Whatever Happened To Art Reflecting Reality? Russell Smith is tired of being overwhelmed by the surreal world of modern movies, books, and art. Events that should be spread over a year happen in a day, bullets slow to the speed of land tortoises, and the whole experience is simply exhausting. "I'm wondering if naturalism is well and truly dead in all the arts, in entertainment and academic art equally. Fantasy, surrealism and downright implausibility have been the 21st century's dominant artistic modes so far." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/04/03
Posted: 06/04/2003 6:32 am
Where Science And Humanity Meet "Scientists are working in the emerging field of biomimetics, in which machines are designed to function like biological systems. They have only the foggiest idea of how the human brain perceives and acts on information from the body's sense organs, even though they've known the mechanics of those organs for many years." It's all part of the grander struggle for what is sometimes called Artificial Intelligence - the seemingly Quixotic quest to build a machine that can think, learn, and react like a human - and it's as not as much about building robots as it is about understanding basic functions of humanity. Wired 06/04/03
Posted: 06/04/2003 5:58 am
Higher (Blogger) Education Blogging is catching on with academics. "In their skeptical moments, academic bloggers worry that the medium smells faddish, ephemeral. But they also make a strong case for blogging's virtues, the foremost of which is freedom of tone. Blog entries can range from three-word bursts of sarcasm to carefully honed 5,000-word treatises. The sweet spot lies somewhere in between, where scholars tackle serious questions in a loose-limbed, vernacular mode. Blogging also offers speed; the opportunity to interact with diverse audiences both inside and outside academe; and the freedom to adopt a persona more playful than those generally available to people with Ph.D.'s." Chronicle of Higher Education 06/06/03
Posted: 06/03/2003 11:16 pm
Protester Dumps Red Paint On Chapman A man was arrested in London after throwing red paint on one of the Chapman brothers. "The unidentified man fought with the Turner Prize nominee after throwing the paint in an apparent protest at his alteration of work by Goya, the Spanish master. The attack came the day after Jake and his brother Dinos were shortlisted and strongly tipped for this year's £20,000 prize." The Telegraph (UK) 06/01/03
Posted: 06/03/2003 11:57 pm
- Previously: Just Who Are The Chapmans? "The Chapman brothers are the best-known of the shortlisted artists, and recently hit the headlines for adding comical and grotesque faces to Goya etchings. Their work is often restricted to adult viewings because of its content, and they took part in 1997's Sensation exhibition with dolls with penises instead of noses." BBC 05/30/03
The Human Cost Of Florida Phil's Fall When the Florida Philharmonic ceased operations last month, 80 musicians lost their jobs instantly. This is no small thing, since orchestra players must devote months of practice time and hundreds of dollars in travel expenses even to make a stab at winning a new job in another ensemble. Many Florida Phil musicians were married to others, making the shutdown a financial catastrophe for their families. "Some players already have left town. Some are going home to family. Others are turning to teaching or investigating careers outside music. A few cling to the hope that a miracle waits around the bend and resurrection will come in the weeks or months ahead." South Florida Sun-Sentinel 06/04/03
Posted: 06/04/2003 6:07 am
RIAA Continues Its Crusade "The recording industry is playing an old song: It has filed a new copyright-infringement suit against Streamcast, makers of the popular Morpheus file-sharing service. The suit involves a Web radio service never launched by Streamcast." Streamcast's chief exec "called the recording companies 'sore losers' following U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson's ruling in a separate copyright lawsuit in Los Angeles against Streamcast Networks." The new lawsuit is part of an ongoing battle by the industry to shut down companies which enable illegal file-sharing. Wired 06/04/03
Posted: 06/04/2003 6:02 am
New Jersey Unveils Dazzling Set of Fiddles The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is not generally mentioned in the same breath as the Boston Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic, or the Cleveland Orchestra. But the Newark-based NJSO is now the proud caretaker of 30 of the world's finest old Italian string instruments, a collection which would be the envy of any of the world's greatest orchestras. So how do they sound? "Imagine being thirsty and drinking a glass of water - clean, functional, easy to ingest, it satisfies the basic need but little more. Now imagine being offered also a nice, steaming hot cup of the finest Belgian chocolate. Suddenly there is flavor, there is a sequence of sensations... This is something like the difference between the NJSO's string sound pre-Strads and now." Newark Star-Ledger 06/02/03
Posted: 06/04/2003 5:38 am
Louisville Inches Closer to Shutdown The Louisville Orchestra's board of directors has scheduled a meeting for next Monday, at which it is expected that they will vote to file for bankruptcy, though no one in the organization is specifying whether it would be Chapter 11 or Chapter 7. The orchestra's management missed its last payroll on May 30, and musicians are still refusing to reopen negotiations on an ongoing contract, insisting that they make too little money to be able to weather any further salary cuts. Louisville Courier-Journal 06/04/03
Posted: 06/04/2003 5:26 am
- Previously: Next Stop For Louisville May Be Bankruptcy The musicians of the Louisville Orchestra have rejected a management proposal which included wage cuts and a shorter season, and the orchestra says it may file for bankruptcy as early as next week. "The orchestra has approximately $1.3 million in bank debt, with $800,000 of that past due and the balance due early next week," according to its board chairman, who also points out that the ensemble's staff and conductors have taken a 10% pay cut, which is larger than that being asked of the musicians. The musicians claim that they have made many concessions over the last decade in an effort to help the organization financially. Louisville Courier-Journal 05/30/03
The Old Milwaukee Shell Game The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra may be looking for a temporary home away from home after the 22,000-pound ceiling of the onstage shell that the orchestra uses at its downtown concert hall fell during a routine storage move, and bounced off the stage. No one was hurt in the accident, and tech crews are working to determine whether the stage will be usable for the MSO's scheduled Beethoven Festival this weekend. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 06/04/03
Posted: 06/04/2003 5:19 am
Vienna Philharmonic - Stuck In The Old Culture It's been six years since the Vienna Philharmonic first let a woman play as a member of the orchestra. But women are still scarce in the orchestra, and a long established culture stubbornly resistant to change is difficult to move... The New York Times 06/04/03
Posted: 06/03/2003 11:41 pm
Jazz Takes A Non-Jazz Turn (Again) The insular, elitist world of jazz is being rocked in more than one sense of the word. Young musicians, and even some old ones, are thumbing their noses at jazz purists and exploring popular forms of music, from grunge to indie-rock to rap. Flip through your local record store's jazz bins and you'll find pianist Jason Moran covering the rap classic 'Planet Rock' and the veteran organ player Dr. Lonnie Smith tackling an entire album of Beck songs. Some jazz artists are even borrowing a page from hip-hop, packing their discs with guest appearances by rappers." Baltimore Sun 06/01/03
Posted: 06/03/2003 10:56 pm
Eurovision - Send It Up In A Song European TV's Eurovision Song Contest is "quite possibly the world's most garish musical spectacle. Each year, contestants kitted out in everything from Viking helmets to bondage outfits perform original compositions to taped backing music. Viewers across Europe (some 150 million in total) vote by telephone for their favorite, excluding their own nation's song. The most famous winner was 'Waterloo' in 1974 by ABBA, who went on to become to pop-music kitsch what Jesus is to Christianity." Boston Globe 06/01/03
Posted: 06/03/2003 10:45 pm
- Previously: Britons Agonize Over Why No One Liked Their Song Britain has won five Eurovision Song Contests. So Britons are furious that their representative this year didn't pick up a single vote. politics to blame? Maybe a "post-Iraqi backlash"? Or were viewers in Europe "engaging in political voting against a country out of step with the rest of Europe?" Maybe there an "element of vote-rigging going on, with geographical allies voting for each other." The Scotsman 05/26/03
Liverpool, Culture Capital. No, Seriously. "Liverpool has been named European Capital of Culture 2008 by UK Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell. The city beat five other hopefuls - Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Newcastle-Gateshead and Oxford - to win the coveted prize... The renewal of its waterfront, a World Heritage site, and cultural centres like Tate Liverpool strengthened its credentials. It is also home to the recently opened Film Arts and Creative Centre, FACT, the UK's only exhibition and performance space dedicated to film, video and digital art." The award is likely to generate some much-needed tourism dolllars for Liverpool, which is promising to mount a year-long festival of the arts. BBC 06/04/03
Posted: 06/04/2003 5:48 am
Artistic Success...On The Backs Of... An arts organization's biggest asset? Its volunteers. "Anyone who believed the media coverage of the arts might end up thinking that they were a haven for fat cats on inflated salaries, cushioned by state subsidy and Lottery grants. Talk to anyone who actually works for your local theatre, art gallery or stately home and you begin to see a more heartening picture of goodwill and altruistic dedication to the play, the music, the paintings. Every volunteer is a romantic at heart, hoping to be brushed by stardust." The Telegraph (UK) 06/04/03
Posted: 06/03/2003 11:35 pm
Foundation Reform - Who Pays The Expenses? A proposal before Congress would force foundations to cover their administrative costs outside the five percent of their assets they're required to give away each year. "Foundation execs are in a flutter. They see the bill as a threat to the immortality of their institution, and perhaps of their founders' names. In their view, the bill demands that they either cut costs to the bone (at the expense of more difficult or adventurous projects) or go extinct. Susan Berresford, president of the Ford Foundation, has said the bill will force foundations "to eat into capital and the country will lose these... public assets for the common good'." Boston Globe 06/01/03
Posted: 06/03/2003 10:41 pm
Court Rules Artists Can Use Celebrity Images Do artists have the right to use images of celebrities in their work? The California Supreme Court says yes. "The court said celebrities have the right to prevent their likenesses from being used simply to sell products, a doctrine illustrated by a 2001 ruling against an artist who sold T-shirts and lithographs with drawings of the Three Stooges. But in a unanimous decision, the justices said artists and publishers have a constitutional right to produce works that include an image, creatively transformed, of an actual person." San Francisco Chronicle 06/03/03
Posted: 06/03/2003 10:25 pm
- Celebs, Incorporated "The decision permits authors of fictional works to create characters based in part on celebrities, as long as the portrayals differ from the real people. Celebrities will continue to be able to demand compensation when their actual faces or names are used on coffee cups or other commercial merchandise." Los Angeles Times 06/03/03
Posted: 06/03/2003 10:18 pm
Stratford's Lear Headed To Broadway A production of Shakespeare's King Lear produced by Canada's acclaimed Stratford Festival, has been picked up by New York's Lincoln Center, and will start playing to Broadway audiences in early 2004. The production stars Christopher Plummer in the title role, with acclaimed British director Jonathan Miller at the helm. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/04/03
Posted: 06/04/2003 6:35 am
SARS Slays Lion King Toronto's SARS scare has claimed another victim - the Lion King. The show has seen ticket sales plummet after tourists began staying away from the city over concerns about SARS. "The show's closure will bring to an end the a run of 1,300 performances since March 2000." BBC 06/03/03
Posted: 06/03/2003 11:54 pm
Publisher Withdraws Book After Plagiarism Charges Publisher Little, Brown has taken the unusual step of withdrawing a book - a history of the creation of the atomic bomb, after four wurthors complained that the book contained passages drawn from their work, uncredited.The author, Brian VanDeMark, 42, said yesterday that he had no comment. In a telephone interview on Friday he said that he was confident that 'detached readers would find a majority' of the passages in question to be 'reasonable paraphrases.' But he added then that "a minority should and will be reworded or credited in a footnote." The New York Times 06/04/03
Posted: 06/03/2003 11:46 pm
Surprise Winner For Orange Prize A longshot has won this year's Orange Fiction Prize. "What was billed as a race between two million-selling authors, the American Donna Tartt and Zadie Smith from England, went instead to the relatively little-known Valerie Martin for Property, a novel of exceptional power about slavery in 19th century Louisiana." The Guardian (UK) 06/04/03
Posted: 06/03/2003 11:09 pm
The Last Boys' Club Why are there so few women on talk radio? Is it that women are less likely to possess the conservative leanings that dominate the medium? Are they simply uninterested in having their voices heard by the vast talk radio audience? Not likely. "If there is one explanation that seems to resonate, it may be that women are out of fashion in an industry that puts a premium on constant aggression and throbbing neck veins." Put another way, talk radio's audience is unapologetically sexist, and has no interest in a female host who acts as boorishly as most of the men currently on the air. Boston Globe 06/04/03
Posted: 06/04/2003 6:14 am
UK Audience For Foreign Films Drops Britons are watching fewer foreign films in theatres. Why? "The problem with foreign-language films is that they became increasingly marginalised in the schedules on BBC2. They would be shown intermittently and late at night because that was the only way we could get them into the schedule, partly because BBC2 has become a more mainstream channel. It's not a niche channel any more." The Guardian (UK) 06/03/03
Posted: 06/03/2003 11:06 pm
Looking To Bust Piracy Without Breaking Privacy Big media companies have been trying to catch pirates by trying to track down people trading the movies or music. But Paul Kocher is trying a different way. "Instead of trying to track everyone's habits and patterns, Kocher's code would create a forensic trail to allow law-enforcement authorities to hunt down criminals - but only after there is evidence that illegal copies have been made. Says Kocher: 'We're trying to create a system where there will be consequences if people don't obey the laws, but anonymity will be protected if they do'." BusinessWeek 05/29/03
Posted: 06/03/2003 10:49 pm
Is Free TV Worth Saving? Does Anyone Care? "Since the 1950s, the free broadcast system has served as the great galvanizer and equalizer, accessible to anyone in the nation owning a rooftop antenna and a TV. Even today, most Americans get their news from TV broadcasters. Yet some critics say the system is irreparably broken and growing more irrelevant in the face of competition from cable and satellite services, even as the federal government has moved to prop up the broadcast industry." Los Angeles Times 06/03/03
Posted: 06/03/2003 10:38 pm
Why Movie-goers Are Staying Away From Foreign Films "There's still an audience for good foreign films, but it isn't getting any younger, or bigger. On the other hand, Hollywood's favorite customers, heavy movie users in their mid-teens to their mid- or late 20s, have been turning away from subtitled films in droves, and not just because their mothers warned them about reading in the dark." OpinionJournal 06/04/03
Posted: 06/03/2003 10:30 pm
