Ideas Learning To Love Literature - Are Today's Students More Sophisticated? Andrew Motion, the poet laureate, recently attacked the way English is taught in schools. He attacked the "educational rat wheel" that taught young people to read set texts and pass exams, but did not teach them to love literature, and gave a list of classics his students did not know. But maybe instead of leaning great literature by rote, today's students are better, not less, equipped to read. Perhaps "it is unrealistic to expect A-level students to have read great swaths of English literature." Maybe "schools can only give them their bearings and an ability to read the compass if they want to make the journey later. It's making it accessible and saying 'you have got the skills to go away and read anything - and you will cope with it, you will make sense of it, you will enjoy it'." The Guardian (UK) 04/01/03 Posted: 04/03/2003 4:45 pm Art As Therapy "In contemporary culture, the idea that the practice of art making is inherently beneficial to the human psyche is a surprisingly controversial one. It is only slightly less verboten in the mental-health professions, where it is grudgingly accorded a support role to more serious verbal or pharmaceutical therapies, with the caveat that if things get too touchy-feely, it's back to kindergarten with the finger paints and the modeling clay. Nevertheless, due to its repeatedly demonstrated effectiveness, art therapy has managed to adapt itself to every corner of the mental-health profession." LAWeekly 04/03/03 Posted: 04/03/2003 2:50 pm Visual Arts A Graffiti Park? Lock 'Em Up And Throw Away The Key A Los Angeles group holds a graffiti party and want to build an "aerosol art park with an art supply store and big canvas panels. Once embraced by the mainstream and given a legal place to work, poor graffiti artists could stop risking their lives tagging freeway signs and start holding museum openings." But a Los Angeles Times editorial makes funh of the idea: "Please, hold the breathless praise for graffiti artists.' They have defaced the sides of too many elementary schools, scarred the trunks of beautiful old sycamores, destroyed sorely needed benches in already scarce parks. In neighborhoods used as canvases for graffiti, people tend to call it vandalism, not art. They don't throw a party; they call the police." Los Angeles Times 04/04/03 Posted: 04/04/2003 9:56 am Security Concerns Strand Seattle Sculpture One of Seattle's most-loved sculptures - and the namesake for Seattle band Soundgarden - is on the grounds of a government facility - the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration campus. That means, since September 11, the public has not had access to it because of increased security. And the sculpture is degrading, because NOAA doesn't have a budget for upkeep. So what will happen to an important piece of public art? "We're not a museum. Taking care of art is not a priority. We're not going to let any of these sculptures fall over, but our mission is science and research, not art." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 04/04/03 Posted: 04/04/2003 8:26 am Only In LA - Underground Parking Lot Art Three Los Angeles artists are "using military GPS technology to create a new kind of art form - the urban story space." They've staked out a patch of land in the city and "visitors to the site are given headphones, a handheld global positioning system (GPS) device, and a tablet PC with special software to help guide them around the industrial landscape, which was a vital area during the early to mid-20th century.The equipment works much like the headphones with wands that museums supply visitors for tours, but here, the GPS shows people the 'hot spots' of information on a digital map. When visitors stand near a hot spot, the software triggers a story about that site." Christian Science Monitor 04/04/03 Posted: 04/03/2003 4:16 pm Small French Auction Houses Beating The Big Players "When the French Parliament threw open the auction business to competition in 2001, ending a 500-year government monopoly, it seemed certain that the big winners would be Sotheby's and Christie's. The two giants dominate the global market, with more than $2 billion in annual sales each, and have been eager to establish a firm foothold in France. Yet to everyone's surprise, it's private local dealers such as CalmelsCohen, which was founded only last year, that are grabbing the lion's share of the spoils. And investors betting on the liberalization of the $600 million French market for fine arts are lining up to back these upstarts." BusinessWeek 04/07/03 Posted: 04/03/2003 2:28 pm Music Deal On Webcasting Royalties The recording indsurty and bug webcasters have made a deal on royalty rates for internet music streaming. "The two sides agreed Thursday on how much big webcasters like Yahoo!, America Online, Microsoft and RealNetworks must pay to broadcast songs over the Internet during 2003 and 2004. The new deal, if approved by the U.S. Copyright Office, will allow the two industries to avoid a lengthy arbitration process to set the royalty rates." Washington Post (AP) 04/04/03 Posted: 04/04/2003 7:53 am Recording Industry Sues Students For File Trading The recording industry has sued four students who run Napster-like file-sharing sites at three universities. "The suits ask for the highest damages allowable by law, which range up to $150,000 per copyright infringement or, in other words, per pirated song. If awarded, the judgments could run in the millions of dollars. 'Frankly, we are hopeful this round of lawsuits will send a message to others that they should immediately cease and desist'." Washington Post 04/04/03 Posted: 04/04/2003 7:44 am Legislators Propose Recording Contract Reforms The recording business has to deal with declining sales and piracy threats. But it also is coming under attack by legislators who - in response to disgruntled musicians - are proposing new laws to regulate recording contracts with musicians. Musicians have been complaining that recording companies have not properly accounted for how they pay musicians... Boston Globe (AP) 04/04/03 Posted: 04/04/2003 7:02 am San Antonio Symphony Misses Another Payroll The San Antonio Symphony has paid its back-owed payroll, but then failed to make payroll this week. "The symphony office has begun calling early subscribers to let them know the money they've paid for next season will be needed now." San Antonio Express-News 04/02/03 Posted: 04/04/2003 12:16 am Fistful Of Bohemes In the past ten years, American opera companies have staged 189 productions of Puccini's "La Boheme". This weekend, New Yorkers have their choice of three Bohemes - at the Met, at New York City Opera, and on Broadway... Anthony Tommasini checks off the goods and bads... The New York Times 04/04/03 Posted: 04/03/2003 10:55 pm Arts Issues As Dana Gioia Sees His New Job... In the latest of a series of interviews this week, new National Endowment for the Arts chairman Daniel Gioia says: "The worst thing I could do is come to Washington and pontificate on things artistic and political. I plan to serve by building a huge new consensus to support the arts. I am not going to do that by dividing people, by polarizing people. Arts education - by which he means broad-based proselytizing for the arts - is not a left or right issue, a Democratic or Republican issue. It's good civic common sense." Los Angeles Times 04/04/03 Posted: 04/03/2003 10:49 pm Who Is Dana Gioia? "He is a graduate of Stanford and Harvard who dislikes elitism, a newly minted member of a Republican administration who speaks a Whitmanesque language of populism and free expression. Gioia is also a poet who dresses like the successful businessman he once was (before retiring to be a full-time writer), and his poetry is as immaculate as his suit. Yet there is a strange dissonance between a man in a tie and a mind capable of imaginative excursions into the head of a young killer or the heart of a lonely woman. It's glib, however, to say he's a man of contradictions." Washington Post 04/04/03 Posted: 04/03/2003 10:41 pm Decline In Lottery Funding = Decline In Architecture? As lottery funding for the arts declines in the UK, "architects and planners are anxious that the fall in this source of funding could reimpose conformity and 'cheapest option' building which marked many big public projects in pre-lottery days." The Guardian (UK) 04/04/03 Posted: 04/03/2003 10:25 pm Is It Okay To Be Entertained While There's A War Going On? "Anecdotal evidence and a slumping box office indicate many Americans are feeling conflicted about the luxury of leisure. After two weeks of war, many are torn between an obligation to be informed and the need to take a break from it. Observers say that, people's short-term reactions will probably center on a desire to be entertained, rather than creating high art. They add that it will take years - even decades - before the fine arts respond either to the war or to cultural shifts brought on by it and, even more profoundly, by Sept. 11." Christian Science Monitor 04/04/03 Posted: 04/03/2003 4:07 pm People SaatchiWorld Who is Charles Saatchi? The most important figure in British art in the 1990s. The Guardian has packaged a portrait of Saatchi - the artists he's discovered and helped, the art he's championed... The Guardian (UK) 04/04/03 Posted: 04/03/2003 10:39 pm Theatre Seattle Rep Cuts Staff, Season Seattle Repertory Theatre is the latest arts organization to make cutbacks. "Managing director Benjamin Moore said a full-time work force of 102 annual and seasonal employees will go down to 93, and the number of productions next season will decline from nine to six. Moore is projecting income of between $6.5 million and $7 million next season, down from revenues of $8 million this year." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 04/04/03 Posted: 04/04/2003 10:00 am Pasadena Playhouse - How One Theatre Makes The Cut Pasadena Playhouse is cutting staff and changing its schedule in an attempt to shore up its budget. "Donations to the playhouse in 2002 fell short of a $1.4-million goal by $300,000, and the 2003 season has attracted 9,842 subscribers, compared to 11,249 at this time last year. As a result, out of 43 full- or part-time staffers, 10 whose salaries were higher than $35,000 took temporary pay cuts of 20% starting in late January. Two box office workers were laid off, after the box office and telemarketing offices were merged. The playhouse's director of development left in February and has not yet been replaced. The playhouse's publications editor was laid off, a publicity firm's contract was not renewed, and the playhouse newsletter was suspended." Los Angeles Times 04/04/03 Posted: 04/04/2003 8:00 am Cast Travels To O'Neill's Home For a Touch Of Reality The Broadway cast of Eugene O'Neill's "A Long Day's Journey Into Night" - including Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Dennehy - take a field trip to Connecticut to visit the playwright's childhood home. "It's nice for me to have certain things here in my head. It just gives me a visceral sense of what things mean. Like when [the character of the younger son, Edmund, says], `I don't want to go upstairs until she's gone to bed,' suddenly means something else when you've seen how oppressive the ceilings are. Suddenly you have a mental picture for what it means to these boys to go upstairs. Of course, I'd stay up until 4 in the morning drinking if it meant avoiding going up there." Hartford Courant 04/03/03 Posted: 04/03/2003 2:55 pm Publishing The Danger That Is McSweeney's "The 'New Yorker short story' is no longer the hegemon it may once have been. In fact, this collection of 'thrilling tales' actually serves as a more effective counterbalance to an entirely new phenomenon. Call it the 'McSweeney's short story' — younger and hipper and more experimental, but no less influential. In some ways, McSweeney's has been a useful counterpoint to the mainstream publishing scene. Regardless of whether its self-referential play is to your taste, it's the first bona fide literary movement in decades—with all the old-fashioned energy that such a term implies. But the quality of the work inside McSweeney's has yet to live up to the promise of the magazine's gloriously designed packaging." Slate 04/03/03 Posted: 04/03/2003 7:02 pm Media The Dictator's Filmmaker "North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il has a passion for cinema. But he could never find a director to realise his vision. So he kidnapped one from the South, jailed him and fed him grass, then forced him to shoot a socialist Godzilla..." The Guardian (UK) 04/04/03 Posted: 04/03/2003 10:37 pm War Games - Ultimate Reality TV The unprecedented convergence of up-close access to troops and new whiz-bang tools of the TV trade has turned many living rooms into domestic war theaters. And as the coverage marches on, opinions of it are firing back. "We're watching this war as though it was a video game. It seems to be an entertainment instead of war coverage," Dallas Morning-News 04/03/03 Posted: 04/03/2003 10:12 pm Dance Nureyev Was My Mentor... Royal Ballet star Sylvie Guillem had a special connection to Rudoph Nureyev. "Guillem was one of the dancers who benefited most dramatically from Nureyev's mission to galvanise the Paris Opera. Her talent was let off the leash by the radical new repertory he commissioned and her ambition could barely keep pace with the speed at which he promoted her. Sometimes, however, she found Nureyev's style disorienting. She thought he was pushing her too fast into some roles while withholding others from her." The Guardian (UK) 04/04/03 Posted: 04/03/2003 10:32 pm Prince Charles Named President Of Royal Ballet Prince Charles has become president of the Royal Ballet in London. "The prince is taking on the role previously held by his late aunt, Princess Margaret, the ballet announced on Thursday. The prince is well-known for his broad love of the arts, enjoying contemporary movies, rock concerts and stage shows as much as classical entertainment." BBC 04/03/03 Posted: 04/03/2003 6:32 pm