Who (Should) Own What The laws that govern who owns ideas and creative products are being rewritten as big corporations struggle to shore up business models that are under attack in the digital age. So shouldn't we be having a broad cultural debate about what the new world will look like? spiked-online 05/26/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 10:23 pm
Will Trump Settle For Fourth-Tallest? Donald Trump is building a new skyscraper in Chicago, in case you haven't heard. (Yes, this is the building that will be managed by the winner of a reality TV show.) But given The Donald's famous preference for outdoing all other buildings in the area, the plans for the tower are raising some eyebrows. Specifically, where the original plan called for building the second-tallest building in the U.S., the latest version would be only the fourth-tallest skyscraper in Chicago. That's still plenty tall, of course (90 stories, in fact), but it all seems very un-Trump-like. Chicago Tribune 05/27/04
Posted: 05/27/2004 6:30 am
What Was Lost In Saatchi Fire (And Do We Care?) "Future generations are unlikely to mourn the lost masterpieces of the Saatchi Collection as we mourn the ancient manuscripts that perished when the library at Alexandria burned. But the point is, this generation never produced a great novelist, but it did create some striking works of art." The Guardian (UK) 05/27/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 10:29 pm
- Fired Destroyed Work Of A Generation "One shudders to imagine what has been lost, and it is likely that major works by leading international as well as British artists will be included in the final tally. But one needs a bit of perspective here: this fire may not be comparable to a world heritage disaster like the flooding of Florence or the sacking of Rome or the grinding of Iraqi archeological sites into gravel by coalition tank-tracks. Unlike Lady Churchill's burning of Graham Sutherland's portrait of Winston, or the demolition of Buddhist statues by the Taliban, this, so far as we know, was an accident. Yet there is something horribly ironic in the likelihood that an out-of-control blaze at a nearby paint factory may have caused the damage." The Guardian (UK) 05/27/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 9:39 pm
- Saatchi "Devastated" Over Art Lost In Fire Charles Saatchi was still assessing the damage from a warehouse fire that destroyed millions of pounds worth of his art. "A spokeswoman for Saatchi said he was 'absolutely devastated' after the works - worth millions of pounds - were lost. She said many were Mr Saatchi's 'great personal favourites' and he considered them 'irreplaceable in the history of British art'." BBC 05/26/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 7:23 pm
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A Call For Elitism Classical music's audience needs to get younger, and fast, writes John Bennett, and getting the educated youth into the concert hall will require a controversial tactic. "Classical music has never been, nor should it be, a mass culture staple, but that doesn't mean its audience has to be doddering. High art has always been created to be enjoyed by those who are educated to appreciate it... So if the classical music establishment wants to lure young listeners, the real task is to reassert the absolute value of the Western art music tradition. In other words, classical music leaders must challenge today's entrenched post-counterculture relativism that sees a Schubert symphony as the equivalent of the latest White Stripes album." Boston Globe 05/27/04
Posted: 05/27/2004 6:15 am
Third CEO's A Charm (We Hope) The troubled Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountain region has hired its third CEO since opening last August. Richard Bryant is tasked with cleaning up the vast mess left by his two predecessors: the center opened to great fanfare and the promise of becoming the summer home of the Pittsburgh Symphony, then went belly up midway through its first year. State legislators are considering a bailout package for the project. Wilkes-Barre (PA) Times Leader (second item) 05/27/04
Posted: 05/27/2004 6:00 am
The Australian Orchestra Crisis As government researchers prepare to mount a major review of Australia's symphony orchestras, many in the industry have begun anew the old debate of whether such massive ensembles are worth the subsidy they require to stay afloat. The Sydney Symphony may have found a way out of the vicious cycle of deficit - through a combination of layoffs, cutbacks, and musician agreements to perform in hospitals, sports arenas, and commercial advertisements - but for many smaller ensembles without the benefit of Sydney's tourism draw, there seem to be very few answers. Sydney Morning Herald 05/27/04
Posted: 05/27/2004 5:45 am
Classical Salesmanship & The Curse Of Beauty The classical music world has always liked to consider itself above such plebeian niceties as marketing or salesmanship. Still, artists like Lara St. John, who appeared on her first album cover wearing nothing but a violin held across her bare chest, force everyone to confront the fact that sex and physical beauty sell albums, whether you're hawking Bach or rock. But for St. John, her lithe and alluring frame has been a double-edged sword. Yes, it got her noticed, but classical snobs have a habit of dumping everything that looks pretty into the much-derided "crossover" bin, and for St. John, a serious artist who plays serious music, that creates a distressing image gap. The New York Times 05/27/04
Posted: 05/27/2004 5:22 am
Pavarotti: 1.5 Billion In The Audience - Top That! Lucian Pavarotti on tenors singing pop music: "Some say the word 'pop' is derogatory and means 'not important' - I do not accept that. If the word 'classical' is the word to mean 'boring', I do not accept that either. There is good and bad music. With one Three Tenors concert, we sang to one-and-a-half billion people. I don't think Caruso sang to more than 100,000 people in his entire career." The Guardian (UK) 05/27/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 10:36 pm
Mimi And Rodolfo In Trafalgar Square The English National Opera will produce La Boheme this summer in the middle of Trafalgar Square. The production is expected to draw an audience of 8,000. Tens of thousands more are likely to spill over on to surrounding pavements, the steps of the National Gallery and any space near enough to catch the amplified sound. La Bohème is the first opera to be put on in the square, an event that will trump the impresario Raymond Gubbay's recent success in staging the same work in the Albert Hall." The Guardian (UK) 05/27/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 10:32 pm
Terfel Wins Classical Bit Prize "Welsh bass baritone Bryn Terfel won the prizes for best album and male artist at this year's Classical Brit awards. Italian opera star Cecilia Bartoli was named best female artist at the event, held at London's Royal Albert Hall. British conductor Sir Simon Rattle won orchestral album of the year for his recording of Beethoven's Symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic." BBC 05/26/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 9:29 pm
Why Crossover Rules How is it that classical "crossover" has come to dominate the classical music business? Indeed, most of the artists and recordings that dominate the classical list these days are crossover... BBC 05/26/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 7:27 pm
SPAC Faces Its Public The Saratoga Performing Arts Center's executive leaders held their annual meeting this week, and the good news was that, after several years of deficits, SPAC finished better than $100,000 in the black this past season. The bad news is that the center's members and subscribers are furious with the management for dumping New York City Ballet from the roster of guest artists, and several are already making plans to oust board members in next year's board elections. SPAC officials are sticking to their guns, though, insisting that "attendance ultimately will determine the future of all classical programming, including ballet, the Philadelphia Orchestra and a chamber music festival." The Saratogian (NY) 05/27/04
Posted: 05/27/2004 6:06 am
Did NYC Deputy Mayor Intimidate Arts Leaders Over Donations? Did a New York City deputy mayor call arts leaders and ask if they were donating money to the mayor's opponent? "According to three sources, Deputy Mayor Patricia Harris rebuked the arts and cultural executives in recent months, and in one instance used a City Hall telephone to do so. Some arts officials said her calls had the effect of scaring [Mayor Bloomberg's opponent's] donors out of future contributions, and critics said she blurred the line between government and campaign politics." New York Observer 05/26/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 9:38 pm
Publishing Legend Dies at 87 "Roger W. Straus Jr., the brash and opinionated grandee who presided for nearly six decades over the book-publishing company that bore his name, the last surviving representative of the age of independent houses owned privately by gentlemen of literary taste, died Tuesday at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. He was 87 and lived in Manhattan... With its distinguished list of authors and its course set almost entirely at the proprietor's discretion, Farrar, Straus & Giroux — as it was known for much of its existence — approached uniqueness as the conglomeration boom swept through the publishing trade in the 1960's and 70's." The New York Times 05/27/04
Posted: 05/27/2004 5:40 am
Classically Yours - DC Radio Host Fights Back Diana Hollander was 33 years old, the signature voice of classical music in Washington DC as the "midday host at WGMS-FM (Classical 103.5), the top-rated commercial classical station in the country with 450,000 listeners a week. Listeners loved her. She was smart but not condescending, effervescent without being fluffy, a perfect accompaniment to the music she played." Then the epilepsy struck and she was confined to bed. Two-and-a-half years later, she's fought her way back into the studio... Washington Post 05/26/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 7:08 pm
Nonunion Touring At Issue In Theater Talks "How do you solve a problem like nonunion tours of Broadway shows? The issue is at the center of the current negotiations between Broadway producers and Actors' Equity... The contract between the union and the League of American Theatres and Producers expires June 27 and the two sides have been meeting regularly since April 1 to resolve the touring matter and other issues, most notably, rising health-care costs. Equity still dominates the road but in recent years, nonunion tours, which are cheaper to produce, have been gaining strength... Last week, the union issued a strike authorization that it called 'part of normal negotiation practices.'" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (AP) 05/27/04
Posted: 05/27/2004 6:52 am
Maybe Something Was Lost In The Translation? The Producers may be Broadway's biggest smash hit in years, but apparently, the Mel Brooks musical doesn't hold the same appeal everywhere. Officials yesterday announced that the Toronto production will be closing after only nine months due to slow ticket sales. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/27/04
Posted: 05/27/2004 6:44 am
Homebody/Kabul - The Play Of Our Time? John Heilpern revisits Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul and reaffirms his opinion that the play is the most important of our time. "Name me a better play of our time — for our time. Name me one that takes on the whole, wide, wonderful, fucked-up world." Kushner has continued to tinker with the play since it debuted three years ago "but I believe he’s come as close as he can to a fully realized Homebody/Kabul, unless he wants to drive himself mad." New York Observer 05/26/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 10:13 pm
Indigo Pulls The Plug On Amazon Suit Indigo Books & Music, the publishing giant that has been bankrolling the Canadian industry's lawsuit against the Amazon.ca, has abruptly pulled the plug on the suit, withdrawing its support and cutting off funding. Industry officials say that they simply cannot afford to continue the legal battle against Amazon, which is being allowed to operate its site without complying with rules governing foreign-owned bookstores, because it has no ground-based Canadian presence. Toronto Star 05/27/04
Posted: 05/27/2004 6:59 am
The Bickering (Yet Prolific) Minots The setup seems perfect for a novel: a tony New England family with seven children, living in a mansion by the sea; a mother who dies in a car crash; a father's descent into alcoholism and eventual death from cancer; and the various sufferings and melodramas of the children who must go through life contending with each other and their family history. But the Minot family is no fictional invention. The seven children do indeed exist, and no fewer than three of them have now published supposedly fictional books based heavily on their own lives. The latest to publish is George Minot, spinning a dark tale of murder and alcoholism, and, as has become a habit with the Minots, some of the author's siblings are furious. The New York Times 05/27/04
Posted: 05/27/2004 5:34 am
But We're Still The Network Of Youth And Rebellion! Really! MTV Networks is refusing to run ads for the documentary Super Size Me, in which filmmaker Morgan Spurlock eats nothing but McDonald's food for a month, inducing horrifying health problems. MTV executives called the ads "disparaging to fast food restaurants" by way of explaining their decision. Washington Post (Reuters) 05/27/04
Posted: 05/27/2004 7:05 am
Jesus Was All About Senseless Vandalism, Of Course "The offices of Toronto-based Tapestry Pictures were trashed earlier this week, and the producers fear the vandalism is linked to its coming, controversial film, Prom Queen. In recent weeks, pro-family and anti-gay support groups have been using the Internet to denounce the made-for-TV movie, slated to air on CTV on June 1, about the so-called 'Cinderfella,' the media nickname for Marc Hall, a teen from Oshawa, Ont., who won the right in 2002 to bring his partner to a Catholic school dance." One particularly disturbing online rant against the film accused one of the actors of being a pedophile, and listed the addresses of Tapestry and CTV. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/27/04
Posted: 05/27/2004 6:38 am
Cuban Dance Defectors Win Jobs In Cincinnati "Four of the five Cuban ballet dancers who defected in October during a 20-city tour of the United States are headed to jobs in Cincinnati this summer and fall. Cervilio Amador and Adiarys Almeida have been hired as soloists by the Cincinnati Ballet, a 31-member company with a $5 million operating budget. They are scheduled to dance the "Don Quixote" pas de deux on Oct. 8 and 9, almost a year to the day after they were to dance the same excerpt in Daytona Beach, Fla., as members of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba." The New York Times 05/27/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 10:10 pm
