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Don't Worry... Be Happy "How do we predict what will make us happy or unhappy - and then how do we feel after the actual experience? For example, how do we suppose we'll feel if our favorite college football team wins or loses, and then how do we really feel a few days after the game? How do we predict we'll feel about purchasing jewelry, having children, buying a big house or being rich? And then how do we regard the outcomes? According to this small corps of academics, almost all actions -- the decision to buy jewelry, have kids, buy the big house or work exhaustively for a fatter paycheck -- are based on our predictions of the emotional consequences of these events." New York Times Magazine 09/07/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 11:27 pm
Damien Hirst And The Art Of Trying Too Hard Damien Hirst's new show at White Cube took eight years to assemble. "The idea of transition and transformation is everywhere at White Cube: mounds of dead flies turned into crunchy, black, monochrome canvases; cows' heads as apostles and as Adam and Eve; laboratory supplies and hardware store axes and mallets in reliquaries of martyred saints; animal blood for human blood." It all has the smell of trying too hard. The Guardian (UK) 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 6:12 pm
Recording Companies Sue 12-Year-Old A 12-year-old girl was among those sued by the recoding industry for music file swapping. "I got really scared. My stomach is all turning. I thought it was OK to download music because my mom paid a service fee for it. Out of all people, why did they pick me?" Fox News 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 11:24 pm
Big Music's Problems Beyond The File Traders File trading is only one of the recording companies' problems. "Among the problems they cited were the consolidation of radio stations, making it harder to expose new bands and records, and the lack of a widely popular musical trend like teen-pop, which relied on stars like Britney Spears and `N Sync to drive young people to record stores. They also blamed a poor economy and competition for the limited time and money of teenagers and young adults, their main customers, who often find that they prefer buying DVD's, video games, sneakers and more. Indeed, thousands of music retail stores have closed recently, and the ones that are still open have given shelf space to competing products, like DVD's and video games." The New York Times 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 8:04 pm
- News Flash: Customers Don't Like You If You Sue Them Prosecuting file traders isn't likely to win recording companies many fans. "Some music industry analysts and file-trading fans question whether the strategy will do much to further the RIAA's goal of boosting legitimate music sales. If you're trying to instill fear, you may have success. But if you're trying to increase CD sales by getting people to stop sharing music, I don't think it will have any effect at all." Wired 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 7:37 pm
The "Booker Prize" Of Music? The Mercury Prize was "conceived in the early 1990s by Jon Webster, then MD of Virgin Records, who envisaged it as 'the Booker Prize of the music industry'. It would be independent of both the record companies and the music retailers, but endorsed by both. Its serious image would encourage ageing music fans to explore new albums as well as buying CD copies of their old vinyl favourites. And it would promote modern music as 'art'. But it's the sheer unpredictability of the Mercury that makes it so charming. Don't ever believe anyone who says they know who is or isn't going to win. And has it achieved its original objectives?" The Guardian (UK) 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 6:29 pm
Charlotte Symphony On Strike Players of the Charlotte Symphony have gone on strike. "The talks have gone on in the wake of a $650,000 deficit that the orchestra generated last season - the first red ink in seven years. When the group's management announced the deficits in July, it cited a drop in donations, a decline in income from its endowment fund and a surge in health-insurance costs as prime causes." Charlotte Observer 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 4:53 pm
CD Price-Cut Is Desperation Play Not hard to figure out why Universal is cutting CD prices. "After years of gouging customers, the recording industry is desperate. Sparked by Napster, and continued through such file-swapping services as Kazaa, Morpheus, and Grokster, the free-music revolution has left the major labels reeling and hemorrhaging. And CD prices, which despite promises to the contrary have steadily increased through the years, turned off even those who weren't inclined to sit at their computers downloading their favorite tracks. Now, with CD sales already down almost 16 percent this year - after a 9 percent decline in 2002 - the industry is so rattled it has had to resort to something it has arrogantly avoided for years: a move that will benefit, instead of undermine, music consumers." Boston Globe 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 4:46 pm
Orchestras In Uncertain Times The new orchestra season begins. But "don't be surprised if you see orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra, reopening labor contracts, well before expiration dates, in search of budget savings. Such measures, once unthinkable, may soon be common as organizations struggle to get their houses on solid ground. And all the usual things, like cut-backs in performances and costly repertoire, will continue, too. But let's not get overly gloomy. At least not yet." There are some bright spots... Baltimore Sun 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 4:40 pm
Robert Redford On Art Robert Redford gives the annual Nancy Hanks Lecture at the Kennedy Center Tuesday night. Redford "the iconoclast, the Hollywood director who founded the Sundance Institute to raise new generations of filmmakers outside the corrupting influence of the studios and commerce, has the most sweetly arcane ideas about art and artists. He believes, for instance, that art is good for the soul, that it can keep kids off the streets, and that it can correct the ill drift of society. He knows Hollywood puts money before art, but is consoled by the fact that without art they can't make money. He's also impatient with efforts to silence artists, with the ridicule heaped upon those who express political views when they should know that such talk is better left to highly paid, professional, partisan political pundits." Washington Post 09/10/03
Posted: 09/10/2003 8:53 am
Another Try At Reinventing The Chicago Theatre The "storied but troubled" 3,800-seat Chicago Theater has been the scene of many failed attempts to make it profitable. A new deal would transform the theatre into a "center for the performing arts active 200 nights a year." Chicago Sun-Times 09/10/03
Posted: 09/10/2003 8:43 am
In Canada - 30 Percent More Artists... And Increased Funding The number of artists in Canada has grown 30 percent in the past decade. "The Canada Council's government funding has increased almost 70 per cent in the past seven years, reversing the effects of several years of deep cuts. More money, more grants; more grants, more art: Art lovers should rejoice at the news, shouldn't they?" The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/10/03
Posted: 09/10/2003 8:01 am
On The Internet - The End Of Free? The culture of the internet has been that most things are free. But the music industry lawsuits suggest those days are coming to an end. "These lawsuits certainly tell consumers that `free' ultimately has a price. Originally, there was this perception that consumers would not pay for content — entertainment or information — over the Internet. But that perception is changing." The New York Times 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 8:07 pm
Increase For Canada Council? The Canada Council is asking for a big increase in its funding. "Over the past three years, artists and arts organizations in 1,000 Canadian communities have received Canada Council funding. In 2002-2003, the Council awarded nearly $142.3-million in grants, prizes and payments to Canadian artists and arts organizations." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 6:07 pm
Dallas - Sketchy And Conventional For $250 Million Plans for a new $250 million performing arts center for Dallas have been released. "For a document co-produced by the offices of Rem Koolhaas and Foster and Partners, spirited iconoclasts and high-tech adventurers respectively, it is surprisingly conventional. Leafy boulevards, fountained plazas, long axial vistas, these are the staples of old world urbanism rather than the concussive New American landscape. And for a plan that's been in the works for a year, it is surprisingly sketchy. The sources of this embryonic condition are various: an inexperienced client, philosophical differences among the planners, an untimely shakeup in Mr. Koolhaas' Office of Metropolitan Architecture." Dallas Morning News 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 5:01 pm
Leni Riefenstahl, 101 Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl has died at the age of 101. "She was the first female film director to attract international acclaim, but her career was curtailed by public, industry and official antipathy owing to her status as "Hitler's favourite film-maker". The Guardian (UK) 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 10:45 pm
Martin Amis - Peace In The Storm Martin Amis has a new book out and it's had some critical drubbing. "After a going-over like this it wouldn't be such a surprise if I were to report that Amis was a broken man: shoulders stooped; grey skin; eyes empty. Actually, he looks in terrific shape. At 54, his slicked-back hair may be of a colour seldom seen on nature's paint chart, but he's tanned, relaxed, good-humoured - and thinner than before." The Telegraph (UK) 09/10/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 6:42 pm
Karen Finley Returns It's been awhile since performance artist Karen Finley was the poster girl for Culture War controversy. Now she's back with a new piece and getting new respect. "A lot of things have changed. Women's rights in some ways have improved from the time I was doing my work 15 years ago. There are just different issues. The issues I'm dealing with now are the chaos of this nation at war and the psychological impact of struggling with a nation mourning." Denver Post 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 5:38 pm
Goading Kakutani A few years back , novelist Leslie Epstein tried to goad New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani into reviewing his book by buying tiny text ads in the Times ("YOO-HOO! MY CUTE KAKUTANI!-Leib Goldkorn is calling" read one). It didn't work. Indeed, Kakutani got the paper to stop running them. So now Epstein has a new book out and this week he got word that Kakutani was reviewing it... The New York Observer (2nd item) 09/10/03
Posted: 09/10/2003 7:34 am
From Blurber To Blurbee Steve Almond lays down some rules for the art of the book blurb. "One of my least favorite experiences as a writer, is listening to other writers whine about being asked to give a blurb. (As with most of my indictments, I am guilty of this crime myself.) What annoys me about these complaints is not just the unacknowledged narcissism — Poor me! How to bear such popularity? — but the basic ingratitude." MobyLives 09/08/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 8:19 pm
A Poet Laureate For Our Times? "It would be invidious to suggest that Louise Glück, who last week replaced Billy Collins in the office down Library of Congress way, is the finer poet; better noted is how much more thoroughly she fits the moment. History gets the poets it deserves, and though Ms. Glück isn't as grim as the newspapers of late, nor as rapaciously bellicose as the administration, she's no good-time guy. Her poetry is no stranger to difficulty, and has shadows aplenty."
Village Voice 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 8:15 pm
Should A Critic Be Disqualified For Being Negative? Defenders of Chuck Palahniuk's "Diary," which recently got a bad review in Salon, suggest that the critic was predisposed to not liking the book and therefore ought not to have reviewed it. Alex Good begs to differ: "This reaction struck me as bizarre. As Auden pointed out, every critic is at heart a polemicist. If you think a book is representative of something that is wrong with our literary culture you have a duty to take it on. There is nothing personal about it. Alas, in a celebrity culture everything is personal." GoodReports 09/08/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 7:59 pm
Art Of The Pitch - It's Still About A Good Idea The Toronto Film Festival holds a movie pitch competition, in which filmmakers present pitches for movies they'd like to make. Some of the presentations are incredibly elaborate. But this year's winner had a more modest pitch. Demian Resnick "didn't wear a costume, as did two filmmakers who wore gaudy prom dresses while pitching a project about growing up in the 1980s. And Resnick didn't have any pre-filmed scenes, like a filmmaker from Vancouver used in pitching her idea for a comedy vehicle for former SCTV star Dave Thomas and his brother Ian. Instead, Resnick just stood under a spotlight and earnestly read his cards." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/10/03
Posted: 09/10/2003 8:05 am
The Disposable DVD Disney is test-selling disposal DVDs. ""They will go on sale in four cities to test whether US film watchers will choose them over rented DVDs. The red DVDs turn an unreadable black 48 hours after their packages are opened, exposing them to oxygen. The oxygen reacts with the disc in a process similar to how Polaroid film develops." BBC 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 10:56 pm
National Ballet In The Black As other dance companies struggle, the National Ballet of Canada posts its third balanced budget in three years. "Revenues for the year were $16,529,000, 46 per cent from the box office, 20 per cent from fundraising, 28 per cent from government grants and six per cent from other income. The company now has an accumulated surplus of $98,000." Toronto Star 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 10:23 pm
Dance Among The Audience Many German critics consider Sasha Waltz the "most significant German modern-dance choreographer to emerge in the generation after Pina Bausch." Her new piece involves dancers and audience walking through the performance space. "Twenty dancers and 10 musicians will move within many rooms as well as pose in boxes resembling display cases or cupboards, as 200 audience members also wander through the eccentric theater."
The New York Times 09/10/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 8:25 pm
Help For Colorado Ballet The financially-ailing Colorado Ballet gets the largest grant in its history to help see it through the next season. "The ballet ended its 2002-03 season with a $200,000 deficit, which it is addressing this year with an annual budget cut from $5.6 million to $4.9 million. The reduction also reflects a 34 percent drop in performances, because the company cannot use the Auditorium Theatre, which is closed for renovation." Denver Post 09/09/03
Posted: 09/09/2003 5:52 pm | 
