IDEAS
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas
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2003: Year In Review What were the top stories of 2003? Here's our updated archive of year-end stories from publications around the world. -
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas/redir/20031228-36140.html
Economist View: Gifts Are "Inefficient" Giving a present might make you feel good. But as an economic transaction, economists consider it inefficient. "So when I give up $50 worth of utility to buy a present for you, the chances are high that you'll value it at less than $50. If so, there's been a mutual loss of utility. The transaction has been inefficient and "welfare reducing", thus making it irrational. As an economist would put it, "unless a gift that costs the giver p dollars exactly matches the way in which the recipient would have spent the p dollars, the gift is suboptimal"." - The Age (Melbourne) 12/24/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas/redir/20031228-36137.html
The 17th Century Internet Think the internet is a revolution of sharing ideas? Nope. "The coffee-houses that sprang up across Europe, starting around 1650, functioned as information exchanges for writers, politicians, businessmen and scientists. Like today's websites, weblogs and discussion boards, coffee-houses were lively and often unreliable sources of information that typically specialised in a particular topic or political viewpoint. They were outlets for a stream of newsletters, pamphlets, advertising free-sheets and broadsides. Depending on the interests of their customers, some coffee-houses displayed commodity prices, share prices and shipping lists, whereas others provided foreign newsletters filled with coffee-house gossip from abroad." - The Economist 12/18/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas/redir/20031228-36136.html
ARTS ISSUES
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues
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DANCE
http://www.artsjournal.com/dance
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The New Ailey - Echoes Of A Classic: Work presented in the Alvin Ailey company's early years championed a few themes: "the fight of a stalwart, resilient people, fueled by hope—a near-miraculous optimism, given their circumstances—to overcome injustice, oppression, and their corroding, often lethal, results." And, it promoted the work of black dancers and choreographers, writes Tobi Tobias. If that work, with all its ecstatic exuberance can be called "classic" Ailey, it is remarkable how much the company's new work echoes those early themes. Seeing Things (AJBlogs) 12/27/03
http://artsjournal.com/dance/redir/20031228-36134.html
MEDIA
http://www.artsjournal.com/media
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Manhattan Movies - Now $10.25 Manhattan movie theatres bump up movie ticket prices by 25 cents - to a record $10.25. Movie-goers give the move a thumbs-down: "There are ads, and they're in your face and obnoxious. There are previews, and they're just as bad. It doesn't seem right. They show you ads, so why are they raising the prices?" New York Daily News 12/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20031228-36151.html
Indy Films Take On The Studios Increasingly, independent films are becoming a major force in the movie industry. Why? "Independent and independent-minded films may earn less at the box office, but it's easier for them to turn a profit, because they're vastly cheaper to make. Even a little gem such as "Pieces of April,' which has grossed about $1.7 million, is a moneymaker - because it cost only $300,000." Denver Post (NYTS) 12/27/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20031228-36144.html
Note To Movie-Makers: Sex Doesn't End At 35 Why are critics going so ga-ga over 50-something women showing a little skin in recent movies? "Though the American film industry has pretty much had a 35-and-out attitude toward women as sexual beings, the trend, if indeed it is a trend and not merely a confluence of goose-bumped flesh, is more reflective of real life than the way things have been. Women's bodies don't become decrepit when the first grey hair appears, and sexual desire doesn't dissipate when a woman blows out the 36th candle on a birthday cake." The Age (Melbounre) 12/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20031228-36141.html
A Cable Universe Of Equals (Sort Of) Do broadcast networks have any advantage over cable stations anymore? "Even if it doesn't bite them today or tomorrow where it hurts (presumably the wallet), the broadcast titans seem to be ceding creative leadership in a way that ultimately dissolves any viewership advantage to which they continue to cling. How long can it be until viewers completely abandon the notion of the networks as the "default" choice to check what's worth watching each night? What's the difference when ABC looks like TLC looks like Fox looks like Spike?" Newsday 12/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20031228-36139.html
MUSIC
http://www.artsjournal.com/music
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Label Sales: This Can't Be Good For The Music Business The sale and dismantling of two of the best music labels in 2003 bodes ill for the music business. "Those two developments, both announced in the fall and awaiting governmental approval, represent a tipping point - the moment when, with swift decisiveness, the patient, long-term approach to record-making that prevailed at the major labels through much of the rock era bit the dust." Philadelphia Inquirer 12/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20031228-36152.html
Is The Music Album Dead? "With the recent boom in 99-cent-per-song downloading sites, music fans are cherry-picking their favorite tunes and ignoring full-length albums – much to the dismay of musicians who spend months crafting them. The album's glory days could be history, with three-minute singles ruling the music world as they did in the 1950s. That shake-up would not only affect the record labels' bottom line but might also transform the way pop music is created and heard." Dallas Morning News 12/27/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20031228-36142.html
Czech Workers Demand Employers Stop Playing Christmas Music Labor unions in the Czech Republic have demanded that employers stop playing Christmas carols in department stores of "pay compensation for causing emotional trauma to sales clerks." The unions have "written to major chains and demanded that employees be compensated. He said the unions want $19 or two days off as a possible compensation. They've received no response." Andante (AP) 12/24/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20031228-36156.html
PEOPLE
http://www.artsjournal.com/people
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Actor Alan Bates, 69 "Sir Alan had a long career in the theatre, cinema and television. The brooding good looks that brought him early success in John Osborne's Look Back in Anger matured into a talent for a wide range of modern and classical roles." BBC 12/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20031228-36155.html
PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing
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Poetry - A Year After The $100 Million It's been a year since Poetry magazine was told it had received $100 million in a bequest. "Staffers have a lot of general ideas on how to use the grant, including reaching out to the business community, but nothing specific has been decided. The foundation expects soon to hire a president who can organize and implement what board president Deborah Cummins calls a strategic plan. "We can't do anything until we have a strategic plan," she says. "We've never been in this position before -- the ones giving out the money. We've always been on the other side of the desk, writing grant applications." Washington Post (AP) 12/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20031228-36153.html
Best Books Of 2003 What were the great books of 2003? Guardian and Observer critics and celebrities make their picks. The Guardian (UK) 12/27/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20031228-36150.html
Germany's New Generation Of Writers "A new generation of writers may have emerged in Germany over the past decade, but this renaissance in story-telling has gone largely unnoticed in the English-speaking world. A growing unwillingness on the part of especially large U.S. publishing houses to wager a bet on translated novels means that many of Germany's promising young authors remain inaccessible, thus enhancing the impression that this country's literary masters have kept their postwar focus on history and politics." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 12/26/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20031228-36145.html
Today's Libraries: Books Or DVD's? Increasingly, libraries are spending more of their budgets on multimedia and less on books. "The good news for movie fans is that their local library looks more and more like a Blockbuster. The ominous news for book fans is the same: As budget-squeezed public libraries rush to buy DVDs for an insatiable public, branches must act more like multimedia centers and less like temples of the printed page." Denver Post 12/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20031228-36143.html
THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre
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"Grease" Tops UK Top Musical Poll The musical "Grease" has been named the UK's most fravorite musical of all time, according to a Channel 4 poll. "When it was released the UK was in the grip of punk rock and Grease, set in 1950s America, was seen as a harmless antidote to the Sex Pistols. The film went on to become a box office smash taking $340m worldwide." BBC 12/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20031228-36154.html
After 27 Years, Mousetrap To Close After more than 9,000 performances in 27 years, "the Toronto production of The Mousetrap will close Jan. 15. Producer Peter Peroff says business has been down about 40 per cent this year, which he attributes to the combination of SARS, the war in Iraq and the Alberta mad-cow scare, all of which have made it difficult to attract the busloads of U.S. tourists upon which the long-running Agatha Christie whodunit relies." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/27/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20031228-36146.html
Where Are The New Broadway Musicals? By some measures you could say this has been a good season for the Broadway musical. But it hasn't been, really. Where are the new songs? The really new work that worked? "There's a real reluctance on the part of producers to take on new composers because to some degree no one is sure what a Broadway show is supposed to sound like anymore. Is it supposed to sound like Michael John LaChiusa? Or Alan Menken? If the Broadway sound were the pop music of the day, which it used to be, it would sound like hip-hop, but I don't think anyone feels there's much of a Broadway audience for that at the moment." The New York Times 12/26/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20031228-36133.html
VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/visualarts
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Not Many Great Art Thiefs, But They're Out There Much of the great art in UK homes is vulnerable to theft, says an expert in recovering stolen art. "Stealing this kind of art is probably the dumbest thing a thief can do. There's no resale market for it and trying to get any kind of ransom paid is not easy. But the great houses are available to these people and they are prepared to target them. They are not taking this art for some Mr Big, they are just taking it to have it - half the time they give it away to their friends - and the police are not very good at getting these paintings back." The Guardian (UK) 12/27/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20031228-36149.html
Building Plans Altering Landscape Made Famous By Cezanne Plans to cut down trees and build 78 houses near a town west of Paris made famous by paintings by Paul Cezanne has amgered many. "While it is an exaggeration to claim, as some locals do, that the low, curving hill on the road to Claude Monet's Giverny is the Ile de France's answer to Aix's Mont Sainte-Victoire, views of the village are as recognisable today from the opposite bank of the Seine as they were when Cézanne visited his childhood friend Emile Zola 120 years ago." The Guardian (UK) 12/27/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20031228-36148.html
London Buildings Projected Live London's buildings and monuments are lit up this season with projected images, transforming the architecture into fantasy objects. The Guardian (UK) 12/28/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20031228-36147.html
Where's The Art In Art History? Roger Kimball doesn't think much of the teaching of art history these days. "Today, the study of art history is more and more about subordinating art—to “theory,” to politics, to just about anything that allows one to dispense with the burden of experiencing art natively, on its own terms. This is accomplished primarily by enlisting art as an illustration of some extraneous, non-artistic, non-aesthetic narrative. Increasingly, art history is pressed into battle —a battle against racism, say, or the plight of women or on behalf of social justice. Whatever. The result is that art becomes an adjunct to an agenda: an alibi for … you can fill in the blank by consulting this week’s list of trendy causes. In a word, what we are witnessing is the triumph of political correctness in art history." The New Criterion 12/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20031228-36138.html
LA's Billion-Dollar Redeveopment Plan Now that Disney Hall is open in Los Angeles, city leaders have their sights set on redeveloping more of the area. That could be a $1.2 billion collection of new buildings. "Planners envision a spectacular mixed-use project that would combine housing, shopping, dining and entertainment opportunities on both sides of Grand Avenue south of 1st Street." The project has drawn top architects from around the world, say planners... Los Angeles Times 12/24/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20031228-36135.html
