The Automatic Critic Who needs critics anymore? They're unreliable. The latest web services will do your cultural sorting for you. "These web-based applications seek to recommend music not through descriptive reviews, but through affinities calculated by a computer algorithm. Websites like Movielens.org and Filmaffinity.com endeavour to tell you what you will like by having you tell them what you already like. This form of definition-by-association is supplanting the good old-fashioned review as the primary way for consumers to discover new music, movies and literature. Using a recommender application is like consulting your friends for music or movie advice, except on a grander scale." CBC 03/17/05
Posted: 03/17/2005 8:50 pm
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A Look Inside SF's New deYoung "Scheduled to open Oct. 15, the beautiful $202 million M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park, designed by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, is about 98 percent finished. The interior of the 144-foot-tall twisting tower, which will contain classrooms and a library, still needs work. And the exterior landscaping has yet to begin. But the main building of the 300,000-square-foot city-owned museum is all but done." San Francisco Chronicle 03/18/05
Posted: 03/18/2005 8:09 am
Getty Starts Museum Director Search The Getty is beginning its search for a new director of the Getty Museum. A ten-member search committee has been formed, and a timetable set... Modern Art Notes (AJBlogs) 03/17/05
Posted: 03/18/2005 6:55 am
Sotheby's Profitable Again "The group was aided by the sale in May of Picasso's 1905 work Garcon a la Pipe for $104m, making it the most expensive artwork auctioned. The company posted profits of $88m for 2004 on sales of $497m. That compares with a loss of $21m for the previous period." The Telegraph (UK) 03/18/05
Posted: 03/18/2005 6:12 am
Singapore - A Guggenheim In A Casino? A major US casino has produced plans to build a new casino In Singapore that would include a branch of the Guggenheim. "Sources say that the planned development would cost more than US$2 billion, making it one of the most expensive casino projects in the region." The project would be built by Las Vegas Sands, which "owns the Venetian hotel and casino on the Las Vegas strip. And the Venetian hosts the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, a venue for the presentation of exhibitions based on the collections of the Guggenheim and Hermitage museums." The Business Times (Singapore) 03/18/05
Posted: 03/18/2005 6:03 am
Family Claims Painting In Montreal Museum Was Looted The heirs of a Dutch art dealer are trying to recover a painting hanging in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. They say it was part of a collection looted by Nazis. The museum says the work, called The Deification of Aeneas, will remain on its walls until it can be determined whether it was sold legitimately." CBC 03/17/05
Posted: 03/17/2005 8:52 pm
Stolen Paintings (Said Worth $67 Million) Are Fakes Paintings stolen last summer in Australia which were "described at the time as Australia's biggest art heist" and "worth $67 million" are fakes. "The paintings – which included one entitled Son in a High Chair alleged to have been painted by French impressionist Paul Cezanne – were recovered from a Robina duplex last June. But Tweed-Byron police Acting Inspector Brett Greentree said experts consulted, including international art dealers Sothebys, had determined that the paintings were not genuine." The Herald-Sun (Australia) 03/18/05
Posted: 03/17/2005 8:51 pm
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La Scala Crisis Grips Italy The crisis at La Scala has escalated out of control, and Italy is fascinated. "The crisis has gripped Italy the way steroids in baseball have the United States and stunned many with its speedy onset, coming just three months after the giddy celebration of a three-year renovation of the 18th-century house. The crisis stemmed from the dismissal last month of the general manager, Carlo Fontana, whose relations with Mr. Muti were rocky." The New York Times 03/18/05
Posted: 03/18/2005 6:37 am
Critic Attack Scottish Opera's Return-From-The-Dead Choice Scottish Opera is to resume producing at the Edinburgh Festival with a production of John Adams' "The Death of Klinghoffer" But already, critics are attacking the company for its choice: "It is breaking into its "year of darkness" with an opera of such disputed taste that it will only confirm to critics that it is either out of control or in the grip of an incomprehensible death wish." The Scotsman 03/18/05
Posted: 03/18/2005 6:08 am
Why Attack ENO For Producing A Musical? English National Opera is producing "On the Town." "There is more to opera than Mozart and Wagner, and if Johann Strauss could upgrade from music hall to opera house then why not Oscar Hammerstein? La Scala, after all, is preparing to stage Lloyd Webber’s Phantom and, as for preserving the purity of the naked voice, it is an open secret that New York’s high-church Met has, on occasion, amplified a mezzo or two. Covent Garden took on Sondheim and the National Theatre has made Cole Porter core repertoire without anyone questioning their core purpose. Why, then, is ENO under fire when all it wants to do is reach a wider audience?" Well... La Scena Musicale 03/17/05
Posted: 03/17/2005 8:48 pm
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Denver Quits Summer Festival Denver has decided to cancel its 13-year0-old annual summer performing arts festival"The free festival attracted more than 100 performers and thousands of visitors to the Denver Performing Arts Complex over two days each September. But the festival, which costs a minimum of $125,000 to stage, drew fewer than 30,000 last year, said cultural affairs director Denise Montgomery. That figure is down more than 50 percent from the 60,000 who attended in 2002." Denver Post 03/18/05
Posted: 03/18/2005 7:59 am
SXSW Just Keeps Getting Bigger "In its 19th year, SXSW, which started on Wednesday, has broken attendance records. Four days and nights of panel discussions at the Austin Convention Center and showcase gigs at 60 venues around the city have drawn more than 1,300 bands, 8,000 paid registrants and 1,600 journalists from around the world. That isn't counting the thousands of people who come just for the parties and the unofficial shows..." Chicago Sun-Times 03/18/05
Posted: 03/18/2005 6:51 am
Creative Strategies - UK Arts Funding Cuts Little Guy The UK Arts Council strategy of taking care of major arts groups while cutting smaller ones "made the best of a bad job. But they have cut the people who can't shout. They have cut community arts and young artists who might turn out to be tomorrow's major artists. And it is really tragic to have cut back on Creative Partnerships, which is targeted at the most deprived young people." The Independent (UK) 03/18/05
Posted: 03/18/2005 5:58 am
UK Arts Funding: Little Guys Suffer, Big Guys Get More Government arts funding in the Uk is supposed to be flat over the next few years. But "companies including the Royal Opera, English National Opera, the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company will get a 2.75% increase - the estimated inflation rate - in 2007-08 even though the council estimates that its own standstill funding means a real loss of £34m. The council said it rejected 'equal misery for all', and the consequence is double misery for some, particularly the 121 groups which lose all their money, and a further 54 which will face drastic cuts." The Guardian (UK) 03/17/05
Posted: 03/17/2005 8:41 pm
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The Greatest French Person... France is the latest country to take a poll to rank the country's most important person of all time. But the Top 11 list has many funing: "What the hell were they thinking?" asked Le Parisien, noting that film director Luc Besson (91) beat writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (96). CBC 03/17/05
Posted: 03/17/2005 6:09 pm
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Spamalot An Instant Hit? Spamalot, the musical, opens on Broadway. "It seems safe to say that such a good time is being had by so many people (including the cast) at the Shubert Theater that this fitful, eager celebration of inanity will find a large and lucrative audience among those who value the virtues of shrewd idiocy, artful tackiness and wide-eyed impiety. That includes most school-age children as well as grown-ups who feel they are never more themselves than when they are in touch with the nerdy, nose-thumbing 12-year-olds who reside within." The New York Times 03/18/05
Posted: 03/18/2005 6:45 am
Despite Protests, Springer Tour To Go Ahead Despite calls by a Christian group urging Britain's regional theatres not to carry Jerry Springer, The Opera, it looks like a tour will go forward. "Christian Voice wrote to 250 theatres earlier this month urging them to boycott the controversial musical. But the musical's producer, John Thoday, told The Stage newspaper that theatres had been largely supportive of the tour. Jerry Springer - the Opera is due to open in Plymouth in January 2006." BBC 03/17/05
Posted: 03/17/2005 5:57 pm
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Picasso The Writer - Now In English Picasso was a prolific writer, and once joked he would be remembered as a "Spanish poet who dabbled in painting, drawing, and sculpture." Now his writing has been published in English. "Picasso's literary output has been little more than a footnote to public awareness of his artistic contribution, but 'it's the work of an accomplished poet. It was not trivial work. It's part of the history of experimental poetry in the 20th century'." Christian Science Monitor 03/18/05
Posted: 03/18/2005 6:31 am
Barnes And Noble Reports Bad Quarter Though sales were up in its stores, Barnes & Noble has reported a decline in profits for the last quarter of 2004. "For the three months ended Jan. 29, the retailer earned $115.6 million, or $1.56 per share, compared with $130.2 million, or $1.65 per share in the year-ago period. The New York-based company also warned that profits for the first quarter and for all of 2005 will be lower than analysts expected." Yahoo! (AP) 03/17/05
Posted: 03/18/2005 6:20 am
Mein Kampf Climbs Bestseller List In Turkey Hitler's infamous book has unexpectedly been selling up a storm in Turkey. "The book was first published here in 1939, when Axis and Allied countries were competing for Turkey's soul as they tried to woo it away from the neutrality it would maintain until the very end of World War II. But since January, the book has sold more than 50,000 copies and is number four on the best-seller list drawn up by the DetR bookstore chain." Yahoo (AFP) 03/17/05
Posted: 03/18/2005 6:17 am
Google Print Faces Copyright Issues Is the Google Print Project in trouble? Three months after announcing it would put online vast numbers of books from prestigious libraries, Google is facing questions from publishers over copyright issues... Harvard Crimson 03/16/05
Posted: 03/17/2005 8:46 pm
A Winning Poem About Einstein The British Association for the Advancement of Science (the BA) celebrated national science week and Einstein this year by holding a competition to write a "poem based around the work of the famous physicist. The competition was also open to the public, and the winners were announced today, with the adult prize going to a versified imaginary conversation with Einstein." The Guardian (UK) 03/17/05
Posted: 03/17/2005 8:44 pm
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TV Schedulers Abuse Viewers The way American TV networks schedule their programs makes many viewers nuts. "Scheduling is one of those gigantic industry blind spots. Those who engage in it like to believe they understand the wishes, motives and tendencies of viewers, but history has proven this to be a grand lie of the mind. The most accepted theories of scheduling have more to do with tried-and- allegedly-true industry beliefs or archaic reasoning than they do with the actual needs of real people." San Francisco Chronicle 03/18/05
Posted: 03/18/2005 8:07 am
Looking For A Better TV News Model Audiences for America's evening newscasts has been declining for some time. It's not difficult to see why. Maybe it's time to try something different. "Nightly network news no longer needs to emphasize the day's breaking news. The Internet and audience that has fled there graze on mainstream media, blogs, and other information nuggets throughout the day." For a better model? How about CBS Sunday Morning - a thinking person's news program... Christian Science Monitor 03/18/05
Posted: 03/18/2005 6:26 am
BBC To Cut 1,500 The BBC will cut 1,500 jobs, on top of cuts already announced. "Details of the latest cuts were leaked to the BBC's Labour Affairs Correspondent Stephen Cape, by a senior well-placed source. The source said that every BBC department would be affected by the job losses, including news, sport, children's programmes and new media." BBC 03/17/05
Posted: 03/17/2005 8:51 pm
Study: American College Kids And Their TV A new study says that college students watch an average of three hours, 41 minutes of television each day. Viewing peaks in the late-night hours for college males, interrupting any cramming for exams. But it's less, by about an hour, than the amount of time an average American spends watching TV each day." Yahoo! (AP) 03/17/05
Posted: 03/17/2005 8:48 pm
Chicago Pub Radio To Grow Muscles Chicago Public Radio plans a major expansion of programming. It will "operate two full-time services, turning WBEZ into a 24-hour news and talk station and launching a second 24-hour format of music programming. The ambitious plan, which has been approved by the non-profit station's governing body, would end the "split personality" that has plagued WBEZ throughout most of its 63-year existence. It now airs 16 hours a day of public affairs (encompassing news, talk, arts, culture and National Public Radio information programming) and eight hours a day of music (mostly jazz during evening and overnight hours)." Chicago Sun-Times 03/15/05
Posted: 03/17/2005 8:47 pm
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