Infotainment Comes To The Sports World Sports are beloved by fans largely because of the opportunities they present for dramatic finishes, for those heart-in-your-throat moments of great success and even greater failure. One of the greatest sports cliches is "You couldn't have scripted it any better." But of course, you usually could have, and the entertainment industry does so on a regular basis. Perhaps as a result of the inherently similar qualities of drama in sports and in entertainment, the line between the two worlds has blurred considerably in recent years. "Sports events are more and more about the personalities and subplots... Meanwhile, entertainment has become all about competition." Chicago Tribune 04/02/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 7:10 am
Spring Forward, For No Good Reason At All Well, here we are again, Daylight Savings Time, and for what? For whom? Nobody knows, it would seem, and those who think they do are almost invariably wrong. Daylight Savings is there to help farmers? Nope. They hate it. Foisted on the nation by a meddling, monolithic federal government? Not true, either. "The custom rests on an illusion: that we are doing something to time -- yielding an hour in the spring, recovering it in the fall. Of course, it's not so." And as with so many wacky ideas firmly entrenched in the American mind, this one can be traced back to that king of deep thoughts and strange utterances, Benjamin Franklin. Boston Globe 04/02/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 7:02 am
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Cleveland Expansion Means Short-Term Frustration "The $258 million expansion and renovation of the Cleveland Museum of Art, approved by trustees in March, ought to improve the museum vastly in six years. But in the near term, it means losing access to one of the greatest permanent collections in the country. By the end of this month, nearly 20 of the museum's 70 galleries are scheduled to be closed for renovation. By June, the museum's entire permanent collection will be out of sight for at least three years. Large portions of the collection will remain off-limits for another three years. Special exhibitions will continue through early January 2006, after which the museum will close completely for six months." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 04/03/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 9:41 am
What's Happening To Hirst? Damien Hirst has moved on from the days when he exhibited dead sharks and giant ashtrays, but has he really advanced his thinking at all? A new exhibit of Hirst's photorealist paintings seem like just so much rehashed rebellion, says Michael Kimmelman, "blithely lacking finesse, [ignoring] photorealism's first goals and [aspiring] only to be passingly ghoulish. And absent invention, they hang there like corpses... The era of the giant strutting ego as the amusing subject of art at this moment seems wincingly passé, supplanted by all those insouciant 20-somethings proffering their monkish, shuffling sort of virtuosity." The New York Times 04/03/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 8:47 am
The Booming Business of Art Prizes "Over the last few years, museums large and small have started awarding their own prizes, usually named after the institution and sponsored by a corporate donor, to capitalize on the glamour associated with contemporary art. To burnish their appeal, many of the new awards are modeled on the Tate Modern's venerable Turner Prize, which has evolved into a nationally televised event that attracts celebrity presenters like Madonna and habitually polarizes the British press... Indeed, the new art prize circuit has a circular quality, with many of the same artists nominated again and again, and many of the same jurors serving on multiple committees." The New York Times 04/03/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 8:44 am
Andy Slept Here Plans are afoot to renovate and restore the Pittsburgh home inhabited by a young Andy Warhol and his family. The house is in "terrible shape," and no one seems even to know who, if anyone, owns it. Even restored, it would likely not fetch much of a price. Still, Warhol's brother and his partners are hoping that the artist's name will be enough to spark interest in preserving the structure. Toronto Star 04/02/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 7:35 am
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Terrorism, Meet Your Operatic Muse "The escalating artistic arms race between London's two rival opera houses, Covent Garden and the Coliseum, reached a new level of threat this weekend. Both venues are in the middle of staging block-busting versions of Richard Wagner's epic and expensive Ring cycle, but audiences at the Coliseum last night were left reeling from more than the music after the English National Opera mounted a violent coup de thétre. In what will come to be regarded by opera fans as a moment of bizarre heresy - or of creative triumph - Brunnhilde, the leading character in the ENO's new production of Wagner's Twilight of the Gods, was portrayed as a suicide bomber." The Observer (UK) 04/03/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 9:28 am
A Year of Change In Boston In his first year with the Boston Symphony, there is no question that James Levine has made a distinct mark on the city's musical life, garnering praise but also creating controversy with his devotion to complex and dissonant music. "Whether he can carry the audience along with him is still an open question, although one is tempted to say that if he can't, nobody can. If he is driving some people out of the hall, there is a gratifying new component of young faces and prominent members of Boston's musical community who didn't make a habit of attending [former BSO director Seiji Ozawa's] concerts." Boston Globe 04/03/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 8:22 am
Muti Quits La Scala Riccardo Muti has resigned as musical director of Milan's La Scala opera house, following months of bitter recriminations and behind-the-scenes power struggles. The announcement comes weeks after the musicians and staff of La Scala called publicly for the 63-year-old conductor to be ousted. Muti had been the face of Italy's most famous opera house since 1986. The New York Times 04/02/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 6:49 am
- Who's Next? With Riccardo Muti officially out, the race to find a successor is on at La Scala. But there aren't many realistic candidates. "Muti’s successor will almost certainly have to be Italian and will be hard to find. The front-runners are probably Daniele Gatti, who is both music director of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and of Bologna’s Teatro Comunale, and Riccardo Chailly, who has recently left his post in Amsterdam to become music director in Leipzig. He has not yet arrived in Germany, however, which might make him more easily available... Another name being mentioned as a successor is Antonio Pappano, music director of Covent Garden." And then there is the contingent that actually wants to convince Muti's predecessor, Claudio Abbado, to retake the reins. The Sunday Times (UK) 04/03/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 6:40 am
- Whither The Maestro? "The crisis in Milan, which has been front-page news around Italy and become the talk of the classical music world, is rooted not only in the politicized, sometimes anarchic atmosphere of Italian opera houses but also in the complex personality of Mr. Muti... The question of what happens next for this celebrated maestro has both immediate and long-range implications not just in Europe but in America, too." The New York Philharmonic, which publicly courted the maestro for its open music director position several years ago, may do so again when Loren Maazel steps down. And with the situation in Milan so volatile, what conductor of stature will be willing to step into Muti's shoes? The New York Times 04/03/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 6:30 am
No Foghorn Required, Presumably This weekend, on the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, "artist Michael Pestel performed improvisational tunes while seated at a baby grand piano, floating on a section of a dock going down the back channel of the [river]. The performance art, which lasted about an hour, was videotaped... for showing during an exhibition that will open Friday at Chatham College, where Pestel is an assocate professor." The event was inspired by composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, who once wrote of dreaming such a scene. Was it particularly groundbreaking? A window to a new breed of performance and/or photographic art? No, not really. But you've gotta see this picture. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 04/02/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 6:28 am
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Tax Law Threatening Oregon Music Groups Confusion surrounding unemployment tax law in Oregon has forced the cancellation of at least one summer music festival, and is putting many other nonprofit music organizations at risk. "The issue revolves around whether musicians hired for concerts are independent contractors, responsible for paying their own unemployment taxes, or regular salaried employees, with their employers responsible for such taxes." The nonprofits have always paid their musicians as independent contractors hired for a limited period of time, and relied on them to cover their own tax burden, but the state is now claiming that the musicians are salaried. For many groups, there simply isn't any extra money in the budget for unemployment tax, making the dispute a potential life-and-death matter for a few organizations. Salem Statesman-Journal (OR) 04/03/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 8:02 am
Exodus From Portland The arts scene in Portland, Maine, is experiencing an almost complete turnover, the likes of which have never been seen before. The creative heads of the city's leading theatre company and symphony orchestra are departing, the curators of two prominent museums are leaving as well, and the city's college of art and public library will shortly be headless, too. "Collectively, these changes constitute the most significant loss in arts leadership in decades and are cause for concern. The arts community is vulnerable in the best of circumstances. Take away a significant number of leaders, and the institutional knowledge that goes with it, and those vulnerabilities become more acute." Portland Press-Herald (ME) 04/03/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 7:49 am
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Taking The Road Less Traveled When it was announced last week that Philadelphia Orchestra principal violist Roberto Diaz would be leaving his position to head the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, the near-universal reaction from the rest of the orchestra world could best be described as, "Huh?!" The fact is, musicians holding plum positions in the world's top orchestras almost never quit mid-career, and many have to be pried from their chairs when they can no longer do the job. Diaz, a legitimate star in the (admittedly obscure) world of the viola, now holds the distinction of having walked away from not one, but two highly regarded orchestras, and he couldn't be happier. Philadelphia Inquirer 04/03/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 8:13 am
Many A Tale To Tell "For Hans Christian Andersen, life wasn't so much a fairy tale as a nightmare. Or so it seems. Though he was Denmark's most famous literary son, and a prolific author in many genres, Andersen never fully revealed himself. Today, 200 years to the day after he was born, Andersen remains something of a mystery. But he has also become an indelible feature of global culture... Now, to celebrate the occasion, more than 3,000 events have been organized around the world," and the reexamination of the cobbler-turned-storyteller's legacy turns up an interesting idea. "As it turns out, Andersen is one of those figures who may be better suited to the 21st century than he was to the 19th." Toronto Star 04/02/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 7:32 am
- The Andersen Filter A lust for lasting fame drove Hans Christian Andersen above all else, a dream that seemed far-fetched at the time. But Andersen's fairy tales hid deeper meanings that ensured his celebrity would last far beyond his lifetime. "It is almost impossible to experience certain situations without running them through a subliminal Hans Christian Andersen filter and coming up with a succinct, acerbic take. Your co-worker who is forever dissatisfied with the adjustments on her ergonomically impeccable chair? Yes, she's the Princess and the Pea. The president from not-your-political-party is touting his new plan for the budget/war/economy/environment? More emperor's new clothes, you snort... These are handy concepts." Washington Post 04/02/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 7:00 am
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Sweet Relief The bizarre on-again, off-again story of the Broadway-bound (for now) revival of Sweet Charity is a whopper of a tale, even by theatre standards. "According to the show's ad campaign tagline, the tale of Sweet Charity is that of 'one woman's belief that in the midst of adversity, she will find hope and the strength to know that someday all of her dreams will come true.' The offstage story is of one revival's belief that in the midst of adversity, it will find hope and the strength to know that someday some of its dreams and even, if one believes in miracles, a smidgen of profit will come true." Chicago Tribune 04/03/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 9:14 am
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Left Coast Lurching Right? Everyone knows that Hollywood is nothing but a bunch of self-aggrandizing liberals peddling their socialist claptrap to a gullible nation of consumers, right? Wrong. "Since the re-election of George W. Bush last fall, cultural conservatives have been flexing their muscles not only in the political arena but also on the entertainment front." Will the next CSI spinoff be set in Crawford, Texas? Will MTV's next Spring Break special stress abstinence and bedrock family values? Will Don Rumsfeld be the next James Bond? Anything's possible... Chicago Tribune 04/03/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 9:21 am
A&E, Hold The A When the cable networks Bravo and A&E (Arts & Entertainment) launched, many saw it as the final death knell for PBS - after all, if not one, but two profit-driven cable networks could air highbrow arts programming and script-driven Victorian dramas and make money doing it, what reason was there for the existence of a subsidized network airing the same stuff? These days, however, Bravo and A&E have remade themselves in the reality-TV model, and neither seems even remotely interested in airing any arts-related programming at all. A&E, in particular, now disdains the idea of highbrow TV, and points out that its viewer demographics are much improved since changing formats. Boston Globe 04/03/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 9:02 am
The Movies About The Movies As DVD sales have become an increasingly indispensable part of Hollywood's ever-evolving revenue stream, a new generation of specialized DVD producers and consultants has sprung up to plan, create, and manage all those hours of "extras" that make a DVD marketable. "Where feature films are mostly put together by producers pitching scripts to studios, which then attach a director and stars, the DVD business only has one star: the original film's director. A director's involvement - which means access to the set, extra footage and even ideas for special features - can mean the difference between a passable DVD and a great one." As a result, directors are beginning to attach themselves at the hip to the top DVD creators available. The New York Times 04/03/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 8:55 am
Advertising That Pretends It Isn't As consumers grow more and more weary of a marketing-driven culture and become more inclined to tune out commercial messages, advertisers are getting seriously creative in their efforts to move product. In fact, the new breed of (usually) satirical ads look more like short films than product pitches, and some lucky companies have succeeded in making their brand not only a household name, but a cultural milepost. "Humor is the best way to cut through the multichannel clutter in the age of cable and satellite TV," and the most successful of the new ads are "simply co-opting images television viewers are bombarded with daily." Chicago Tribune 04/02/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 7:19 am
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Not Another Cleveland The financial crisis currently enveloping Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre eerily mirrors the situation at the Cleveland San Jose Ballet several years ago. Cleveland-San Jose folded in 2000, but PBT officials insist that the same fate won't befall their company, and further stress that the rumors of an impending merger with some other Pittsburgh-area arts group are extremely premature. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 04/03/05
Posted: 04/03/2005 9:38 am
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