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Wednesday, November 24




Ideas

When Was America Turned Over To The Crackpots, Eh? As viewed from Canada, America's new morality crusade is not only pathetic and wrongheaded but maddening. "Religious right. Moral majority. Family values. Pick a catchphrase and behold the stupefying ascent of the shrill and pathetic, the petty and disconnected, the scolding band of castigators hellbent on telling others what they can watch and hear and even think... Who are these snivelling whiners? These self-righteous, holier-than-thou grumblers who have programmed 'FCC' into their speed dial?" Toronto Star 11/24/04
Posted: 11/24/2004 6:41 am

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Visual Arts

Corcorna Cancels Cuban Event "Amid questions about the propriety of the event, the Corcoran Gallery of Art yesterday abruptly postponed a cultural program it planned to sponsor next week in cooperation with Cuban diplomats." The gallery is claiming that timing issues were responsible for the cancellation, but pressure from the U.S. State Department may have played a role as well. Washington Post 11/24/04
Posted: 11/24/2004 6:45 am

An Alternative Universe View Of The New MoMA "We just had an election that turned, in part, on cultural values—and we Blue Staters lost! Now we have a new modern art museum with a $20 admission fee to divide us further. The paper called MoMA 'indispensable to our shared cultural legacy,' but there’s nothing 'shared' about the culture on view inside. If the dominant institution in the Red States is the church, then welcome to MoMA, where the Blue States pray! And what a cathedral to Blue State values it is! Looking around the new MoMA, all I saw was sex, death, longing, misery, anguish—and that’s just the café menu." Newsweek 11/22/04
Posted: 11/23/2004 4:48 pm

Italy Returning Obelisk To Ethiopia Italy is finally sending a stolen obelisk back to Ethiopia. "The monument is one of a group of six obelisks erected at Axum when Ethiopia adopted Christianity in the 4th century A.D. It was stolen by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1937 and turned into a symbol of fascist power during his short-lived efforts to revive the grandeur of imperial Rome. Despite signing various agreements that promised to return the 1,700-year-old monument, the Italian government showed no signs of doing so until the obelisk was badly damaged by lightning in a thunderstorm in 2003." Discovery 11/22/04
Posted: 11/23/2004 4:17 pm

Indian Museum Off To Good Start In its first month of operation the new National Museum of the American Indian attracted 275,400 visitors. "If that pace continues, the museum is likely to attract about 4.2 million people in its first year. That is in line with the low end of its curators' original estimates. At the time of its opening in September, they projected that the museum would attract 4 million to 6 million people and instituted a system of timed passes to spread out the crowds." Washington Post 11/23/04
Posted: 11/23/2004 10:23 am

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Music

NY City Opera Has New Chief New York's City Opera has elevated its development director to the post of executive director. Jane Gullong's ascension displaces Sherwin Goldman, who will remain with the company and dedicate himself full-time to the daunting task of finding the company a new home. City Opera had hoped to be the anchoring arts tenant of the new Freedom Tower at Ground Zero, but its application was turned down. The company is denying rumors that Goldman was forced out of the top job by the board. The New York Times 11/24/04
Posted: 11/24/2004 6:27 am

You Only Think You Don't Like Classical Music Enrique Fernandez is the new classical music critic of the Miami Herald. This is a tricky job, since South Florida lost its symphony orchestra a year ago, its classical radio station this year, and shows very little interest in the form at all. And after all, when serious music is rejected by the community, isn't that reason enough to just let it die a quiet death? Not a chance, says the critic: "What [we love] best in [our] native traditions is, indeed, classical. Classical in its strict rules, like the rumba of the Afro-Cubans from the province of Matanzas, polyrhythms of a Bachian or Mozartian complexity. Or classical because it was infused with European classicism, like the woodwinds and strings of the danzón -- a genre that would lead to the mambo and the cha-cha-chá." Miami Herald 11/21/04
Posted: 11/24/2004 6:15 am

A Shining Ring, But Most Will Never See It The Adelaide Ring is beginning its second weeklong run of Wagner's four massive operas, and by all accounts, this is a Ring for the ages, both musically and visually. So how can it be possible that no audiovisual record is being made of its existence? Yes, a complete CD set is planned, but opera (particularly Wagner) is more than just notes, and needs the impact of its staging to be fully appreciated. The sad truth seems to be that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's director of television has no use for opera, and has declined all offers to broadcast or even record it. Sydney Morning Herald 11/25/04
Posted: 11/24/2004 5:27 am

NZ Symphony Wants Funding Boost The New Zealand Symphony says it needs an extra $1.5 million a year from the government to stay healthy. The orchestra already gets $10 million/year in government subsidy. Last year it predicted it would earn a small surplus. It has recorded a $140,000 deficit and fears losses could increase to $1.3 million by 2006-07. New Zealand Herald 11/24/04
Posted: 11/23/2004 8:24 pm

Coming To A Phone Near You - Beethoven Boosey & Hawkes, the world's largest classical music publisher has signed a deal to license classical music to mobile phone networks and ringtone retailers. "Several hundred classical hits will be available as ringtones, including Stravinsky's Petrushka and, at the more popular endof the classical spectrum, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite or Danny Boy. Ringtone sales account for about 10% of the $32bn (£17bn) global record market and are forecast to grow to $5.2bn by 2006." The Guardian (UK) 11/23/04
Posted: 11/23/2004 5:41 pm

NJ Schools Ban "Messiah" Performances A New Jersey school district has banned schools from performing religious music. "The district has banned students from performing music related to any religious holiday — defeating the purpose of the schools' traditional 'holiday concerts'." New York Post 11/19/04
Posted: 11/23/2004 10:48 am

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Arts Issues

America's Biggest Philanthropists Arts groups may have a tough time prying much money out of the government these days, but 2004 has been a record year for private giving, with enormous single gifts dominating the philanthropic landscape. The biggest donors of the year were Bill & Melinda Gates, who pumped a whopping $3 billion into their own foundation, and while most of the truly outsized gifts went to universities and foundations, arts groups got their share of the largesse as well. Business Week 11/29/04
Posted: 11/24/2004 5:55 am

The Culture Wars - Back To The 80s The culture wars are heating up again, and it's depressing to think we'll be refighting battles of the 80s (shouldn't that be 50's? or 1850s...?) "The danger of the return of the culture war is not only the damage that the right will inflict, but also artists' responses. I dread a new round of right-wing-baiting art and its cycle of abuse. Art lobs a spit ball and the firestorm of outrage arrives right on schedule, followed by lame dodges." The Stranger (Seattle) 11/23/04
Posted: 11/23/2004 6:10 pm

Saratoga Center Dinged For Poor Management The Saratoga Performing Arts Center, which last summer tried to end a longstanding summer residency by New York City Ballet, has been cited for bad management by an audit of the organization. "Over the last few years, the Saratoga arts center has struggled with an annual deficit of $400,000 to $500,000 on an operating budget of $13 million and been forced to dip into its $7 million endowment to cover operating expenses." The New York Times 11/23/04
Posted: 11/23/2004 9:20 am

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People

Zeffirelli To Be Sir Franco Italian director Franco Zeffirelli is being awarded a British knighthood. Though Zeffirelli is being commended for his "valuable services to British performing arts", his knighthood will further tighten already close relations between Tony Blair's government and that of Silvio Berlusconi. The Guardian (UK) 11/24/04
Posted: 11/23/2004 8:48 pm

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Theatre

Broadway Stagehands Reach A Deal "After an all-night negotiating session, Broadway's stagehands and producers reached an agreement early yesterday on a new three-year contract. The deal is the latest between producers and the theater industry's three major unions, effectively assuring labor peace on Broadway at least through the spring of 2007." The New York Times 11/24/04
Posted: 11/24/2004 6:25 am

Public Cheers For Eustis Oskar Eustis is being cheered as new director of New York's Public Theatre. "Though he has a long and impressive résumé of staging both classic and contemporary drama, Eustis has built his career away from the New York spotlight, which explains why he's best known here as the genius who fostered Tony Kushner's epic Angels in America. A chorus of praise has risen from playwriting quarters at the news of his appointment." Village Voice 11/23/04
Posted: 11/23/2004 5:26 pm

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Publishing

Borders Reluctantly Signs Union Deal A Borders bookstore in Minneapolis has approved a new union contract for its workers. The move is significant because the outlet is only the second Borders store in the country to go union, and the contract comes more than two years after workers had initially voted to unionize. During the interim, the workers who organized the union drive quit in disgust and the company was accused of trying to break the workers' resolve through intimidation. Now, the hope from the union is that the contract will provide it an opening into other area booksellers. City Pages (Minneapolis/St. Paul) 11/24/04
Posted: 11/24/2004 6:48 am

In Search Of Stories Where is the best storytelling today? Not in books, alas. "In the cinema, a core of narrative innocence survives across a spectrum of values represented by Spielberg at one end and Abbas Kiarostami at the other. In the novel, however, story has gone down in a blaze of modernist attitudes." Prospect 11/04
Posted: 11/23/2004 9:21 pm

Neal Pollack's Bad Book Tour Neal Pollack says writers have little if any voice in America these days. "Do you have any clue as to the monumental public indifference that awaits the average author on the American road? Writers get less respect in this country than people who eat live bugs on television for money! I just got off three-plus weeks on tour, and I was lucky to get an audience of 15 people--in blue states. It took everything I had just to get someone to buy a copy of my stupid book, much less bring about a permanent transformation of American politics." The Stranger (Seattle) 11/23/04
Posted: 11/23/2004 6:06 pm

Lit Idol Want to be a literary star? Lit Idol is based on the format of TV's Pop Idol. "Writers must submit up to 10,000 words from the opening chapters of their novels and a synopsis. Professional readers will choose a shortlist of five following the competition closing date on 14 January. The final five will then have to read their work in front of judging panel. A public vote will also take place, which will account for 25% of the final decision." BBC 11/22/04
Posted: 11/23/2004 10:54 am

Cleaning Up After Devastating Book Fire Restorers are working on 62,000 heavily damaged rare books from a fire at the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar in September. "About 10 percent of the library's collection of a million books has been irreparably damaged, library officials say. But the 600-piece Bible collection, including Martin Luther's 1534 copy, and the huge Faust and Shakespeare collections have been saved or only slightly damaged. And between 25,000 and 30,000 other rare books are presumed lost, listed like missing persons in a databank on the library's Web site." The New York Times 11/20/04
Posted: 11/23/2004 10:43 am

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Media

Viacom Bows To The FCC Altar The media giant Viacom, which owns CBS, UPN, and Infinity Radio, among other properties, has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle a raft of "indecency" charges brought by the newly prickly Federal Communications Commission. "The consent decree with the Federal Communications Commission resolves, among other things, complaints about shock jock Howard Stern and the radio team of Greg 'Opie' Hughes and Anthony Cumia." More significant than the fine, which won't hurt Viacom much at all, are the non-monetary elements of the consent decree, under which Viacom has agreed to install delay equipment in its radio stations, and to immediately suspend any employee the FCC accuses of indecency in the future. Chicago Tribune 11/24/04
Posted: 11/24/2004 5:17 am

Pirate-Abetting Will Now Cost You $150,000 Per Movie A Hollywood actor has been fined $300,000 in a court case brought by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences after two "screeners" (preview copies of Oscar-nominated films sent to voters) he was given by the Academy turned up on the Internet. The lawsuit was filed last year by Warner Bros. against actor Carmine Caridi, whose distribution of the tapes initially led to the Academy's short-lived ban on screeners. BBC 11/24/04
Posted: 11/24/2004 5:09 am

Indecent Indecency Debate "Since Nov. 2, the battle over indecency on the airwaves has been elevated to a level that suggests the issue was more than election-year pandering. The emphasis on values that helped re-elect President Bush is, to some, endorsement for a crusade that may eclipse the one against terrorism in Iraq. But so far, what's most immoral is the spectacle of politicians and special-interest groups trying to hide all the contradictions inherent in deciding what's too dirty for America and using it as a distraction to cover the bigger threat of media consolidation." Seattle Times 11/23/04
Posted: 11/23/2004 10:30 am

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Dance

Blow Out The Candles & Kiss Your Career Goodbye Age is a cruel mistress in the dance world, and for Martine Lemy, principal ballerina of Canada's National Ballet, a fortieth birthday spells the end of a career. "Just when she is feeling at her most healthy, both physically and emotionally, she is giving up her principal-dancer contract and leaving the company at the end of this season." The issue isn't whether she can still dance - she can - but for how long she can dance. Lemy had already taken herself out of the company's longest productions due to decreasing stamina, "which makes her a financial liability to a cash-poor company." She offered to come back for less money, but the company declined the offer. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/24/04
Posted: 11/24/2004 6:02 am

Chicago Troupe Loses Five "Five veteran performers -- nearly one fourth of the troupe -- are leaving Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and will not be on hand for Hubbard's spring engagement. They are among the company's best and brightest, and they're leaving for a variety of reasons, some of them moving into other fields... The changes represent the most dramatic shift in troupe personnel since the arrival of Jim Vincent as artistic director in 2000." Chicago Tribune 11/24/04
Posted: 11/24/2004 5:49 am

Defecting From Havana Forty-three members of the Cuban dance troupe Havana Night Club defected last week in Las Vegas. "The decision to defect didn't come easily or suddenly, but it was almost unanimous - with just three of the dancers saying they may want to go back to Cuba. The reasons involve freedom and opportunity, but this mass defection also hinged on their close kinship as a troupe and a rebuff from the Cuban government." Christian Science Monitor 11/23/04
Posted: 11/23/2004 9:59 pm

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