Musicians: What We Think About File-Sharing A first-ever study of attitudes towards file-sharing records what musicians think about the issue: "Among the findings: artists are divided but on the whole not deeply concerned about online file-sharing. Only about half thought that sharing unauthorized copies of music and movies online should be illegal, for instance. And makers of file-sharing software like Kazaa and Grokster may be unnerved to learn that nearly two-thirds said such services should be held responsible for illegal file-swapping; only 15 percent held individual users responsible." The New York Times 12/06/04
Posted: 12/06/2004 8:11 am
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When Museum Trustees Collect Art For trustees of museums, "a reward of investing time and money is gaining proximity to art and artists. Critics say that can translate into financial advantage when the art is contemporary - if, for example, insiders buy pieces before they gain museum cachet, thus becoming more valuable." The New York Times 12/05/04
Posted: 12/06/2004 7:51 am
Five Years After The Millennium Dome London's Millennium Dome was one big spectacular failure. Five years later, the fortunes of those who were associated with the project are mixed. And the Dome itself is getting new life. It's being redeveloped into a "26,000- capacity venue that it promises will 'provide international acts and sports teams with arena facilities of a standard currently unseen in Europe' by 2007. The arena is also part of London's official bid for the Olympics in 2012. The Observer (UK) 12/05/04
Posted: 12/06/2004 7:42 am
Why Cambridge Is Getting Out Of The Architecture Business Cambridge is trying to close its architecture program. It's one of the top three in Britain, so the idea's perverse. And yet, changing requirements for how university schools must behave puts it in danger. "Architects have spent the best part of a century trying to be taken seriously and now the subject is being pushed into the second- or even the third-tier universities, as if it was catering or windsurfing. That is bad for architecture, bad for education and terrible for the quality of Britain's cities." The Observer (UK) 12/05/04
Posted: 12/06/2004 7:17 am
Art As Web Real Estate Buy one of artist Stephen Rumney's works and you get the image, a virtual image and a web address. His 'online art installations form part of his Domain Art exhibition. As well as the online image, the buyer becomes the legal owner of its integrated website address and an art gallery installation of the image." BBC 12/03/04
Posted: 12/05/2004 6:41 pm
Did Levers Move Rocks To Stonehenge? How did the giant stones get moved to Stonehenge? A new theory suggests levers. "They have tested his 'stone-rowing' theory which involves a 45-tonne stone being levered on a track of logs. It's akin to rowing a boat, weights can be picked up with levers using body mass and balance." BBC 12/03/04
Posted: 12/05/2004 6:38 pm
Reviving A City, The Boring Way When Ed Rendell became mayor of Philadelphia in the early 1990s, the city was at a civic and cultural low point, having seen its national reputation plummet in the previous two decades. Over his two terms as mayor, Rendell spearheaded a relentless drive to revive his city, and championed arts initiatives and building projects which he saw as essential to Philadelphia's future. But while the city's comeback has been remarkable, the buildings used to accomplish the feat are somewhat disappointing from an architectural standpoint. "Given a once-in-a-generation chance to distinguish itself with design, Philadelphia instead showed a preference for the prosaic." Philadelphia Inquirer 12/05/04
Posted: 12/05/2004 11:52 am
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The Mortier Era Begins In Paris "All of Paris had turned out to see the debut offering of the Paris Opera's new director, Gérard Mortier, and their curiosity was not entirely friendly. Operagoers are a conservative bunch, and the Belgian-born Mortier, who was appointed just a few months before, is widely regarded as a high-modernist provocateur. In an astonishingly short time, he had assembled his own repertory." New York Times Magazine 12/05/04
Posted: 12/06/2004 7:48 am
Debating La Scala's Makeover Remarkably, La Scala is reopening this week on time and within budget. It looks good, and the good acoustics have survived. "Continuity is the leitmotif of Tuesday's gala. The work chosen to reopen the theater is Antonio Salieri's "Europa Riconosciuta," the opera that inaugurated La Scala, in the presence of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, on Aug. 3, 1778. Clearly, the intended message is that La Scala is both modern and eternal. But now that the dust has settled, it's worth asking if the closure and the reconstruction were actually necessary." The New York Times 12/04/04
Posted: 12/05/2004 8:36 pm
In Praise Of No Big Ideas Is a Big Idea likely to dominate classical music in the next few years? Nope, says Kenneth LeFave. There are plenty of reasons why. "Styles tend to only separate men, because they have their own doctrines and then the doctrine became the gospel truth that you cannot change. But if you do not have a style, you just say: Well, here I am as a human being, how can I express myself totally and completely?" Arizona Republic 12/03/04
Posted: 12/05/2004 5:52 pm
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Why Copyright Matters America's major entertainment unions and associations are taking a hard line on copyright infringement. "The question is not whether the technology is good or bad -- it simply is. The question is how we create a model which allows consumers the widest access and choices while ensuring that individual artists can sustain a career and continue to create. It is easy to attack the 'establishment' and the litigation-based solutions they are employing to try and deal with piracy. What is harder is to reconcile the fact that free access has a direct link to loss of income for individual actors and recording artists which, in turn, can result in everything from the loss of health and retirement benefits to the inability to continue to support a family or pursue a chosen career. " Back Stage 12/03/04
Posted: 12/05/2004 8:57 pm
A Christmas Fantasy All these Christmas shows. Really. There are too many of them. And how can you see most of them in a busy season? So why not put them all on a rolling parade and let people sit in one place while their favorite festivities roll by. Let's call it "Let's Roll." Tom Proehl, organizer of "Let's Roll!" and managing director of the Guthrie Theater, said, "The aesthetic synergies and economies of scale will benefit both audiences and arts organizations alike. Instead of deciding which of the many holiday shows to see, patrons can get the best of the Twin Cities performing arts in one sitting." St. Paul Pioneer-Press 12/04/04
Posted: 12/05/2004 7:56 pm
Attack Of The Killer Logo The new Connecticut uber-agency on culture and tourism needed a logo. So a design firm came up with an abstract logo meant to evoke the agency's diverse mandate. Now there are big protests. "Instead of criticizing the art ("Have a conversation about art? Not me!") they attacked the cost. "This thing cost $10,000!" Of course, focusing on the final price tag disregards that such designs can cost much more (Hartford Stage's new logo went well above $10,000); that the fee included months of meetings with state committees; that this was a Connecticut designer with a world-class reputation giving a deep discount. Hartford Courant 12/04/04
Posted: 12/05/2004 6:53 pm
Beijing Bans Public Intellectuals "Late last month, reports began to surface on foreign newswires that hard-liners in the Chinese government had banned public discussion of thinkers and scholars guilty of taking "arrogant" (read: independent) positions on political and social affairs. In mid-November, Beijing's Publicity Department, which is responsible for "ideological control," issued an order to prohibit state-run newspapers, magazines, and TV stations from creating lists of such persons." Boston Globe 12/04/04
Posted: 12/05/2004 6:46 pm
Buenos Aries Regains Its Groove Buenos Aries had one of the world's great cultural scenes in the 1960s and 70s, seemingly pointing to better times ahead. "But the world did not take the turn they were all expecting for it to take. The times that followed were hard and painful. Dreams were trashed by the world's powerful. The following decades to this cultural impasse can be described as the entering into the system's main flow of mass production and consumption." Now there are signs that Buenos Aries is regaining its groove. Buzzle 12/02/04
Posted: 12/05/2004 6:09 pm
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Caryl Churchill - Plays That Speak For Themselves "In a world where serious playwrights constantly sit on panels, hold forth at academic conferences and appear on behalf of institutions like the British Council, Caryl Churchill remains a rare thing, a hugely successful playwright who lets her work speak entirely for itself."
The New York Times 12/05/04
Posted: 12/06/2004 7:54 am
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Jon Stewart Wins Book Of The Year Earlier this year TV critics named Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" the best newscast on TV. Now Publisher's Weekly has named his satirical book "America (the Book), a Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction," its book of the year. "The magazine said, in its issue to be published on Monday, that, 'in a year defined by political polemics, it seems fitting that PW's Book of the Year be one in which the authors survey the entire political system and laugh'." Yahoo! (Reuters) 12/04/04
Posted: 12/05/2004 7:48 pm
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Fox Appeals Record FCC Fines Fox TV appeals record $1.18 million FCC fines for "indecency" on one of its shows. "Fox said the show was not indecent, and it argues that over-the-air broadcasters are now treated as "second-class citizens" by a Federal Communications Commission that unfairly holds them but not their rivals to decency standards." The New York Times 12/03/04
Posted: 12/05/2004 5:59 pm
Powell: FCC Has To Step In On Broadcast Indecency Complaints FCC Chairman Michael Powell says chill. Take a breath. "We are not the federal Bureau of Indecency. We do not watch or listen to programs hoping to catch purveyors of dirty broadcasts. Instead, we rely on public complaints to point out potentially indecent shows. In recent years, complaints about television and radio broadcasts have skyrocketed, and the F.C.C. has stepped up its enforcement in response." The New York Times 12/03/04
Posted: 12/05/2004 5:56 pm
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Columbus Dance Fears Rockettes Columbus, Ohio's BalletMet had a hugely successful debut in New York recently, and artistically the company seems to be on a firm upward trajectory. But the company is anxious on its home turf about a threat to its annual cash cow Nutcracker. "The Rockettes’ impending Columbus debut has the folks at BalletMet fearing that seasonal audiences will opt for novel entertainment over a familiar hometown favorite." Columbus Monthly 12/04
Posted: 12/05/2004 6:02 pm
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