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Friday, April 16




Ideas

On Pop Culture And The Art Of John Rockwell: "Pop culture is not necessarily interesting in itself: it's merely an index of the state of the broader social culture, or a way to sell newspapers or CD's or commercials. The trouble with that mercantile mindset is that the popular arena is indeed the source of some of the best art out there, and artistic excellence calls forth smart criticism. Even elitist criticism — the kind produced by critics who love popular art but scorn the populace as a bunch of Menckenesque rubes easily manipulated by commercial interests." The New York Times 04/16/04
Posted: 04/16/2004 8:52 am

Learned Aggression "A surprising natural experiment, reported in Public Library of Science Biology, an online journal, suggests that the level of violence in baboon society is culturally determined. Cultural transmission of behaviour has been seen in many animals besides humans. But until now, it has concerned what foodstuffs are good to eat, how to make and use tools, and how to communicate (many bird songs, for example, have learned regional dialects). Cultural transmission of, for want of a better word, manners, has never before been observed outside Homo sapiens." The Economist 04/16/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 8:56 pm

Visual Arts

Latin American Antiquities Endangered The plundering of archaeological sites, tombs and churches for pre-Columbian and colonial objects in Latin America is now so widespread that officials are now saying that "these antiquities can be considered the art world's endangered species. 'Countries in Latin America are deprived of their history at an alarming rate'." Washington Post 04/16/04
Posted: 04/16/2004 8:55 am

Bellevue Museum Postpones Reopening The Bellevue Art Museum (just outside of Seattle) has decided to postpone its reopening from July until October. "The museum closed last September after nearly running out of cash. That came less than three years after the museum moved with much fanfare into a new, $23 million building in the heart of downtown Bellevue." Seattle Times 04/16/04
Posted: 04/16/2004 8:12 am

Indian History Turns Up In Shops "As works of art and artifacts continue to disappear from Indian temples, smaller museums, art galleries, and from the country's numerous palaces, often with the help of local communities, India is fast turning out to be a rich and inexpensive picking ground for antiques. It is easy to get hold of a piece of Indian history: all one needs to do is visit the souvenir shops." Asia Times 04/16/04
Posted: 04/16/2004 7:20 am

Saving Titanic Efforts are beginning to save the wreck of the Titanic as an underwater museum. "Hundreds of tourists and salvagers, explorers and moviemakers, have assailed the Titanic since the team of American and French scientists discovered its resting place more than two miles down. Partly as a result, the vessel, the world's most famous shipwreck, is rapidly falling apart. 'The world's oceans are the museums of the deep. It is in the interest of all peoples to protect and conserve both wrecks of recent history as well as submerged sites of antiquity'." The New York Times 04/16/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 9:37 pm

How Will LA Make A Downtown That Works? Civic boosters for years have been trying to transform Grand Street downtown into a proper city center. Yet another plan as emerged - this one to cost $1.3 billion. Will it succeed? “Paris has its Champs Élysées. New York has its Rockefeller Center, Times Square and Central Park. Now, Los Angeles will have at its center a grand boulevard and urban park.” LA Weekly 04/15/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 9:24 pm

Brooklyn Museum's New Face To The World The Brooklyn Museum's $63 million makeover goes far in redefining the museum's face to the world, write Ariella Budick and Justin Davidson. "Its new face represents not just an institutional rebirth but also a full- blown Brooklyn Renaissance." Newsday 04/15/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 9:07 pm

  • A New Star In Brooklyn "With the completion of the Brooklyn Museum's new entrance pavilion, the city has gained one of the most attractive public spaces to be found anywhere in town. It will be fascinating to watch as the neighborhood discovers how to use it."
    The New York Times 04/16/04
    Posted: 04/15/2004 9:06 pm

The Last Regent One of the last grand hotels in central London is in danger of being torn down. "The 89-year-old, French baroque Regent Palace - built and still run as a "people's palace" hotel only 30 seconds' walk from Piccadilly Circus - would be replaced by a modern block of offices and shops under a £400m scheme put forward by the crown estate." The Guardian (UK) 04/16/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 8:37 pm

  • Open House Brooklyn "After a protracted identity crisis, the Brooklyn Museum has decided that local, not global, is the direction it should take. Rather than struggling in vain to put itself on the map for a Manhattan audience, it is joining the campaign to make a gentrified Brooklyn the place to be. The museum points to its new front entrance on Eastern Parkway as evidence of this grassroots connection. So, too, is "Open House," which, in its casual way, posits Brooklyn-ness as a cultural ethnicity." The New York Times 04/16/04
    Posted: 04/15/2004 8:04 pm

Music

Liverpool Musicians Vote To Oust Schwarz "Musicians at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra are understood to have voted for Gerard Schwarz to be ousted from his position as musical director. Maestro Schwarz was brought in three years ago to turn fortunes around at the cash-strapped orchestra, which was then £2.5 million in debt." The Scotsman 04/16/04
Posted: 04/16/2004 7:17 am

  • 45 of 64 Musicians Vote Not To Renew Schwarz In Liverpool Two thirds of the musicians of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic voted to not renew music director Gerard Schwarz's contract. "A final decision on whether to renew Mr Schwarz's contract will be taken by the 11-strong board of directors following the review. The issues that musicians have disagreed with Schwarz about are said to include programme planning and repertoire choice. There has been some concern over the new umbrella job title of musical director." Liverpool Daily Post 04/16/04
    Posted: 04/16/2004 7:01 am

Down On The People's Opera "It is not surprising that the latest venture from Raymond Gubbay, the man who brought opera to the Albert Hall, has attracted the sneers of the experts. Savoy opera, intended to offer (relatively) cheap, accessible productions of the classics in the West End, has been accused of undermining London's other opera companies by skimming off the easy stuff and offering less than perfect performances, with cheap labour in the form of young, largely unknown singers. It is the antithesis of what the purists, regardless of the viability of the product, appear to believe opera ought to be." The Guardian (UK) 04/16/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 8:43 pm

The First Rock Record... Who made the first rock 'n roll record? Think you know? Really? "It's one of those debates that's going to go on forever. It's one of those questions that there's no answer for. It would be nice for me to tell you that the first rock'n' roll record ever made was by Fred Bloggs, but it's an impossible thing to do. You're never going to get a definitive answer." The Guardian (UK) 04/16/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 8:20 pm

Theatre

No Sale For Hamlet "A rare copy of Shakespeare's Hamlet failed to sell on Wednesday because no one was willing to pay the minimum price set by the seller's estate. Christie's had estimated the 1611 edition of the classic tragedy -- the last such copy in private hands -- would fetch $1.5 million to $2 million." Backstage 04/15/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 8:08 pm

Broadway Producers: Actors Should Make Less For Road Tours Broadway producers have proposed to actors that they lower their pay in national touring companies. "Over the last several years, the road has changed dramatically. Today, low-cost non-Equity and nonunion touring companies and alternatives to theatre such as 'Riverdance,' etc. are everywhere. This competition has meant fewer opportunities for us, league producers, to produce. That's why there are fewer jobs and fewer workweeks for Equity members. If we cannot produce, you cannot work." Backstage 04/15/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 8:05 pm

Media

Nielsen People Meters Under Attack The Nielsen company's new "people meters" to monitor TV viewership have come "under attack from television networks, minority groups and even lawmakers when a test of its electronic "people meters," newly installed in select New York homes, began reporting a sharp decrease in viewership for television shows that feature minorities. Because the current system -- a decades-old technique involving week-long diaries that are mailed to the homes -- had never yielded such a drastic swing, the critics contended that the new technique must somehow be unreliable." Wired 04/16/04
Posted: 04/16/2004 9:54 am

No TV For Kids? Should parents not let their toddlers watch TV? That's what the new study says. "It's worth remembering that there are some significant flaws in the study, including that results were based solely on interviews with children's parents, who may not have accurately recollected how much television their kids watch. Still, it's hard to ignore the findings that, of 1,345 children ages 1 and 3, the risk of developing attention problems by age 7 increased by roughly 10 percent for every hour of television watched daily." San Jose Mercury News 04/16/04
Posted: 04/16/2004 8:16 am

Dance

When Dance Companies Play Away From Their Strengths The North Carolina Dance Theatre rarely gets to New York. It's a company run by prominent Balanchinites and they have staged much of the master's work. But not this time. Why, wonders Tobi Tobias, "did this energetic and engaging troupe ignore this heritage and offer a program comprising three pieces of middling worth only obliquely related to classical dancing?" Seeing Things (AJBlogs) 04/16/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 9:19 pm

Bolshoi Dancer Loses Damage Suit Bolshoi prima ballerina Anastasia Volochkova, who was fired in September for being too bulky to be lifted by her dancing partners has lost her damages claim for £575,000 against the chief of Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre. The Guardian (UK) 04/16/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 8:32 pm


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