HERE FOR STORIES FROM THE WEEKEND EDITION (20 stories) Frank Rich writes that we've moved into a new post-911 cultural paradigm... gangs and rank amateurs seem increasingly to be making European museums and galleries the target of art thefts... Tim Page isn't terribly impressed with Simon Rattle's attempt at a Beethoven cycle... and a new self-destructing DVD may revolutionize the way you rent movies. All this and more in the weekend ArtsJournal edition.
Posted: 07/14/2003 8:33 am
Searching For The Meaning Of Art Why do people seek out art? "We look at art in order to search for something — it gives us a particular place where we can search for something that we can't see. There's always something beyond the frame — not just what we see but what we don't see — and it's what we don't see that we often desire. It's quite mysterious. All art is a way of trapping something or freezing something about human desire." Los Angeles Times 07/13/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 3:35 am
Turner Online The Tate Museum has put an enormous collection of JMW Turner images online. "The vast Internet resource includes color images and descriptions of more than 2,000 works by Turner, held in private and public collections in countries including Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan and Greece. The catalog also has 30,000 works bequeathed to the British nation on the artist's death in 1851." Chicago Tribune (AP) 07/14/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 9:12 am
We© Sue® You© - Get It? Artists have long borrowed trademarked imagery from corporations, holding them up in an effort to critique consumer culture. But today artists say that such commentary has been increasingly hard to pursue as corporations are quick to sue for infringements of their copyrights...
Boston Globe 07/14/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 9:07 am
War - An Excuse For Rampant Art Looting The Iraq war has resulting in extensive plundering of archaeological sites, and there doesn't seem to be much political will to stop the looting. Or to stop the worldwide sales of pillaged art. Unfortunately, the theft is business-as-usual. Everytime there's a war, looting is rampant... Archaeology 07/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 8:30 am
UK's "Best" Museum May Have To Close earlier this year Nottingham’s Galleries of Justice won the first £100,000 Gulbenkian Prize for Museums. Judges called the museum's outreach programme “astonishing and thrilling and frighteningly good”. Now the museum is facing closure because it can't pay its bills. "Without core funding, the future of the best museum in the country is in doubt and it is contemplating having to break up the teams of experts it has built." The Times (London) 07/14/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 2:48 am
Pair Sentenced For Burning Down Venice Opera House Two Venetian electricians have been sentenced to six- and seven-year prison terms for negligence in starting the fire that burned down Venice's La Fenice Opera House seven years ago (it still hasn't reopened). "A court last year decided that the two electricians had negligently laid electric cables, which short-circuited, and the two were found guilty of arson. A number of high-ranking city officials, and the director of the opera house, were acquitted by the same court on charges of negligence." BBC 07/14/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 9:14 am
Recording Out Of The Mainstream The digital music-copying phenomenon isn't hurting music outside the big pop genres. Indeed, the ability of small do-it-yourselfers has been a blessing. "Now, a substantive majority of music that merits repeated listening—whether classical, jazz, or even alternative rock and so-called world music (another meaningless genre name), is being released only on independent labels. And, ironically, many important back-catalog items once issued by the majors are only available now on independent label imprints, which these labels have painstakingly licensed from the majors." NewMusicBox 07/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 8:20 am
Kennedy - Is It All Affectation? Violinist Nigel Kennedy still swears up a storm, even if his punker affectations have been worn off. "Many critics have forgiven me and think I'm a good boy now because I'm middle of the road compared to people like Vanessa Mae and Bond - at least I didn't put drum'n'bass behind Vivaldi". The Telegraph (UK) 07/14/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 3:41 am
Why Music? Scientists Want To Know Why is music - pleasurable to be sure, but hardly essential to life - so ubiquitous to every culture? "Archaeologists have found evidence of musical activity dating back at least 50,000 years. Even babies as well as some animals, such as birds, whales and monkeys, have a built-in sense of tone and rhythm, according to a set of six papers on the origin and function of music in the July edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience. 'Every culture we've ever looked at has music of some sort. But why that is so is a puzzle'." Philadelphia Inquirer 07/14/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 3:09 am
When Popularity Make You Unpopular "Norah Jones has replaced Diana Krall as the artist jazz critics love to hate. But if that bothers Jones - who will give a sold-out concert Tuesday evening at the Fox Theatre - she can take comfort in the fact that being a jazz pariah is nothing new. Traditionally, critics and fans have turned their backs on artists who pull off the trick of clicking with the masses. Over the decades, the list of performers whose artistic credibility has been questioned because of their commercial success has included..." St. Louis Post-Dispatch 07/13/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 3:03 am
Is Latin America The Next Big Thing? "The notion that Latin America will give birth to the next great wave of art and ideas isn’t exactly new. For several years the topic has been the source of lively discussions when arts folk gather. But how does an industry whose machinery is programmed to face New York and Paris turn to face Mexico City and Buenos Aires? Step by step … and step one just happened." Orange County Register 07/13/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 3:15 am
Do Florida Politicians Dislike The Arts? Florida legislators recently turned art-unfriendly. "Increasingly, this state's leaders seem to regard arts and cultural endeavors as expensive luxuries, in cities, towns and schools alike. Even worse, they regard government funding for cultural programs with an air of disdain and suspicion. In the recent legislative session, legislators diverted most of the state's cultural funding to cover gaping holes left in other parts of the budget..." The News-Journal (Florida) 07/13/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 1:55 am
Benny Carter, 95 Jazz axophonist Benny Carter died over the weekend. "Carter's career was remarkable for both its length and its consistently high musical achievement, from his first recordings in the 1920's to his youthful-sounding improvisations in the 1990's. His pure-toned, impeccably phrased performances made him one of the two pre-eminent alto saxophonists in jazz, with Johnny Hodges, from the late 1920's until the arrival of Charlie Parker in the mid-1940's. He was also an accomplished soloist on trumpet and clarinet, and on occasion he played piano, trombone and both tenor and baritone saxophones. He helped to lay the foundation for the swing era of the late 1930's and early 40's" The New York Times 07/14/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 2:52 am
In Praise Of Minnesota Theatre "When the Post-Gazette crunched statistics for an Index of Theatrical Activity of the 15 midsize metropolitan areas tracked in the Benchmark Series in 1998, Minneapolis-St. Paul regularly vied with Seattle for the top spot. Of course, New York and Chicago are securely Nos. 1 and 2 in the national rankings, but the Twin Cities vie for third..." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 07/13/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 3:07 am
E-Book Piracy Comes Of Age Book piracy hasn't been a huge issue up til now. But the new Harry Potter book is being scanned, electronically published and downloaded all over the internet. "Last week, enthusiastic readers put unofficially translated portions of 'Order of the Phoenix' on the Web in German and Czech, only to remove them after the publishers that own the rights in their respective countries threatened legal action." The New York Times 07/14/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 8:46 am
First-Time Literary Lottery "For thousands of would-be novelists the dream of living the New York writer’s life will never die, even if it nearly kills them to pursue it. But that doesn’t mean the nature of that pursuit is in any way constant. And as always, the goal of carving out a life of letters in the city—shared by thousands of Sarah Lawrence graduates, Starbucks baristas, and drop-out tax attorneys alike—is inextricably linked to the chilly realities of the publishing business. But rarely have the realities of the marketplace changed so jarringly as they have over the past five years. While the major publishing conglomerates continue to cut back on “midlist” authors, they’re increasingly willing to lavish astronomical sums on unknowns. So many, in fact, that since the late nineties, half a million dollars is de rigueur for a first novelist who’s perceived to have hot prospects." New York Magazine 07/14/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 8:01 am
Dead Poets' Society British poet laureate Andrew Motion, who is responsible for writing eulogies in the circumstances of a royal death, has "helped produce a guide to penning funeral speeches. It is estimated that funeral speeches by friends or relatives, are given at just 10% of all services." BBC 07/14/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 3:53 am
Because It's An Easy Read, It's An Easy Write? "Barely a week goes by without some sneering reference to chick-lit which has become all but a term of abuse. Why this should be is not clear - simple envy, perhaps, at our huge sales and concomitantly large advances. Or the belief that because these books are easy to read, they're easy to write. They're not. But I think there is something much deeper at work: a snobbish distaste for popular writing full stop." London Evening Standard 07/14/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 3:45 am
The Guardian: Coming To America The Guardian newspaper is planning an American edition. "Its tentative form is as a weekly magazine, quite unlike any other weekly magazine that has been started in the U.S. in the past generation. Not only is it about politics, but the magazine—meant to be 60 percent derived from the Guardian itself, with the rest to come from American contributors—has a great deal of text unbroken by design elements. This is almost an extreme notion. Quite the antithesis of what virtually every publishing professional would tell you is the key to popular and profitable publishing—having less to read, not more. Even with the Guardian’s signature sans-serif face, it looks like an old-fashioned magazine. Polemical. Written. Excessive. Contentious. Even long-winded." New York Magazine 07/08/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 2:10 am
America's Most Literate City? Not LA Los Angeles prides itself on being a literate city. But a recent survey of America's most literate cities places LA 54th. "To get to Los Angeles' place on the list, in fact, you must wade past Las Vegas (tied for 13th), Newark, N.J. (18) and Wichita, Kan. (39); beyond most other major California cities, including San Francisco (5), Sacramento (25), San Diego (40) and Anaheim (53), all the way down to the bottom 10 on the list, just above Fresno. Even so — Toledo?" Los Angeles Times 07/13/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 1:49 am
Lights, Camera, Theorize... A generation ago, going to film school meant picking up a camera and making movies. Now it's learning words such as "diegetic," "heterogeneity," "narratology," "narrativity," "symptomology," "scopophilia," "signifier," "syntagmatic," "synecdoche," "temporality." "Is there a hidden method to these film theorists' apparent madness? Or is film theory, as movie critic Roger Ebert said as I interviewed him weeks later, 'a cruel hoax for students, essentially the academic equivalent of a New Age cult, in which a new language has been invented that only the adept can communicate in'?" Los Angeles Times 07/14/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 8:55 am
I Pledge Allegiance...(A Little Too Often Maybe?) Don't look for an end anytime soon to the interminable pledge drives on PBS. PBS president Pat Mitchell says it's reality: "We know we are creating issues with pledge in terms of interrupting the schedule, and that some of our most loyal viewers don't appreciate the programming that is often seen during pledge periods," she said. But honestly - put yourself in the shoes of the station manager who is looking at a budget that has only 17 to 19 percent of guaranteed income each year. Period. That's all that comes in from the government. The rest of it, you have to raise somehow." New York Daily News 07/14/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 3:23 am
Is PBS The "Ralph Nader" Of Television? "PBS is the Ralph Nader of U.S. television. It is honest and unbridled by commercial interests. It knows the difference between right and wrong; its news and documentary programs are agenda- and convergence-free. Like Nader, PBS has the unavoidable stigma of dreary smugness. Americans know Nader is a smart fellow, but they sure won't vote for him. They know PBS is good for them, but they rarely watch. Everyone should watch PBS, really, but its audience remains a fraction of other networks'." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/14/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 2:17 am
Blockbusteritis Are audiences growing tired of blockbuster sequels? "Nearly 30 of this year's big Hollywood films are sequels, but in the US ticket sales are down and there is a feeling that what seemed like a magic marketing notion no longer works. The big three screen offerings last weekend were sequels: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blue, and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. According to the box office monitor, Nielsen EDI, sales were down 15 per cent on last year's July 4 holiday weekend." The Age (Melbourne) 07/14/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 2:02 am
Small Dances, Or Small Dancers? Carlos Acosta has dance all the "big classical roles of the Royal Ballet's repertory - Siegfried, Albrecht, Basilio - are in the bag. He's conquered the Nureyev role in Apollo. He's even wooed La Fille mal gardée. He's pegged for 25 shows a year at the Royal, and the rest of the world wants a piece of him too. Yet for all his extravagant successes, Carlos Acosta is not content. He is ready to confess in his sensuous Cuban drawl that 'ballet is started to feel a lil' bit small for me'." The Independent (UK) 07/12/03
Posted: 07/14/2003 9:02 am
