Culture Front & The Cold War During the Cold War, both sides declared culture would be one of the primary battle fronts. "In many ways Cold War cultural production was ideologically driven to a degree not seen before or since. The era thus offers an especially productive field for examining the relationship between culture and ideology—between art and politics. But there are dangers as well..." Boston Review 10/04
Posted: 10/25/2004 5:33 pm
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SFMoMA, Hirshhorn Team Up To Buy Hill As acquisition budgets get leaner, museums are teaming up to buy art. "The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has just announced an agreement with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington to purchase jointly a major work by Seattle video artist Gary Hill." San Francisco Chronicle 10/26/04
Posted: 10/26/2004 8:13 am
Worcester Museum Settles Discrimination Lawsuit The Worcester Art Museum in Massachsetts has agreed to pay $60,000 to settle an anti-discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of a Muslim man who was fired after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Worcester Telegram & Gazette 10/26/04
Posted: 10/26/2004 8:07 am
No Progress Tracking Down "Scream" Police are no closer in the investigation to recover two paintings by Edvard Munch from the Munch Museum in Oslo. And the museum remains closed "indefinitely" while new security systems are being installed. "There haven't been any arrests in the case, nor have any charges been filed." Aftenposten 10/26/04
Posted: 10/26/2004 6:57 am
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Belfast Opera House To Get Facelift The Belfast Opera House - the city's most prominent theatre - has been granted approval for a makeover that will update the building to accomodate modern productions and audiences... Eircom.net 10/26/04
Posted: 10/26/2004 6:54 am
Rapping The Political Front Rap is popular all over the world, where it has been adapted into local cultures. "The rap form allows a powerful voice for political invective, and is being used on both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The appeal of hip-hop has found a voice in the alienated Arab-Israeli/Palestinian communities within Israel, dominated by the Jewish majority and identifying with the sentiments of US rappers in their struggle against discrimination." The Guardian (UK) 10/25/04
Posted: 10/25/2004 10:23 pm
A Gaddafi Opera? "The dance-hip-hop collective, Asian Dub Foundation, is planning a production of Gaddafi (working title), due for February 2006, with a rapper playing Gaddafi and a chorus comprised of his all-female cohort of bodyguards. Why is it that The Producers springs to mind with visions of Gaddafi’s bodyguards instead of Gestapo lovelies goosestepping à la Busby Berkeley?" The Scotsman 10/25/04
Posted: 10/25/2004 9:49 pm
Downloading Flourishes Despite Industry Lawsuits In the past year, the recording industry has sued thousands of music downloaders for copyright infringement. "Previous studies reported that music downloading dropped as much as 50 percent after the RIAA started suing individual file traders." But a new study says that's not true. Indeed, file-trading is flourishing... Wired 10/15/04
Posted: 10/25/2004 5:43 pm
Davis: What's Up With The Levine Hype? Peter G. Davis marvels at the James Levine phenomenon: "Not since the days of Arturo Toscanini has a conductor been so extolled in the local press as a musician without flaw." But Davis wonders why: "Despite his ubiquity, Levine’s musical personality remains, for some of us at least, just as mysterious as his private nature. I’ve read the raves over the years, but I can’t recall one that attempted to describe, let alone analyze, the specific nature of his interpretive aims and how they change our perception of the music." New York Magazine 10/25/04
Posted: 10/25/2004 5:10 pm
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Robert Merrill, 85 Singer Robert Merrill, who had a long career singing opera, but was more widely known for singing the national anthem at New York Yankee games, has died. "Clad in a pinstriped shirt and a tattered Yankees necktie, Merrill sang the national anthem at the Yankees' season opener for three decades, beginning in 1969." New York Daily News 10/26/04
Posted: 10/26/2004 6:50 am
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Will Mary Poppins Be Mackintosh's Ticket Back? Producer Cameron Mackintosh is trying to hit another home run with a production of "Mary Poppins". It contains songs from the old Disney movie plus some new music. "The oft-predicted demise of the blockbuster musical is still a long way off, the impresario, unsurprisingly, believes. 'The only thing that really changes is the writers. The profession can often be wrong about what the audience wants, but then someone will come up with something different'." Glasgow Herald 10/26/04
Posted: 10/26/2004 7:38 am
Slipping Ticket Sales At Glaggow Theatre Has Arts Council Asking Questions When the success of your theatre is based on how many tickets you sold, it can be bad when attendance declines. Glasgow's Citizens Theatre has a new director, and ticket sales are down 4,000 over the previous season. So now the Scottish Arts Council is "eyeing falling audience figures at Glasgow’s Citizens’ Theatre, amid concerns over whether the company is delivering value for money." The Citizen receives an arts council grant of £910,000 a year, more than any other theatre in Scotland. It pulls in another £425,000 from Glasgow City Council. The Scotsman 10/25/04
Posted: 10/25/2004 9:43 pm
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UK Government Tries To Turn Around Public Libraries Faced with a declining number of users at public libraries the UK government is drafting rules for libraries to beef up their collections. "The official standard will require libraries to buy 216 new items per thousand of the population they serve each year. The word item covers CDs, DVDs and other materials, but chiefly means books. The standards will also say that stock should be replaced when it is no more than 6.7 years old. There are no rules on these points at present, but many local library authorities are understood to be below the targets." The Guardian (UK) 10/25/04
Posted: 10/25/2004 10:33 pm
Randomly Poetic (In Canada) This week is "Random Acts Of Poetry Week" in Canada. "From Newfoundland to British Columbia, published poets in 17 cities will be popping into parks, hair salons, cafés, supermarkets, libraries and wherever else tickles their fancy to delight randomly chosen strangers with bursts of poetry." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/25/04
Posted: 10/25/2004 9:52 pm
Is American History-Writing Broken? Charles Hoffer writes that the field of American history is "two-faced - split between celebratory popularizers who often value rousing narrative over scholarly rigor and academic specialists whose jargon-riddled, often dour monographs ignore the ordinary reader. Meanwhile, Hoffer accuses the American Historical Association (AHA), where he has served as an adviser on plagiarism and a member of its professional standards division, of abdicating its responsibility to enforce basic scholarly principles in both realms." Boston Globe 10/24/04
Posted: 10/25/2004 5:38 pm
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Awe Of The New Why is it that people pay so much attention to the new piece on a program rather than the tried and true classics? And yet, where is the quality? Seeing Things (AJBlogs) 10/26-04
Posted: 10/25/2004 11:14 pm
The Royal Ballet's Star Opposites Great partnerships in ballet are sometimes the product of complementary opposites. "Now the fans are out, arguing again, defending the transcendence of either Alina Cojocaru or Tamara Rojo – pure and sensual, the one who floats when she jumps, the other who strikes sparks when she spins, the dancer's dancer and the woman who dances." The Telegraph (UK) 10/25/04
Posted: 10/25/2004 10:51 pm
