Fuzzy Thinking (No, Really, It's Good) "Traditionally, logicians have made a stark distinction between truthhood and falsity. A statement was considered to be either true (given a truth value of one) or false (a value of zero). In the 1960s, Lotfi Zadeh of the University of California at Berkeley came up with the catchy innovation of 'fuzzy logic'. In this system, things could be sort-of true, or only partially false. A 'truth value' of 0.5 meant that a statement was half-true, and so forth. The Economist 10/02/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 1:23 am
SFMOMA Picks Up Some Expensive Snapshots "The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has added 100 works by 45 artists to its already sweeping photography collection. The pictures, valued at more than $6 million, come as promised and fractional gifts from museum trustee Carla Emil and her husband, Rich Silverstein, co-founder of the Bay Area advertising firm Goodby, Silverstein and Partners." San Francisco Chronicle 10/03/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 7:17 am
A New Engaging History Of Art Noted historian Paul Johnson undertakes a history of art. "The book is really an extended and engaging work of art criticism rather than a strict history, with many fresh points of view and many eccentric ones. In places, it is deeply flawed. But it always has the virtue of a strong and opinionated intelligence guiding its arguments and prose." OpinionJournal.com 10/03/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 1:28 am
Seeing Beneath The Surface "Knowing what lies beneath the surface before the trowel hits the soil has long been the dream of many an archaeologist. As well as saving time in determining where to dig, it would enable archaeologists to answer questions with a minimum of destruction—and potentially none at all. This dream is slowly becoming a reality, as a result of improvements in non-destructive surveying techniques. Archaeology has never been a wealthy discipline, but by borrowing tools developed for more well-endowed professions, archaeologists are developing X-ray vision—or, to be precise, infra-red, microwave and magnetic vision, which are even better. Such tools enable archaeologists to identify and target small areas of interest, and to move away from the complete excavation of sites towards a more selective approach." The Economist 10/03/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 1:20 am
Glasgow Gallery Programmer Fired The visual arts programmer for Glasgow's Tramway arts space has been fired. The center has been under fire lately becasue of a plan for Scottish Ballet to take over the space. "We are not attacking the ballet – we support all art forms – but why should it be at the expense of such an important arts space? To pit two communities against each other in the arts world seems ridiculous." Glasgow Herald 10/03/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 12:26 am
- Previously: Scots Ballet's Movement Problem The Scottish Ballet wants to move. But it "has attracted widespread condemnation from the visual arts world after revealing it is applying for lottery cash to convert Tramway 2 - an internationally respected exhibition space which launched the careers of artists such as Roderick Buchanan and Christine Borland - into rehearsal space." The Scotsman 09/21/03
Take The Art Test A survey in the UK showed that art literacy is very low. Okay, so it's easy to ridicule the high percentage of know-nothings who took the survey. But how would you do? The Guardian put together its own art test... your AJ editor scored 75 percent (six of eight) ... and you? The Guardian (UK) 10/03/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 12:10 am
- Previously: What's A Monet Between Harrises? Know your art? Most Britons, it seems, don't. "In terms of knowing their masterpieces from their modern day art, most of the British public can't, confusing works by Monet and Rolf Harris. An Encyclopaedia Britannica poll published today finds that 7% believe that Water Lilies was painted by the Australian with the wobble boards instead of by French Impressionist Claude Monet." The Guardian (UK) 10/02/03
An Old-School Orchestra Prez Exits Stage Left David Hyslop has been in the orchestra management business for 40 years. He has worked for orchestras from Elmira, New York, to Portland, Oregon, and has been the top man at two major American orchestras. This weekend, he steps down after 12 years at the helm of the Minnesota Orchestra, confident that the orchestra industry will weather the ongoing economic storm, but admitting to a few questions about the sustainability of the current economic model. "The key thing -- and the challenge -- is that the 52-week season, whether it's here or in any other market our size, wasn't driven by market demand but by labor." Minneapolis Star Tribune 10/03/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 7:03 am
Making The Music The Star For small, regional orchestras, the challenge of drawing a significant audience to concerts is considerable, and many resort to booking "superstar" performers like Itzhak Perlman or Yo-Yo Ma in order to sell tickets. The trouble with that strategy, of course, is that such soloists command exorbitant fees, which tend to wipe out most of the profit gained from the full hall. But not every orchestra is trapped in the star cycle. "The simple idea of giving the music itself top billing has kept the Las Vegas Philharmonic in the black for its first four seasons, without having to prop up its main-stage offerings with pops concerts or big-name guest artists." Las Vegas Review-Journal 10/03/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 6:01 am
Domingo Falls Ill During Performance "Tenor Plácido Domingo left the stage of the Vienna State Opera this evening after apparently falling ill during the second act of Giordano's Fedora, but later returned to finish his performance." Andante 10/02/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 1:45 am
The Portable Musician "Working on the go has become standard operating procedure in the music industry. Times have changed: Twenty years ago, a studio was the only place where professional recordings could be made; even five years ago, desktop computers were just starting to get enough horsepower to make great records. Today, a laptop offers plenty of power to make a great-sounding track - and that portability is changing the way music is made." Wired 10/02/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 1:09 am
A Tale Of Two Opera Openings Two of the country's grandest and most venerable companies, the San Francisco Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, began their new seasons recently, and they made an instructive contrast." Both face financial challenges. The Met chose ear-pleasing fare for its opening. SF Opera, by contrast presented a challenging American work. And the grumbling at intermission?.... The New York Times 10/03/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 12:42 am
Texas Mayor Backs Off Public Art Program Last week, Fort Worth's mayor Mike Moncrief suggested axing his city's public art program. But in the face of opposition from his city council, he's backed off the idea. "This was an appropriate discussion to have. But we need to move forward and close the debate on public art funding." Fort Worth Star-Telegraph 10/02/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 1:39 am
Harbourfront Fires Another Mere months after the much-publicized firing of Festival of Authors director Greg Gatenby, Toronto's Harbourfront Centre has abruptly dismissed the man who has programmed its music for nearly two decades. Derek Andrews "was informed on Sept. 25 in a terse letter that his contract would not be renewed in December and that the non-profit corporation no longer needed his services... Andrews obsessively sought out and exposed new and young talent, helped establish Harbourfront as a key element in the international touring network, and provided a refreshing and intelligent alternative to mass-marketed commercial music." Toronto Star 10/03/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 7:25 am
Pevere: Kazan Doesn't Deserve Accolades It may be bad form to speak ill of the dead, but at least one writer says that filmmaker Elia Kazan deserves no posthumous forgiveness for his famous decision to "name names" in the Congressional witchhunts of the 1950s. Kazan was a great filmmaker, writes Geoff Pevere, but he chose to preserve the safety of his own situation by deliberately ruining the lives and careers of eight other individuals, and for that single, selfish, short-sighted act, he should forever be remembered not as an artist, but as a rat. Toronto Star 10/10/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 7:19 am
Composer Kagel Hospitalized "The German-Argentine composer Mauricio Kagel has been hospitalised in the western German city of Duisburg after a taking ill ahead of a concert he was due to conduct, the Düsseldorf Opera, where he works, said Wednesday." Kagel is a respected composer of cutting-edge electronic music, and is credited with doing much to bridge the gap between traditional "classical" music and electronica. He also has a sense of humor, having once composed a work for chamber orchestra, titled Finale, in which the conductor is instructed to fake a heart attack and "die" on the stage. Andante (AFP) 10/02/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 6:23 am
Springer Opera Not Packing 'Em In The new opera based on the life and career of talk show host Jerry Springer may be getting critical raves, but West End theatergoers don't seem to be convinced. "Critics on both continents raved about it. It broke box-office records at the National. New York theater owners offered their best houses for the inevitable Broadway production, and producers, managers and press agents scrambled to get a piece of the action. Then, on July 1, when tickets for a much-ballyhooed transfer to a West End commercial theater went on sale, this white hot show suddenly turned cold." New York Post 10/03/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 7:10 am
Giller Names Its Final Five Canada's Giller Prize picks this year's shortlist. "The jury read 97 submissions before making their selection. They picked Atwood for her futuristic Oryx And Crake (also on the Man Booker list) and Vassanji for The In-Between World Of Vikram Lall set in Kenya after it won independence. Also shortlisted is Ann-Marie MacDonald's second novel The Way The Crow Flies, about murder and Cold War politics; The Island Walkers, a first novel by John Bemrose about workers organizing a union in an Ontario mill town; and Kilter: 55 Fictions by John Gould, a writer of extremely short stories who is director of the Victoria School Of Writing in Victoria, B.C." Toronto Star 10/03/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 7:02 am
- John Who? Most of the Giller shortlist was predictable, stuffed with the usual Canadian literary heavyweights. But the inclusion of virtually unknown author John Gould caught many people by surprise, including John Gould. "Gould's second collection of short stories, was published by Turnstone Press of Manitoba in June, and the only major Canadian paper to review it so far was The Winnipeg Free Press, which said it offered a 'multitude of pleasures.'" The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/03/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 6:47 am
B&N To Expand Spanish Section "The market for books in Spanish, already among of the most promising in the publishing industry, is about to get a lot bigger. Barnes & Noble Inc., is adding thousands of new books to its Spanish-language sections... Books in all categories will be added, from self-help to literary fiction. And Barnesandnoble.com has started Libros en Espanol, an online service that includes author interviews, a best-seller list -- topped by the Spanish edition of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoirs -- and a guide to Barnes & Noble stores that sell works in Spanish." Chicago Tribune (AP) 10/03/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 6:39 am
DVDs Are So 2002, Anyway "Now that DVDs have become fully accepted by the masses, and even progressive-scan players can be found for under $70, what's a videophile got to do to stay ahead of the pack? Or perhaps the better question is: Now that DVDs are almost 7 years old, which is an eternity in the consumer electronics world, what comes next?" The answer seems to be better DVDs, which would have enough storage space to take full advantage of the high quality and multiple features available to owners of high-definition TVs. But with the biggest DVD manufacturers squabbling over the format standard, it may be a while before the next generation of DVDs gets off the ground. Wired 10/03/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 5:54 am
Schools Putting The Kibosh On File-Swapping College students may be the largest single demographic of concern in the recording industry's fight to stem the tide of illegal file-swapping of copyrighted music and movies. But "the University of Florida has developed a tool to help extricate the school from the morass of peer-to-peer file trading, and early results show that it's succeeding." Still, there are concerns that Icarus, the program that stifles the swapping, is restricting student use of other, more legitimate internet functions. Wired 10/03/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 5:27 am
Movie Westerns - R.I.P.? The movie western is 100 years old. But it's not in good shape. "There hasn’t been a mainstream Western in eight years and no successful Western since Clint Eastwood’s revisionist epic Unforgiven appeared in 1992. For anyone who as a child was enthralled by Gary Cooper in High Noon or John Wayne in one of a dozen great movies (Red River, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Searchers) this has been a sad, even mournful, state of affairs." The Scotsman 10/02/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 12:49 am
More Trouble In San Jose The musicians of Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley have filed a grievance against their management, which had planned to replace them with a recorded version of Copland's Appalachian Spring in an upcoming performance. The company insists that the substitution was necessary to keep the organization from spiralling further into debt. "Pending the completion of an audit, the ballet's deficit for the fiscal year that ended June 30 was just under $1.27 million." San Jose Mercury News 10/01/03
Posted: 10/03/2003 6:27 am
