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Weekend, September 13, 14




Ideas

What The Heck Is A Fascist, Anyway? People seem to be throwing the term 'fascist' around a lot these days, and when you think about it, no one really seems to have any idea what it means anymore. Oh, sure, everyone knows that fascists are bad guys, and no one wants to be publicly identified as one. But how exactly can Osama bin Laden, George W. Bush, Saddam Hussein, John Ashcroft, and parents who send their children to bed early all be fascists? Alexander Stille is concerned that such a fascinating and evocative word may be losing its meaning altogether. It may be time for a gentle reminder that 'fascist' is not a synonym for 'powerful person who makes me want to scream.' The New York Times 09/13/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 7:52 am

Visual Arts

Dallas's Colorful New Skyline Dallas's skyline gets a burst of color this week with the opening of the new Latino Cultural Center, and architect Ricardo Legorreta is already being credited with designing the most exciting piece of skyscraper architecture ever to hit the Metroplex. "Already there is evidence of color creep. The window frames of one adjacent apartment building have gone from hunter green to electric blue; another has been meticulously outlined in enchilada red. The blue tower and the terra cotta wedge of the performance hall are already landmarks, and the doors aren't even open." Dallas Morning News 09/13/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 9:30 am

  • Fusion Architecture, Without The Pretention "The new Latino Cultural Center manages to evoke ancient traditions and cultures without becoming a theme park. That's quite a trick in this scenographic era and one that only a sophisticated architect could pull off." Dallas Morning News 09/14/03
    Posted: 09/14/2003 9:29 am

Chicago's Art Institute Looks To The Future The Art Institute of Chicago and its many supporters were taken quite by surprise last week when director James N. Wood announced his impending retirement from the post he has held since 1980. Wood is as much a Chicago institution as the institute itself, writes Alan Artner, and the AIC's board has a difficult task ahead in finding a replacement who can take the organization in new and exciting directions, without upsetting the balance of power which Wood maintained over the years. Chicago Tribune 09/14/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 9:13 am

Frank's Folly? When architect Frank Gehry was hired to design and build MIT's new Stata Center For Computer, Information, and Intelligence Sciences, the price tag was set at $100 million, gifts were rolling in, and the university was downright gleeful at having secured the services of arguably the hottest architect of the era. But "MIT brass now peg the budget at $300 million, although a June press release from a Stata Center supplier put the cost at $430 million. The completion date is spring 2004. And what once appeared futuristic now looks like a jumbly rehash of existing Gehry piles." Boston Globe 09/14/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 8:55 am

The Three-Dimensional Comeback Sculpture, it seems, is popular again, at least in Australia, and a new wave of artists working in three dimensions is garnering much attention from serious collectors. "The new breed of sculptors are decidedly challenging. Rendered death heads, dystopian buildings, a jury of chimpanzees and the Twelve Apostles constructed of chicken bones are among the pleasures to be encountered. And corporate and private money is getting behind it all." The Age (Melbourne) 09/15/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 8:42 am

Barnes Finally Moving To Philly? The Barnes Collection, an internationally renowned art collection which resides in a suburban community outside of Philadelphia, is one step closer to moving into the city itself. The Barnes move has long been a desire of local politicians and arts leaders, but internal and external politics have conistently intervened. Now, a deal has been struck between the Barnes and Lincoln University, a local state school which has historically held the right to appoint board members for the Barnes, under which Lincoln will drop its objections to the move. The deal must now be approved by a county judge. Philadelphia Inquirer 09/13/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 8:05 am

Music

Music Without Flavor These days, you can walk into a WalMart and buy a CD full of classical music carefully chosen to pair perfectly with your Sunday brunch. Or your Saturday night date. Or a quiet dinner with friends. "All of this would be funny were it not for the wasting disease it represents. Call it silence deprivation. One of the reasons music tastes less good for a lot of us these days is that it increasingly lacks beginnings and ends. It is the blank spaces that surround music that give it shape — allow it to breathe. Music not framed by the absence of music really isn't music. Nor is music at dinner. Works of Brahms are not well served when they accompany pork chops. It is not fair to the pork chops either." The New York Times 09/14/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 10:03 am

Period Performance Comes Of Age The "authentic performance" movement was once viewed as a rebellious collection of obsessives, at once fascinating and annoying, but nothing that threatened to invade the larger world of classical performance. But these days, historically-informed performance is the norm for most ensembles, and while you don't see a symphony orchestra tuning its instruments down to play Mozart, the days of hacking through 18th-century music as if it had been composed by Gustav Mahler are over. Meanwhile, the true period purists, such as the Toronto-based Tafelmusik, continue to soldier on, devoted to their idealistic view of music in context. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/13/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 9:44 am

Why Doesn't Australia Like Touring Orchestras? Australia is a huge country with multiple cosmopolitan cities boasting thriving arts and music scenes. So why do so many touring orchestras find themselves playing to half-empty houses in Melbourne, Brisbane, and other Aussie cities? Some say that high ticket prices are to blame, while other "observers point out that the quality of some of the touring orchestras has not been absolutely first-class at a time when the Melbourne and Sydney symphonies are playing in top form, and that marketing for the touring groups was patchy." Regardless of the cause, the slumping sales will probably mean that fewer touring orchestras will be stopping off Down Under. The Age (Melbourne) 09/15/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 8:38 am

Proms Wrap Up With Pomp And Passion The traditional Last Night at the BBC Proms went off without a hitch this weekend, as 6,000 people gathered to hear the BBC Symphony pump their way through such traditional Last Night tunes as 'Jerusalem' and 'Rule, Britannia.' In a slight departure from the norm, intended to placate critics who dislike the 'classical lite' atmosphere of the annual show, a new work by a young British composer was premiered as well. The concert was broadcast nationwide on television and internationally on radio, and the BBC's various orchestras performed their own concerts throughout the UK in conjunction with the Last Night celebrations in London. BBC 09/14/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 8:27 am

Charlotte Talks Make No Headway With a federal mediator attempting to bring the Charlotte Symphony's striking musicians and management closer together, two days of contract talks have apparently gone nowhere. Talks broke down this weekend after the orchestra pulled several conciliatory portions of their latest offer off the table, and reverted to a flat demand that the musicians accept pay and benefits cuts to make up a $650,000 deficit. Charlotte Observer 09/13/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 7:35 am

Arts Issues

Old Doesn't Necessarily Equal Good There was a time, not too long ago, when any building more than a few decades old was likely to be sneered at as a dinosaur. More than a few architectural gems fell prey to a hasty wrecking ball, and many cities around the world are worse off for the loss of culturally significant buildings which were momentarily considered eyesores. But now, the pendulum may have swung too far the other way in Britain, with the heritage movement becoming so powerful that any criticism of old buildings is considered heresy. Patrick Wright would like to see some sort of balance, some acknowledgement that there are still a few old dinosaurs out there that simply aren't worth saving. The Guardian (UK) 09/13/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 9:50 am

15 Yards For Unintentional Satire This week, the National Building Museum in Washington will confer a major award for urban design on... the National Football League. Seriously. A collection of billionaires, who specialize in extorting money from cash-strapped cities which they then use to erect concrete bowls full of seats that no one but the economic elite can afford to rent for a few hours, is receiving an award for responsible and forward-thinking urban planning. And did we mention that many of these stadia are not in urban areas at all, but in suburban sprawlville? And did you see that tacky monstrosity of a kickoff show they mounted on the National Mall a couple of weeks back? Linda Hales did, and she's not pleased with the NBM's decision. Washington Post 09/13/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 8:16 am

People

Cruz-ing To Respectability "Like most unpublished plays, the manuscript version of Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz has the unmistakable stamp of the personal home computer: typographical errors, the playwright's home address and telephone number, and a hurriedly scrawled 'latest version' annotation on its front cover. That normally gets lesser-known regional playwrights a spot on the dusty shelf of some literary manager in a struggling regional theater. It got Cruz a Pulitzer Prize." Chicago Tribune 09/14/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 9:09 am

Theatre

Outflashing The Flash Mob The founder of the now-global "Flash Mob" movement, in which seemingly random groups of people appear at a designated location and do something odd for a few minutes before dissipating, has decided to end his New York City-based mob's performances. The founder, known as "Bill," organized one final flash mob which was supposed to eventually lead participants to a party celebrating their common love of befuddling the public. But instead, the mob was thrown for a loop by a single man with a briefcase and a neon sign, and participants wound up as puzzled as the passersby they were supposed to be confounding. Naturally, Bill thinks the whole thing was just great. Wired 09/12/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 7:42 am

Publishing

Atwood's Adolescent Alliteration "If Margaret Atwood's mighty novels give you morbid migraines, don't miss her mesmerising manuscript for mini-readers, in which her mission is mainly mayhem and mischief. Also to massage the mood of her publisher Anna Porter by maybe making her millions. But after you read Atwood's new book for rugrats Rude Ramsay And The Roaring Radishes, rolling in letters R, resist the relentless repetition of the same sound at the start of every word. You will resemble a robot and be repellent to your relatives and roommates. Ridiculous? Just try to refrain." Toronto Star 09/13/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 8:10 am

Media

Record Industry Should Look To Hollywood As the recording industry continues to tilt at file-swapping windmills and bemoan falling album sales, the movie industry has embraced new technologies, packed DVDs full of low-cost "bonus materials" beloved by consumers, and made a concerted effort to make the public aware of what a great deal it is getting when it forks over $16 for a disc. So why can't the music industry get its act together? "People listen to the average CD many more times than they watch a DVD. Yet CDs are languishing in stores and DVDs are flying off the shelves. How to see this other than sheer music industry incompetence?" Denver Post 09/14/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 9:36 am

TV Still Lily-White Behind The Camera In recent years, American television has finally seemed to embrace at least a few prime time shows starring minority actors and reflecting the American experiences of non-whites. But the increased diversity is often restricted to the people in front of the camera. "It should come as no great surprise that Hollywood is, by and large, run by white people. But as the networks increasingly respond to pressure from advocacy groups to diversify the worlds they present on-screen, viewers are treated to more shows that purport to present a picture of life from a particular ethnic point of view, but were created and executive-produced by the same, overwhelmingly white crowd of usual suspects." Chicago Tribune 09/14/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 9:20 am

You Get What You Pay For Australians love to complain about the low quality of their nation's movie industry. But screenwriter Steve Kearney says that if Australia wants better films, it needs to learn to pay the people who make them a living wage. "If we think we aren't competing in the world market, then that's the crappy films we are going to make. Low-budget, with minimally developed scripts about battlers who live in dingy houses. These stories emerge because that's where writers come from. No smart person would become a screenwriter on purpose because you don't get paid... But at least I'm not bitter. Hold on, yes I am. Hey, that's why I write." The Age (Melbourne) 09/15/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 8:45 am

Dali And The Mouse "In 1946, Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí, in one of cinema's oddest collaborations, teamed up on a short film called Destino. But Disney's studio ran into financial trouble and put the unfinished film on the shelf. Now, 57 years later, a team of Disney animators has finished what Dalí started... Destino will likely be shown in theaters next year before a Disney feature film, and eventually will be released on DVD." Wired 09/12/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 7:48 am

The Ups And Downs Of TIFF 2003 If there is one lesson to be learned from this year's Toronto International Film Festival, says Ty Burr, it may be that audiences don't want to see 'sweetheart' stars like Meg Ryan strutting around naked or cursing up a storm. But aside from Ryan's jarring performance in Jane Campion's much-maligned "In The Cut," Burr says he found much to like at TIFF 2003. "The common threads this year were eye-catching star performances by women, striking ensembles of male characters, and the sort of visually stunning, hermetically sealed worlds that are only possible in cinema." Boston Globe 09/13/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 7:29 am


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