Are Universities Selling Their Souls? A former president of Harvard writes in a new book about the dangers to academia by the profit imperative. Increasingly schools are chasing money at the the expense of... standards? Integrity? "How colleges and universities relate to the marketplace and the world beyond their walls is not merely an academic issue. These institutions are an engine of prosperity, training specialists and the workforce, advancing scientific discoveries and moving people up the ladder of socioeconomic advancement. It is increasingly difficult, though, to meet higher education's insatiable financial demands through conventional means. The hunt for profits is not a new story." The New York Times 05/17/03
Posted: 05/17/2003 6:53 pm
Will MoMA in Queens Leave Behind A Legacy? The Museum of Modern Art's Matisse Picasso show closes Monday, and with it the crowds that have thronged out to the museum's temporary home in Queens will be gone. "Everyone in Long Island City, of course, knows that the Modern's charmed visit to Queens will end. But they still wonder whether the museum will leave anything enduring behind. Will it help reshape a raw Queens neighborhood, known for its factories and warehouses and the gridlock around the Queensboro Bridge, into the next SoHo or TriBeCa?" The New York Times 05/16/03
Posted: 05/17/2003 5:50 pm
Iraq Museum Damage Estimates Revising Downwards Experts are reassessing the extent of looting and damage to Iraq's National Museum. It looks like the damage is far less than originally reported. " 'We have dodged a bullet. Through some luck and some real preparations by the museum staff, we have saved a lot.' The preparations included moving hundred of boxes of museum treasure to safe storage in an air raid shelter several miles from the museum. Luck spared several priceless pieces that were there for the taking but somehow overlooked by looters." Chicago Tribune 05/16/03
Posted: 05/17/2003 5:37 pm
Conlon To Head Ravinia The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has tapped James Conlon to head its summer festival at Ravinia, beginning in 2005. Conlon, an American who has made his name as one of the world's top conductors while working mainly in Europe, will succeed Christoph Eschenbach. Competition for the much-coveted Ravinia job was stiff, with such rising stars as Marin Alsop, Robert Spano, and Leonard Slatkin in the mix. One musicologist's description of Conlon would seem to fit well with the style of the CSO's summer festival: "His highly serious approach to music is offset by an almost childlike delight in performing it." Chicago Tribune 05/18/03
Posted: 05/18/2003 7:16 am
Confessions of a File-Swapper "I know it's wrong. I'm trying to stop. It's just that the temptation is too great. I love music. And every song I ever wanted is out there for the taking. I am a downloader... I know I'm supposed to just say no. And I know the record industry is cracking down. My attempts to download one popular song led me to a bunch of bogus files; I assume they were part of the record companies' covert attempts to disrupt the downloading services. I know Big Brother is looking for me... I need help." Boston Herald 05/18/03
Posted: 05/18/2003 7:05 am
Louisville Symphony Misses Another Payroll The ailing Louisville Symphony has missed another payroll. "The cash-strapped orchestra missed all of yesterday's $170,000 payroll and has not said when it expects to meet that obligation. Partial paychecks were sent to orchestra employees last week, and earlier this week the musicians agreed to perform three concerts scheduled for last night and tomorrow." Louisville Courier-Journal 05/16/03
Posted: 05/17/2003 7:36 pm
Boston Symphony Sues Group Over "Jewish Tanglewood" The Boston Syhmphony has filed suit against a Connecticut arts group who has been billing its event as the "Jewish Tanglewood." "A New England Jewish Music & Arts Festival spokesman said yesterday the title was really a nickname of sorts, given to the six-year-old event by a New York reporter who called the two days of music 'the Jewish Tanglewood' in a story a few years ago." Boston Globe 05/17/03
Posted: 05/17/2003 6:40 pm
Dangerous Times, Dangerous Talk "The executive producer of this week's CBS miniseries, 'Hitler: The Rise of Evil,' was fired for publicly likening the climate in America in advance of the invasion of Iraq to the climate in pre-war Germany that allowed the rise of the Third Reich. Ed Gernon lost his job for drawing an analogy. Imagine being axed for expressing an opinion about a period in history when it was unsafe to express an opinion. If it weren't so nasty, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was all a publicity stunt." But it's no stunt, and the continuing backlash against anyone daring to badmouth the current administration has many in Hollywood drawing another analogy, to the old McCarthy blacklist. Denver Post 05/18/03
Posted: 05/18/2003 7:23 am
US Congress Considering Artist Tax Break The US Congress is close to passing a law that would allow artists a tax deduction for donating their work to a non-profit institution. "The Artists' Contribution to American Heritage Act of 2003 (HR 806) would allow artists a charitable tax deduction 'equal to fair market value' for contributing 'literary, musical, artistic, or scholarly compositions created by the donor' to qualifying public institutions such as a library or museum. Under current law, artists may deduct only the cost of materials used to create the work." Backstage 05/16/03
Posted: 05/17/2003 7:31 pm
Bush Allocates $125 Million To Teach History The Bush administration is spending $125 million to teach American history. Studies show that few colleges require study of American history, and that few students kn ow even the basic outlines of American history. Chicago Tribune 05/16/03
Posted: 05/17/2003 5:57 pm
Humanities Lecture - Is That All There Is? Historian David McCullough gives this year's annual Jefferson Lecture, the "highest humanities honor the US federal government can bestow. The NEH, which curates annual lecture series, asks only that the Jefferson Lecture, for which it pays the speaker $10,000, be "original and substantial." Unfortunately, McCullough's lecture, while entertaining, was neither very original nor particularly substantial. It was meant, perhaps, to be inspirational, with a long peroration about the glories of history, the human drama, the importance of leadership, the lifting of the spirit, and much more repetitive flapdoodle. This stuff sounds good when well delivered, and McCullough has the natural, practiced delivery of a man who might do voice-overs for the History Channel. But for something so prestigious as the Jefferson Lecture it was all rather flimsy and diffuse." Washington Post 05/16/03
Posted: 05/17/2003 5:26 pm
The Composer As Iconoclast Pierre Boulez has never been one to understate things, or withhold his opinions on other artists. One of the most eminent composers and conductors of the last century, Boulez gained notoriety in his youth by declaring Schoenberg 'dead' and booing Stravinsky's latest neoclassic offering. He has mellowed a bit with age, but can still rail against the direction of contemporary music with a fervor that borders on the fanatical. He despises contemporary opera techniques, loves the music of Frank Zappa, and reads everything he can get his hands on. And yes, he still has little use for Stravinsky. Boston Globe 05/18/03
Posted: 05/18/2003 6:57 am
Libeskind Adjusts To Life In The Spotlight Daniel Libeskind has been well-known in architectural circles since his first major building went up in Berlin more than a decade ago. But since being selected as the architect who will replace the World Trade Center, Libeskind has had to learn to live with a whole new level of celebrity. People stop him on the street, offer their unsolicited opinions on his design, and generally treat him with the same level of awe the Big Apple affords to such local heroes as Derek Jeter or Rudy Giuliani. Celebrity has its downside, of course, but for the moment, Libeskind seems to reaping all of its rewards. Boston Globe 05/18/03
Posted: 05/18/2003 6:50 am
Big-Time Theatre For Small Fry The Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis recently won a Tony award for regional theatre companies, the first time that a company focusing on kids had won such an award. The CTC is obviously a deeply imbedded part of the Twin Cities' theatrical community, and it can legitimately lay claim to conditioning thousands of young minds to enjoy serious theatre, an accomplishment which benefits every other company in the region. So why don't more cities have such a company? Cities like, say, Chicago? The simple answer may be that no one's ever really tried to start one. Chicago Tribune 05/18/03
Posted: 05/18/2003 7:10 am
Dispensing Argument Over Judgment The new literary magazing The Believer doesn't believe in the Thumbs Up/Down approache to criticism. "This is the editorial caveat I deliver when I assign a new piece: I tell the writer that you certainly can be displeased with what you've read, but your essay should still be titillating and intriguing enough to make people want to go out and read the book to see who they agree with, basically. An interesting ambitious book, whatever its flaws, should still be written about in an interesting and fair way." The New York Times 05/17/03
Posted: 05/17/2003 7:00 pm
Screenplay Nation Used to be that writing programs at universities turned out plenty of eager young writers who dreamed of getting a story published in the New Yorker. These days they're still eager, but they're increasingly cashing in with big screenplay and book contracts. "The growth of these programs is a function of the amazing number of first-book contracts and film options that are making some young writers rich. About 40 percent of the 600 to 1,000 manuscripts we receive each quarter come from students in these programs." The New York Times 05/17/03
Posted: 05/17/2003 6:47 pm
Is Reality TV Done? Reality TV shows have proliferated this year. But their time may be coming to a close. "Advertisers, in fact, have done what critics and cultural warriors couldn't - namely, chase the so-called reality genre into temporary retreat, leading to at least a short-term resurgence of scripted sitcoms and dramas." This fall's new schedule reveals a changed landscape. "Of the 39 new programs scheduled, 20 are comedies and 17 are dramas, leaving staged reality on the sidelines because many of those shows create an environment for commercials that makes sponsors uncomfortable." Los Angeles Times 05/17/03
Posted: 05/17/2003 7:21 pm
FCC: We Don't Care What The Public Thinks The FCC's Michael Powell seems determined to deregulate media company owenership. This despite overwhelming public opposition. "Powell's contempt for public opinion, evidenced by his scheduling of only one official hearing on the proposed rule changes, is so great that he refused invitations to nine semiofficial hearings at which other commissioners were present. The hearings drew thousands of citizens and close to universal condemnation of the rule changes. Likewise, an examination of roughly half the 18,000 public statements filed electronically with the FCC show that 97 percent of them oppose permitting more media concentration. Even media moguls Barry Diller and Ted Turner have raised objections, with Turner complaining, 'There's really five companies that control 90 percent of what we read, see and hear. It's not healthy'." The Nation 05/15/03
Posted: 05/17/2003 5:44 pm
After 30 Years Feld Folds Eliot Feld has folded his company for a year after taking 30 years to build it. "People feel bad, people feel sorry, and some people feel it's a real loss. One sustains a dance company out of internal will, by insisting on its being. They're very expensive to run and the competition is extraordinary. You build a castle out of sand and if you don't keep protecting it, or can't any longer, the tide comes in and it disappears." Backstage 05/16/03
Posted: 05/17/2003 7:27 pm
Boston Ballet Raises The Barre The troubled Boston Ballet is finishing up its first season under director Mikko Nissinen. The company has improved considerably during the season, even while it had to cut back because of budget constraints. Nissinen improved the company's repertoire and its preparation. Boston Globe 05/17/03
Posted: 05/17/2003 6:21 pm
