Big Brother's Watching... Does Anybody Care? It used to be that surveillance was thought to be a bad thing. But a new book argues that reality TV makes being watched cool. "Reality shows glamorize surveillance, he writes, presenting it as one of the hip attributes of the contemporary world, an entree into the world of wealth and celebrity and even a moral good." The New York Times 01/17/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 12:02 pm
Does American Culture Have Legs For The Long Run? American culture dominates the world like no other in human history. But will it have the staying power of Plato? "Some experts believe US domination of communication channels makes it inevitable that its messages will become far more entrenched than those of previous empires. The main difference now in favor of American culture is the importance of technology - telephone, Internet, films, all that did not exist in ancient Greece or the Mongol empire." Christian Science Monitor 01/15/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 10:19 am
Are Laws Killing Digital Creativity? "Who knows what creativity could be unleashed by the growth of digital distribution and the widespread availability of programs to create, sample and manipulate content. But if we treat copyright as an absolute property right, and allow the limitations on re-use forced on us by digital rights management technologies, we will never find out." BBC 01/16/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 9:33 am
Ancient City Found Under Naples A port city dating back to the 2nd Century has been found under Naples. "Extending into the heart of present-day Naples, the second-century port was found 13 meters (43 feet) beneath one of the city's main squares, not far from the 13th-century Maschio Angioino fortress. Evidence for the ancient Mediterranean port included a 10-meter (33-foot) ship, wooden pieces belonging to piers, and various items." Discovery 01/15/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 1:50 pm
Acropolis Museum - Epicenter Of Controversy Greece has built a new museum in hopes of getting the Parthenon Marbles back from London. "But the structure intended to settle a controversy has become an object of controversy itself. The design clashes with the setting, some critics say. It jeopardizes an archaeological site, others claim. And perhaps most dispiritingly, the Olympic deadline is hopelessly out of reach. Like an athlete who trains for a lifetime and then sprains her ankle the week before the games, the New Acropolis Museum may have missed its best chance to make an impression. When the Olympic torch is lighted on Aug. 13, the museum will look like something that Athens already has plenty of: a giant excavation." The New York Times 01/18/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 11:51 am
WTC - Making The Aesthetic Arguments Revisions to the WTC memorial are creating an interesting conversation on design function. "When the site is complete, it will form the backdrop for aesthetic conversations between youth and experience; between the logic of the corporate world and that of the avant-garde; and, we found out this week, between minimalist abstraction and literal narrative." Slate 01/15/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 10:10 am
How To Win That Elusive Orchestra Job In any given year there are few jobs that open up in full-time professional orchestras. Winning one of those jobs is a matter of determination, discipline, and sometimes, a little luck... Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 01/18/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 11:45 am
Dance Of The String Quartet How do members of a tring quartet keep from arguing? How do they stay togeter year after year? "Lurking behind the first question is an idealistic vision of a quartet as a non-stop idyll of glorious music-making with your friends, a working life as fulfilled and perfect as the Beethoven quartets we play. The implication of the second question is that this long and intense menage à quatre must be some sort of Strindbergian dance of death, endured by a species of subtle masochists. The truth, of course, lies somewhere in between - although some groups veer towards one extreme or another, especially if they last for decades." The Guardian (UK) 01/17/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 10:14 am
Surge In Music Downloading The number of people downloading music off the internet has surged again after several months of decline after the recording industry began suing consumers. "The number of U.S. households downloading music from peer-to-peer networks rose 6 percent in October and 7 percent in November after a six-month decline, according to a study of computer use in 10,000 U.S. households conducted by The NPD Group. In a separate, bimonthly survey, 12 million individuals reported getting music on the free networks in November, up from 11 million in September." Wired 01/18/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 9:37 am
BBC Broadcasts "Silent" Work The BBC has broadcast John Cage's 4'33" - his famous work that includes no instrumental notes. "Despite having no notes to play, the musicians tuned up and then turned pages of the score after each of the three "movements" specified by the composer. The silence was broken at times by coughing and rustling sounds from the audience, who marked the end of the performance with enthusiastic applause." BBC 01/18/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 9:07 am
Vatican Orchestra Concert For Peace A concert at the Vatican featuring the Pittsburgh Symphony and an international cast of performers was performed for the Pope with the purpose of fostering understanding between the world's major religious faiths. "The inter-faith theme of the concert was echoed among the performers - a mixed choir consisting of singers from the London Philharmonic, from Turkey, from the Pope's own home town of Krakow in Poland and from Pittsburgh in the United States. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra was under the baton of Gilbert Levine, an American who used to direct the Krakow Symphony Orchestra and who is a personal friend of the Pope." BBC 01/18/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 8:34 am
Experience Music Project Cuts 129 Jobs The Experience Music Project in Seattle lays off 129 employees, among rumors of further downsizing. "It is the third time that the museum at the foot of the Space Needle has eliminated employees in January - 46 people were cut last year and 124 were laid off in 2002." The $240 million museum devloted to music, designed by Frank Gehry, has only been open since 2000. Seattle Post-Intelligencer 01/17/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 8:28 am
James Levine In Boston James Levine reveals his opening lineup for the Boston Symphony. "He is just past 60 and has more or less run the musical end of the Metropolitan Opera for more than 30 years. His health is both a mystery and a cause for concern. He walks gingerly and conducts sitting down. His musical energy, on the other hand, is as high as ever and his graphic if understated conducting style just as compelling. He talks as if he is planning on a long future." The New York Times 01/17/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 12:17 pm
Toronto Theatre's Diversity Problem Toronto theatre has a diversity problem "The current population of Greater Toronto consists of 43 per cent visible minorities. In their current seasons, the seven largest not-for-profit professional theatres in the city employed 79 actors from visible minorities out of a total of 394, a rate of 20 per cent. If you add the two major festivals — Stratford and Shaw — to the mix, the figure becomes 106 out of 622, or 17 per cent. That's a considerable gap, and while everyone agrees the winds of change are blowing, they're not moving rapidly enough for many people." Toronto Star 01/18/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 11:22 am
A Theatre Beyond Its Size Ari Roth's Theatre J is a small Jewish theatre in Washington DC that is making much more of a splash than its size would suggest. "What he (Roth) puts on the Goldman stage often feels like the product of a much bigger operation than his, which chugs along with a skeletal staff in a cramped suite of offices and a budget of $500,000. Major regional theaters like the Shakespeare and Arena spend 20 times as much. Last season alone, he had several major successes." Washington Post 01/18/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 11:17 am
Ode To Emily Dickinson "Dickinson's fame has always been fed by myth. She was the virgin poetess dressed in white, the tremulous daughter who never left her father's house, the maiden who turned to art because she was thwarted in love. Hard-working biographers notwithstanding, myth often wins out." The New York Times 01/18/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 1:43 pm
Coming To A Blurb Near You: "I Loved It!" - Pope John-Paul "In what is surely the most bizarre commercial endorsement since Eleanor Roosevelt did an ad for Good Luck Margarine in 1959, the ailing pontiff has been recruited, however unwittingly, to help hawk "The Passion of the Christ," as Mel Gibson's film about Jesus's final 12 hours is now titled. While Eleanor Roosevelt endorsed a margarine for charity, John Paul's free plug is being exploited by the Gibson camp to aid the movie star's effort to recoup the $25 million he personally sank into a biblical drama filmed in those crowd-pleasing tongues of Latin and Aramaic." The New York Times 01/18/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 11:55 am
Foreign Investors Eye Bollywood Foreign investors are putting money into Bollywood films. The Indian film industry is the most prolific in the world, turning out 1000 movies a year. "The cost of producing and marketing the average Indian film ranges from $2 million to $4 million, a fraction of the average cost of a Hollywood film that ranges from $70 million to $80 million, industry observers say." The Times of India 01/18/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 11:40 am
BBC Digital Gaining Viewers The BBC has been blasted for the ratings some of its new digital channels have attracted (or not attracted). But finally there seem to be some shows that people want to watch. And besides, writes Torin Douglas, complaints or compliments - what really counts is that they're talking about you. BBC 01/18/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 9:16 am
NYCB Steps In To New Full-Length Throughout the Balanchine centennial, New York City Ballet is "contextualizing this or that facet of Balanchine's wildly eclectic canon with material by other choreographers, contemporary and long gone. The notion of these 'tributes,' as the offerings are called, is far more quixotic than it may appear." And now a full-length ballet from Broadway choreographer Susan Stroman. The New York Times 01/18/04
Posted: 01/18/2004 12:39 pm
