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Monday, December 8





IDEAS
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas
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Knowledge For Wisdom, Not Acquisition Accademia screwed up, writes Nicholas Maxwell, and we need a revolution to fix it. "We urgently need to bring about a third intellectual revolution, one which corrects the blunders of the Enlightenment revolution, so that the basic aim of academia becomes to promote wisdom, and not just acquire knowledge. Every branch and aspect of academic inquiry needs to change if we are to have the kind of inquiry, both more rational and of greater human value, that we really need." - The Philosopher's Magazine 12/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas/redir/20031207-34811.html


ARTS ISSUES
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues
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When Art Went To War Against AIDS "If art had often tried to protest prejudice, encourage compassion and console the grieving, it had never tried to provide safe-sex information, lower drug prices and stimulate the development of antiretroviral therapies. I remember thinking, early on, that this was not only unseemly in some way but also too much of an agenda for poor little art to shoulder." - New York Times Magazine 12/07/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20031207-34812.html

Zagat On Classical Music? Yikes! The new Zagat guide rating culture has some flaws when it comes to classical music, says a letter writer to the New York Times. "Classical recordings, unlike those in other categories, are usually identified by at least three criteria: composer's name, title of the work and performer's name. In the Zagat guide, classical albums are typically listed alphabetically by composer name, perhaps followed by title, with little or no indication of performers. But a recording of a Tchaikovsky piano concerto with Van Cliburn as soloist is listed under "V." I suspect that this is a little joke. Or perhaps not." - The New York Times (4th item) 12/07/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20031207-34833.html

Iraqi Art In A Time Of War "While bombs rip through buildings, rival factions assassinate each other's leaders, and increasingly brutal occupation and resistance forces duke it out, Iraqi artists are playing it safe. This is in contrast to the art scene under sanctions, when poignant tableaux spoke of the suffering of a populace under siege, playwrights pushed the political envelope with veiled criticisms of the ancient regime's corruption, and composers wrote angry orchestral anthems with damning titles like "To the U.N." (which was, after all, the embargo enforcer)." - San Francisco Chronicle 12/07/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20031207-34817.html

A Culture Gap Between Europe And The US Is there a growing gap between the cultures of Europe and America? A group of five European and American writers get together to agree that there is. But as for how the gap is defined and what its causes are... - The New York Times 12/06/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20031206-34801.html

Frayling Named Arts Council England Head Art historian Sir Christopher Frayling has been named as the new head of Arts Council England. Sir Christopher has been rector of the Royal College of Art since 1996. - BBC 12/06/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20031206-34789.html


DANCE
http://www.artsjournal.com/dance
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A New History Of Dance: A new history of dance in the 20th Century takes an unusual line for a history book. "Although everyone will be using the book for reference, Nancy Reynolds and Malcolm McCormick have produced a work that is completely unlike a standard reference book; you don't just look things up in it -- you read it. Here is a coherent, reasoned and entertaining chronicle of dance performance in the West over the hundred years that are unquestionably the fullest and most complicated in the long history of this fragmented and elusive art." The New York Times 12/07/03
http://artsjournal.com/dance/redir/20031207-34832.html


MEDIA
http://www.artsjournal.com/media
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Movie Studios Losing Fight Against Piracy Hollywood studios' latest attempts to combat piracy seem to be a miserable failure. "A major source of movies online is an underground network of groups that specialize in bootlegging films, piracy experts say. These "ripping crews" - which recruit members around the world to obtain, edit, transfer and store films - compete with one another to be the first to obtain a movie, the experts say. They frequently are assisted by people connected to the movie industry, whose numbers include cinema employees, workers at post-production houses and friends of Academy members." Chicago Tribune 12/07/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20031207-34824.html

Judge Strikes Down Screener Ban A federal judge has overturned a ban on independent producers sending out screener DVDs to awards judges. The Motion Picture Association of America had instituted the ban as a way to cut down piracy. But the judge ruled that: "the screener ban will significantly harm independent films, thereby reducing the competition these films pose to major studio releases." Chicago Sun-Times (AP) 12/06/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20031206-34788.html


MUSIC
http://www.artsjournal.com/music
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Interpret Away...(or not) "Unlike sculpture, music is inevitably different in every manifestation," writes David Patrick Stearns. "Whether huge or minute, those differences can be charted, albeit simplistically, on a continuum between two poles: objective to subjective in some parlance, classical to romantic in another. Is the conductor a conduit of the composer? Or a prism? Not everybody falls squarely into one of these camps, and when someone does, it's not an everyday thing. Sometimes, the most freewheeling musician turns out to be anything but." Philadelphia Inquirer 12/07/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20031207-34834.html

Fenice Rises Again In Venice "Like its namesake, the phoenix, La Fenice has finally risen from the ashes. The whole saga has resembled one of those long, tumultuous operas in which everything turns out more or less all right in the final act. Next Sunday, in the presence of Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the Italian president, La Fenice reborn will open its doors. Yet even now, this is a reopening without opera." There will be an opening week of concerts, and then the doors will "close again until Nov. 12, 2004, when Lorin Maazel will conduct a new production of "La Traviata." The New York Times 12/07/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20031207-34831.html

National Music Museum Planned For DC A National Music Museum in Washington DC has been talked about for 11 years. Now, the group working on the project pledges to open it in five years. "The group has already helped raise $5 million and is now committed to raising $100 million to fund the $200 million project." The Star-Tribune (Mpls) (AP) 12/07/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20031207-34829.html

In Dallas - The Litton Years Critic Scott Cantrell assesses Andrew Litton's tenure as director of the Dallas Symphony, and ponders what the orchestra might look for in his successor: "Mr. Litton certainly energized the DSO and raised its profile in the community. He took the orchestra on three European tours and conducted it in four concerts at New York's Carnegie Hall. In an era when union contracts largely priced American orchestras out of the recording market, he and the DSO turned out an amazing 23 CDs. As time wore on, musicians, local cognoscenti and critics grumbled about a lack of depth." Dallas Morning News 12/07/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20031207-34825.html

Sandow: Let's Tell The Truth - Litton's Not A Good Conductor Greg Sandow wonders why the announcement of Andrew Litton's departure from the Dallas Symphony wasn't rougher on his accomplishments: "So here's the truth. Litton's not thought of as a good conductor. He can make a splashy effect; that's about it. Musicians who've played for him are damning. Administrators at orchestras where he's guest-conducted are equally damning. If Litton were a pop musician, everything I've written here would have been in the press long ago. Everybody would have known it. Dallas would have been abuzz. Which leads me back to something I've said here before. In classical music, there's very little accountability. We have to stop treating classical music as if it were something sacred - or something that needs to be protected - and start describing things the way they really are." Sandow (AJBlogs) 12/06/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20031207-34826.html

Bidding War For Goodspeed Opera The Goosdspeed Opera House has reliably prospered for 127 years in its present Connecticut home. "But now the theater is considering building a new stage in nearby Middletown, a re-energized small industrial city that has offered the Goodspeed the moon in exchange for a share of its star power. The Goodspeed's leaders were surprised and impressed by the town's offer, which includes a $5 million grant, expedited permitting and free land downtown." Newsday (AP) 12/07/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20031207-34819.html

Sweeney In The Opera House "The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has come to rank with Wozzeck and Peter Grimes in opera's catalogue of 20th-century tragic heroes," writes Rupert Christiansen. And thus "Sweeney Todd" comes to the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. The dialogue is being miked...er, make that "reinforced." Why? Audiences are lazy today, says the production's conductor. "It's very destructive. I recognise that synthesizers are useful, but they eliminate instruments like the harp or guitar, and we've lost the possibilities of creating a deep string sound. It's a joy at Covent Garden to be playing Sweeney Todd with a 50-piece orchestra." The Telegraph (UK) 12/06/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20031206-34800.html

This Whole Business Of Encores... "Many concert-goers would agree that there tend to be more bad encores than good. There's nothing worse than an indifferent encore after an indifferent concert, when all one wants is a stiff drink. There's a particular sort of heart-sinking moment when an overkeen recitalist settles back to their instrument, having taken only a single curtain call. The last gesture in a concert is as potent as the last sentence of a book: you take the atmosphere of it out into the world with you, and if the final encore is crass or inappropriate, it can undermine the whole of the rest of the concert." The Guardian (UK) 12/06/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20031206-34797.html

La Fenice Rises Again After years of delays, Venice's La Fenice opera house, which was burned down eight years ago, has been rebuilt and reopened. "Standing amid the charred rubble on the morning of January 30 1996, the then mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari, pledged that La Fenice would be rebuilt "com'era, dov'era" (as it was, where it was). And, within the bounds of the possible and desirable, that is exactly what has been done." The Guardian (UK) 12/06/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20031206-34794.html

Why La Fenice Is So Beloved "A stunningly beautiful building La Fenice certainly is. Ingeniously wedged into a tiny space surrounded by canals just to the west of St Mark's square, it had only 814 seats, now 990 (compared with La Scala's or Covent Garden's 2,000). With its curves, its rococo decorations and its five levels of blue-and-gold boxes, galleries and its crystal lamps, it radiates a matchless theatrical warmth. But the reason the Venice opera house has a special place in the hearts of opera lovers is also the reason why it burned to the ground in January 1996." The Guardian (UK) 12/06/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20031206-34795.html

The Skinny On MP3 Players MP3 players come in all sizes and shapes these days. "For some people, MP3 players represent the physical endgame of music collecting, where there's a vast stockpile of music at hand but no CD towers or groaning shelves of vinyl. In extreme cases, they also mark the end of an old reliable gift-giving strategy; what's the point of buying a CD for someone who snaffles all the tunes they want from the Web?" The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/06/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20031206-34792.html


PEOPLE
http://www.artsjournal.com/people
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Robbins: Dissent=Patriotism Actor Tim Robbins has a new play opening in Los Angeles. He says that "being lambasted as un-American" for his outspoken views on the Iraq war has been "tough to swallow. Despite his radical rep, he actually sees his penchant for democratically sanctioned dissent as every bit as all-American as his love of baseball. He says his moral compass has always guided him toward saying and doing what he thinks is right, to speaking the truth when he sees hypocrisy in the world, and he has trouble understanding why so many people take issue with the simple logic of his frankness." San Francisco Chronicle 12/07/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20031207-34828.html

Overlooking Dali's Fascism? The 100th anniversary of Salvatore Dali's birth is coming. Vincente Navarro writes that: "The Spanish establishment, with the assistance of the Catalan establishment, wants to mobilize international support for their painter, Dali, portraying him as a "rebel," an "anti-establishment figure" who stood up to the dominant forces of art. They compare Dali with Picasso. A minor literary figure in Catalonia, Baltasar Porcel (chairman of the Dali year commission), has even said that if Picasso, "who was a Stalinist" (Porcel's term), can receive international acclaim, then Dali, who admittedly supported fascism in Spain, should receive his own homage." Counterpunch 12/07/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20031207-34814.html


PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing
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Which Dictionary Is Best? YiLing Chen-Josephson wonders which dictionary is best, and designs a test. "I restricted my testing to seven of the relatively affordable and frequently updated college dictionaries (the type of dictionary used not only in the most dormitory rooms but in the most homes and offices as well). To determine my rankings, I looked up seven times over words that I knew but wanted to understand better (like regret, jealous, and overdetermined); words with disputed usages (including aggravate, disinterested, fortuitous); words with potentially interesting etymologies (e.g., chauvinism, juggernaut, lagniappe); neologisms and slang (e.g., blogger, booty, yay); anything friends had looked up recently (e.g., Panglossian, condominium, alembic); as well as the words I didn't know in the last book I read, J.M. Coetzee's Elizabeth Costello." Slate 12/04/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20031206-34804.html

Plundered Book Ring Broken Up A sophisticated book-stealing ring in Edinburgh has been busted. The kingpin of the operation had accomplices steal the books, and he removed anti-theft identifiers before selling them at a discount to retail prices. "Undercover police kept watch as he took regular deliveries from thieves targeting W H Smith, Waterstones and other outlets, said Marc Gadsden, prosecuting. He was so successful that in just eight months he made an estimated £240,000, the barrister alleged." The Scotsman 12/04/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20031206-34805.html


THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre
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What Happened To The "Angels" Effect? Back in 1993, "Angeles in America" was a miraculous thing, and it promised a generation of new plays that would follow. But, writes Frank Rizzo, "the plays that followed, on Broadway at least, were largely more of what had come before: naturalistic or tiny-cast shows centering on family crises or issues of personal identity. They examined the characters as individuals; some were wonderfully done, but few explored who we are as a community, as a country and a member of the global village. They...furthered their canons but did not necessarily stretch their art. But nothing compared to our being touched by Angels." Hartford Courant 12/07/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20031207-34827.html

The Problem(s) With Chicago Theatre The hit musical "Urinetown" had its origins ten years ago in Chicago in a tiny storefront. But the show never got traction there, and it took a move to New York and a decade for the show to morph into a hit. "And yet had 'Urinetown' become a fringe Chicago musical - which it was inches away from becoming - it likely would have run here for a month and then sunk without a trace in a city that still seems woefully unable to propel its homegrown properties to national prominence and longevity - unless those artists involved ship out for the coasts and start all over." Chicago Tribune 12/07/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20031207-34822.html

Labor Fight Tearing Up Touring Shows In America "Labor strife is the most contentious dispute in touring theater today, a battleground that could create aesthetic and financial casualties for audiences as well as producers and presenters. Using non-Equity actors can greatly reduce a producer's costs of putting a show on the road: Union actors in major productions earn $1,252 a week plus $742 in expense money, which covers lodging, meals and other incidentals of life on the road. Non-Equity producers generally don't disclose their payroll figures, but the union asserts that non-union performers' earnings hover around $500 a week, with an additional $250 for expenses." St. Paul Pioneer-Press 12/07/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20031207-34820.html

Two Glitzy London Theatres Get A Redo "If you want plush, if you want opulence, if you want to revel in the theatrical experience, then this winter you are in for a treat with the rebirth of two of London's finest Edwardian theatres, the Hackney Empire and the Coliseum. Thanks to dollops of lottery cash and the generosity of private individuals these two masterpieces by that greatest of Edwardian theatre designers, Frank Matcham, should open on January 28 and February 7 respectively." But what about London's other theatres? The Telegraph (UK) 12/06/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20031206-34799.html

Canadian Theatre's Color Problem There's a big problem "simmering beneath the surface of mainstream Canadian theatre," writes Kate Taylor. "In a country that is increasingly racially diverse, the on-stage faces continue to remain almost exclusively white." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/06/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20031206-34793.html


VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/visualarts
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Kimmelman: Start Over With WTC Memorial Michael Kimmelman believes that all the candidates for the WTC memorial ought to be thrown out. "This is in part a memorial to extreme bravery in the face of overwhelming force. Here's a chance to be brave. We know you still haven't presented your winning choice, which will no doubt be modified from the plans we now see. But don't bother. Nothing short of extreme, last-ditch action has a chance of succeeding, because the process has been crucially flawed from the start. Instead of beginning with a firm idea about the meaning of the memorial, we started with a timetable. Instead of guaranteeing that the best artists and architects participated in the process, we pandered to the crowd." The New York Times 12/07/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20031207-34830.html

Saddled By The Vietnam Memorial Cliche The Vietnam Memorial was a revolution in thinking about memorials. "Twenty-one years later, the wall of names has become a visual cliche and memorial designers are straining to reach the profound synthesis of form and meaning that the Vietnam memorial so eloquently achieved. The finalists in the World Trade Center memorial competition have many of the superficial attributes of the Vietnam Memorial -- the stark materials, the abstract vocabulary, the striving for elemental simplicity. Yet at this point, they are simply Maya Lin wannabes, not the real thing." Chicago Tribune 12/07/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20031207-34823.html

Perry Wins Turner Prize Pottery artist Grayson Perry has won this year's Turner Prize. "Perry accepted the award in a dress, as his female alter-ego Claire, thanked his wife and said he was 'stunned'. A popular choice among the public, he beat off competition from the favourites, the Chapman brothers." BBC 12/07/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20031207-34818.html

Australian National Gallery Courtyard Attacked A courtyard at Australia's National Museum in Canberra has come under attack. "The public is overwhelmingly hostile towards the courtyard. They don't like it and something has to be done," says the chairman of a council set up to review the work. "Conservatives, led by former Howard speechwriter and council member Christopher Pearson have decried the museum's futuristic design and complex architectural symbols since it opened in March 2001." The Age (Melbourne) 12/08/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20031207-34816.html

The Museum Shopping Experience More and more museums are opening stores - often in malls and shopping centers far away from their homes. "Totaling more than 1,800 nationwide, such stores generally offer a range of products tied to their museums' missions. You typically don't need to pay admission to shop, and purchases help provide vital financial support, up to as much as a third of some museums' operating budgets." Miami Herald 12/07/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20031207-34815.html

Museums And The Issue Of Who Owns Culture Western museums have traditionally resisted requests to return cultural heritage to their countries of origin. "Yet museums and claimants may be inching toward some common ground. American museum directors said recently that they are revising guidelines for addressing repatriation claims. And some combatants are working toward creative solutions. Even the Elgin sculptures could make a visit home for the Olympics. Greece and the British Museum reportedly are discussing a possible loan. And while they defend the idea of a 'universal museum' with the common heritage of humankind on display under one roof, museum directors are looking for new missions." US News 12/07/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20031207-34813.html

Greek Parliament Considering Parthenon Museum Approval The Greek parliament is considering a bill that would legalize construction of a new museum at the Parthenon. Backers of the museum are trying to build the 50-million-euro museum to try to pressure the British Museum into returning the fifth-century-BC Elgin, or Parthenon, Marbles before the 2004 Olympics. "But critics who argue that important ancient ruins found on the museum plot will be destroyed during construction have successfully challenged parts of the project before the Council of State." Kathimerini (Greece) 12/06/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20031206-34802.html

Ivan and Dinos and Jake Bat About Conceptual Art Ivan Massow and the Chapman brothers debate conceptual art. But the exchange gets off to a rocky start, with the Chapmans firing back a dismissive shot: "We must apologise for agreeing to collaborate in a discussion on the merits and downfalls of modern art, since we now find ourselves forced to decline further participation. The first point of contact with Mr Massow has baffled us with so many negatives that any productive exchange seems doomed..." The Guardian (UK) 12/06/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20031206-34798.html

This Rubens Is Mediocre? Hmphhh! It's easy to disparage great art, comparing it to other works. That's not a reason not to collect it though, writes James Fenton. "Don't imagine, when you read that some declared expert has spoken out rather forcefully against this Rubens or that Raphael, that this is the first time in history that this daft game of disparagement has been played. Whenever a strong claim is made on behalf of a work of art, there are plenty of dim individuals (inside and outside the art world) who are simply provoked into opposition - offended that something should be admired when they have had no say in the matter." The Guardian (UK) 12/06/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20031206-34796.html

Toronto's Fly-In Art - Where Are The Canadians? The expansion of Toronto's airport has generated some major new public art by some of the biggest names in contemporary sculpture. But. "Costing approximately $30-million, less than 1 per cent of the total budget, it will no doubt still be perceived as wild extravagance in a country where the idea of tourism promotion through the arts is still a weakly flickering light bulb. But the controversy should not be about the money; it should be about the heavy emphasis on non-Canadian artists." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/06/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20031206-34791.html


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