IDEAS
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas
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The Aware Teen Critics act like teenagers are completely at the mercy of the mass culture, that they're empty vessels that can be filled up and manipulated by whatever base, nasty thing that comes along. But teens have a lot more going for them than they're given credit for, and this is actually not the case... - Reason 02/17/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas/redir/20040217-39664.html
The All-Important Essay Question - Would You Pass? The SAT's are making a change. A short essay will be required, and said essay will be graded by readers who will spend about a minute reading and considering its quality. All of which got the Atlantic and the Princeton Review wondering what the graders would have made of writing by several famous writers... - The Atlantic 03/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas/redir/20040217-39656.html
ARTS ISSUES
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues
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America's Closing Borders (Artists Too) "According to organisations connected with film, theatre, music, opera and dance, new American immigration and visa policies are making it extremely difficult, sometimes impossible, for foreign artists of all sorts to come to the US to perform and show their work. No one, it seems, is exempt." - The Guardian (UK) 02/18/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20040217-39661.html
Looking At Art Since 9/11 What kind of art has been made since 9/11? Can any conclusions about it yet be made? "Writers, musicians, filmmakers and theater artists have struggled to create art in its shadow — art inspired not only by anger and disbelief but also by the bedrock American values that the terrorists were unsuccessful at toppling. Indeed, what art in the post-9-11 era seems to have in common is a commitment to making sense of an experience that epitomized senselessness." - St. Louis Post-Dispatch 02/14/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20040217-39625.html
DANCE
http://www.artsjournal.com/dance
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Pain And The Last Minute Resignation: National Ballet of Canada principal dancer Geon van der Wyst was slated to dance a number of major roles this season. But a few days before the season began, he reconsidered. "My knee was acting up. and I had made a promise to myself after my last surgery, that I would take a long and hard look at my career options if another problem developed. I feel guilty about pulling out just before the season, but the pain was telling me that it was time to stop while I still had my dignity." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/17/04
http://artsjournal.com/dance/redir/20040217-39608.html
MEDIA
http://www.artsjournal.com/media
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An Alternate Reality "Reality TV is entering a chilling new phase. The old format of shows based on voluntary participation isn't producing the kind of spontaneous, voyeuristic thrills it once did. All traces of naturalism are gone; nowadays people play up to the camera, so that producers have to go further and further in pursuit of the "real." The only way to find unselfconscious reactions today is to catch people unawares." Village Voice 02/17/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20040217-39658.html
Christ Movie Kicking Up Buzz Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is generating the biggest buzz of any movis this year. "Gibson has said he wanted to make the 'most realistic' Jesus movie ever made. The R-rated subtitled film, which contains scenes of blood-drenched violence and physical suffering, has generated intense interest among religious audiences, especially evangelical Christians, who have been identified by Gibson as his core audience -- and by some Jewish leaders who fear that the portrayal of Jesus's scourging and crucifixion in such excruciatingly realistic detail will spark anti-Jewish feelings." Washington Post 02/17/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20040217-39623.html
MUSIC
http://www.artsjournal.com/music
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Music Industry Sues More Downloaders The biig music industry companies sued 531 more music downloaders. "Like the 532 people it sued last month, the RIAA identified its targets by the 'John Doe' process, where the identities of these alleged file swappers are unknown. The defendants are listed by their Internet Protocol address. Those identified had shared an average of 800 copyright files, the RIAA said." Wired 02/17/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20040217-39668.html
Orchestra May Close For Lack Of $20,000 The Saskatoon Symphony is asking the city for a loan of $20,000. "The symphony has been steadily dipping into the red since the 1990s and this season is carrying an accumulated debt of more than $180,000. Because of its debt, the symphony cannot borrow money from a bank. Without the loan, the symphony may have to close." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/17/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20040217-39666.html
In RoadTrip: Leaving Berlin With A Cheer Sam Bergman on tour with the Minnesota Orchestra: "We're more or less at the midway point of the tour now, and fatigue is starting to become the rule rather than the exception. Today, we'll fly from Berlin to Cologne, hop a bus to Düsseldorf, play a concert, and head back to the hotel in Cologne. It's one of the most exhausting days of the trip, and we're changing up repertoire as well, including the addition of a piece which we have barely rehearsed, and which involves some brutally intricate string playing. Keeping a cool head will be paramount, and if things don't go well, a sense of perspective will be necessary as well." RoadTrip (AJBlogs) 02/17/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20040217-39671.html
Women Barrier - The Vienna Philharmonic Will Seiji Ozawa's presence in Vienna help add more women to the orchestra's ranks? "The Vienna Philharmonic will doubtless fall back on the assertion that change can only come gradually: It can't be expected to alter the male-to-female ratio overnight. So let's look at the employment numbers for six years from 1997, when the orchestra proclaimed a new, enlightened policy of hiring women, until 2003. It's men, 21; women, 3. How's that for even-handed progress?" Straight Up (AJBlogs) 02/16/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20040217-39624.html
Ontario Orchestra's Board Quits Over Controversy The entire board of the Kitchener-Waterloo Sympny resigned Monday before a meeting of the orchestra's 2,400 members could vote on whether to remove the board. "The resignation of the 14 board members is just the latest instalment in a series of crises flowing from the board's decision Nov. 27 to fire the KWSO's principal conductor, Berlin-based Martin Fischer-Dieskau." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/17/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20040217-39610.html
PEOPLE
http://www.artsjournal.com/people
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Mel Brooks - Of Comedy And Music Mel Brooks has a musical ear. "Brooks writes the lyric and melody, leaving harmony and orchestration to others. He is too much a Broadway guy to be deemed an original composer, but he has an unerring ear for speech rhythms that translate into melody, a gift shared with the likes of Schubert, Janacek and Noel Coward. The comedy comes from close acquaintance with human frailty. The youngest of four boys, his father died when he was two and his mother raised the family sewing sashes for swimsuit straps and sequins onto frocks." La Scena Musicale 02/04/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20040216-39539.html
PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing
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Powerhouse Aussie Lit Time was that Australian literature was considered lesser than the Englis variety. But "in the last 50 years, Australian literature has become a force to be reckoned with; now it is the motherland's turn to feel insecure. Australian novelists are outwriting us, they tweak the Booker prize out of our hands (Peter Carey has won it twice, Thomas Keneally once, Tim Winton has been shortlisted twice and 2003's winner, DBC Pierre, is Australian by birth). And there is a flotilla of younger Antipodean writers coming on stream." Prospect 02/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20040217-39670.html
Descriptive Mode - The Lowly Adjective Pity the poor adjective. "Writers frequently pull out the adjectives when they either haven't, or are afraid they haven't, provided sufficient data - specific nouns and active verbs - to get their ideas across."ut adjectives are key to the best sort of writing... Chronicle of Higher Education 02/20/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20040217-39659.html
Grammar Book Boosts Small Publisher Lynne Truss' surprise grammar bestseller Eats, Shoots and Leaves has revived the financial fortunes of its small publisher, earning £5 million. "The book has now sold more than 480,000 copies after an initial print run of just 15,000. It seems there are more sticklers for grammar than we first thought." BBC 02/17/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20040217-39652.html
A New Scottish Poet Laureate Edwin Morgan, 83, has been named Scotlan's new "Scots Makar", the equivalent of a poet laureate. " 'The Scots Makar' is a term dating back to the Scots poets of the 15th and 16th century. The unpaid position lasts for a three-year term and his task will be to represent and promote Scots poetry." BBC 02/17/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20040217-39600.html
THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre
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Fashionable - What Plays, Why And When How is it that plays come in and out of fashion? "If consistent themes emerge in new plays, it must be for an underlying social reason. And if classic texts emerge in strange clusters or pairs, it can't be on purely pragmatic grounds." The Guardian (UK) 02/18/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20040217-39660.html
Playwrights: What's Wrong With Broadway Broadway is seriously broken, say a trio of playwrights. The business is hostile to new work, and the expense of production is out of hand. Terrence McNally: Today's Broadway is "a circus identified with smash hits, as opposed to plays that examine the human condition. The message is all wrong." Backstage 02/17/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20040217-39655.html
Ambitious Plans For An American National Theatre "Today, no one doubts that Lincoln Center Theater is one of the most vital not-for-profit companies in the nation, but its status as a national theatre - indeed, the question of what a national theatre is - is open to debate. So at the dawn of the 21st century, and in the painful, soul-searching aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, a new national-theatre movement is underway." Backstage 02/17/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20040217-39654.html
VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/visualarts
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The Ongoing Pillaging Of Iraq Turns out the looting of Iraq's National Museum was a small thing compared to the pi;;aging of Iraqi Archaeological sites in the past year. "The market in illicit antiquities is global. Along with trafficking in drugs and arms, it is one of the most widespread crimes. Iraq has lately become the crux of the problem of the global black market in antiquities because of the increased amount of theft." OpinionJournal.com 02/18/04
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20040217-39657.html
UK Places Export Ban On Work By Unknown 15th Century Artist "Arts Minister Estelle Morris has placed a temporary export ban on The Virgin in Mourning to allow £600,000 to be raised to keep the painting in the country. Owned by an anonymous collector, it is one of just two works by the 15th Century artist - whose identity is unknown - in the UK." BBC 02/17/04
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20040217-39653.html
