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Wednesday, May 7




Ideas

Who Cares If It's True? It's Fascinating! "'On March 2, 2003, at 4:12 p.m., I disappeared,' the journal begins. 'My name is Isabella V. I'm twenty-something, and I am an international fugitive.'" Sound scintillating? It's the first entry in a fascinating weblog purportedly written by a European heiress fleeing her wealthy and (apparently) powerful family. At this point, the blog is looking an awful lot like a hoax, but that's really not the point. In an era when news, fiction, entertainment, 'reality TV,' and advertising all blur together in disturbing fashion, Isabella's story is a sign of the synergistic times. Wired 05/07/03
Posted: 05/07/2003 5:06 am

Serious Art Won't Hurt You? Time was, people aspired to consuming high art. Now they apologise for it. Or at least feel like they need to defend it. Peter Plagens says the turnaround is no mystery. "As for high art’s problem, it’s simple, but with complex fallout. High art is elitist. Only a relatively few people have the educated taste for it, the patience to enjoy it and, frankly, the ability to get it. We live, however, in a passionately egalitarian society, most of whose members absolutely resent the idea that Mr. Fairfax Van Richbuckets has, when he goes to the opera, a better esthetic experience than Mr. Harry Twelvepack does when he springs for a couple of Bon Jovi tickets. (Of course, Harry doesn’t have much regard for his kid sister’s taste for Justin Timberlake, and she can’t understand her younger cousin’s jones for that new Hilary Duff movie. Hierarchies are everywhere.) Connoisseurship on any but a micro level ('Man, that’s a great Clint Black T-shirt—must be six colors in the silkscreen for it) is practically a dirty word these days, and I’d be surprised if the word 'vulgar' is uttered pejoratively more than twice a year in the United States outside of a Tipper Gore tea party." Newsweek 05/01/03
Posted: 05/06/2003 4:38 pm

Visual Arts

Sell Three, Buy One, Everybody's Happy Boston's Museum of Fine Arts took a major step yesterday towards fulfilling its goal of purchasing an 1876 Degas masterpiece entitled Duchessa di Montejasi With Her Daughters Elena and Camilla. The painting is expected to cost between $20 million and $40 million. To raise the money for the purchase, MFA auctioned off three valuable paintings from its permanent collection. "It took just five minutes for the works - two Degas pastels and a Renoir painting - to go, with the pieces approaching Sotheby's top estimate of $17 million." Boston Globe 05/07/03
Posted: 05/07/2003 5:16 am

  • Previously: The MFA's Big Art Deal Boston's Museum of Fine Arts is after a painting - it won't say which, but it's rumored to be a major Degas - that would be one of the biggest purchases made by an American museum in years. To finance the deal, the MFA is hoping to sell off two Degas and a Renoir at auction, expecting to take in $17 million... Boston Globe 05/04/03

Crooked Manhattan Dealer Held in Brazil "An art dealer has been arrested in Brazil on suspicion of selling a stolen Picasso painting for $4.5 million and trying to sell a Monet painting that belonged to a Holocaust victim. French-born Michel Cohen, 49, who owned a gallery on Manhattan's Madison Avenue before fleeing the US in 2001, was held while the US began extradition proceedings." The Picasso in question had been loaned to Cohen by a Manhattan gallery in order for him to show it to a prospective buyer, but before the gallery knew what had happened, Cohen had sold the painting in a secret transaction at a Newark airport. He fled the country shortly thereafter. BBC 05/07/03
Posted: 05/07/2003 4:43 am

Ashcroft Pledges US Will Find Iraqi Artifacts American Attorney General John Ashcroft tells an international audience that his country will recover artwork looted from Iraq's National Museum. "Regardless of how sophisticated these criminals are or how hard they work to avoid detection, United States law enforcement and our colleagues at Interpol will not rest until the stolen Iraqi artefacts are returned to their rightful place; the public museums and libraries of Iraq." The Guardian (UK) 05/07/03
Posted: 05/06/2003 10:30 pm

Music

Opera For Prudes An Opera Colorado production of Mozart's Don Giovanni has been ordered 'toned down' after a group of home-schooled students viewed a dress rehearsal, and complained about the overtly sexual nature of a scene in which "a woman - dressed in a one-piece bustier, fishnet stockings, garter belt and high heels - [cavorted] with a sometimes shirtless Don Giovanni." Since the entire plot of this particular opera is based on the sexual exploits of its title character, one might have expected the company to tell the complainants to get bent. But the president of the company was apparently similarly shocked to discover that there is sex in opera, and ordered that the show be sanitized for audience protection. Denver Post 05/07/03
Posted: 05/07/2003 5:36 am

Next Stop On The Orchestral Crisis Train: Louisville The latest hot spot in the increasingly shaky world of American orchestras is Louisville, Kentucky, where musicians of the Louisville Orchestra are filing for unemployment (in tux and tails, no less) and refusing to attend rehearsals after the orchestra's management missed payroll and demanded that a permanent pay cut be adopted immediately. The musicians insist that they were willing to play regardless of whether payroll was met, but balked when management refused to allow them leave to seek other employment while the crisis continues. The orchestra is looking at an estimated $800,000 deficit on a budget of $6.1 million for the current season. Louisville Courier-Journal 05/06/03
Posted: 05/07/2003 4:49 am

  • Unfair Practices or Critical Lack of Cash? "The Louisville Orchestra's musicians have asked the National Labor Relations Board to cite the orchestra's board for unfair labor practices. They allege that -- by not paying them or giving them immediate permission to seek other jobs -- orchestra management is illegally locking them out... Meanwhile, the orchestra's cash position is becoming ever more desperate. As of yesterday afternoon, only $3,240 remained in its bank account." Louisville Courier-Journal 05/07/03
    Posted: 05/07/2003 4:48 am

Pittsburgh Symphony Tries To Sell Concert Hall Strapped for cash, the Pittsburgh Symphony is trying to sell its home - Heiz Hall - for $40 million. "That amount would erase the symphony's pending deficit and revive its falling endowment, which has dropped from $132 million in 2000 to $90 million. The plunge is due to the stock market and a 6.5 percent annual draw that goes into the symphony's budget. The symphony, which has owned Heinz Hall for 32 years, wants the new owner to lease the structure back to it at a very nominal rate. Sources said that token gesture called for $1 annual rent. The problem is finding a buyer." Pittsburgh Business Times 05/02/03
Posted: 05/06/2003 10:54 pm

Let's Dance Wid Dubya Several musicians have fallen in love with Dubya's voice and have sampled his words into dance music. "Bush's speeches to the American people, particularly those concerning the Iraq war and September 11, have proved a popular source of material for a number of dance music producers and a host of releases featuring the voice of George W are now available." The Guardian (UK) 05/07/03
Posted: 05/06/2003 10:27 pm

Are Recording Studios Obsolete? "In just a few years, the commercial recording studio has become an endangered species. Between a troubled record industry and new technology that makes studios and their expensive equipment all but obsolete, only a handful are still able to stay in business. With the extraordinary capabilities of the digital recording system called Pro Tools and the rapidly dropping cost of hard disk storage and blank CDs, musicians can set up their own recording studios for a fraction of what it used to cost to make albums at commercial facilities. The days are over for a pure music recording studio." San Francisco Chronicle 05/06/03
Posted: 05/06/2003 5:01 pm

Arts Issues

Vatican To Name Internet Saint The Vatican is apparently ready to name Saint Isidore of Seville as patron saint of the internet. The Pope alone may name a patron saint, but St Isidore is receiving stiff opposition from Archangel Gabriel and Saint Alfonso Maa de Liguori, an 18th century poet." So just who is St. Isadore?... News24.com (South Africa) 05/06/03
Posted: 05/06/2003 6:01 pm

People

Kreizberg to Replace Sawallisch For Philadelphia Tour Russian-born conductor Yakov Kreizberg will replace ailing Philadelphia Orchestra music director Wolfgang Sawallisch on the orchestra's upcoming tour of North and South America. Kreizberg, a rising star in the conducting world, has conducted recently in Philadelphia, but will get only two rehearsals with the Philadelphians before the start of the tour. Sawallisch was forced to bow out of the tour this week when fatigue and other health problems caught up with him during a recent stretch of high-profile performances. Philadelphia Inquirer 05/07/03
Posted: 05/07/2003 6:07 am

Gordon Not Making Many Friends In Milwaukee David Gordon's hiring as head of the Milwaukee Art Museum was considered something of a coup for the often-overlooked regional gallery. But while Gordon has certainly lived up to billing as a plain-speaking man with big ideas, his brash style isn't going over terribly well with many local artists, who are afraid that Gordon intends to ignore local art altogether. James Auer is concerned: "I hate to see the museum missing the boat on what is a burgeoning Milwaukee art scene, with many image-makers in the very age group - late teens to early 30s - that the museum covets but has a hard time luring into its gleaming lakefront masterpiece." Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 05/06/03
Posted: 05/07/2003 6:00 am

Apologize, Then Hit Back Texas composer Laura Greenday-Ness has apologized for allowing misleading information about her career to be used in her music school's promotional materials, and blamed her publicist for what appear to be flatly made-up accomplishments in her bio. The publicist claims that he wrote what Greenday-Ness told him to write, and nothing more. The composer also attacked the Dallas Morning News for its reporting on her misleading resume, claiming that the paper didn't give her enough time to respond to the charges. Dallas Morning News 05/06/03
Posted: 05/07/2003 5:28 am

  • Previously: Laura Greenday-Ness, This Is Your Life! Oh, Wait, No, It Isn't. This much we know is true: Laura Greenday-Ness is the head of a small music school in a Dallas suburb. But nearly everything else in the Texas composer's resume appears to be patently false. According to her school's promotional materials, Greenday-Ness is a two-time winner of the national Composer of the Year award, is in residence with the Dallas Symphony, and has written for the Boston Pops, Chicago Symphony, and Philadelphia Philharmonic. Reality check: there is no such award; no one at the orchestras in Dallas, Boston, or Chicago has ever heard of her; and there is no such orchestra as the Philadelphia Philharmonic. Dallas Morning News 04/29/03

Theatre

Elton John To Write Vampire Musical Elton John has been hired by Warner Bros to write a Broadway musical based on "three of Anne Rice's best-selling novels about a sauve vampire named Lestat." John's longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin will write lyrics. The New York Times 05/07/03
Posted: 05/06/2003 10:45 pm

The All-Female Shakespeare London's Globe Theatre is producing Shakespeare with an all-woman cast. "The Globe's audiences have proved ready to accept all-male productions. Will they feel the same about all-female casts? In our modern culture, one might as well ask whether it is more difficult to accept a woman as chief executive or as wooing partner. Statistics might suggest that it is, but many men and women do accept, and indeed flourish within, these reversals of traditional roleplay." The Guardian 05/07/03
Posted: 05/06/2003 10:37 pm

Moscow Play Closes, Can't Shake Hostage Stigma Russia's first home-grown musical "Nord-Ost" was a huge success in Moscow until rebel Chechens took over the theatre and killed 100 people. The show reopened earlier this year in the same theatre, but the stigma of the hostage drama finally shut down the show. "The organisers kept the seats full in part by offering places to the disadvantaged, who would not otherwise have been able to see the show. The modest operational profits made before the crisis were wiped out. Nord-Ost remains a musical and theatrical success, and an innovation in Russia." Financial Times 05/06/03
Posted: 05/06/2003 10:21 pm

"Hairspray" Takes Outer Critics Circle Awards "Hairspray" picks up five Outer Critics Circle Awards, adding to its awards at last week's Drama Desk Awards. "The writers who cover Broadway and off-Broadway theater for out-of-town media crowned "Hairspray" king with five awards in all, including outstanding musical, director (Jack O'Brien), actress (Marissa Jaret Winokur), featured actor (Dick Latessa) and costume design (William Ivey Long)." New York Post 05/06/03
Posted: 05/06/2003 8:08 am

Publishing

Young Conservatives Fight Campus Liberalism America's colleges and universities have long been thought of as bastions of liberalism in an increasingly right-wing nation, and students with conservative leanings claim that their views are often repressed in campus settings. A new seminar at the Jesse Helms Center in North Carolina is teaching students "how to start their own conservative newspapers and opinion journals. And how to pick fights with lefty bogeymen on the faculty and in student government." Los Angeles Times 05/07/03
Posted: 05/07/2003 5:55 am

The Next New Thing - Distributed Journalism? Distributed research offers out projects over the internet - Information is freely available and researchers take little pieces of a problem and work on them. Many people work on many parts of a problem, sharing their results until a solution emerges. "Distributed journalism works similarly. Different lines of inquiry will occur to different people, who bring different kinds of knowledge to bear on the same topic. The ability to concatenate that information online - particularly via those motley commentary sites and open diaries called blogs - makes the information discovered by each available to all." Reason 05/03
Posted: 05/06/2003 6:05 pm

Media

Good And Profitable. Is That Too Much To Ask? Why doesn't Hollywood make more quality movies? Do they really think we're too stupid to appreciate them? Is the movie industry run by brain-damaged 6-year-olds? Are the studios being paid off by Adam Sandler and the guys from Jackass? Nope. Hollywood would love to make more good movies, truth be told. Trouble is, they almost never turn a profit. Washington Post 05/07/03
Posted: 05/07/2003 6:17 am

Who Stays And Who Goes In Canadian TV? "There was good news and bad news in the Canadian TV industry yesterday as the Canadian Television Fund announced the recipients of $64.5-million from its Equity Investment Program. The bad news was that dozens of comedies, dramas, specials, children's shows and movies-of-the-week still won't make it on air this fall. The good news was that some popular or critically acclaimed shows such as The Red Green Show, The Eleventh Hour and An American in Canada received adequate funding to go to air for the 2003-2004 season." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/07/03
Posted: 05/07/2003 5:48 am

  • Previously: Change of Heart "The [Canadian] government plans to restore the $25-million subtracted from the Canadian Television Fund, sources at CBC and CTV say. 'There will be a fall Canadian TV season after all' is the way one CBC producer reacted to the unconfirmed news yesterday that the federal government will reverse its position and top up the fund that subsidizes Canadian TV programming to its former level of $100 million annually. The cut had resulted in chaos in producer offices and sparked industry protests as dozens of Canadian TV series and TV movies failed to receive funding grants. CBC and CTV were particularly hard hit." Toronto Star 05/01/03


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