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Wednesday, March 30




 

Visual Arts

Koolhaas Tweaks His Dallas Design Rem Koolhaas's design for the theatre that will anchor Dallas's grand new Performing Arts Center has undergone its first round of retooling, and the results are impressive, says David Dillon. "The Wyly looks like nothing in the Arts District, or anywhere else for that matter, which is just fine with the adamantly acontextual Mr. Koolhaas. He likes buildings that are mysterious and hard to place, that might be anything and anywhere." Dallas Morning News 03/28/05
Posted: 03/30/2005 6:26 am

The Drama Of Authentication A new play running in Boston focuses on what outsiders might consider an unlikely profession when it comes to the creation of dramatic sparks: art authentication. Of course, the play isn't exactly an accurate depiction of the authetication business, any more than architects' lives resemble that of Indiana Jones, but the production does call attention to a little-known, but vitally important, corner of the art world, and sheds some light on the rivalries and internal politics that can affect it. Boston Globe 03/30/05
Posted: 03/30/2005 6:16 am

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Music

Kosman To Modernists: Quit Blaming Everyone Else Joshua Kosman wasn't impressed with the bitter condemnations and whiny tone of conductor James Levine and composer Charles Wuorinen in last Sunday's New York Times concerning the failure of serialism and other complex forms of new music to engage the public. "Audiences couldn't care less. Wuorinen's music and that of other similarly oriented composers has yet to make a dent in the culture at large, or in the consciousness of music lovers. Hence the bitterness, the self-pity, the snarling at the listeners for whose benefit all this scribbling is ostensibly being undertaken." San Francisco Chronicle 03/30/05
Posted: 03/30/2005 6:54 am

Temple U Tops Big Names In Opera Competition Where can you find the top student opera theater program in the U.S.? Juilliard? Curtis? Not according to the annual competition sponsored by the National Opera Association. For the second year in a row, Philadelphia-based Temple University has taken top honors, a major boost for a program that sometimes struggles for national recognition. The Temple News (Philadelphia) 03/29/05
Posted: 03/30/2005 5:52 am

Nagano Announces Montreal New Music Prize As he prepares to take the reins of the Montreal Symphony in 2006, conductor Kent Nagano is giving indications of the direction he plans to take the orchestra, with the announcement of an annual composers' competition which will distribute cash prizes to three winning works of new music. "The arrival of the mystery maestro, along with his pianist wife, Mari Kodama, who lives in Paris, is likely to have a tonic effect on the MSO, which has been mired this season in protracted contract negotiations." Montreal Gazette 03/30/05
Posted: 03/30/2005 5:30 am

Rocky 2 Tops Classic FM List Again Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 has again topped UK listeners' list of favorite music in the annual Classic FM survey. "The concerto, which was used in the classic romance Brief Encounter, has now topped the Hall of Fame countdown for five years running. Vaughan Williams' A Lark Ascending came second, while Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A was third." BBC 03/29/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 6:46 pm

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Arts Issues

This Blurb Brought To You By Spishak Product placement took a giant leap forward this week with McDonald's announcement that it would pay rap stars royalties in exchange for lyrical mentions of the Big Mac burger. But such guerrilla marketing tactics have been worming their way into unexpected corners of national culture for years, and the practice is likely to get bigger as traditional advertising becomes steadily less cost effective. "Last year, British 'chick lit' writer Carole Matthews [signed] a deal with Ford to mention its cars prominently in several of her works." And now, Britain's TV watchdog organization has offered a significant policy shift which could open the door for products to be inserted into the storylines of UK television programs. BBC News Magazine 03/30/05
Posted: 03/30/2005 6:00 am

In The UK: A Bold New Arts Participation Plan The UK government has promised that "within 10 years every school-leaver will have had access to live arts and culture, including taking part in public performances. But it gave no indication of how this will be paid for. The new proposal has been dubbed Creative Sparks, and Culture." The Guardian (UK) 03/30/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 9:18 pm

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People

Pianist Grant Johannesen, 83 Mr. Johannesen was a sensitive player who was more interested in exploring musical byways that fascinated him than in repeating the warhorses of the repertory, and as a teacher, he advised his students to follow a similar path. The New York Times 03/30/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 10:07 pm

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Theatre

O'Toole Attacks Theatre Peter O'Toole has blasted the state of today's theatre. "Reserving his most corrosive words for the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Royal Court, O'Toole said things have got so bad that up-and-coming young actors are no longer interested in treading the boards." The Guardian (UK) 03/30/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 9:14 pm

Sweet Charity To Go On After All Just days after canceling a planned Broadway run of a revival of "Sweet Charity", producers say they'll open the show anyway. "I spent the whole weekend on the telephone with Christina Applegate, who made a passionate and compelling case for moving forward with the Broadway plans. Her doctors also confirmed this morning that she will be ready and able to resume performances on April 18." The New York Times 03/30/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 6:31 pm

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Publishing

Why All The Boring Memoirs? "Some blame reality TV for our social woes (MTV's "Real World" encourages alcoholism, "The Apprentice" is a guide to corporate backstabbing, blah, blah, blah). Allow me to chime in and add my voice to the chorus: Reality television, in part, intensifies our voyeuristic appetite for the tawdry details of the lives of others. On television, we call those details trash (although suit-wearing executives at TV stations call them "rating boosters"). But in book form, it's more likely to be deemed literature." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 03/30/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 9:41 pm

Freelance Writers Win Big Online Settlement Free lance writers win a $10 million-$18 million award to compensate for work that has been posted online. "Plaintiffs, who filed on behalf of thousands of freelance writers, included the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Authors Guild, the National Writers Union and almost two dozen freelance writers. Under the terms of the settlement, freelance writers who had work published between August 1977 and December 2002 will be eligible to fill out a form -- online or by mail -- that will entitle them to money for works to which they had not signed away their rights to electronic publication." Wired 03/29/04
Posted: 03/29/2005 7:00 pm

Havel Writes Again Former Czech president Vaclav Havel says he's returning to writing. "The 68-year-old has said he is planning to write an autobiograhy and a play based on Shakespeare's King Lear. He has also talked about publishing a book of conversations with friends." BBC 03/26/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 6:29 pm

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Media

Why Ontario Film Needs To Get Local Much has been made of the decline in Ontario's film industry as a result of the come-ons Hollywood has been getting from other locales across North America. But the real problem may be that Ontario has allowed its homegrown film industry to settle into a malaise brought on by the belief that the American windfalls would never stop. "To tie the fortunes of your film industry to foreign production is like building your dream house on quicksand. U.S. producers may flock here one year — and favour somewhere else the next year. And when they leave, if you haven't built a domestic film culture, everything crumbles." Toronto Star 03/30/05
Posted: 03/30/2005 6:59 am

King Of All (Morning) Media? It Ain't Howard. What's the top-rated morning radio program in the U.S.? No, it's not Howard Stern, and it's not some right-wing blowhard shrieking into the microphone about the evils of Dan Rather. It's NPR's quarter-century-old bastion of straight news, Morning Edition, which racked up an average of 13.2 million listeners per week in the latest ratings book. That's actually an increase in listenership from the previous year, despite the bad publicity the program received after NPR dismissed longtime host Bob Edwards last year. New York Daily News 03/30/05
Posted: 03/30/2005 6:43 am

Disney/Miramax Divorce Is Official "Disney and fabled Miramax chieftains Harvey and Bob Weinstein wrapped up their divorce yesterday, putting an end to a 12-year marriage that yielded acclaimed hits like Chicago, and Shakespeare in Love, but ended with bitter feuds as the Weinsteins' ambitions grew. The Weinsteins will exit their 25-year-old company named for their parents, Miriam and Max on Sept. 30, the same day their nemesis, Disney CEO Michael Eisner steps down." New York Daily News 03/30/05
Posted: 03/30/2005 6:41 am

Grokster Groupies Gather At The Court The Supreme Court proceedings to determine the future of file-swapping technology are attracting a bit of a crowd. In fact, an unexpected array of file-sharing advocates and music fans have gathered at the court to hear the landmark case unfold, many passing out wearable reminders of an earlier copright case involving the entertainment industry: the 1984 Supreme Court ruling which declared video casette recorders to be legal, paving the way for the booming (and highly profitable) home video and DVD market. Wired 03/30/05
Posted: 03/30/2005 6:07 am

BBC Dismisses Springer Opera Complaints "The BBC board of governors has rejected thousands of complaints made over the showing of Jerry Springer - The Opera. The corporation received around 55,000 complaints prior to the screening of the hit West End show, in January, and 8,000 after it had been broadcast. But the governors' Programme Complaints committee voted by a 4-1 majority not to uphold the complaints. They said the programme's artistic significance outweighed any offence which might have been caused." BBC 03/30/05
Posted: 03/30/2005 5:56 am

Future Of Technology At The Supreme Court Attorneys argued before the US Supreme Court Tuesday over whether file-sharing networks should be legal. The court's decision will have a major impact on future technology development. The main question taken up by the court seemed to be how to protect copyrights without restraining future tech. Wired 03/30/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 6:56 pm

Use Of BBC Internet Streaming Radio Soars "Online demands to hear radio programmes passed nine million in February - up more than 25% on the previous month. The show which is most requested is Radio 4's long-running soap opera The Archers, with Chris Moyles' Radio 1 breakfast show in second spot. Online listening to digital-only networks, such as 6 Music, has soared by 83% in the last year." BBC 03/29/05
Posted: 03/29/2005 6:26 pm

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