The Unforgivable Sin Of Noticing Beauty "New York Times dance critic John Rockwell kicked up a minor tempest recently when he wrote, of ballet dancers, that 'looks do count: for dramatic verisimilitude, for romantic illusion, for box-office excitement.' That such self-evident assertions would register as controversial says something about where we are these days in our unsettled view of beauty. The dissonance in the culture runs deep. We tend to look at exquisite dancers, fashion models, gorgeous movie stars, even particularly lovely people in daily life as a slightly different species, part idols and part freaks who occupy an alternative plane... We see beauty as a trick in some ways, a genetic ruse paired with the money, privilege and private trainers to cultivate it." San Francisco Chronicle 03/03/05
Posted: 03/03/2005 6:47 am
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Are The Nouveau Riche Ruining The Art Market? Art has always been a popular preoccupation amongst Wall Street's more successful high rollers, and a new generation of newly minted billionaires is making a significant mark on the collecting scene. In fact, some of the most aggressive specimens amongst the new breed of collectors are willing to pay almost any price for a piece they've set their sights on, and that is leading to accusations that such newcomers are creating an artificially inflated market for high-end art, and purchasing works more as trophies than anything else. The New York Times 03/03/05
Posted: 03/03/2005 6:27 am
See It, Feel It, Touch It - Art For The Blind Shouldn't blind people have art too? "Sense & Sensuality, at the Royal College of Art, is the first in a planned annual art competition and exhibition open equally to sighted and unsighted artists and launched by the new charity BlindArt. The charity has ambitious plans for a permanent national collection of art which can be stroked and listened to as well as looked at, equally enjoyable to sighted and blind and indeed to anyone in a wheelchair or with a disability that can make visiting galleries a nightmare." The Guardian (UK) 03/02/05
Posted: 03/02/2005 7:34 pm
New (Positive!) Art Magazine Launches In China A new art magazine is launching in China. Called "Art", it will (promises its editors) be full of articles that "will be neutral and objective on the assessment of art works, while closely monitoring the movements of art market." Will it be readable? "The magazine will adopt a simple and vivid style," we're assured.
China View (Xinhua) 03/02/05
Posted: 03/02/2005 7:28 pm
UK Police Bust Major Art Theft Ring UK police have busted an art theft ring responsible for millions of pounds of art thefts from homes and galleries in the past few years. Two men and a woman have been arrested and half a million pounds worth of stolen art recovered from the Flogg It auction house in east London and several other premises. But art worth some 30 million pounds taken in thefts over the past two years was still missing." The Guardian (UK) 03/03/05
Posted: 03/02/2005 7:15 pm
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Perhaps They're All A Bunch Of Godless Heathens Christian rock is hot these days, with touring bands strumming for Jesus at sold-out arenas and stadiums across the US. But in San Francisco, the country's fourth-largest city, the audience for Christian rock is so small that the tours don't even bother to stop there. This is a city that is not used to being ignored by any slice of the American culture pie, even if the values of said slice seem a bit at odds with San Francisco's classically leftist vibe. The irony is that the Bay Area actually helped jumpstart the Christian music revolution a couple of decades back. San Francisco Chronicle 03/03/05
Posted: 03/03/2005 5:39 am
And Coming Soon, The NY Phil Plays Ringtones! Movie music has long been featured in the concert hall, with the lush scores of John Williams and the jazzy instrumentals of Henry Mancini dovetailing nicely with much of the classical repertoire. But video game scores? Believe it or not, game companies are hiring composers to write serious music for their epic adventures, and orchestras are beginning to program them. Is it a gimmick designed to attract new audiences? Sure. Does the score to Final Fantasy VI stack up to Beethoven? No. But the concerts have been a hit, especially with young people, and no one needs to tell American orchestras how hard it is to snare that particular demographic... San Jose Mercury News 03/03/05
Posted: 03/03/2005 5:17 am
C-sharp Minor: Looks Like Red, But Tastes Like Ice Cream "A Swiss musician sees colours when she hears music, and experiences tastes ranging from sour and bitter to low-fat cream and mown grass, astounded scientists say. Zurich University neuropsychologists were so intrigued by the case of ES, a 27-year-old professional musician whose full name has been withheld, that they recruited her for a year-long inquiry. They say she is the world's most extreme known case of synaesthesia, the phenomenon whereby hearing music triggers a response in other sensory organs." Hindustan Times (Agence France-Presse) 03/02/05
Posted: 03/03/2005 5:12 am
Queen Announces New Music Prize Quen Elizabeth believes her musical tastes have been unfairly disparaged. "We are not philistines. Philip and I are interested in music and we've had this terrible press," she says. So she's announced a new music prize: the Queen's Medal for Music. "To be awarded on St Cecilia's day, November 22, the winner will be someone who has had a "major influence on the musical life of the nation", and may be of any nationality. St Cecilia is the patron saint of music." The Guardian (UK) 03/03/05
Posted: 03/02/2005 8:15 pm
Yet Another Musician Starts His Own Label "Composer Michael Nyman is mounting a challenge to the record industry with the launch next month of his own label, MN Records. Citing frustration with the major labels that have released his work, Nyman will inaugurate the imprint with a solo piano album." The Guardian (UK) 03/03/05
Posted: 03/02/2005 8:07 pm
La Scala's Woes Deepen (Why, It's Operatic!) "La Scala is being paralysed by a crisis of Verdian theatricality that has led to rebellion and strikes, and is now prompting a head on clash between two of the titans of contemporary opera.
From his tranquil villa-cum-studio near Rome, Franco Zeffirelli has watched the goings-on in Milan with growing alarm..." The Guardian (UK) 03/03/05
Posted: 03/02/2005 8:01 pm
Euopean Musicians Want US Royalties Paid "According to the European Commission, musicians are losing up to $25 million a year in revenue as a result of the USA’s ongoing failure to comply with copyright obligations established with fellow members of the World Trade Organisation. Now British Music Rights, the national umbrella group representing composers, songwriters and publishers, has begun lobbying the UK government to ensure that British artists receive a fair deal when their music is played across the Atlantic." Stakes (UK) 03/02/05
Posted: 03/02/2005 7:23 pm
Auckland Orchestra's Dire Straits The Auckland (NZ) Philharmonia is in terrible shape. And the woes don't just extend to funding. "According to a consultant's report, it is wracked by internal conflict "verging on dysfunctionality". All in all, the Philharmonia's 25th year has become far from the celebratory occasion it should be. It need not have been this way. The orchestra's funding difficulties can be laid, in large part, at the door of miserly local authorities." New Zealand Herald 03/02/05
Posted: 03/02/2005 7:19 pm
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How The Arts Could Learn From WalMart It may not be the most socially responsible company on the planet, but WalMart has a profound understanding of the science of pricing and how it affects consumers. AJ Blogger Andrew Taylor suggests that arts organizations, which are forever being blasted for high ticket prices, could learn a thing or two from the world's largest retailer: "It is interesting to consider what elements of price are in the minds of our audiences, and how we can scale our pricing (both up and down) to shape their on-going dance of cost and value." The Artful Manager (AJ Blogs) 03/02/05
Posted: 03/03/2005 6:54 am
But Hey, As Long As The Pariots Got Their New Stadium... Arts advocates in Massachusetts have staged a rally at the state capitol to demand that the state's arts council be restored to full funding after two years of draconian cuts. Massachusetts's annual spending on the arts has dropped 56% since 2001, as lawmakers struggled to balance the budget. Meanwhile, demand for state grants is way up, with local arts councils receiving proposals totalling four times the amount of money available. The Republican (Springfield, MA) 03/03/05
Posted: 03/03/2005 5:27 am
Edinburgh Gets Out Of The Cheap Ticket Business The Edinburgh Festival is abandoning its late night cheap performances. Why? Because they're too cheap. The £5 ticket price for the series known as Royal Bank Lates, which last year featured such artists as singers Ian Bostridge and Simon Keenlyside, "undermines the value of the events", according to a spokeswoman. "They are too cheap. There is a reasonable price for these things and it's more than £5." The Guardian (UK) 03/03/05
Posted: 03/02/2005 8:03 pm
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Can The Buying Power Of Women Save Broadway? "It's no secret women buy more theater tickets than men. During the 2003-04 season, 63 percent of the Broadway audience was female," but historically, Broadway hasn't made many special attempts to tailor its productions to the specific interests of women. That's starting to change, though, as adolescent girls become an increasingly devoted audience, and women continue to ramp up their buying power as a whole. Chicago Tribune (AP) 03/03/05
Posted: 03/03/2005 6:10 am
A Plan For Low-Cost Electricity For Broadway A bill in the New York State legislature would provide for cheaper electricity for Broadway theatres. "It's hard to know what the savings would be because it's based on usage. So up-to-date theatres' energy costs would be less than those of older theatres. The money involved across the board would be substantial. We don't do anything for Broadway enterprises the way we do for professional sports. It's nutty. It matters much more for New York that we have a thriving Broadway theatre season than a baseball or football team. But we've never been able to bridge that gap. The sports teams get cheaper power."
Back Stage 03/02/05
Posted: 03/02/2005 7:41 pm
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For Some Real Fun, Try Putting Ulysses On 'Shuffle' "This week the South Huntington Public Library on Long Island, New York, became one of the first public libraries in the country to loan out iPod shuffles. For the past three weeks, the library ran a pilot program using the portable MP3 devices to store audio books downloaded from the Apple iTunes Music Store. They started with six shuffles, and now are up to a total of 10. Each device holds a single audio book." The library owns several low-cost iPods, and is saving money by downloading the audiobooks rather than purchasing them on CD. Wired 03/03/05
Posted: 03/03/2005 5:49 am
New York Library Online The New York Public Library has put 275,000 images of objects from its collection online. Included are collections of "prints, maps, posters, photographs, illuminated manuscripts, sheet-music covers, dust jackets, menus and cigarette cards. "If you dive in today without knowing why, you might not surface for a long, long time. The Public Library's digital gallery is lovely, dark and deep. Quite eccentric, too." The New York Times 03/03/05
Posted: 03/02/2005 8:20 pm
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African FilmFest Looks For Some Hollywood Glitter "This week, Africa is holding its version of the Cannes Film Festival... in the capital of Burkina Faso, one of the world's poorest countries. Le Festival Panafricain du Cinéma de Ouagadougou (FESPACO) screens nearly 200 films, many of them made on budgets no more than the cost of the Versace dress that Halle Berry wore on Sunday. FESPACO is the biggest and most prestigious film festival in Africa, but it faces a problem moviemakers here would like to solve: a distinct lack of participation from African-Americans in Hollywood." The Christian Science Monitor (Boston) 03/02/05
Posted: 03/03/2005 6:14 am
How To Attend A Film Festival In Your Underwear You needn't brave any huge crowds or gaggles of paparazzi staking out the 15th annual Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose this week in order to get your fill of the fest's 200 featured films. "The Cinequest event is an independent film festival with a digital twist. Commercial-free, DVD-quality downloads of many of the festival's feature films are available for online viewing... The festival expects 60,000 flesh-and-blood visitors this year, up from 54,000 last year. Organizers expect more than 75,000 movie downloads during the festival." Wired 03/03/05
Posted: 03/03/2005 5:43 am
BBC Reforms In Return For License Renewal? The BBC would have its license renewed until 2016, under a government proposal. But the renewal comes with a stick: "the BBC was warned that in return for the licence fee settlement it had to redouble its efforts to produce landmark programming, cut down on repeats and US imports and tackle public concerns over the falling standards on TV. It should not play copycat. Or chase ratings for ratings sake." The Guardian (UK) 03/03/05
Posted: 03/02/2005 7:58 pm
UK To Dismantle BBC Board Of Governors The British government is starting the process of dismantling the BBC's board of governors. "Today’s green paper on the future of the Corporation said its governance needed to be modernised to suit the changing demands from the broadcasting industry and that the current system lacked clarity, transparency and accountability. 'The governors’ dual role as cheerleader and regulator does not sit easily in a public organisation of the size and complexity of the BBC'.” Stage (UK) 03/02/05
Posted: 03/02/2005 7:26 pm
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