Celebrating Tape "Forty years ago this month, Phillips launched the compact audio cassette at the 1963 Berlin Radio Show, and our relationship with music has never been quite the same since. Portable, cheap and relatively robust, the new format was an instant success. By the early 1970s, we were voraciously recording music onto blank cassettes: LPs, concerts, tunes from the radio. " The Guardian (UK) 09/26/03
Posted: 09/25/2003 10:29 pm
The Soldier Field Debate: Monstrosity or Magnificent? As Chicagoans begin to adjust to the new look of historic Soldier Field, home to the football Bears, an intense PR campaign is being waged in an effort to shout down the folks who are calling the renovated stadium an architectural joke. But somehow, even the best slogans and outreach efforts fizzle somewhat when the public gets another up-close look at what one Chicago critic has dubbed "the eyesore on Lake Shore." Chicago Tribune 09/26/03
Posted: 09/26/2003 6:00 am
Bellevue Museum Closes After Moving Into New Building The Bellevue Art Museum outside Seattle, which opened in a new Stephen Holl-designed building less than three years ago, has closed after failing to attract an audience. "The architectural community gave Stephen Holl's building a solid thumbs-up, but the visual arts community was considerably less impressed. In essence, the building is full of personality and high style, yet it is a difficult place to display art." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 09/25/03
Posted: 09/25/2003 9:13 pm
Building A Firm Foundation In Louisville When the Louisville Orchestra was in danger of folding this past summer, the orchestra's board claimed that it simply couldn't raise enough money to pay its operating costs. Three months later, the ensemble is back on track, and money is rolling in from a group of local developers who have pledged to lead the way in making the orchestra fiscally secure. The Home Builders Association of Louisville has already raised more than $400,000 on a $465,000 pledge, and they say they won't stop there. Louisville Courier-Journal 09/26/03
Posted: 09/26/2003 5:15 am
Blues For "The Blues" Mike Figgis' "The Blues" series for PBS chronicles an important shift in audience, then ignores it. "The accretion of whites in Mr. Figgis's film reflects both the majority of the public-television viewership as well as the largest audience for the blues these days. The London blues-rock stars who heard the music as teens in the 1950's and 60's — like Eric Clapton and Eric Burdon, who are both featured in Mr. Figgis's film — exposed it to the rest of the record-buying world: suburban kids who now keep it alive. It's a sad fact that 'The Blues,' devoted to the cumulative power of a cultural phenomenon, tends to ignore the racial shift in the music's fans. Such a lack is like overlooking a roasted tree stump that was rocked by lightning." The New York Times 09/26/03
Posted: 09/25/2003 11:14 pm
Germany's Posh New Opera House A lavish new opera house in Germany has ambitious aspirations. "Lavish the new opera house may be, but its start has not been painless. It was meant to be part of a new deal for opera, theatre and ballet involving Weimar (pop. 65,000) - whose Deutsches Theater (where Germany's first democratic constitution was launched) is a mere 15 minutes train ride away. Under this so-called 'Weimar Model', Erfurt was to specialise in opera, touring to Weimar, while Weimar specialised in spoken theatre, it being the city of Goethe, Schiller and Herder. However, the people of Weimar strongly objected to the loss of their opera ." Financial Times 09/26/03
Posted: 09/25/2003 10:21 pm
The Gates Of Venice Experts are coming to agreement that the only way to save Venice from flooding is to build large gates to keep high water out of Venice's lagoon. "The nearly €3 billion ($3.4 billion) scheme will comprise about 80 hollow gates embedded in the seabed at the three inlets to Venice's lagoon. When not needed, the gates will rest on the seabed, full of water. But when high tides threaten the city, compressed air will force water out of the gates. This will cause them to rise and act as a barrier to water trying to enter the lagoon. Will the gates justify their large cost?" The Economist 09/26/03
Posted: 09/25/2003 11:36 pm
Revisionist Soviet Cultural History In the old Soviet Union, "culture was a matter for the central committee and the Politburo. What kind of modern art should be allowed? Was jazz decadent? Which foreign plays should be staged? Even to pose these questions was all but unimaginable in the West; yet they were matters of state in the East. When Nikita Khrushchev, in a moment of notorious philistinism, denounced abstract modern painting during a visit to the Manezh gallery in Moscow in 1962, it changed the future course of Soviet art, breaking countless careers in the process. What Richard Nixon, LBJ or Harold Macmillan may—or may not—have thought about modern art was hardly a scratch on the canvas." The Economist 09/26/03
Posted: 09/25/2003 11:30 pm
Downsizing The "World's Largest Lawn-Care Service" The Bush administration is trying to downsize the federal park service with a plan to outsource many of its services. "Two years ago, the Park Service became a prime target for privatizing some civil- service jobs after the president's former OMB director, Mitch Daniels, referred to it as 'the world's largest lawn-care service.' In addition to riling agency defenders, Daniels' characterization has rankled historians, archaeologists, maintenance workers, and rangers who could be supplanted." Christian Science Monitor 09/24/03
Posted: 09/25/2003 4:40 pm
Edward Said, 67 Noted scholar Edward Said has died at the age of 67. "His writings have been translated into 26 languages and his most influential book, Orientalism (1978), was credited with forcing Westerners to re-examine their perceptions of the Islamic world. His works cover a plethora of other subjects, from English literature, his academic speciality, to music and culture." The Guardian (UK) 09/26/03
Posted: 09/25/2003 10:49 pm
Democracy Conquers London. Is New York Next? "Leave it to Michael Frayn, author of the Tony Award- winning Copenhagen, to take a 30-year-old European political scandal and turn it into a play that's packing the National Theatre to the rafters. The play is Democracy, and it's about the spy scandal that brought down Willy Brandt, the West German chancellor who reconciled his country with its communist neighbors in the East. Already, the groundwork is being laid for a Broadway transfer, probably in the spring." New York Post 09/26/03
Posted: 09/26/2003 6:17 am
Shakespeare Hits The Road This year, the National Endowment for the Arts is promoting an unprecedented 15-month, 100-city tour of Shakespearean drama. The idea for the tour came from former NEA chairman Michael Hammond, and was brought to fruition by the NEA's current bundle of energy, Dana Gioia. According to Gioia, "the NEA is hoping to 'revive the tradition of touring theater, which has been in jeopardy.' By making connections between touring companies and local presenters, he says, 'we're creating a circuit that I hope these companies can go back to.'" Boston Globe 09/26/03
Posted: 09/26/2003 5:38 am
Theaters Get Compliant "Half the theaters on Broadway, including some of its most famous stages, will become fully accessible to disabled people under an agreement announced Thursday between the landlord and the government. Work on the 16 landmark theaters operated by the Shubert Organization is to be finished by year's end. The organization has spent $5 million over several years to improve wheelchair seating areas, restrooms, entrances, exits, ticket windows, concession areas and drinking fountains. But legalities formally bringing the theaters into compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act were completed only this week." Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AP) 09/26/03
Posted: 09/26/2003 5:13 am
London's National Theatre Goes Young(er) At the beginning of last season the National Theatre's Nicholas Hytner lowered ticket prices in an attempt to draw younger audiences. It worked. "It represents a triumph for Nicholas Hytner, the National's artistic director, who gambled on filling the giant Olivier auditorium with audiences for edgier plays, if ticket prices could be reduced. Two-thirds of the thousands who flocked to see the musical skit based on the American television show were under 35, and they all came at full price. Nearly half had never been to the National before. " The Guardian (UK) 09/26/03
Posted: 09/25/2003 10:39 pm
Why Not Just Pass A Law And Make Everyone Read It? Apparently, it's not enough to have produced the best-selling children's book series of all time. The good folks at Scholastic, American publisher of the Harry Potter books, are launching a new ad campaign designed to draw adults of all demographics into the Hogwartian fold. A new series of print ads aimed at the 18-35 set, and specifically focusing on such voracious consumers of literature as bikers and skate punks, will begin running in select magazines this fall. Chicago Tribune (AP) 09/26/03
Posted: 09/26/2003 6:07 am
Star Spanish Writer Accused Of Plagiarism "Spain's top-selling novelist, Arturo Perez-Reverte, was called before a judge yesterday to answer allegations of plagiarism in a battle with a fellow Spanish novelist over the script of the film Gypsy." The Guardian (UK) 09/26/03
Posted: 09/25/2003 10:45 pm
Madonna Book Breaks Record Madonna's first literary effort - a children's book - has become the fastest selling children's picture book of all time. The Age (Melbourne) 09/26/03
Posted: 09/25/2003 9:41 pm
Are Method Actors Worth The Trouble? Method acting is arguably America's greatest contribution to the world of film. But these days, many method actors seem hesitant even to admit to using the techinique, which involves the complete immersion of oneself in the character. In fact, the term "method actor" seems to have become synonymous with "difficult prima donna." And that's a shame, says Geoff Pevere: "As derided as the method has historically been as the refuge of spoiled, unwashed and overindulged millionaire bohemians, it stood for something which has now apparently been pronounced dead: The presumption that there was more to a performance — and to the movie that contained it — than what appeared on-screen." Toronto Star 09/26/03
Posted: 09/26/2003 6:33 am
Broadcasting From The City's Heart Pittsburgh public radio station WQED has unveiled a new downtown satellite studio, which the station and the city hope will pave the way for a revitalized cultural district to begin drawing crowds. The studio will be used for live broadcasts five nights a week, focusing on whatever is currently going on in the cultural district. Live performances and interviews will be scheduled on the fly, with performers able to make a quick stop at the studio before or after their main appearance of the night. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 09/26/03
Posted: 09/26/2003 6:23 am
Dell To Embrace Downloading With Apple having proven beyond a doubt that legitimate companies can turn a profit and please music consumers with pay-per-song download services, other companies are looking to get into the act. Dell, which grabbed a huge share of the personal computer market in the 1990s, has announced that it will launch its own downloading service to compete with Apple's iTunes, and will also develop several consumr electronics products, including a digital music player. Wired 09/25/03
Posted: 09/26/2003 5:28 am
