Ideas

Why Your Congressman Can't Hardly Talk Good What in God's name has happened to the great art of American political oratory? Where exactly, in the gaping chasm of history between William Jennings Bryan and George W. Bush, did our elected representatives lose the ability to inspire us with impassioned speeches choked with dangerous metaphor? Some blame the '60s (just out of habit, most likely,) and some blame the triumph of the individual over collective experience. But whatever the reason, "in both oral and written English, talking is triumphing over speaking, spontaneity over craft." The Economist 01/29/04
Posted: 01/29/2004 9:55 pm

Is Pomo Finally Irrelevant? The idea of viewing literature through the lens of one "-ism" or another has been a pervasive part of academia for decades. But increasingly, scholars are beginning to question the value of pigeonholing individual works of fiction, and trying to bend them to fit within the confines of a previously defined set of values. No one is arguing against the value of context, but "some academics say that postmodern theory is on the way out altogether and that the heady ideas that once changed the way literature is taught and read will soon be as extinct as the dodo and the buggy whip." The Christian Science Monitor (Boston) 01/27/04
Posted: 01/29/2004 9:51 pm

Visual Arts

More Drama At The Riopelle Estate "A Montreal auctioneer reached an out-of-court settlement yesterday with the estate of legendary Quebec painter Jean-Paul Riopelle after the auctioneer had sued to recover costs associated with an aborted sale of the late artist's work. Iégor de Saint-Hippolyte had been hired last fall by Huguette Vachon, Riopelle's widow and primary executor of his estate, to host a sale of about 50 works by the artist who died in 2002. The sale, scheduled for mid-November last year, was opposed by two of Riopelle's daughters who obtained an injunction against it. Total presale value of the paintings and sculpture was estimated at $13-million." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/30/04
Posted: 01/30/2004 7:09 am

• Previously: Legacy And Profit: The Riopelle Battle "Jean-Paul Riopelle's three children fear some of their father's key works of art will be sold at the same fire-sale prices that purchased his beloved vintage cars... Yseult, Sylvie and Yann, the three children of the noted abstract artist, are asking the [Quebec Superior Court] for an injunction to stop what they describe as an unnecessary, amateurish auction. They say if so many Riopelles are sold at once on short notice, the value of Riopelle's art will diminish." Montreal Gazette 11/11/03

Too Secure For Its Own Good When Toronto artist John Coburn prepared to ship a half-dozen of his paintings to London for an important exhibition, he took no chances. Coburn carefully sealed the paintings in a plywood crate, and sent them via a globally respected courier. The crate arrived in London in plenty of time, at which point the Brits realized that they had no idea how to open the damn thing. "The screws used to fasten the crate were Robertson square drives -- a circular screw with a recessed square made to receive a matching hand driver. Quite common in Canada, the make is all but unheard of across the pond." Informed of the problem, Coburn had just enough time to pocket the correct screwdriver before leaving Canada. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/30/04
Posted: 01/30/2004 6:57 am

Barnes Can't Move Yet "The Barnes Foundation has not yet proved that it needs to move its multibillion-dollar art gallery from Lower Merion to Center City, a judge ruled yesterday, delaying his final decision until the foundation provided more evidence." The judge also criticized both sides in the case for a lack of hard numbers to back up their arguments. The Barnes needs the court's permission to move, since the will of its founder stipulates that the collection must remain in Lower Merion. The plan to move to Philadelphia has been quite controversial, but has the support of multiple area foundations. Philadelphia Inquirer 01/30/04
Posted: 01/30/2004 5:42 am

• Scolding From The Bench In addition to delaying his ruling on the Barnes move, Judge Stanley Ott yesterday issued a blistering critique of the Pennsylvania attorney general's office, accusing the state's counsel of being little more than a cheerleader for the Barnes proposal, and "[preventing] the court from seeing a balanced, objective presentation of the situation." According to the judge, the attorney general's duty is to assess the situation objectively, and be sure that all the numbers add up in a demonstrable way. Instead, said Judge Ott, "it was left to the court to raise questions relating to the finances of the proposed move and the plan's financial viability." Philadelphia Inquirer 01/30/04
  Posted: 01/30/2004 5:40 am

• Is The Barnes Move Dead? Tyler Green sees some important subtext in Judge Ott's decision to delay ruling on the Barnes move. "In a backhanded way he acknowledged that the Barnes' management has underwhelmed him. If they couldn't do the right and obvious thing the first time, does Ott really think they'll get it right now? Ott chose not to simply rule against the Barnes, but I wonder if (instead) Ott is giving the Barnes leadership the rope with which to hang itself..." Modern Art Notes (AJ Blogs) 01/30/04
  Posted: 01/30/2004 5:38 am

Location, Location, Loca... Wait, Weren't We Just Here? New York being the trendy city that it is, it can be all a gallery owner can do to stay on the cutting edge of such important matters as what neighborhood your business needs to be in in order to attract your better customers. Of late, the hot gallery location has been the West Chelsea neighborhood, but now, there appears to be a retro movement afoot, with several prominent art dealers moving their galleries back to the old "traditional" art neighborhoods of Midtown and the Upper East Side. The New York Times 01/28/04
Posted: 01/29/2004 9:45 pm

As Opposed To All Those Unimportant Representations Of Griffins "An antiquities dealer with offices in New York and Geneva has been arrested for illegally importing an Iranian object, described as 'the most important representation of a griffin in antiquity,' and facilitating its sale to a private collector. The dealer, Hicham Aboutaam, a principal in Phoenix Ancient Art, S.A., was arrested on 13 December, following an investigation by the US Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The antiquity is alleged to have been part of the plundered Iranian Western Cave Treasure, much of which, the government says, is said to have been looted and dispersed since 1992 around the world." The Art Newspaper 01/29/04
Posted: 01/29/2004 9:20 pm

Music

Why Harlem Can't Give Up On Its Boys The scandal that enveloped the Boys' Choir of Harlem this year is a serious problem not just for the choir and its school, but for the surrounding community. Since its founding, the school has been one of a handful of institutions which has refused to give up on Harlem's underprivileged youth, and has consistently turned out students who go on to academic and professional success elsewhere. But on top of that, the organization has created a respected musical ensemble where many thought one could never emerge. Los Angeles Times 01/30/04
Posted: 01/30/2004 7:19 am

• Previously: Playing Both Sides In Harlem The embattled Harlem Boys Choir announced yesterday that it has a plan to respond to its board's demand that founder Walter Turnbull be dismissed in the wake of abuse allegations, but the choir's proposal does not appear to include the full severing of Turnbull's ties to the organization. The New York City Department of Education will review the plan, but has already called for Turnbull's firing. Washington Post 01/15/04

ENO's Great Irish Dream "It is easy, when meeting Seán Doran, to grasp why English National Opera sees him as its potential saviour. He only has to open his mouth and you feel he has the gift of the blarney. When you listen to him expounding, in a lilting Irish accent, his visions for the future of opera, the least you can do is nod and agree. That's exactly what the embattled ENO board did last year when it appointed Doran as artistic director and chief executive. The question now is whether he can turn vision into reality." Lately, the ENO has been forced to accept one delay after another in the reopening of its home at the London Coliseum, but Doran remains upbeat about the future. Financial Times 01/28/04
Posted: 01/30/2004 6:53 am

Are 19th-Century Ensembles Ready For 21st-Century Technology? If some technophiles have their way, paper-based sheet music may soon be a thing of the past in the symphony orchestra. The technology for digital sheet music exists, and ArtsJournal blogger Drew McManus wonders if the only thing holding orchestras back from embracing it is their usual tendency to cling to tradition. After all, paper-based scores break down from heavy use, and must be painstakingly updated and edited by hand, whereas a set of virtual parts could be instantly changed at a musician's or librarian's will. And just imagine: no more awkward page turns or out of print works! Still, orchestra librarians, who have arguably the most to gain or lose from such a transition, remain skeptical that the technology will catch on. Adaptistration (AJ Blogs) 01/30/04
Posted: 01/30/2004 6:29 am

Arts Issues

Plenty of Mouth, But Not Much Money A new poll of residents of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area found overwhelming support for the area's thriving cultural scene, with 85% saying that the arts improve the cities' quality of life, and 92% saying that the arts have significant value for children. But when pressed further, poll respondants revealed a distinct split between general expressions of support for the arts, and the type of specific support which translates into ticket sales and contributions. "Only a quarter of those who attended an arts event in 2001 made a financial contribution to an arts group that year. Less than a third of those surveyed rated government support for the arts as 'very important.'" St. Paul Pioneer Press 01/30/04
Posted: 01/30/2004 7:38 am

Gambling On A Funding Source In Madison, Wisconsin, local leaders are promoting a referendum which would allow limited casino gambling within the city limits as a method of generating new revenue to support the arts. Gambling initiatives are not uncommon in the Midwest, and with countless Native American casinos already in operation across the region, there is usually little backlash against such proposals, particularly in difficult economic times. But ArtsJournal's Andrew Taylor reports that, in Madison, many local arts groups are openly campaigning against the gambling initiative, believing that the casino's very existence will do more harm than good to their bottom lines. The Artful Manager (AJ Blogs) 01/29/04
Posted: 01/30/2004 6:38 am

Place des Arts Wins Big In Court Montreal's Place des Arts won a major court battle yesterday, when Canada's Supreme Court ruled that the arts center had not engaged in strikebreaking practices when it responded to a 1999 technicians' strike by telling its tenants that they would need to supply their own technicians in the future. At the time, Place des Arts was fined $5000 for the tactic, but the center won an injunction in 2001, and the legal fight progressed through the courts to the nation's highest judicial panel. The technicians' union was stunned by the ruling, but said that its members will continue to abide by a standing truce until a new agreement can be negotiated. CBC Montreal 01/30/04
Posted: 01/30/2004 5:57 am

• Skunk Urine Is Not An Approved Negotiating Tactic Place des Arts has a long history of trouble with at least two labor unions, and the Supreme Court decision may not mean that the unions are out of options, according to labor experts. Still, the decision is unlikely to do anything to smooth the relationship between the venue and the unions, which has gotten decidedly ugly at times. As recently as 2000, members of the stagehands' union were sued by Place des Arts for dumping skunk urine on the premises, releasing rats in the lobby, and disrupting performances with heckling and noisemakers. Montreal Gazette 01/30/04
  Posted: 01/30/2004 5:56 am

Melbourne Festival Takes A Hit The Australian state of New South Wales has slashed its contribution to the Melbourne Festival by AUS$1 million. The festival receives a recurring grant of $2.5 million, but that has been supplemented in recent years with a "top-up" grant which the festival expected to amount to $4 million this year. Instead, the top-up grant will be $3 million. The cut was not unexpected, and the festival has been negotiating with the government for some time over budget issues. The Age (Melbourne) 01/28/04
Posted: 01/30/2004 5:38 am

It'll Cost $30,000 Less Than The Ivy League It is an issue so divisive that British Prime Minister Tony Blair came dangerously close to losing his government over it this week: how to properly fund the UK's impoverished universities, while maintaining a reasonable level of access for students of varying economic backgrounds. "Past governments have preferred to posture, expanding the universities while allowing them to decline." But Blair proposed, and then eased through Parliament, a controversial plan calling for major tuition hikes, which are expected to generate £1 billion of new revenue for the system by 2009. The Economist 01/29/04
Posted: 01/29/2004 10:11 pm

The Economy, The War, and... um... Maybe The Arts? Please? The arts don't often register even a blip on the national political radar screen these days, but that didn't stop the American Arts Alliance from asking presidential candidates to sign a "Pledge for the Arts," and to detail what their hypothetical administrations would do to promote and support America's cultural scene. John Kerry was the first to sign, and he was followed this week by Wesley Clark, Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, and Joseph Lieberman. President Bush did not respond to the Alliance's request, although one could assume that he intends for his new proposal to boost funding for the National Endowment for the Arts to speak for itself. Backstage 01/29/04
Posted: 01/29/2004 9:23 pm

Bush Proposes NEA Boost "President Bush will seek a big increase in the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts, the largest single source of support for the arts in the United States, administration officials said on Wednesday. The proposal is part of a turnaround for the agency, which was once fighting for its life, attacked by some Republicans as a threat to the nation's moral standards." The president's proposal is for a hike of $15 million to $20 million in the fiscal year beginning in October 2004. The New York Times 01/29/04
Posted: 01/29/2004 8:53 pm

Theatre

A Chance To Shine The Royal Shakespeare Company will give its unsung understudies a chance to shine next season, with one show per production in which "all the lead roles will be played by the understudies, and stars may be called on to carry spears and stand around quietly without bumping into the set." The Guardian (UK) 01/30/04
Posted: 01/30/2004 7:13 am

Publishing

The Least Likely Bestseller How can an obscure Victorian-era comic novel about three snobby Britishers on a boating trip possibly become a bestseller in Africa? Well, it helps if there's only one bookstore in the whole southern region of your country, and if that bookstore only stocks three titles, one of which is Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men In A Boat. Welcome to southern Sudan, where civil war still rages, but one plucky bookseller soldiers on. The Economist 01/29/04
Posted: 01/29/2004 10:04 pm

Media

Much Ado About God "The advent of Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ has brought with it a controversy that seems, at least at first glance, familiar, even ritualistic. Once again a filmmaker has brought his interpretation of Scripture to the screen and once again, before most audiences have had a chance to see the picture, there are expressions of outrage, accusations of bigotry and bad taste, and an outpouring of contentious publicity." But this time, the pious are standing with the Hollywood elite, and the protesters are those who view the film's pro-Christian message as narrow-minded at best, and anti-Semitic at worst. We've come a long way from the era when religious blockbusters were at the core of Hollywood's popular appeal. The New York Times 01/30/04
Posted: 01/30/2004 7:28 am

Inside Job Taking a page from the music industry's playbook, Warner Bros. film studio is suing several people in believes have been distributing pirated versions of its films online. One of the individuals on the receiving end of the studio's wrath is a Hollywood actor whom the studio says passed the 'screeners' he was sent to an electrician in Illinois, who then began distributing them online. "The lawsuit also lists 10 unnamed defendants as part of the alleged plot to distribute digital copies of the movies on the Internet." Wired 01/29/04
Posted: 01/30/2004 5:20 am

Pixar Severing Ties With Disney Computer animation studio Pixar has broken off talks with the Walt Disney Corporation for a new distribution deal. Since 1995, when the fledgling company released Toy Story, Pixar has generated $2.5 billion in revenue, at a time when Disney's overall hold on the animation market has been slipping. Pixar's latest film, Finding Nemo, has generated $500 million in global ticket sales, and was nominated this week for four Academy Awards. The New York Times 01/30/04
Posted: 01/29/2004 10:22 pm

Trying To Make TV Suck Just A Little Less With traditional network television continuing to hemorrhage viewers, and cable networks splintering the market more with every passing day, the landscape of American television is on the verge of revolutionary change. Among the options being looked at by the over-the-air nets are flexible schedules, eliminating reruns (unless they can be strategically used to draw new viewers,) and maybe - just maybe - the eventual elimination of the absurd and indefensible "sweeps" periods. Hartford Courant 01/29/04
Posted: 01/29/2004 10:17 pm

Because, As We All Know, The F-Word Causes Cancer The U.S. Congress is strongly urging American broadcasters to take the initiative in scaling back the amount of sexual innuendo and coarse language on the nation's TV screens. The FCC may be on the verge of issuing stricter rules regarding on-air obscenity, and more than two dozen congressmen are sponsoring legislation to increase the maximum fine for obscenity violations tenfold. The renewed push to clean up TV comes in the wake of a flap over the FCC's decision not to punish NBC for allowing a curse word uttered by a rock star to air during a live awards show broadcast. Backstage 01/28/04
Posted: 01/29/2004 9:30 pm

BBC In Crisis Greg Dyke, the director general of the British Broadcasting Corporation, has stepped down in the wake of a damning report by a UK judge involving the death of a BBC source who had accused the Blair government of "sexing up" a dossier on the threat posed by Iraq. The suicide of Dr. David Kelly, who anonymously provided information to a BBC reporter before being revealed by another media outlet, led to six weeks of hearings before Lord Hutton, who also cleared the Blair government of all wrongdoing in his report. BBC 01/29/04
Posted: 01/29/2004 8:56 pm

• Down But Not Out Greg Dyke was "a fantastically popular director general," and that may have been part of his undoing at the BBC. But despite the humiliation of being accused of shoddy journalism by Lord Hutton, the BBC is circling the wagons, and firing back at Prime Minister Tony Blair and his supporters. One former BBC staffer has publically accused the government of "trying to grind an independent broadcaster into the ground. The staff are determined that it won't happen." The Guardian (UK) 01/29/04
  Posted: 01/29/2004 8:50 pm