Looking Inside The Head (How It Works) New medical scans are showing the relationship between thinking, emotions and the brain. "It can show, for example, the parts of the brain that operate when we fall in love and when we have food cravings. It has even recently revealed the differences in the brains of Democrats and Republicans. But the technique also holds out the promise of answering deep questions about our most cherished human characteristics. For example, do we have an inbuilt moral sense, or do we learn what is right and wrong as we grow up? And which is stronger: emotions or logic?" Wired 11/21/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 1:00 pm
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Cincinnati Gets A Renoir The Cincinnati Museum of Art has acquired its first Renoir -Brouillard a Guernsey" ("Fog at Guernsey") - the most expensive art the museum has ever bought. "The painting fills a gap in the museum's Impressionist collection. 'We have a lovely collection of Impressionists -- Pissarro, Monet, Sisley -- but Renoir was conspicuous in his absence'." Cincinnati Enquirer 11/19/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 11:42 am
The American Indian Story In Its Own Way If you're looking for a traditional art museum experience, the new National Museum of the American Indian is probably not the place for you. But "visitors not conditioned by art-museum preconceptions begin to feel the stirrings of Indian spirit as soon as they enter the museum's majestic 120-foot-high rotunda." Wall Street Journal 11/18/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 11:39 am
Attention Thieves: Art Is Where The Money Is If you're a thief, maybe banks aren't the place you want to hit these days. Art is where the money is. "The worldwide market in stolen art and collectibles is worth an estimated $4 billion, according to Scotland Yard." CNNMoney 11/20/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 11:31 am
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Searching For Vivaldi Surprisingly, there is still much Vivaldi waiting to be rediscovered. But "Vivaldian detective work these days is done not just by mainstream scholars but also by mavericks, on the fringes of the academic world. And against all odds, it's mavericks who have made the most noise recently in two definitely curious finds." The New York Times 11/21/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 12:51 pm
National Symphony Signs New Contract Washington DC's National Symphony has a new four-year contract with its musicians. "The base weekly pay will remain at $1,844 for the first six months of the new agreement (retroactive to September), rising to $2,077 by the last year. (This is a minimum, with many musicians making considerably more; the orchestra's concertmaster, Nurit Bar-Josef, earns more than $300,000 a year.) NSO musicians agreed to assume greater responsibility for health insurance costs." Washington Post 11/20/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 12:38 pm
A New Blueprint For The Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra's new contract with musicians is an interesting document. "The three-year labor contract negotiated by Mayor Street and approved last night by orchestra musicians not only stipulates the usual salaries and health-care benefits but it also provides a blueprint for enormous change, laying out more clearly than ever who the orchestra sees as its constituents." Philadelphia Inquirer 11/21/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 12:27 pm
- Dobrin: Retiring From An Orchestra Is Matter Of Conscience Retirement from a symphony orchestra is a tough thing. How do you know when it's time to go? asks Peter Dobrin. But there are musicians in the Philadelphia Orchestra who are there and need to understand that. "Once again, the orchestra finds itself in need of family therapy. In this nasty contract fight, management and players once again hardened their positions as adversaries. Resistance to retirement has emerged as an act of protest, at least so far. But musicians should remember that their most solemn responsibility is to the art form, and sometimes that means knowing just the right moment to sound the swan song." Philadelphia Inquirer 11/21/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 12:23 pm
Study: Music Education's Startling Decline In California Music education is down by one third in four years in San Diego, says a new study. "Music's mortality rate is even greater statewide. Enrollment in music classes is down 50 percent from 1999-2000 to last school year. There are two major causes. One is money. Some local school boards have eliminated music teachers as part of millions of dollars in budget cuts. The second is pressure to raise test scores, which has prompted educators to add extra reading and math classes that crowd electives out of school schedules." San Diego Union-Tribune 11/19/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 11:05 am
- Opera Class Between Basketball And Football Every week teens from all over the Bay Area head to opera class after school. "The Bay Area's only teen opera training program to put on full-scale productions during the school year attracts dozens of 13- to 19-year-old participants from San Jose to San Leandro. These budding baritones and sopranos aren't your stereotypical glee club or drama class devotees. One-fourth of the cast dashes between school sporting events and stage rehearsals." San Jose Mercury-News 11/21/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 11:04 am
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A Culture Of Culture What does it take to have a thriving arts community? Well, money of course, but there's a whole culture of support that distinguishes a city that works culturally. Take Cleveland, for example... The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 11/21/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 9:17 am
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In Praise Of Nevada's Non-Poet Poet Laureate Nevad's official Poet Laureate hasn't performed an official function for years. So the Nevada Arts Council wants to appoint a new poet to the job. Some disagree with the idea. "Norman Kaye may be an 82-year-old real estate agent who gave up the showbiz life more than 40 years ago. He may be completely ignorant of poetic sensibility and device. He may be unable to travel, to communicate with the kiddies about the importance or even the structure of poetry. But Norman Kaye is rightfully a legendary Nevadan who, in desperately clinging to some modicum of past glory by fighting for his right to stay poet laureate, embodies the poetry of this place." Las Vegas Mercury 11/18/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 11:56 am
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The Myths Of Demise of The Women's Review Of Books So the Women's Review of Books is fading into history. Was it inevitable, given the times? That's too pat an explanation, writes former WRB senior editor Lynn Walterick. "In the post–November 2 United States—and certainly earlier––dialogue, reasonable disagreement, and discovery appear to have joined the ranks of endangered species. Difference is under siege; choice—on all fronts—has disappeared, is declining, or is shadowed by threat. This is no time to leave the line of battle for the bottom line." MobyLives 11/18/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 11:50 am
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Experts To US Senate: Internet Porn Is Worse Than Crack Witnesses before a US Senate committee testified that internet pornography is the "most concerning thing to psychological health that I know of existing today. The internet is a perfect drug delivery system because you are anonymous, aroused and have role models for these behaviors. To have drug pumped into your house 24/7, free, and children know how to use it better than grown-ups know how to use it -- it's a perfect delivery system if we want to have a whole generation of young addicts who will never have the drug out of their mind." Wired 11/20/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 1:07 pm
The Pathetic Ill-Informed Michael Powell Why is Michael Powell still leading the Federal Communications Commission? He's a disaster. "Pompous and imperious, an ideologue who believes unfailingly in his own philosophy of how TV and radio should work (the FCC also has domain over telephone and emerging broadband technologies), Powell ignores or condemns anyone who opposes him. Though FCC chairmen have labored mostly in obscurity, Powell has managed to make himself famous; he's the Torquemada of the insane campaign now being waged against "obscenity" on the airwaves." Washington Post 11/21/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 12:35 pm
WNET-TV Won't Show "Kinsey" Promo WNET-TV in New York has declined to air a promo for a film on sex researcher Alex Kinsey. Conservative groups have attacked the film, which they say glorifies the researcher. Fox Searchlight marketing chief Nancy Utley said: "New York is the most sophisticated city in the country. It would never occur to me that a censorship issue would come up in New York." BBC 11/21/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 12:14 pm
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Backstage At The Nutcracker "Nutcracker" has been a staple of City Ballet's winter season for half a century now. For the stagehands, that's 50 years of exploding the Stahlbaums' living room in all directions; of hoisting the Christmas tree from a trap beneath the stage - higher, higher - until it has grown to mammoth proportions; of dropping a blizzard of white confetti on the leaping Snowflakes from the flies overhead. And then sweeping it up." The New York Times 11/21/04
Posted: 11/21/2004 12:56 pm
