Ideas Flooding A Thousand Years Of History After decades of talking about it, planning and construction, the giant dam on China's Three Gorges section of the Yangtze River has finally been erected. "Once completed, the dam would be the largest in the world—as high as a sixty-story building and as wide as five Hoover Dams. The official price tag was more than twenty-one billion dollars, roughly half of which would be funded by a tax on electricity across China." And after evacuating hundreds of thousands of residents who lived along the river, the river rose in early June, flooding villages and thousands of years of history... The New Yorker 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 8:32 pm Visual Arts Anatomy Of A Public Art Project Planners of a project at San Francisco Airport hired Brooklyn artist Vito Acconci to make a piece of public art for the project. But five of his ideas were rejected before one stuck. And drivers coming out of the terminal might not even be aware that they're looking at public art... San Francisco Chronicle 07/01/03 Posted: 07/01/2003 7:30 am Plans For WTC Memorial Pour In Monday was the deadline for plans to be submitted for a memorial at the site of the former World Trade Center. "By the 5 p.m. deadline, thousands of proposals, enough to fill a caravan of delivery trucks, had been received at the nondescript, six-story warehouse at 515 West 36th Street in Manhattan. Entries started being accepted on June 9, and the last ones trickled in for more than an hour after the deadline. The contest is expected to be the largest design competition ever, exceeding even the 1,421 designs submitted for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Little more is likely to be heard about the proposals until September, when about five finalists are to be announced." The New York Times 07/01/03 Posted: 07/01/2003 7:22 am The First Great Fight Over Modern Art In one of the great libel trials of the 19th Century, James Whistler sued the great art critic John Ruskin, author of Modern Painters and The Stones of Venice, over a review that dismissed him as a fraud. "There had been rows about modern art before. But none that are so uncannily familiar, none that speak our critical language in all its odd mixture of the extreme and the banal. It is easy for us to laugh, with the condescension of posterity, at the sexual hysteria of French journalists distressed by Manet's Olympia (1863). But Ruskin's denunciation of Whistler is the template for a thousand denunciations to come: it is the definitive rejection of modern art as fraud, and every subsequent diatribe against beds, bricks or the lights going on and off reproduces it." The Guardian (UK) 06/26/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:10 pm Art Of The Pooch "With pets holding court as favored members of the family, pup art has become big business. Dozens of artists advertise their talents on the Internet. Pet parodies in the style of famous artists depict everything from a cut-up geometric Picasso beagle to a tabby frozen in Edvard Munch's "Scream". Getting your pooch's picture with Santa has been popular for years at vets' offices and animal shelters, and photography studios report a brisk business in non-human shoots. Given this flurry of furry activity, museum-quality custom paintings were inevitable..." USAWeekend Magazine 06/29/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:09 pm Music Jazz Reopens For Business In San Francisco Amazingly, San Francisco's last jazz club closed down at the end of April. But the jazz scene won't stay dark for long in a city at one time known for its jazz; new clubs are opening up. "It's nearly impossible for musicians in San Francisco to play in a nice venue. We decided we had to open our own place," San Francisco Chronicle 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:50 pm Defiant Downloaders The recording industry says it will begin prosecuting music downloaders who violate copyright. But some users are defiant. "I don't think they'll get much money from us. I don't see it being enforceable. They threaten us, but we just find a different program, and other computer savvy kids will find new programs. It's an empty threat. I don't consider it a big deal. Sometimes I only like one or two songs and I'm not going to buy an entire CD for that song." Miami Herald 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:34 pm Understanding Beethoven Nine Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is one of the most famous pieces of music in history. But "what can be said about the Ninth with reasonable certainty? One is that its position in the world is probably about what Beethoven wanted it to be. Figuratively speaking, everybody knows the Ninth. But has anybody really understood it? The harder you look, the odder it gets. In a singular way, the Ninth enfolds the apparently contradictory qualities of the epic and the slippery." Slate 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:15 pm Arts Issues On Being Canada What makes Canada different from the United States? Quite a few things, actually, and the differences are growing. "Just when you had all but forgotten that carbon-based life exists above the 49th parallel, those sly Canadians have redefined their entire nation as Berkeley North. It's like we woke up and suddenly we're a European country." Washington Post 07/01/03 Posted: 07/01/2003 7:50 am Canada - More Than Just Anne Murray What kind of culture does Canada project to the rest of the world? To itself? "I moved to Toronto in April, 1996, and have been slowly discovering that Canada (as a land, as people, as a political identity) and its culture are not always in sync. This is not necessarily a bad thing. A place where fringe, marginal or esoteric sensibilities come to stand for a whole country can't be that bad. But it may account for the lack of interest in Canadian popular culture locally. If you don't see your life reflected in your own culture, why look in the first place?" The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/01/03 Posted: 07/01/2003 6:53 am Gioia: State Arts Funding Crisis NEA chief Dana Gioia says there is a crisis in state arts funding. "He said although no state has eliminated arts budgeting, "the mere debate suggests that the political and social consensus that once existed on the necessity of public support for the arts and arts education is breaking down." Newsday (AP) 07/01/03 Posted: 07/01/2003 6:32 am Strikes Threaten French Arts Festivals French arts workers, angry about a reduction in their work benefits, are staging strikes, threatening major summer arts festivals. "The first three days of a July opera festival in the southern city of Aix-en-Provence have already been pushed back, with director Stephane Lissner warning that the entire three-week event could be in jeopardy. Also at risk is the Festival d'Avignon, one of Europe's most prestigious drama festivals due to begin on July 8. The event drew 98,000 theater-lovers last year, according to culture ministry figures." Expatica 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:17 pm Strikes Could Cripple Festivals "Summer festivals in France and throughout Europe have become big business. Last year about 900,000 spectators attended a staggering 650 music, dance and theater festivals across France. French tourism has already suffered this year from the sharp drop in the value of the dollar, the political fallout from the war with Iraq (which France opposed) and fears of the SARS virus. In cities like Avignon and Aix-en-Provence festival organizers and local business rely heavily on the income from the summer festivals, and the cancellations could be financially disastrous." The New York Times 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 6:38 pm People Remembering Kate Hepburn Katherine Hepburn was "admired not only by audiences but by her peers as well as critics. Her four best actress Oscars are an academy record for a performer, as are her 12 best actress nominations. And when the Manchester Guardian polled critics around the world a few years back to name the best ever on screen, she not only handily won the actress category but got more votes than the male acting winner as well." Los Angeles Times 07/01/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:31 pm Theatre London Theatre In The Political Trenches London's theatres and playwrights are actively involved in political commentary, leading criticism of contemporary political leaders. There is "an acceptance of plays and playwrights as vital participants in a national dialogue, something Americans may well marvel at. And it's not just contemporary playwrights whose voices speak from the opinion pages. An editorial cartoon in The Daily Telegraph showed a brooding Mr. Blair with the caption: 'For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings. . . .' That's Shakespeare of course..." The New York Times 07/01/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:44 pm Denver's Top-Heavy Theatre Denver theatre is top heavy. There are a couple of large companies at the top, then... an absence of mid-size theatres. So what's the problem? "The greatest weakness of the Denver theater community is its repetitively conservative fare. New and innovative works are the lifeblood of any artistic community, but in a down economy, familiar titles keep theaters open. More than a dozen companies have folded in the past 18 months - and none of them was producing standard fare." Denver Post 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:18 pm Publishing Hitler And The Arts A new books examines Hitler's aesthetics. "Adolf Hitler wanted to be the greatest patron of the arts in history. 'It was a pity,' he observed, 'that I have to wage war on account of that drunk [Winston Churchill] instead of serving the works of peace'." Boston Globe 07/01/03 Posted: 07/01/2003 6:16 am Neighbors Save Bookstore When a small neighborhood bookstore in San Francisco announced it was closing, neighbors banded together, pledging to buy a book a month and raising money to keep the store open. "This is probably not the sort of investment your accountant would suggest as a sure thing or, for that matter, even a longshot. Even if the store gets back on its feet, the investors won't make money. Instead of interest, they get a 25 percent discount on all books they buy there. The loans will be repaid over six years." San Francisco Chronicle 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:55 pm In Search Of LA Why has it been so difficult for writers to capture the identity of Los Angeles? "Although it is the second-largest city in America, in the literary imagination it is still a colony. Instead of speaking for itself, the city is spoken about. Our classic descriptions of Los Angeles were written by visitors who spent only a few weeks or months in the city; or by imported slaves of Hollywood, who act out their rebellion against the city at large; or even by natives writing mainly for an audience somewhere else. What is missing, with a few notable exceptions, is a Los Angeles literature unconcerned with the outside world, intent on explaining the city to itself—as Dickens did with London, or Balzac with Paris." Slate 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:14 pm Ask Me If I'm An Idiot Why do so many interviews with authors seem so stupid? "Part of the problem," writes Gene Weingarten, "is caused by the publishing industry itself, which caters to the laziness of the media. Here at The Washington Post, we constantly get promotional packets for new books in which the publicity departments declare that their authors are available for interviews, and then actually suggest questions to ask. As you might guess, these are not Mike Wallace-type questions..." Washington Post 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:11 pm Book City Opens With Throngs An experiment in bookselling is a stunning success in Blaenavon as nine new bookstores open and crowds throng to this formerly blighted industrial town. "The new shopkeepers, many standing behind counters for the first time in their lives, struggled to cope. Visitors were rattling the doors of the new bookshops while they were still closed for the official opening. Once the doors opened change ran out within half an hour, paper bags within an hour, the piles of maps showing the new bookshops by mid-afternoon. By evening yawning gaps were opening up on the brand new shelves." The Guardian (UK) 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:07 pm Reinventing As A City Of Books "Today, Blaenavon relaunches itself as Booktown Blaenavon. Nine new bookshops will open simultaneously, specialising in subjects from cookery to psychic healing, six more shops are in the pipeline, and the Castle Inn has put up a shelf of 50p books. The small town in South Wales launches its greatest experiment since 1787, when three businessmen leased seven square miles of rough, heathery land to build an ironworks equipped with dazzlingly modern steam technology." The Guardian (UK) 06/28/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:05 pm Media Sequelitis - Not Paying Off At The Box Office? In a year dominated by sequels, movie box office is down. "Box-office revenues for the year are down 4% and movie attendance is off 8%. The past three weekends are also down compared to last summer." Los Angeles Times 07/01/03 Posted: 07/01/2003 7:09 am American Movie Ratings: "Infantilizing Censorship" If your film gets an N-17 rating (no one under 17 admitted) in America, it's the kiss of death. "The rating board's inscrutable, often infuriating judgment calls about sexual content are legend. No one, not even maverick Lions Gate, will release an NC-17 film — and with good reason. Key theater chains might not book it; many TV and newspaper outlets would refuse to advertise it; and once it went to video, where the real profits are for most films, major chains such as Blockbuster wouldn't stock it. 'American film is being horribly infantalized. If you want to see something adult, you have to stay home and watch HBO'." Los Angeles Times 07/01/03 Posted: 07/01/2003 7:01 am The Road To Better Canadian TV? Finally, a comprehensive plan to improve and stabilize Canadian TV. But "statistics show that Canadians aren't watching as much Canadian-made TV as they once did. 'Well, you have to ask, what came first? Was it a decline in the amount of Canadian programs or a loss of interest? If there are fewer Canadian-made programs on the air, then there is less for the audience to watch. We have heard loud and clear that Canadian drama is in suffering. We have also heard that people want to see it." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:19 pm Arts On The Tube - A Difficult Sell Why is arts programming such a difficult sell for TV? "For the commercial broadcasters, the problem is manifold: arts TV is expensive to do properly, it's difficult to schedule and it attracts only niche advertising and niche viewing. In short, it's a lot of effort for little return. For the BBC, the problem is different: if you run a minority channel and a highbrow digital channel as well, why would you want arts bunging up your main service?" The Guardian (UK) 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:16 pm Actors Unions Voting On Merging Members of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have been voting on whether to merge their unions. Ballots were "due Monday and will be counted Tuesday. The consolidation must be approved by 60 percent of the voting members of each union." Yahoo!(AP) 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:13 pm Hollywood's High-Tech Transformation The typical Hollywood movie studio is looking more like a high-tech company than a traditional movie maker these days. "Hollywood companies will spend roughly $500 million on data storage in 2003, and expenditures will increase about 70 percent each year. By 2006, the annual storage needs of film studios, video and television production companies, and distribution outfits will reach 740 petabytes, or 740 million gigabytes. These trends are forcing spending on information technology tremendously up," CNet News.com 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:12 pm Dance Kirov To Get New Home "The Kirov Ballet is to get a starkly modern glass and marble new home designed by Dominique Perrault of France. His design, of black marble covered with golden-hued glass, won a competition to design the new Maryinsky Theater for the Kirov, and the results were announced on Saturday." The New York Times 07/01/03 Posted: 07/01/2003 7:18 am Baryshnikov: In Search Of A Repertoire Mikhail Baryshnikov is on a solo one-man tour across America (raising money for his new dance center). "Why is Baryshnikov wasting time with mediocre choreography? One notes that he is stiff across the shoulders and neck, that the flexibility in his hips has diminished, that his jump lifts him inches, not feet, yet he is still Baryshnikov - still an incomparably beautiful mover. Still a riveting dramatic presence. Still in possession of the expertly timed look and musical phrasing, still capable of sweeping turns and wonderfully fluid motion. Part of the problem is that there is no repertory for the middle-aged ex-virtuoso. To continue performing at an age when few others would dare to step onstage, Baryshnikov has to have works custom-made..." Washington Post 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 8:02 pm Movin' On, Not Sellin' Out Now that choreographer Twyla Tharp has a Broadway hit, is she selling out? "Sellin' out might seem a more appropriate label for a career that has advanced so publicly from avant-garde to Broadway. Tharp is even publishing a self-help book on the art of creative thinking this autumn. Yet she hasn't abandoned her pure-dance audience - her small-scale touring company appears at Sadler's Wells this week - and it would be foolhardy to suggest to her face that Movin' Out represents her art's dumbing down. Nor does Tharp look like a woman basking in easy success..." The Guardian (UK) 06/30/03 Posted: 06/30/2003 7:20 pm