IDEAS
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas
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How Globalization Is Killing Pop Music "Put bluntly, Anglo-American popular music is among globalisation's most useful props. Never mind the nitpicking fixations with interview rhetoric and stylistic nuance that concern its hardcore enthusiasts - away from its home turf, mainstream music, whether it's metal, rap, teen-pop or indie-rock, cannot help but stand for a depressingly conservative set of values: conspicuous consumption, the primacy of the English language, the implicit acknowledgement that America is probably best. Even the most well-intentioned artist can't escape." - The Guardian (UK) 05/08/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas/redir/20040509-46227.html
Can Creative Architecture Lead To More Creative Science? "To the delight of many architects and scientists, the lab-in-a-box is losing favor. In recent years, more science buildings have begun to feature flexible work spaces, large common areas, fancy atriums, irregular shapes, and other relative extravagances once unseen in the workaday laboratory. These changes are not just ornamental. Increasingly, they come from the drawing boards of architects who have been pondering how scientists think and work." - Boston Globe 05/09/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas/redir/20040509-46221.html
ARTS ISSUES
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues
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The Culture Wars? Artists Get A Pass This Time In a year when cultural warriors could have been attacking the National Endowment for the Arts, where's their attention? On TV and obscenity. "It's great to see huge media corporations in the hot seat instead of a handful of artists and an arts endowment that deserves more robust federal support. And it's wonderful to see at least the rudiments of a public debate over a culture awash in images of sex and violence, not to mention spam e-mail." - The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 05/09/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20040509-46232.html
Spain Opens A "Cultural Olympics" Barcelona has opened a five-month-long festival of international cultural programs. "Organisers say they expect more than five million visitors to the 2004 Forum of Cultures. It is being promoted as part-festival, part meeting-of-minds on broad themes such as peace, cultural diversity and sustainable development." - BBC 05/09/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20040509-46214.html
DANCE
http://www.artsjournal.com/dance
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NYCB - Another Week Of Celebrating Balanchine: Tobi Tobias awards NY City Ballet's current rendition of Balanchine's Liebeslieder Walzer best-in-show. "At the premiere of Liebeslieder, in 1960, they took the house lights down to half for the extended pause between the two sections. I remember sitting in the hushed twilight and thinking, This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I’ve had little cause to change my mind since, despite casts subsequent to the original one that were not quite as wonderful. To my mind, the company’s current rendition is the finest—the most coherent as an entity, and the most moving—since the ballet’s first season." Seeing Things (AJBlogs) 05/09/04
http://artsjournal.com/dance/redir/20040509-46219.html
MEDIA
http://www.artsjournal.com/media
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The Public Radio Dilemma - Ratings Or Service? "For more than a decade now, a culture war has raged within public radio over whether public stations exist to serve the largest possible audience, or to serve smaller audiences whose desires are not fulfilled by commercial radio. The maximize-the-numbers crowd has won in most cities, accepting the view of public radio's most influential consultant, David Giovannoni, that any station's job is to attract the most listeners. Opponents argued that public radio should sound more like it did from the birth of FM through the 1980s, with a mix of news, talk, classical, jazz, folk and other kinds of music that you can't otherwise hear on the radio. As government funding for public radio declined, Giovannoni won the day." Washington Post 05/09/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20040509-46233.html
MUSIC
http://www.artsjournal.com/music
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Video Game Music Makes The Concert Stage Video game music is finding its way onto the concert stage. "A decade ago it would have been difficult to imagine that the beeping and whirring that accompanied most video games would have been worthy of the concert hall. But with the introduction of high-powered video-game consoles like Sony's PlayStation2 and Microsoft's Xbox, games could finally play on cue large audio files containing recordings of acoustic instruments instead of cheesy synthesized sounds. And as the game industry grew into an annual business of more than $7 billion, having high-quality music provided a competitive edge." The New York Times 05/10/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20040509-46228.html
Eschenbach's Bumpy First Year In Philly Christophe Eschenbach has been music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra for a year. So how's it going? "The orchestra's board and members are thrilled with Eschenbach's energetic community profile, his fund-raising success, his congenial personality. But a cloud of doubt hangs over the music-making. Eschenbach's relationship with the players, some inside and outside the orchestra have said, has been slow to jell." Philadelphia Inquirer 05/09/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20040509-46230.html
The Perpetual Music Director Search The Philadelphia Orchestra just hired a new music director, writes Peter Dobrin. But it's not too soon to be looking for his successor. "All the major orchestras have experienced change at the helm in the last decade; orchestras everywhere seem to be in a perpetual state of search. Chicago is looking for a new music director, and no sooner will it announce a choice than New York will reveal that it is in the market. Such is the pace of a peripatetic profession. Ideally, Philadelphia would be developing relationships with conductors now, so that when it finds itself looking for new leadership, an actual leader will already be in the pipeline." Philadelphia Inquirer 05/09/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20040509-46218.html
Cleveland Orchestra Re-Evaluates "The Cleveland Orchestra is facing an annual deficit of $4 million this season that will raise the accumulated deficit to a disquieting $7.5 million." The numbers are forcing a hard look at some of the orchestra's operations. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 05/09/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20040509-46217.html
National Treasure - Scottish Opera There's a debate in Scotland over the fate of Scottish Opera. The company has been a big critical success, but it's broke and in dancer of going out of business or being scaled back considerably. "Scottish Opera is, for those outside Scotland, one of the great cultural achievements of Scotland, and one of the great ambassadors for Scotland’s commitment to high culture. The Scottish Parliament is now the custodian of one of the great cultural institutions of the United Kingdom and people will be looking from all round the world to see how Scottish Opera now fares under this new autonomous government." The Scotsman 05/07/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20040509-46216.html
PEOPLE
http://www.artsjournal.com/people
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Chicago Fired Public Art Director "Michael Lash, Chicago's director of public art and the person who oversaw ventures ranging from the Cows on Parade exhibition to acquisition of millions of dollars of original works for city buildings, has been fired. The dismissal came after Lash allegedly threw a cell phone, striking a co-worker in the city's Cultural Affairs Department, where he worked. Lash also has been criticized for allegedly being a poor fit for a job that requires strong administrative skills." Chicago Tribune 05/06/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20040508-46202.html
PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing
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More Than Words Can Say It's not enough for authors to just get up and read, anymore. They have to entertain. "Once confined to libraries, bookstores and concert halls, these events have migrated to bars, with writers appearing in a new type of urban entertainment. On the reading circuit audience members drink cocktails and socialize, while readers work to entertain them. There are often a dozen readings a night in New York City, far more than the dozen or two in a month 10 years ago." The New York Times 05/10/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20040509-46229.html
Poetic License - Lyrics V. Poetry "Popular musicians attempting to cross over into the realm of poetry isn't a new phenomenon. Nor is it out of the ordinary for them to be scorned for their troubles." But stand-alone poetry is a different from lyrics, and the pitfalls are many... Chicago Sun-Times 05/09/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20040509-46223.html
Oldest Book On Display The world's oldest surviving printed book is now on display in the British Museum. "The Diamond Sutra, which bears the date 868 AD, was found in a walled-up cave in Dunhuang, north-west China, in 1907, along with other printed items. It consists of a scroll of grey paper printed with Chinese characters, wrapped around a wooden pole." BBC 05/09/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20040509-46215.html
THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre
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Broadway's Healthy Season "Pundits will tell you it hasn't been a banner year on Broadway. What they mean, mostly, is that there hasn't been a blockbuster musical that promises to run forever. Actually, much of the Tony Awards season that officially ended on Wednesday was quite healthy." Dallas Morning News 05/09/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20040509-46225.html
Changing Times, Changing Meaning "Classics don't change depending on the nightly news or the morning papers. Our perceptions change, not the playwrights'. Wartime, such as our own time, makes certain plays rattle around in your head a little differently. Often it's a war that places the play in the writer's head in the first place, getting the conversation going at gunpoint." Chicago Tribune 05/09/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20040509-46224.html
Where Is Black Music In West End Theatre? "Black artists are at the cutting edge of the music industry in Britain, but the West End has yet to play host to a show which celebrates their music. Some have blamed racism, others say that the black community are not theatregoers." The Observer (UK) 05/09/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20040509-46212.html
VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/visualarts
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The Warhol At 10 Pittsburgh's Warhol Museum opened 10 years ago. The museum is still trying to settle on what it's trying to be. "People in New York resent the fact this museum is in Pittsburgh. But what the museum does for Pittsburgh is of far greater value than it would have in New York City." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 05/09/04
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20040509-46231.html
Gagosian To Open London's Biggest Gallery New York dealer Larry Gagosian is building the biggest gallery in London. "The sheer scale of the new space - 1,400 sq metres of it - is a significant statement, and, crucially, will allow the exposure of a raft of monumental work never before exhibited in London.Charles Saatchi says it is 'magnificent and beautiful', and it could change the way the London art world operates for ever." The Guardian (UK) 05/10/04
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20040509-46226.html
Has Chicago Art Fair Lost Its Way? The Chicago art fair used to be one of the premiere art events of the year. "But in the last five years, Art Chicago, which continues through Monday at Navy Pier, has been in what several observers describe as a steady decline. Many high-profile dealers, along with the art-savvy (and deep-pocketed) collectors they serve, have abandoned Art Chicago for newer, flashier fairs in Miami, New York, London and Basel, Switzerland, that are widely perceived as fresher and more innovative." Chicago Sun-Times 05/09/04
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20040509-46222.html
