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Weekend, April 5,6
"War Porno" And The Voyeurization Of America The constant barrage of exciting video, exploding tank columns, belligerant journalists who make themselves the story, and endless nationalistic jingoism from the American media have congealed into a phenomenon best described as "war porno," says Joanne Ostrow. "Here we are in the middle of Act 2, just past the rescue of Jessica Lynch as a riveting subplot, awaiting the promised climactic act break in which we monitor the siege of Baghdad around the clock. We are at our posts, remotes in hand. You can tell you're a glutton for war porno when you arrange your day around Pentagon briefings to track Donald Rumsfeld's crankiness." Denver Post 04/04/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 8:07 am
But It'll Be Real Pretty When It's Done! "The Denver Art Museum's new wing is like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle strewn on a table, waiting to be assembled. Some of the pieces: It's still unknown how much the 146,000-square-foot wing will cost, though money in hand would suggest a price of at least $70 million. Museum officials won't say how much they have raised (or want to raise) in a capital campaign to augment bond money approved by Denver voters in 1999. There isn't a precise start date for construction, other than late June or early July. The opening date - first 2004, then 2005 - now hovers in 2006." Rocky Mountain News (Denver) 04/05/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 9:46 am
But Does He Hate Conceptual Art Or Just Kissing? Police were called to the Tate Modern gallery in London this weekend, after a visitor to the museum reportedly "attacked" a statue. The statue in question was Auguste Rodin's classic marble sculpture The Kiss, which is in the Tate because conceptual artist Cornelia Parker has wrapped it in string to represent "the claustrophobic nature of relationships." The attacker broke free from a tour group, and used scissors to cut some of the twine before being subdued. He has been released on bail. BBC 04/06/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 7:17 am
Music Education En Espaņol The Minnesota Orchestra will try a new tactic at educational outreach this week, presenting a set of the orchestra's long-running "Kinder Konzerts" series, aimed at preschool-age children, narrated entirely in Spanish. The series plays to more than 5,000 children every season, but this is the first time that the orchestra has presented any performances in a language other than English. The Star Tribune (Minneapolis) 04/06/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 9:12 am
Finally, Stepping Out Of Grammy's Shadow Outside of Canada, few have heard of the Juno Awards, and even at home, the ceremony honoring the best in Canadian music is often derisively referred to as "Grammy Jr." But this year, the Junos may be ready to make an international mark, with artists like Avril Lavigne, Nickelback, and Celine Dion representing a new crop of Canadian singers who have found spectacular success worldwide. But will the stars and the national pride be enough to get Canadians to watch the traditionally low-rated broadcast? Calgary Herald 04/05/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 7:54 am
What Are You Gonna Do? Garnishee Their Work-Study Wages? For years now, the recording industry has carped about the money they lose through illegal downloading and file-swapping, and consumers have yelled back that if the industry didn't set the prices for CDs and DVDs artificially high, fewer people would need to go the piracy route. But the industry ratcheted up the rhetoric considerably last week when it began to go after a few select college students who have swapped large amounts of digital music and video online. Katie Dean compares the tactic to the American military's 'shock and awe' campaign in Iraq, since the plan isn't meant to recover financial losses for the industry. In point of fact, it is intended to scare the bejeezus out of college students. Wired 04/05/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 7:31 am
- Previously: 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
- Lightening Up (A Little) In Europe A new set of copyright guidelines being proposed in Europe may not be as Draconian as previously feared. "The proposal maintains that the right to make copies for private use will be maintained, as long as the copying process is not unreasonable vis-a-vis the copyright holder. This suggestion has the intent of preventing copies being made from illegally produced copies, while safeguarding the rights of the individual purchaser." Aftenposten (Norway) 04/03/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 7:30 am
Baltimore Musicians Take Preemptive Wage Freeze "Musicians of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra have voted to accept a wage freeze and other financial concessions over the next 2 1/2 years to help the organization deal with its financial troubles. The move, which will save the BSO about $3 million, comes midway through the musicians' current five-year contract." It is extremely unusual for a functioning orchestra to renegotiate a contract in the middle of its run, but the Baltimore musicians and management agreed to try to head off at the pass the possibility of a future crisis. Baltimore Sun 04/04/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 7:23 am
- Big Cuts in South Florida The Florida Philharmonic's musicians have also renegotiated an ongoing contract, agreeing to allow the management to reduce the length of the orchestra's season by six weeks, and further agreeing to a freeze in the weekly pay scale. "In addition, health insurance co-payments will be increased from 12 percent for families and 15 percent for individuals to a flat 27 percent for everyone. Long-term disability coverage will be eliminated. Contributions to a pension fund for the musicians will be cut from 8 to 4 percent. And four weeks of paid vacation time this season will be reduced to two weeks next season." Miami Herald 04/04/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 7:22 am
Hollywood and Washington: Fatal Disconnect or Forever Bound Together? "It is times like these that have prompted John McCain to observe, 'If Washington is a Hollywood for ugly people, Hollywood is a Washington for the simple-minded...' Everywhere you turn there are sightings of a nationwide backlash against celebrities." But Frank Rich argues that, while celbrity liberals may seem (and probably are) awfully out-of-touch with reality, the verbal grenades they're lobbing at the Bush administration aren't any more absurd than those regularly being heaved the opposite way by folks like Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter. Furthermore, the backlash isn't terribly likely to have any lasting effect, and may actual serve to fire up the stagnant left. The New York Times 04/06/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 9:20 am
Art And War In Israel No one ever expects war to have a positive effect on a society, but in Israel, where war and violence are as much a part of life as eating and breathing, the arts are becoming a major unintended casualty. The combination of political pressures, frayed public nerves, and economic doldrums are threatening the artistic infrastructure of the region in a fashion which ought to alarm arts advocates worldwide. And yet, in a time when the world, and particularly the Middle East, seems to be perpetually at war, the problem goes largely unnoticed by the larger global community. Los Angeles Times 04/06/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 9:05 am
In Defense of Bureaucracy When an LA Times columnist derided the California Arts Council as being of little use to real artists last week, arts advocates were stung by the attack. Laura Zucker defends the industry's reliance on large support and fund-raising staff: "The creation of art doesn't happen in a vacuum. It is impossible to separate grants aimed at making art from those that support staff, fund-raising efforts, marketing and technical upgrades. If a wonderful work of sculpture goes unseen because there are no curators to discover it, no access to exhibition space or no marketing plan to advertise and promote the exhibition, what has been accomplished?" Los Angeles Times 04/05/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 8:59 am
- Previously: Nothing From Nothing Leaves Nothing The recent slash in California's arts funding isn't worth all the hand-wringing, says Christopher Knight, simply because the state wasn't really doing anything helpful for actual artists even before the cuts. In the 1990s, artists learned that the way to get funding from an increasingly hostile set of lawmakers is to tie absolutely everything they do to education and social services, which results in mandates that funding be spent on repetitive and pointless programs rather than on the creation of actual art. "Why the inverted priority in the real world? No mystery: Artists don't have advocates in Sacramento. The arts bureaucracy does." Los Angeles Times 03/26/03
How Do You Get To Diversity? "The arts rarely appeal to a truly diverse audience. Are tastes in multicultural Britain so far apart or is it the same old problem of 'us' and 'them'?" In other words, when is elitism necessary to insure good art, and when does it become an impenetrable dividing line between the cultural haves and have-nots? Liz Hoggard finds that it's much easier to define the problem than to present any real solutions. The Observer (UK) 04/06/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 8:37 am
'A' For Publicity, 'C' For Relevance New NEA chief Dana Gioia has been making the rounds of the nation's newspapers and magazines this week, playing up the idea of a newly invigorated NEA, and stressing that he intends to return the endowment to the days when it was a real power on the national arts scene. But for all Gioia's enthusiasm, his seeming devotion to 'safe' art that doesn't bother anyone probably means that the NEA won't be on the cutting edge anytime soon. But of course, being on the cutting edge of modern art isn't Gioia's goal. His job is to keep the NEA from the cutting edge of the Congressional budget knife. Chicago Tribune 04/06/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 7:59 am
New Leadership Reinvigorates Boston Scene Three high-profile Boston arts organizations have recently come under new management, and while that's the type of upheaval that can potentially lead to a downgrade in quality, at least in the short term, the opposite has been the case, according to Ed Siegel. The new Boston arts leaders "have responded to the challenge by seizing the moment. The Boston Symphony Orchestra, the American Repertory Theatre, and the Boston Ballet are all in the midst of seasons that are energetic, daring, and smartly crafted." Boston Globe 04/06/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 7:49 am
Barenboim, Said, And A Vision Of Peace For several years now, Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim and Palestinian intellectual Edward Said have been using their personal friendship to search for larger methods of bridging the gap between their two fundamentally opposed peoples. But perhaps more powerful than Barenboim's music or Said's words is their joint realization that these things alone are not enough to change the course of the Middle East. Instead, they believe in humanizing each other, for all the world to see. "What is striking about these two friends... is how different they are. Not because one is an Israeli, one a Palestinian - they are, as individuals, temperamentally opposed: one, easy, expansive, the other, Said, more cautious, despite his outspokenness." The Guardian (UK) 04/05/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 8:26 am
Biblical Signs of Armageddon - Surfing/Literature Division "Roxy Girl, one of the hottest labels in girls' fashion, makes sweetly sexy, surfer-centric sportswear along with almost everything else a beach bunny would need: hats, glasses, totes, watches, sandals. Now the firm has come up with the ultimate brand-name accessory: preteen reading with the Roxy Girl label. It's the first time a clothing company has ventured into the literary field." Los Angeles Times 04/06/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 8:55 am
Poets Against War "By definition, wars are deadly and destructive. In Western societies at least, it takes little moral courage or imaginative reach to oppose such qualities. In aiming their fire at such easy targets as the warmongers who inflict horror on the innocent, many poets invite an interrogation: Do you accept that some wars may be necessary? If so, how do you choose which ones should be fought?" A new collection of anti-war poetry spends more time on the answers than one might expect, and as a result, actually packs a political punch at a time when many mainstream artists have been cowed into keeping their pacifist sensibilities to themselves. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/05/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 8:21 am
Synergy By Necessity Back in 2000, Cleveland's public TV and radio stations, which had always been completely separate entities, decided to merge most of their operations in an effort to cut costs and better serve the community. The partnership, called "ideastream," was a logistical nightmare at first, and staff nerves on both sides seemed to be constantly frayed. But the public response has been overwhelmingly positive, and now, ideastream is making its mark with a strong, independent, and local (all the other TV stations in town are owned by out-of-town companies) voice which neither station had prior to the merger. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 04/06/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 9:34 am
DanceCleveland Makes Unexpected Cuts DanceCleveland, Cleveland's leading modern dance company, has cancelled the final show of its season, laid off its staff, and cut next season's plans to the bone, in a move which shocked even close observers of the city's arts scene. The company is looking into the possibility of partnering with other local arts groups in an effort to stay afloat, but at this point, everything seems to be up in the air. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 04/06/03
Posted: 04/06/2003 9:40 am
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