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Monday, July 19




Ideas

Check Out Stories From AJ's Weekend Edition What's happened to the Barnes' core values?...Chicago's new Millennium Park, which opened over the weekend, is a "triumph... TV producers are worried about what line they might cross with the FCC monitoring for "obscene" content... Going to the theatre just purely sucks in every way, writes someone who's definitely not a fan... Much ado about who copied what reality TV idea first... These stores and more in AJ's Weekend Edition. ArtsJournal.com 07/17-18/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 9:57 am

Visual "Noise" Tricks The Brain "The equivalent of snow on a TV screen, visual noise is a major but poorly understood part of the daily input into our minds. The noise can have many sources, including changes in the number of light particles hitting cells in the eye, which can alter people's perception of facial expression." Discovery 07/17/04
Posted: 07/18/2004 5:56 pm

Visual Arts

Libeskind's Shrinking Cool Daniel Libeskind is suing the developer of the World Trade Center site. "Libeskind, with his spritely face and quirky glasses, had been the epitome of compact cool when his design won. Now he was girding to descend into the murk and mire of a court battle. His suit claims that Silverstein merely paid lip-service to the master plan because his 'actions, then and up to the present time, bespeak a clear intent to derail the project wherever he perceives a conflict with his personal financial interests'. All the high-minded rhetoric and outward symbolism (1776, the tower's height in feet, is the year the Declaration of Independence was signed) had apparently been erased by the dirty business of litigation." Financial Times 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 10:10 am

A Change In Emphasis For NY Historical Society (Is That OK?) Is the New York Historical Society changing its focus because a donor has dangled a prized collection in front of it? Critics suggest that the collectors chose the society "because its history of financial weakness has left it malleable." The New York Times 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 9:44 am

New Course For National Museum Of Australia The new National Museum of Australia director Craddock Morton has a big job in front of him. "His mission? To deliver much-needed stability to the NMA after the so-called history wars brought its exhibits - especially those relating to indigenous history - under fire and provoked a federal Government review." The Australian 07/20/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 8:30 am

Moscow To Stage First Art Biennale "The month-long event is scheduled to open January 18, 2005, in a range of state-owned art venues, including the Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the Central House of Artists, the Shchusev Architecture Musem and the Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art." Moscow Times 07/16/04
Posted: 07/18/2004 5:14 pm

Music

Summer Concert Ticket Sales Die Summer concert tickets aren't selling in the US. "People aren't buying tickets. For whatever reason, ticket sales dried up around the middle of April. According to a Pollstar analysis of the top 50 shows through June, gross revenue was up 11 percent to $753.5 million, but ticket sales were down 2 percent to 12.8 million, with prices up 13 percent. The average price of a ticket shot up from $26.05 in 1995 to $50.35 om 2003, according to Pollstar. Ticket prices have gone crazy -- very, very, very high, and nobody knows how to change that tide." Miami Herald (AP) 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 10:22 am

Elder Re-signs With Hallé Orchestra Conductor Mark Elder re-ups as music director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. "Elder, music director since 2000, is now acknowledged as the conductor who has probably established the closest rapport with the Hallé since Sir John Barbirolli led it to glory in the postwar years. He has won critical acclaim for his concerts in the Bridgewater Hall and for his recordings on the Hallé's own label." The Guardian (UK) 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 7:50 am

Inside The Philadelphia Orchestra's Contract Talks The Philadelphia Orchestra's negotiations over a new musicians' contract is contentious. Management wants to cut costs: "Among the options on the table is slashing the minimum salary for musicians by 10 percent, to about $95,000. Another is reducing the orchestra's size by 10 percent." The orcehstra also wants to do away with practices such as "paying players 701/2 and older both their $100,000-plus salaries and their $50,000-plus pensions. Management says there are 13 players in that category." Philadelphia Inquirer 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 7:43 am

When Elvis Costello Wrote For Orchestra Terry Teachout comes away impressed with Costello's skill with an orchestra. "It's not cut-rate Prokofiev or Bernstein, but a lively, ingratiating piece of mainstream modernism, with decorous snippets of symphonic rock and jazz thrown in from time to time to spice things up." About Last Night (AJBlogs) 07/18/04
Posted: 07/18/2004 9:53 pm

  • Costello's Ballet Score - Deeply Boring Alex Ross concedes that Costello's score shows evidence of technical skill. But he was deeply bored: "After half an hour, I did something I’ve never done in twelve years of reviewing concerts in New York: I got out a book and started to read. There was nothing for my brain to grasp on to — I felt like I was clawing the air and falling." The Rest Is Noise 07/18/04
    Posted: 07/18/2004 9:38 pm

Liverpool Orchestra Decides Not To Renew Music Director's Contract The Liverpool Philharmonic has decided not to renew music director Gerard Schwarz's co ntract. "The Philharmonic board's decision to terminate the existing contract two years before Liverpool becoming Capital of Culture has been condemned by politicians and funders." A few months ago the orchestra's musicians voted not to renew the contract. Liverpool Echo 07/16/04
Posted: 07/18/2004 9:03 pm

The Strads Are Coming, The Strads Are Coming... uh, Never Mind... Ontario's fledgling Stratford Summer Music Festival thought it had scored a coup when it signed up the Axelrod String Quartet to bring its matched set of Strads loaned by the Smithsonian. But then the deal came apart... Toronto Star 07/17/04
Posted: 07/18/2004 7:43 pm

The New Improved La Scala La Scala plans to reopen its newly-refurbished opera house this fall. "During our first year we shall give 185 performances. That is a lot when you consider the high quality of each work that we present and the number of rehearsals. With the technical possibilities that we now have we shall increase quantity while maintaining quality. Our new stage machinery is the most modern in the world. Until last year we needed hours or one or two days to shift scenery. Now it can be done immediately. You just push a button and it is done." BBC 07/17/04
Posted: 07/18/2004 5:20 pm

Arts Issues

The New Russian Censorship In Russia "a group of artists is being charged with 'inciting religious hatred' for lampooning religious ideology in a controversial exhibit. For the defendants, who face up to five years in prison if convicted, official reaction to the 'Caution: Religion' show, held at Moscow's Andrei Sakharov Museum last year, suggests the return of Soviet-style control - where dissent is quashed and policemen stand in for art critics. In place of the former Communist Party, they say, the Russian Orthodox Church is fast becoming the Kremlin's chief guardian of ideological purity." Christian Science Monitor 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 10:04 am

Orange County - A Fundraising Contradiction Southern California's Orange County Performing Arts Center, which "recently issued $180 million in bonds to ensure that an expansion is built on time despite lagging fundraising, announced Thursday that it had raised a record amount of money to support its operations in the last year. The seemingly contradictory news reflects the continued softness in high-end donations that have plagued arts groups nationwide in recent years." Los Angeles Times 07/18/04
Posted: 07/18/2004 8:43 pm

People

Conductor Carlos Kleiber, 74 According to this German website, the renowned conductor Carlos Kleiber has died at the age of 74. Sueddeutsche 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 10:26 am

John: America's Endangered Free Speech Elton John warns that free speech is endangered in the US. "The singer likened the current 'fear factor' to McCarthyism in the 1950s. 'There was a moment about a year ago when you couldn't say a word about anything in this country for fear of your career being shot down by people saying you are un-American'." BBC 07/17/04
Posted: 07/18/2004 5:28 pm

Sights On Celebrating Singer Celebration of the 100th birthday of Isaac Bashevis Singer has proven controversial. "While many consider him one of the best Jewish writers of all time, others in the Yiddish literary world see him as melodramatic, profane, and even unworthy of the Nobel Prize he received in 1978." Boston Globe 07/18/04
Posted: 07/18/2004 4:16 pm

Theatre

Duncan: Broadway Is Broken Sandy Duncan despairs over the state of the Broadway theatre business. "Once an industry run by producers with vision and heart, she says, Broadway has devolved into a business now run by 'money men who don't have an eye for the product. It used to be that producers would make a profit, with the idea that they would put that money into a new show. Now, they want to make a killing, and so they're flogging these shows into 10-, 12-, 14-year runs. It hurts the whole creative community'." St. Paul Pioneer-Press 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 9:35 am

Why The TV Star Got Fired From Sondheim Play Why did Saturday Night Live alum Chris Kattan get fired from Stephen Sondheim's "The Frogs" on Broadway? "The departure of Kattan from 'The Frogs' could be turned into a sort of morality tale — or fraught disaster movie. After all, what could have been more promising and foolproof than to be summoned, as he was, from Hollywood to Broadway by some of its most dazzling citizenry — multi-Tony winners Stroman and Lane, not to mention Sondheim? They invited him to take his first role on the stage." Los Angeles Times 07/18/04
Posted: 07/18/2004 9:10 pm

O'Neill Theatre Director Resigns "In an unexpected move, J Ranelli has resigned as artistic director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center a little more than half a year after he was named to the post at the 40-year-old Waterford, Conn., institution." Backstage 07/16/04
Posted: 07/18/2004 5:39 pm

Publishing

Poll: Agatha Christie Is Tops At Detective Fiction A British poll places Agatha Christie as the country's most popular detective story writer. "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, came second in the poll of 1,500 people, followed by the United States writer Patricia Cornwell, who was voted into third place for her novels about the forensic psychologist Kay Scarpetta." The Scotsman 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 9:19 am

'Lolita In Teheran' Is Not Current History Azar Nafisi's memoir 'Reading Lolita in Tehran' of life and book groups after the Iranian revolution may be a huge bestseller in the United States, but it has yet to be translated into Persian. As a result, almost no Iranians have even heard of the book. Fewer still have read it. Among those who have, however, reactions might fairly be described as mixed." Washington Post 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 8:42 am

Criticism As Blunt Force Trauma John Leonard is tired of Dale Peck. "This isn't criticism. It isn't even performance art. It's thuggee. However entertaining in small doses -- we are none of us immune to malice, envy, schadenfreude, a prurient snuffle and a sucker punch -- as a steady diet it's worse for readers, writers and reviewers than self-abuse; it causes the kind of tone-deaf, colorblind, nerve-damaged and gum-sore literary journalism that screams ''Look at me!'' The rain comes down -- and the worms come out -- and just what the culture doesn't need is one more hall monitor, bounty hunter or East German border guard." The New York Times 07/18/04
Posted: 07/18/2004 10:44 pm

The Poetry Police The secretive operators of the website Foetry (www.foetry.com), a self-described "American poetry watchdog," are out to clean up poetry. They promise, from behind a cloak of anonymity, to uncover scandals among the publishers of contemporary poetry, dishing dirt on "fraudulent `contests,"' as their homepage has it, "tracking the sycophants," "naming the names," and generally cleaning house. Boston Globe 07/18/04
Posted: 07/18/2004 4:12 pm

Media

Canada Carrying/Censoring Al-Jazeera "Last week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission decreed that Canadian cable and satellite operators could carry Al-Jazeera, along with eight other 'non-Canadian third-language services' as digital channels. However, concerns that Al-Jazeera would incite anti-Semitism, and air offensive and objectionable material, prompted the CRTC to insist that distributors of the news service monitor it for 'abusive comment' 24 hours a day." What kind of message does censoring the channel send when we proclaim our free press? The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 10:16 am

Marvel's Spidey Senses Are Tingling The legendary Marvel Comics, "which owns the rights to the Spider-Man character, has seen its fortunes soar from the "Spider-Man" movies. Over the last four years, thanks in large part to a steady stream of Spidey-related revenue, Marvel has gone from losing tens of millions of dollars a year to turning a profit of $152 million on revenue of $348 million in 2003." The New York Times 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 9:53 am

New High-Tech Kick For Arthouse Movie Theatres The new owners of Landmark Theatres art movie houses "plan to bring big-media ideas of vertical integration to the art house world. The new owners are importing digital technology to Landmark's 204 screens by equipping each of the 57 theaters in 21 markets with high-definition digital projection by year's end." The New York Times 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 9:50 am

Dance

Figuring Out The Royal Ballet "The impression I have of today’s Royal Ballet is that of a company that places its highest value on technical precision in the legs and feet, a prescribed sculptural eloquence in the port de bras, and gentleness and gentility even in the execution of bravura feats and the rendering of powerful emotions.  Other factors that one might look for in dancing—spontaneity, risk-taking, the projection of an individual stage temperament—are muted by some sort of consensus decision about dancing that the company has arrived at (no doubt, in part unconsciously).  As happens anywhere under these circumstances, only the great stars—the Darcy Bussells, the Alina Cojocarus—transcend the prevailing code of behavior.  What I wonder about the Royal is how many potential stars (I saw several, especially among the men) are being stifled by it." Seeing Things (AJBlogs) 07/18/04
Posted: 07/18/2004 8:54 pm

Dance Pioneer Bella Lewitzky Dies "Los Angeles-based modern dance pioneer Bella Lewitzky, who transformed herself from a powerhouse dancer into an indomitably independent, internationally known choreographer, master teacher and arts advocate, died Friday at an assisted-care facility in Pasadena. She was 88." Los Angeles Times 07/18/04
Posted: 07/18/2004 8:49 pm


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