IDEAS
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas
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Connecting: Words In Translation Will a new literary translation website "help reconnect America with the rest of the world?" At least it's an attempt to expose uni-lingual Americans to words written elsewhere in the world. "Words Without Borders (www.wordswithoutborders.org), whose far-flung network of consulting litterateurs includes the Nigerian-born Chinua Achebe and the Iraqi dissident Kanan Makiya, is predicated on the idea that translation is as thrill-charged as smuggling. 'Not knowing what the rest of the world is thinking and writing is both dangerous and boring'." Boston Globe 09/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas/redir/20030928-30248.html
ARTS ISSUES
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues
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Group Think America's performing arts service organizations are planning their first-ever joint meeting. "At the First National Performing Arts Convention, to be held in Pittsburgh June 8-13, groups such as OPERA America, Theatre Communications Group, Dance/USA, the American Symphony Orchestra League, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters and the National Alliance for Musical Theatre will hold their own meetings and also gather together to address topics including arts research, audience development, arts education, governance and ethics, arts journalism and new-work development." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 09/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20030928-30255.html
Wanted: An Arts Mayor For Toronto Toronto is electing a new mayor, and the five major candidates for the office gathered to talk about the arts. "The first Great Toronto Arts Debate was refreshingly free of all that embarrassing 'world-class city' rhetoric that has marked civic politics since the eighties." And there was acknowledgment that the arts were important for the city's future. But what does that mean, exactly?
The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/27/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20030928-30253.html
The Selling Of (New) Money The US is about to introduce a new $20 bill. To acquaint the public with the new-look money, the government is spending "$33 million on advertising, marketing and education programs to promote the new bill, and it has hired a public relations firm and, in a first, a product placement firm and one of Hollywood's top talent agencies to put the $20 bill on the publicity circuit. By the time the new bill joins the currency flow next month, it will have appeared virtually everywhere but on the ballot for California's recall election." The New York Times 09/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20030928-30244.html
Kushner: Of Art And Politics Playwright Tony Kushner on the responsibility of artists in challenging time: "You can't find any important work of American art, in theater or anywhere else, that doesn't have a very powerful political dimension. [But] whatever you do with your day job—and writing plays is what I do—is no replacement for activism, which is a necessary part of being a citizen in a democracy." Seattle Weekly 09/24/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20030928-30243.html
MEDIA
http://www.artsjournal.com/media
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TV's New Man - Cad Or Dad TV's ability to stereotype is an awesome thing. "Women on television are still sometimes squeezed into demeaning caricatures (or at least inappropriate clothing: surgeons, homicide detectives and high school teachers all wear low-cut tank tops to work). But increasingly, so are men. The new fall season shrinks the number of belittling stereotypes they may occupy to just two: cads or dads." The New York Times 09/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20030928-30246.html
MUSIC
http://www.artsjournal.com/music
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The Ailing Blues The US Congress may have declared this the year of the blues, and a new PBS series focuses attention on the music. But "you rarely hear a blues song on the radio, and it's hard even to find the CDs in stores. Sales of blues records this year dwindled to only 1 percent of the US market, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures. Yet fans and industry insiders are hoping against hope that a change is coming. Can you say 'blues revival' one more time?" Boston Globe 09/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030928-30247.html
Nagano - The Berkeley Connection Kent Nagano, writes Joshua Kosman, is one of the top 10-20 conductors in the world. So why is he still conducting the Berkeley Symphony - a community orchestra - after 25 years? "Nagano's dedication to the BSO has occasionally had a far more concrete impact on his activities. Because of a scheduling conflict with a Berkeley concert, he says, he had to turn down an invitation to make his first appearance with the Berlin Philharmonic - not once, but four times before he finally debuted with the orchestra in 1997." San Francisco Chronicle 09/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030928-30258.html
The Essential Opera? Readers Offer Their Lists Last month, Tim Page offered a list of 25 opera recordings he felt could give a listener a good overview of the artform. Not surprisingly, (are there any fans more rabid than opera fans?) Page's readers scrambled to modify his list. "A few recurring themes can be isolated: Neither baroque nor modern opera seems to be especially popular with many operaphiles (although there are listeners who take to these genres more quickly than they do to much of the standard repertory); it was widely believed that Mozart, Verdi and Wagner should have been represented by more than two operas apiece (and Puccini and Richard Strauss by more than one); and, more than a quarter-century after her death, Maria Callas may still be the world's most popular opera singer."
Washington Post 09/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030928-30256.html
Sing Off - Who Needs It? Luciano Pavarotti comes to Philadelphia offering to help start a singing competition. So far, though, no one's taken him up on the offer. "Young singers don't need glaring spotlights. They need greenhouses to keep them incubating until they are sturdy enough vocally to survive the international-opera treadmill, with the bad airplane air, unsympathetic conductors, and high-concept stage directors that go with it. Competitions are more suited to instrumentalists. They aren't nearly as vulnerable to the kind of permanent damage an overused voice can suffer." Philadelphia Inquirer 09/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030928-30254.html
Music Piracy Outside The US - What Are The Tactics? "Music executives abroad are scrutinizing the American industry's legal campaign against people who share files on the Internet. But many doubt such tactics would work in their countries, given the relative weakness of laws protecting copyrights and the ubiquity of the activity. 'People in their 60's are burning CD's at home. Housewives, who should be cooking, are burning. It's not like we can go after 80-year-old men or 12-year-old kids. We have to find the right approach'." The New York Times 09/26/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030928-30242.html
PEOPLE
http://www.artsjournal.com/people
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Elia Kazan, 94 Director Elia Kazan's achievements in theater and cinema "helped define the American experience for more than a generation. For Broadway, his legendary productions included "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Death of a Salesman." His movie classics included "On the Waterfront" and "East of Eden." The New York Times 09/29/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20030928-30260.html
Herb Gardner, 68 Playwright Herb Gardner, who wrote hit Broadway comedies such as 'A Thousand Clowns' and the Tony-winning 'I'm Not Rappaport,' has died of lung cancer. He was 68." Backstage (AP) 09/25/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20030928-30251.html
Baryshnikov Selling Home Mikhail Baryshnikov is selling his New Jersey home. "He has lowered the price on his 4-acre suburban retreat to $8 million from $9.5 million. The Palisades, N.Y., property, which went on the market in January, includes a 3,900-square-foot main house that dates to the 1870s. It has five bedrooms, 41/2 baths, a great room and sauna. " Backstage (AP) 09/26/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20030928-30250.html
PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing
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Fighting Ashcroft Makes Reading/Libraries Glamorous? American librarians have been fighting Attorney General John Ashcroft and his attacks on readers' privacy. But "for book lovers, Ashcroft versus the librarians is some thing else - one of those spectacles that manage, like book bannings in suburban schools or the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, to glamorize reading and make it seem to be, as it sometimes and in some places actually is, a high-stakes activity. Suddenly, your unprepossessing branch library - a low-slung 60's building, perhaps, and not in the greatest repair - looms as an epic battleground of ideas." New York Times Magazine 09/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20030928-30257.html
On The Same Page - Paper That Can Show Movies Paper that can display electronic "ink" is now advanced enough that it will be able to show video images. A single sheet looks pretty much like ordinary paper. But the ink can be rearranged electronically fast enough to show video movies." Nature 09/25/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20030928-30241.html
THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre
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Rosie's "Taboo" Rosie O'Donnell has always been one of Broadway's biggest boosters. Now she's putting her own money behind her words. "Taboo," a new musical with songs by the 1980's pop star Boy George, is being backed by O'Donnell, who is putting up $10 million of her fortune to produce it. "While that alone would make her involvement remarkable — most shows on Broadway get their money from dozens of smaller investors — Ms. O'Donnell has also taken the risky step of casting herself as the principal draw for 'Taboo,' using her brassy image and her reputation as an arbiter of suburban taste to lure audiences." The New York Times 09/29/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20030928-30261.html
Edward Albee's Third Act "Ever since Jerry cornered Peter on a Central Park bench in "The Zoo Story" and demanded an audience, Albee has served as 'an invaluable irritant to the status quo.' With 'The Zoo Story' hitting off-Broadway in 1959 and, three years later, 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' on Broadway, the American establishment had an unnerving new commentator wielding a venomously witty pen. Albee was in, or It, for a good while. Then, by the late 1970s, Albee was out. Since the success of "Three Tall Women" a decade ago, he has been in again." Chicago Tribune 09/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20030928-30259.html
How Denver Got Major Theatre "In its 24 years and 255 productions, the Denver Center Theatre Company has grown from a civic curiosity in a ghostly part of downtown into the largest regional theater between Chicago and the West Coast. In 1998, it received the Tony Award as the best regional company in the nation."
Denver Post 09/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20030928-30252.html
VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/visualarts
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The Tower Of London Norman Foster's new tower on the London skyline (it looks like a gherkin) demands your attention. It is "the most conspicuous eruption on London's skyline in a quarter of a century; a single building that is as big as a small town, with 500,000 square feet of space and able to accommodate 4,000 people with ease. Whatever it's called, this is the tower that ignited London's current preoccupation with the skyscraper, breaking the 600-feet barrier in the Square Mile for the first time since 1979." The Observer (UK) 09/28/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030928-30245.html
