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Thursday, October 30




Visual Arts

Smithsonian To Close A&I Building Early The Smithsonian's Arts & Industries building, which long fuctioned as the institution's main museum, will be closing for repairs several months ahead of schedule, and may not reopen until the end of the decade. "Constructed between 1879 and 1881, the building has a leaky and decaying roof, as well as other structural problems. A series of canopies in the main public areas now catch peeling paint and chips from the ceiling and roof." Funds for the renovation have yet to be authorized by Congress, and no one seems quite sure when the money will be forthcoming. Washington Post 10/30/03
Posted: 10/30/2003 5:36 am

The Best Turner Line-Up In Years? "The predictable affectations of horror are already being expressed. But this year's exhibition is one of the best Turner displays I have seen," writes Adrian Searle. "There is an air of calm and seriousness, almost a terseness about the show - however volatile some of the subject matter and content." The Guardian (UK) 10/29/03
Posted: 10/29/2003 6:45 pm

Aboriginal Artists Low-balled By Gallery? A group of central Australian Aboriginal artists who were brought to Melbourne for a month by a gallery, where they "produced an estimated 62 paintings said to be worth about $134,000, have been asked to accept $7000 or less each as payment for their work" by the gallery. When they refused, the artists were asked to sign a statement which reads in part: "We regret telling the media lies and apologise to Alexis and Tony Hesseen for the problems we caused them". The Age (Melbourne) 10/30/03
Posted: 10/29/2003 6:36 pm

Dead On Unable to gain traction in New York galleries, artist Patricia Cronin created a sculpture for a cemetary north of Manhattan. "At Woodlawn, often called 'America's Père Lachaise,' or 'our most prestigious cemetery for men and women of accomplishment,' Cronin's strategy of not fitting in turns fascinating. Cronin's is now the third most visited grave site at Woodlawn, behind only Miles Davis and Duke Ellington." Village Voice 10/28/03
Posted: 10/29/2003 4:46 pm

Music

The World's Most Overprotected Hunk Of Wood 19th-century violin virtuoso Nicolo Paganini had quite a life story, full of gambling, carousing, and concertizing, but the life of his instrument is nearly as fascinating on its own. The 260-year-old Guarneri, which is kept under heavy guard in Genoa and overseen by a committee, has been played by only a few select musicians since the death of Paganini, and when jazz fiddler Regina Carter was invited to try it out two years ago, purists threw a fit. Carter recorded an album on the famous violin, and this weekend, she'll get a chance to perform on it live in New York. But only for 45 minutes. Because the commitee says so. New York Post 10/30/03
Posted: 10/30/2003 6:15 am

Naming Names In St. Louis Sarah Bryan-Miller is not a popular individual with some St. Louis Symphony Orchestra musicians at the moment, due to her decision to break a little-known taboo in her reviews of the ensemble. Bryan-Miller is not known for overly caustic reviews, and doles out far more regular praise than some of her predecessors in the city, but last year, she made a decision to use her platform to address one of the problems that nearly every orchestra faces, but no one ever talks about. "There are several players [in the SLSO] who sometimes appear in the spotlight but are simply not up to the challenge. A couple of them are downright bad. And there's no apparent end to the problem: In the absence of a music director, no one can fire an inadequate player. What to do? Last season, I reluctantly began naming names." St. Louis Post-Dispatch 10/25/03
Posted: 10/30/2003 6:01 am

Tough Times In The Northland The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra is reporting a deficit for the just-concluded fiscal year of nearly $800,000, its first in a decade. The announcement comes on the heels of the signing of the SPCO's new contract with its musicians, which trimmed six weeks from the orchestra's season and slashed salaries by nearly 20%. The SPCO also laid off a third of its administrative staff last spring in a cost-cutting move, and has significantly scaled back or replaced some of the larger productions it had scheduled for this season. St. Paul Pioneer Press 10/30/03
Posted: 10/30/2003 5:53 am

Useful Research Or A Waste Of Good Public Money? The Brooklyn Philharmonic is set to receive a $330,000 grant from the federal Department of Education to study whether children in inner-city schools benefit from music classes. Trouble is, everyone already knows that children benefit from music classes, don't they? Anti-tax organizations and government watchdog groups are up in arms over the grants, which opponents say could have been spent on "about 400 drum sets, 800 saxophones or 900 trumpets - or to pay the salaries of several music teachers." New York Daily News 10/30/03
Posted: 10/30/2003 5:18 am

Michener: Disney "Radically Redefines" Concert-Going Charles Michener is impressed with his first encounter with Disney Hall. "If the flamboyant façade doesn’t attain quite the iconic power of the Sydney Opera House as a city-defining monument (there’s no dramatic vantage point from which to view it whole), its interior radically redefines the experience of concertgoing. People in the concert business tell me that it takes about three years for an orchestra and a new hall to settle down acoustically. What I heard at Disney Hall suggests a marriage that is off to a roaring start." New York Observer 10/29/03
Posted: 10/29/2003 5:00 pm

Why Songs Get Stuck In Our Heads (Damnit!) Those annoying songs that somehow get stuck in our heads and can't be chased out? There's a physical reason, apparently. "A cognitive itch is a kind of metaphor that explains how these songs get stuck in our head. Certain songs have properties that are analogous to histamines that make our brain itch. The only way to scratch a cognitive itch is to repeat the offending melody in our minds."
BBC 10/29/03
Posted: 10/29/2003 4:52 pm

Arts Issues

Canadian Copyright Bill Clears A Hurdle A controversial piece of legislation which would extend the rights of Canadian copyright holders well into the 21st century has passed a vote in the House of Commons. Until the late 1990s, Canadian copyrights had no expiration date, but a 1997 overhaul allowed thousands of old documents and images to enter the public domain. The new bill is a partial rollback of that 1997 legislation, and is also being carefully watched by observers on all sides of the ongoing evolution of copyright law. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/30/03
Posted: 10/30/2003 6:32 am

Met Objects To Lincoln Center Plan The refurbishment of Lincoln Center has hit another snag, as the Metropolitan Opera raises objections. "The dispute ostensibly revolves around parking and the convenience of the paying public. But it also resonates with the longstanding objections of the Met's general manager, Joseph Volpe, to the overall redevelopment project. From the start, Mr. Volpe has been opposed to making major structural changes to the campus. Even if the differences are ultimately resolved, Mr. Volpe's objections threaten to delay the process." The New York Times 10/30/03
Posted: 10/30/2003 1:07 am

Austin Cuts Back Performing Arts Center Plans for a major performing arts center in Austin Texas are scaled back - for now, at least. "The price tag for the project, stalled by escalating expectations and then an economic downturn, drops from $125.1 million to about $72 million. The group still must raise nearly $25 million - that includes $10 million for an operating endowment - before it can open the center a year later than planned: 2007." Austin American-Statesman 10/29/03
Posted: 10/29/2003 4:28 pm

B of A: A Bank Where A Could Stand For Arts? Charlotte-based Bank of America is taking over FleetBoston to create the second largest bank in America. That may be good news for the arts. "Bank of America has been 'a real driving force behind the arts really coming front and center in the state, and particularly in Charlotte. It's just offered the most incredible leadership - not just funding and resources, a lot of human resources, but just really understanding the importance of the arts. It's in large part because of the bank's leadership,' that Charlotte regularly leads the nation in per capita arts spending." Boston Globe 10/29/03
Posted: 10/29/2003 4:24 pm

People

The Conductor's Fall "The controversy surrounding the private life of one of the 20th century's leading conductors, Sir Eugene Goossens, has resurfaced in Australia as legal action is threatened to stop the performance of a play about his life. The new play, The Devil is a Woman, by the Sydney-based writers Mandy Sayer and Louis Nowra, tells the story of the scandal that ruined Goossens... At Sydney airport in March 1956, customs officers intercepted his luggage and found more than 1,000 pornographic photographs, films and books, along with three rubber masks. The ensuing scandal destroyed Goossens' career, marriage and reputation in a matter of weeks." The Guardian (UK) 10/30/03
Posted: 10/30/2003 5:27 am

Franco Corelli, 82 "Franco Corelli, the Italian tenor whose powerhouse voice, charismatic presence and movie-star good looks earned him the adoration of opera fans from the 1950's until his retirement in 1976, died yesterday in Milan. He was 82 and lived in Milan." The New York Times 10/30/03
Posted: 10/30/2003 1:21 am

Theatre

O'Neill Director Resigns "James Houghton has resigned in a pique as the artistic director of the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, the country's leading workshop for new plays, saying he was excluded from the board's reorganization plans." The New York Times 10/30/03
Posted: 10/30/2003 1:19 am

Actors Protest Non-Union Performers Actors protest the use of non-union performers in traveling shows. "Hundreds of members of Actors' Equity Association, the union for actors and stage managers, fired an opening salvo in a rally in Duffy Square yesterday, protesting the use of non-Equity touring companies. This is shaping up as the most contentious issue in coming negotiations between the union and producers. Their contract expires in June." The New York Times 10/30/03
Posted: 10/30/2003 12:59 am

Publishing

Churching Up The Chick Lit It's no secret that evangelical Christianity has a strong hold on America these days, and religion in general is said to be of great importance to most Americans. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that the publishing industry is looking for new ways to tap the market. One of the more successful strategies thus far has been the combining of tangentially religious subject matter with existing literary sub-genres, such as the post-feminist grouping known as "chick lit." Think Bridget Jones without all the drinking and carousing. USA Today 10/30/03
Posted: 10/30/2003 5:42 am

Does Hogwarts Cause Headaches? A Washington doctor is claiming that the latest installment in the Harry Potter series can cause migraine headaches and undue stress in young children attempting to plow through the book's 870 pages. Dr. Howard Bennett says that he has treated at least three cases of severe headache brought on when kids refuse to put the book down for any reason, until they've completed it. "The obvious cure for this malady - that is, taking a break from reading - was rejected by two of the patients." BBC 10/30/03
Posted: 10/30/2003 5:09 am

Norwegian Bestseller - Got It Wrong In Kabul? A Norwegian journalist observes an Afghan family, then writes a best-selling book about them. The subject of the book is outraged, and flies to Europe to protest. "Since then, the public confrontation over "The Bookseller of Kabul" has become the talk of Norway, with televised debates galore, some newspapers jumping at the chance to run photographs of the striking blond author and more serious newspapers arguing the political correctness of first world journalists judging third world cultural traditions." The New York Times 10/29/03
Posted: 10/29/2003 6:59 pm

Book-Of-The-Month Club (With A Twist) Write a book in a month? That's the premise of a competition in which you have to write 50,000 words (175 pages) in 30 days. "Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create." The number of winners - writers who cross the 50,000-word finish line - has grown from six out of 20 in 1999 to more than 2,000 out of 14,000 in 2002, with 4,000 expected to qualify this year. The Guardian (UK) 10/29/03
Posted: 10/29/2003 6:52 pm


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