz, it attracts new audiences, it gets theatre talked about. Of course, you do have to make a distinction between what I would call celebrity casting - where you just take some minor celeb and try to use the name to sell tickets - and real star casting, where you’re featuring people whose fame has to do with their quality as actors." So maybe it would help revive Scottish theatre? The Scotsman 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 9:17 pm

Shakespeare In Tehran Director Dominic Hill was invited to Iran with his production of Shakespeare. It's been 25 years since the Bard was performed in Tehran. "This reverent attitude towards our national playwright was to crop up again and again during the many interviews I had with journalists and critics. The Persians, as they call themselves, are a cultured, strongly opinioned, passionate people - one mention that I had a degree in English literature and I was treated to a 30-minute lecture on the great Persian poets. Shakespeare is up there with them, and therefore to produce him in modern dress seemed, to the intellectuals and directors I spoke to, incomprehensible, insulting and doomed to failure." The Guardian (UK) 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 6:59 pm

Publishing

White House Poetry Event Cancelled It was to be a poetry forum featuring some of America's top poets, the latest in a succession of literary and educational events hosted at the White House by former librarian First Lady Laura Bush. Past forums hosted by Mrs. Bush have been lauded as serious literary discussions, "often turning into lively debates." Apparently, though, executive branch officials thought this debate might turn a but too lively, and have cancelled the event after learning that several of the participants planned to use the spotlight to protest the Bush administration's Iraq policy. BBC 01/30/03
Posted: 01/30/2003 7:06 am

Not That Anyone Would Be Surprised If This Actually Happened... An Australian writer has penned a novel in which the shoe company Nike develops a marketing plan which includes the murder of 10 teenagers "who buy the company's latest shoes, to make it seem as though people are killing each other over the new product. The result is instant street credibility and record sales." Astonishingly, a major publishing house was willing to put out the satire, and perhaps even more shockingly, the real-life Nike swears it has no plans to sue the author. National Post (Canada) 01/30/03
Posted: 01/30/2003 6:04 am

Okri: UK Writers Need More Respect... Why is Britain sliding into "imaginative impotence"? Novelist Ben Okri says its because the country's writers have little status at home. "Our novelists and poets are unappreciated in their own land, beaten down with defeatism and saddled with an inferiority complex in comparison to their lionised American counterparts, the Nigerian-born author of The Famished Road claimed. 'It is all very well celebrating the dead, but we are deaf to what living writers are saying, particularly about the war situation we now find ourselves in'." The Guardian (UK) 01/30/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 7:17 pm

An Encyclopedia Where Readers Are Editors "Last week, the English-language version of Wikipedia, a free multilingual encyclopedia created entirely by volunteers on the Internet, published its 100,000th article. More than 37,000 articles populate the non-English editions. Unlike traditional encyclopedias, which are written and edited by professionals, Wikipedia is the result of work by thousands of volunteers. Anyone can contribute an article - or edit an existing one - at any time." Wired 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 6:16 pm

Media

Fat Girl Okayed For Ontario Screenings "The Ontario government has lifted the ban it applied in fall, 2001, on Catherine Breillat's Fat Girl (A ma soeur!). The government had been facing a court action over the ban that, if heard, would have contested the constitutionality of the Ontario Film Review Board." Canadian film boards have the legal right to censor or ban films which violate vague decency standards, but in recent years, the power has been exercised rarely, and many Canadians want to do away with the practice entirely. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 01/30/03
Posted: 01/30/2003 5:49 am

Computer-Generated Potter Elf Based On Russian President? Was the computer-generated elf Doby in the latest Harry Potter movie based on Russian president Vladimir Putin? "A Russian law firm is reportedly drawing up legal action against the special effects people who dreamt up Dobby, arguing that the ugly but caring elf has been modelled on Mr Putin. The Kremlin and Warner Bros, producer of Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, have declined to comment but the controversy has stirred emotions in Russia." London Evening Standard 01/28/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 6:41 pm

Dance

Inside Nureyev Robert Tracy was Nureyev's lover for seven year before Nureyev's death, and for the past 10 years has refused to talk about his friend. Now he is. "He heard Nureyev talk in private about his anxieties over his fading youthfulness, about the women he had slept with, about his longing to have fathered a son. On January 6 1993, Nureyev died at the age of 53 from Aids, a diagnosis which was kept secret until the morning after his death. Tracy has never accepted this diagnosis. He believes his friend, like other gays, was the victim of poisoning by governments." The Guardian (UK) 01/30/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 7:32 pm


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