The Asperger's Connection Michelangelo is the latest historical figure to be diagnosed posthumously with Asperger's Syndrome. It's conjecture, of course, but "what is the link between this condition and creativity, be it in the arts or sciences?" Some experts suggest that it makes people more creative. "People with it are generally hyper-focused, very persistent workaholics who tend to see things from detail to global rather than looking at the bigger picture first and then working backwards, as most people do."
BBC 06/02/04
Posted: 06/02/2004 5:28 pm
MFA Lays Off 23 "Struggling to balance its budget, [Bpston's] Museum of Fine Arts told 23 staff members yesterday that they would be laid off immediately. Though museum officials declined to say exactly who had been let go, they did say the layoffs had come from across the museum's divisions, including its curatorial staff. That is in addition to five positions eliminated since January." The layoffs included no curatorial department heads, unlike MFA's last round of firings in 1999. Boston Globe 06/03/04
Posted: 06/03/2004 6:32 am
Libeskind's WTC Fee Dispute World Trade Center site developer Larry Silverstein is in a bitter argument with Daniel Libeskind over fees the Libeskind firm says it is owed. "Even assuming that the Libeskinds do manage to come to terms with Mr. Silverstein before July 4, the episode has the potential to leave a bad taste in the mouths of Mr. Silverstein’s landlord at the World Trade Center, the Port Authority, which is in the process of evaluating whether or not to allow Mr. Silverstein to develop the rest of the buildings planned for the site." New York Observer 06/02/04
Posted: 06/02/2004 10:24 pm
Embassy-In-A-Box (America's Dull New Embassies) There was a time that American embassies around the world were architecturally interesting. "Unfortunately, the general artistic quality of recently completed embassy compounds, as well as the two-dozen or so now in the pipeline, is not high. We're looking at a new generation of embassies that resemble American office parks. The unsatisfying design and generally exurban settings reflect the government's need to quickly replace a huge stock of functionally obsolete and insecure facilities." OpinionJournal.com 06/02/04
Posted: 06/02/2004 4:49 pm
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Pianists On The Web The 2nd International Piano e-Competition is underway in the Twin Cities, with the final six contestants set to perform with the Minnesota Orchestra later this week. The competition was started by a professor at the University of Minnesota who was disgusted by the nepotism inherent in many international competitions, and in addition to the unusual move of barring the students of competition judges from competing, he found a timely hook to get the press and public interested in his event: all the contestants play on a high-tech piano which can store the memory of their performances for online streaming and even remote judging. In fact, every round of the competition can be viewed live online. St. Paul Pioneer Press 06/03/04
Posted: 06/03/2004 6:15 am
Are Scottish Opera's Problems Due To Bad Government? The Scottish government, known as the Executive, should bear the blame for the current crisis at Scottish Opera, according to one UK paper. "The way the executive has treated Scottish Opera, denying it the funding necessary to be a company of worldwide renown while, instead, reviewing it to potential death in a wrong-headed switch of priorities, is symptomatic of its approach to the arts sector generally." The Herald (Glasgow) 06/03/04
Posted: 06/03/2004 6:12 am
Losing An Administrator, But Gaining A Half Mil The Florida Orchestra, which has spent the last couple of seasons in dire financial straits, announced this week that it has received two donations totalling a half million dollars, which will be placed in a community trust. The orchestra is also losing one of its top executives: operations manager and artistic administrator Jeff Bram has announced that he will leave Tampa Bay to become artistic administrator of the Utah Symphony. Tampa Tribune 06/03/04
Posted: 06/03/2004 5:54 am
NY's Mehta Takes A New Title New York Philharmonic executive director Zarin Mehta will take on the title of orchestra president, according to the ensemble's board chairman. Mehta, who came to New York after leading the Chicago Symphony's Ravinia Festival, was a major player in the search that led to the hiring of Loren Maazel as the Phil's music director. Mehta's day-to-day duties will not change with the new title - most American orchestra CEOs also carry the title of president - and the move appears to be largely a vote of confidence in his leadership at a time when the Phil faces several challenges. Newsday (AP) 06/03/04
Posted: 06/03/2004 5:48 am
Crunch Time For Miami PAC The overdue, over-budget Miami-Dade Performing Arts Center is at a flashpoint this week, as county officials are demanding a final cost estimate from the PAC's designers and builders. "The builder's contract with the county calls for the center to cost $254.6 million, but the builder has asked for $47 million more and estimates that its final extra costs could run as high as $61 million, the county said. The architect's contract is for $25.35 million; it wants more, but won't say how much. County Manager George Burgess vows to hold the line. The county has offered the builder an additional $8.9 million, rejected $26 million and is negotiating over the rest." Miami Herald 06/02/04
Posted: 06/03/2004 7:02 am
Concern About Culture At WTC Site "Last June, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation invited arts groups worldwide to submit proposals for a museum and a performing arts center planned for ground zero. Since September, the corporation — together with the city and state — has been evaluating the 113 responses. It was expected to announce its selections in April, but the decision has been delayed, in part by the difficulty of finding a chairman of the foundation charged with raising $600 million for the cultural buildings and a memorial." Critics are unhappy with the lack of transparency in the process. "Unfortunately, residents, arts sector leaders, artists and local elected officials have had little or no direct say in any of these decisions so far, and that does not bode well for a successful memorial/cultural fundraising campaign." The New York Times 06/02/04
Posted: 06/02/2004 11:02 pm
NEA Establishes New Critics' Institutes "The institutes will be designed for journalists who cover the arts for print and broadcast outlets located outside the country's largest media markets, where professional development opportunities are limited. Institutes for dance critics will be hosted by the American Dance Festival at Duke University; for classical music and opera critics at Columbia University; and theater critics at the University of Southern California."
NEA 06/01/04
Posted: 06/02/2004 4:52 pm
Marketing Multiple Mormons The Five Browns are one record label's latest hope for a classical music marketing success. The five siblings, Juilliard-trained pianists all, are talented, unusual, and good-looking in a way that is sure to make their album covers attractive to consumers. Oh, and they're Mormon, and see their music as a chance to bring the message of the Latter Day Saints to the world. Chicago Tribune 06/03/04
Posted: 06/03/2004 6:46 am
Rare Book Specialist To Take On Amazon "A hugely popular Canadian Web site that links buyers looking for rare books to 12,000 antiquarian booksellers worldwide, will announce tomorrow at Book Expo in Chicago that it is opening its Internet platform to authors, publishers and bookstores selling new books. About 20,000 books sell daily through ABEbooks.com, which also has English, French and German sites... Customers can access over 50 million titles on ABEbooks.com and the company projects that a third of its business will be in new books within three years, offering strong competition to Chapters/Indigo and Amazon.ca." Toronto Star 06/03/04
Posted: 06/03/2004 7:09 am
When Good Readings Go Wrong The author reading seems perilously ripe for disaster. Why? "The world of letters" seems "to offer a near perfect microclimate for embarrassment and shame …. Something about the presentation of deeply private thoughts—carefully worked and honed into art over the years—to a public audience of strangers … strays perilously close to tragedy."
New York Observer 06/02/04
Posted: 06/02/2004 10:56 pm
Is James Wood Our Geatest Critic? "Mr. Wood is recklessly committed to literature (if he weren’t so flexible, I’d be tempted to call him a fanatic), and brave enough to risk ridicule by pushing every thought to the limit. Caution doesn’t enter into the calculation: He shows us, candidly—in prose overcrowded with metaphor, prose that palpably yearns for maximum expression—how his head and heart respond to what he reads (which is just about everything). He’s growing before our eyes. It’s perhaps his most impressive quality." New York Observer 06/02/04
Posted: 06/02/2004 10:29 pm
Finishing A Book From Beyond "The mid-project death or enfeeblement of an author is one of the stranger crucibles a publisher must face. Unlike more collaborative art forms, a piece of writing bears a highly individual style, making it hard for others to complete a book without it seeming choppy or fraudulent. Nor can a company release a book's fragment the way it might a CD; a piece of writing more than most creative efforts is an integrated whole and immune to such partialness. Yet creative legacy (if not commercial imperative) demands that a publisher find a way to get the book out--whether by hook, crook or séance." OpinionJournal.com 06/03/04
Posted: 06/02/2004 7:13 pm
American TV Getting Whiter American television is notoriously devoid of racial diversity, and the small screen will reportedly be getting even whiter next season, as sitcoms, a recent haven for minority casts, continue to lose their place in prime time lineups to cheap-and-easy reality shows. The UPN network will continue to air multiple shows featuring all-minority casts, but among networks that viewers actually watch in anything approaching respectable numbers, blacks and Latinos might as well not exist. Miami Herald 06/03/04
Posted: 06/03/2004 6:55 am
Hollywood Writers' Talks Break Down The Writers' Guild of America has publicly rejected a "final" contract offer from the major Hollywood movie studios following eight weeks of negotiations. Both sides are downplaying the possibility of a writers' strike, but neither side has been willing to budge on issues like DVD revenue (the writers want a chunk of it; the studios want to keep it all). The WGA last struck for 22 days in 1988, delaying the fall TV schedule. BBC 06/03/04
Posted: 06/03/2004 5:32 am
Moore, Spurlock, and Marketing By Outrage As it turns out, MTV is willing to air ads for Morgan Spurlock's anti-McDonald's documentary/diatribe after all. In fact, the whole dust-up appears to have been one of an increasing number of "the-world-is-against-me-whatever-happened-to-free-speech-for-the-little-guy" marketing blitzes, a technique used with great success by Michael Moore. "The episode offers a glimpse into the new world of documentary marketing, in which controversy and big-league publicity gambits are increasingly part of the strategy for box-office success." Los Angeles Times 05/28/04
Posted: 06/03/2004 5:25 am
- Previously: 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
Recording Companies To Limit CD Copies? The recording industry is testing technology that would restrict backup copies made from CD's. "Tools under review by the major labels would limit the number of backups that could be made from ordinary compact discs and prevent copied, or "burned," versions from being used to create further copies, according to Macrovision and SunnComm International, rivals that are developing competing versions of the digital rights management (DRM) software." C/Net 06/02/04
Posted: 06/02/2004 10:12 pm
In UK: A Ratings System For TV? The UK TV regulator Ofcom is suggesting it may be time to implement a ratings system for TV. "People want to know what a programme contains, such as bad language, sex and violence, and that is something very much appreciated by parents." BBC 06/02/04
Posted: 06/02/2004 5:12 pm
Crisis In Harlem From an artistic standpoint, Dance Theatre of Harlem has never been stronger. But behind the scenes, the company "is in financial tatters. It is $2.5 million in debt. The staff was laid off in March. The board of directors has dwindled to two members aside from company co-founder and artistic director Arthur Mitchell." Mitchell is preparing to step aside at the board's request, and is reportedly close to hiring British socialite and arts patron Janet Boateng to run the company, a controversial move, since Boateng "appears to have no previous history of turning around a troubled arts entity." Washington Post 06/02/04
Posted: 06/03/2004 6:35 am
