Do Dogs Understand Language? Ask any dog owner, and he'll tell you: it's not what you say to a dog, it's how you say it, with your tone of voice the key to the dog's understanding. But a team of German scientists and a border collie named Rico say different, and their evidence that dogs can understand language is compelling. Rico can fetch up to 200 objects by name, and can even figure out which object his master wants when confronted with a word he's never heard. "Rico's abilities seem to follow a process called 'fast mapping,' seen when young children start to learn to speak and understand language." Wired 06/11/04
Posted: 06/11/2004 5:50 am
Sounds Like Some Leftist Pinko Commie Hippie Plot! Let's Get 'Em! A new traveling exhibition is attempting to bring attention the architectural/cultural phenomenon of urban "greening," a philosophy which allows cities to build big skyscrapers and massive sports stadiums, so long as they "consume less energy, use renewable materials and resources, and uplift their surroundings and the spirits of those who work in them." It's an intriguing concept, but most American cities, even those which consider themselves to be on the cutting edge of both architecture and the movement towards making cities more inviting, haven't even begun to explore the possibilities of building green. Chicago Tribune 06/11/04
Posted: 06/11/2004 6:38 am
Arrest in Saatchi Fire Case There's been an arrest in the investigation surrounding the warehouse fire that destroyed Ł50 million worth of art owned by the collector Charles Saatchi. The suspect, who has been charged with burglary and released on bail, is 23, and police are not saying much more than that at the moment. BBC 06/11/04
Posted: 06/11/2004 5:43 am
Gehry Wins UK Building of the Year "Maggie's, a cancer care centre designed for free by the renowned US architect Frank Gehry, was yesterday declared British building of the year. It came top in the Royal Fine Art Commission's annual awards. Gehry has called the design - which seeks to welcome the centre's patients with light gently reflected from an undulating steel roof - 'about my best yet'." The Guardian (UK) 06/11/04
Posted: 06/10/2004 10:33 pm
Those Riots Just Aren't Drawing 'Em In Like They Used To With widescreen TV making sporting events ever more enticing to view from your couch or your barstool rather than in person, the people who market soccer in Europe are turning to stadium architects to help draw the cheering crowds and create a unique sense of place. "The aim has been to maximise roof spans and minimise obstructed views and the basic problem is that there are only so many solutions for big roofs, most of which have been used." Financial Times (UK) 06/10/04
Posted: 06/10/2004 10:11 pm
Paging Eliot Ness Two Silicon Valley art galleries were suddenly and unexpectedly raided by California law enforcement officials last week for illegally serving alcohol on the premises, with an official charge of misdemeanor sale/furnishing of alcohol without a permit being leveled against the owners and executives. The crime carries a possible penalty of six months in jail and a $1000 fine. The raid occurred during Palo Alto's monthly Art Walk event, and gallery officials are complaining about the timing and tone of the raid. The state contends that it warned the galleries in April that they needed a license to serve alcohol, and that the warning was ignored. Palo Alto Weekly 06/09/04
Posted: 06/10/2004 8:35 pm
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Troubled Waters In Baltimore? Ominous signs are looming over the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra these days, with accumulated debt mounting (expected to reach a whopping $8 million by 2005), controversy in the front office, and dissension in the boardroom. "Seven top administrators and other staff members have resigned [in recent weeks], including the chief financial officer, an executive board member and a member of the fund-raising department." And the BSO's decision to appoint a marketing specialist with no orchestral management experience to be the organization's new president is being met with skepticism in some quarters, particularly after a widely-reported comment about broadening the audience beyond "wealthy old white people" hit the papers. Baltimore Sun 06/07/04
Posted: 06/11/2004 7:04 am
Reversing Course In Wisconsin The board of the tiny La Crosse (Wisconsin) Symphony Orchestra has thought better of its decision to terminate conductor Amy Mills, after some board members complained that the process which led to the vote ousting Mills was underhanded and unfair. Mills's current contract runs through next season, which will be her tenth with the ensemble, and the board's reversal opens the door for her to negotiate a new deal, despite artistic conflicts with some of the ensemble's musicians. La Crosse Tribune 06/11/04
Posted: 06/11/2004 6:21 am
- Previously: Small Town, Big Drama Another conductor controversy has broken out in a small North American city. This time the showdown is in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where the board of the La Crosse Symphony has voted narrowly to dismiss conductor Amy Mills, after musicians in the orchestra complained bitterly about her musicianship. But some board members are furious at the way the vote was conducted, saying that two uncounted proxy votes in favor of Mills were not counted because they would have swung the vote in favor of retaining her past 2005. La Crosse Tribune 05/26/04
Birtwistle's Plot Man When composer Harrison Birtwistle put out the call for a "gloomy poet" to write the libretto for his next opera, Stephen Plaice, who prefers to think of himself as "lyrical and ironic," found himself with the job. Over the ensuing three years, a story emerged which blends Greek myth with disturbing sexual undertones and a complex relationship which ended before the opera begins. It's a process that few opera lovers ever think about, but a successful relationship between librettist and composer can mean the difference between success and failure. The Guardian (UK) 06/11/04
Posted: 06/10/2004 10:17 pm
Jacksonville Breaks Even The Jacksonville Symphony, which has been running massive deficits in recent years, rode an 18% rise in single ticket sales and a 23% uptick in donations to a break-even season for 2003-04. The orchestra's endowment also performed better than expected, allowing the organization to begin digging out from under the multi-million dollar debt it had amassed. Jacksonville Business Journal 06/10/04
Posted: 06/10/2004 9:13 pm
Maybe He Wants To Spend More Time With His Family? Buffalo Philharmonic CEO Larry Ribits has apparently been fired, only days before the conclusion of the orchestra's season. Official word from the Philharmonic's board chairman is that the abrupt departure was Ribits's own decision, but the head of the musicians' union is publicly questioning that stance, and is also pointing out that no musicians, even those who serve on the board, were informed of the decision until Wednesday morning. Ribits's fate may have been decided this past weekend, while he and the BPO were in New York City for a concert at Carnegie Hall. Buffalo News 06/10/04
Posted: 06/10/2004 8:16 pm
More Calls For Scrapping Libeskind The voices speaking out against the official plans for the WTC site are growing ever louder, and those calling for a strict rebuild of the original Twin Towers are gaining ground. The obvious argument is visceral, of course - you knock our buildings down, and we'll just put 'em right back up! - but there is more to the increasingly popular movement than simple defiance. "We are replacing a symbol of world peace and human cooperation with a self-absorbed salute to America," says the man who is leading the charge, adding that Daniel Libeskind's design is "tone deaf to a monumental degree." The Guardian (UK) 06/11/04
Posted: 06/10/2004 10:36 pm
WTC Arts Tenants Announced "Pledging to reinvigorate cultural life in Lower Manhattan, state and city officials yesterday announced the selection of arts groups devoted to dance, theater and drawing, along with a museum celebrating freedom, as the cultural anchors for the World Trade Center site... The Signature Theater Company, the Joyce Theater, the Freedom Center and the Drawing Center" were the lucky winners in a process which had been roundly criticized by arts leaders as insufficiently open to public scrutiny. The New York Times 06/11/04
Posted: 06/10/2004 10:02 pm
The Reagan Arts Legacy Ronald Reagan "was a man of many paradoxes whose cultural legacy is colored in shades of gray," says John Hayes. And while the left-leaning arts world, which is still fuming over Reagan's deliberate ignoring of the AIDS epidemic that decimated the American cultural scene, is unlikely to remember Reagan as one of its favorite presidents, the fact is that under his leadership, public arts funding hit an all-time high. In fact, at a time when many Congressional conservatives were ready to launch an all-out assault on the National Endowment for the Arts, Reagan steered a gentle course between warring parties, and may have saved the NEA in the process. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 06/11/04
Posted: 06/11/2004 7:23 am
Iona Brown, 63 British violinist and conductor Iona Brown, who led the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields for decades, first as concertmaster and then as music director, has died at the age of 63. Brown, who also led the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for a time, was renowned worldwide for her skills as a violinist, and blazed a trail for female conductors at a time when sexism was still rampant in the industry. The Telegraph (UK) 06/11/04
Posted: 06/11/2004 6:02 am
Composer Kramer Dies "Jonathan Kramer, a composer and musical theorist, died on June 3 at Mount Sinai Hospital. He was 61 and lived in Manhattan. The cause was leukemia, said his wife, Deborah Bradley. Mr. Kramer, a professor of composition and theory at Columbia University, wrote eclectic music that often drew from sources as disparate as Baroque music and jazz." The New York Times 06/11/04
Posted: 06/10/2004 11:02 pm
Ray Charles, 73, Dies Of Liver Cancer "Mr. Charles reshaped American music for half a century as a singer, pianist, songwriter, bandleader and producer. He was a remarkable pianist, at home with splashy barrelhouse playing and precisely understated swing. But his playing was inevitably overshadowed by his voice, a forthright baritone steeped in the blues, strong and impure and gloriously unpredictable." The New York Times 06/10/04
Posted: 06/10/2004 1:59 pm
Did Avenue Q Put One Over On Tony Voters? A controversy is brewing over the tactics employed by the producers of Avenue Q, which won the Tony award for best musical, and then promptly announced that it would forgo a national tour in favor of an exclusive (and lucrative) deal to mount the show in Las Vegas. At issue is whether the Avenue Q crew misled road producers, who make up a sizable chunk of Tony voters, telling them that a national tour was a foregone conclusion, even as they were negotiating a secret deal with Vegas promoter Steve Wynn. New York Post 06/11/04
Posted: 06/11/2004 7:11 am
- Previously: Avenue Q, Direct To Vegas Avenue Q, which cleaned up at this year's Tonys, is bypassing the typically lucrative national tours that follow Broadway success, and taking up residence in Las Vegas. "Working with the Las Vegas impressario Steve Wynn, the producers of "Q" plan to open around Labor Day 2005 in a new $40-million theater built especially for the show. The production had planned to follow the lucrative tradition of touring nationally, hitting major markets like Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles." The New York Times 06/10/04
Fundamental Questions The London International Festival of Theatre is taking an interesting angle this season, conducting a citywide Enquiry on the very nature of theatre. Among the questions to be answered: What is theatre? What is it for? And why should we care, anyway? The Independent (UK) 06/10/04
Posted: 06/10/2004 10:44 pm
Avenue Q, Direct To Vegas Avenue Q, which cleaned up at this year's Tonys, is buying the typically lucrative national tours that follow Broadway success, and taking up residence in Las Vegas. "Working with the Las Vegas impressario Steve Wynn, the producers of "Q" plan to open around Labor Day 2005 in a new $40-million theater built especially for the show. The production had planned to follow the lucrative tradition of touring nationally, hitting major markets like Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles." The New York Times 06/10/04
Posted: 06/10/2004 2:01 pm
Celebrating Joyce. Or Just Sitting Around Drinking. Whichever. The fellas who make up Denver's James Joyce Reading Society are devoted to the author's work. But they're also quite devoted to Guinness beer, Irish whiskey, and talking politics, so you'll excuse them if they don't always get around to the reading. Of course, Joyce would probably approve of such meandering loyalty, and as the 100th anniversary of the date that was the setting of Ulysses approaches, the Bloomsday revelries are set to begin not only in Denver, but in 60 countries worldwide. Denver Post 06/11/04
Posted: 06/11/2004 6:48 am
Lost In Translation Would government subsidies for publishers help more translated books to appear on American bookshelves? John O'Brien doesn't think so: "On average, a very good novel from another country will sell fifty percent fewer copies in the United States than a rather mediocre novel written by an American... I doubt that we can expect foundations to lead the way in an effort to support translations by working with nonprofit presses; however, what would be interesting to speculate on is whether the NEA couldn’t enlist foundations in this country in a joint undertaking with government agencies in other countries to create a fund for translations that would take into account all of the publication expenses rather than just the cost of the translations. CONTEXT 06/04
Posted: 06/10/2004 8:54 pm
- Laziness or Xenophobia? What has caused the dropoff in translations in the English-speaking literary world? It surely has something to do with the pervasiveness of English around the globe, but Eric Dickens fears that a "selective xenophobia" may have crept into even enlightened minds in the UK and US. "United States power and prestige prop up the English language internationally; and yet English is only the mother tongue of a relatively modest number of people worldwide. Translation obviates the necessity of people having to write badly in English when they can be writing well in their respective mother tongues." CONTEXT 06/04
Posted: 06/10/2004 8:40 pm
Is Country Radio Ignoring It's Left Wing? "Country music artists are hardly united in their support of the war in Iraq but you'd never know it from listening to the radio. While Toby Keith, Darryl Worley and Charlie Daniels have scored hits with patriotic, war-themed songs, others such as Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Nanci Griffith released anti-war, or at least questioning, songs that went nowhere." Part of the problem may be that most of the protest songs are being released by artists with a "classic country" or "alt-country" sound which doesn't get a lot of play on today's slick, corporate airwaves. But market researchers say that the most basic reason for the snub is that country programmers know that their listeners would flay them alive if they deviated from the flag-waving. The Plain Dealer (AP) 06/11/04
Posted: 06/11/2004 7:30 am
BBC Needs More Money, But Doesn't Dare Ask A former BBC chairman is complaining that the license fee which the government collects from every UK household with a television set in order to fund the public broadcaster is insufficient. But Gavyn Davies doubts that the BBC will dare ask for an increase when its charter comes up for renewal in 2006, for fear of running afoul of public sentiment regarding the license fee. BBC 06/10/04
Posted: 06/10/2004 9:38 pm
Stern Costs Clear Channel $1.75 Mil Clear Channel, the largest radio broadcaster in the U.S., has agreed to pay $1.75 million in fines over on-air comments by shock jock Howard Stern which the FCC has deemed "obscene." The amount being shelled out is a record in the industry, and while the FCC is trumpeting the settlement as a "victory for the American public," it is likely that Stern will use the occasion to take his bombastic campaign against President Bush and the conservative-controlled FCC up yet another notch. Clear Channel dropped Stern from all of its stations earlier this spring. CNN International 06/09/04
Posted: 06/10/2004 9:31 pm
