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Weekend, June 18-19




Ideas

Power To (By) The People "The nearly 1 billion people online worldwide -- along with their shared knowledge, social contacts, online reputations, computing power, and more -- are rapidly becoming a collective force of unprecedented power. For the first time in human history, mass cooperation across time and space is suddenly economical. 'There's a fundamental shift in power happening. Everywhere, people are getting together and, using the Internet, disrupting whatever activities they're involved in'." BusinessWeek 06/20/05
Posted: 06/19/2005 9:47 am

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Visual Arts

Fortress Munch No one will be stealing anything from Oslo's Munch Museum again. "When the museum reopened Friday after a 10-month security overhaul, several hundred invited guests waited up to a half-hour each to pass through two airport-style metal detectors, an X-ray machine, an optical ticket reader, a turnstile and a double set of one-way security doors. Inside, all of Munch's pictures were framed behind glass and bolted to the wall. The most significant ones were further protected by an 11-foot-tall partition of thick glass panels positioned 24 inches from the wall and overseen by security cameras and guards. The online version of the newspaper Aftenposten rechristened the museum 'Fortress Munch'." The New York Times 06/18/05
Posted: 06/19/2005 9:50 am

Pop Grows Up "Pop got its start by making fun of the platitudes that second- and third-generation Abstract Expressionism had settled into, mocking the increasingly popular movement's increasingly shrill insistence on gestural spontaneity, existential anxiety and psychological authenticity." But Pop Art has grown up. "Pop and connoisseurship are no longer opposed. Sophistication is not limited to highbrow cultivation but encompasses enthusiasms that cut across classes, arising wherever passion has room to pursue its own ends, on its own terms." Los Angeles Times 06/19/05
Posted: 06/19/2005 9:01 am

Great Design... But Why Not Show It To Us? "In five years, the Cooper-Hewitt has handed trophies and honors to more than 100 of the most creative people in the country. Collectively, they have helped foster a golden age of American design. That matters because design is the new competitive edge in business. It's also one of the only aspects of modern manufacturing that China doesn't yet own." But wait - awards are nice, but shouldn't the C-H offer an annual exhibition of the best work? After all, isn't that what Smithsonian museums do? Washington Post 06/18/05
Posted: 06/19/2005 8:57 am

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Music

Not Your Parents' Pops... "Seventy-five years after Arthur Fielder took over the Boston Pops and turned it into the most famous and influential series of its kind, pops concerts are very different. Increasingly, in Boston and elsewhere, pops means Rockapella, medleys of TV themes, Doc Severinsen, celebrity crooners doing music from last year's blockbuster movie. It means what Richard Dyer, the Boston Globe's classical music critic since 1975, calls 'the hits of 25 or 30 years ago — the favorites of the target audience, when young'." Los Angeles Times 06/19/05
Posted: 06/19/2005 9:04 am

Sex And The Music Career (Or: How To Get Ahead) Oboist Blair Tindall says she has figured out how getting jobs works out in the classical music world. "Tindall claims that sex played a decisive role in her musical career. She says she was simultaneously involved with three leading New York oboists — two married — who gave her work in their orchestras. One had a maxim: 'The section that lays together plays together'." The Times (UK) 06/18/05
Posted: 06/19/2005 8:47 am

Giving Up Music On Moral Grounds? A "successful" violinist in a small town in the western US decides to give up music. "There are too many music schools and departments, and too many string players being trained as it is. Could I live with myself by pandering to the dreams of young and blissfully unaware musicians? Even if I were to be offered a tenure-track position at a music department, I would face some moral dilemmas about doing the job. I know that I would be under pressure to recruit string students to fill my studio and the school symphony, thus ensuring my own position. But how could I do that knowing the abysmal state of the job market?" Chronicle of Higher Education 05/20/05
Posted: 06/19/2005 8:45 am

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Arts Issues

Scottish Arts Warn Government Against Control The Scottish Arts Council warns that Scotland's culture will be harmed if the Scottish executive extends control over the arts. "In a strongly-worded letter to the commission, the SAC insists the arts will only continue to flourish if control remains separate from government. The letter - signed by more than 30 arts organisations across Scotland - makes it clear that any move to extend the Executive's power within the arts will harm cultural expression." Scotland on Sunday 06/19/05
Posted: 06/19/2005 8:24 am

In SF: An Alternative Art Space At Middle Age "Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco's oldest alternative art space, is turning 40 this year. Its name is now synonymous with the Mission District, and as hipsters flow out onto the street after an evening of experimental theater, art, or jazz, it's hard to imagine the organization existing anywhere other than on that scruffy block of Valencia between 15th and 16th streets." San Francisco Weekly 06/15/05
Posted: 06/19/2005 7:32 am

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Theatre

Moral Center - Teens Go For Broadway Fare "Musicals attracting large mother-daughter audiences have long been a staple on Broadway but have been on the rise in the last decade. Interestingly, the most popular shows have themes that explore some aspect of prejudice — not exactly light, youth-oriented fare." Los Angeles Times 06/19/05
Posted: 06/19/2005 9:06 am

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Publishing

Comics A Natural Online... The comic business is thriving (even if the revenue model isn't clear yet). "Even though revenue models remain fuzzy, increasing numbers of artists are using the Internet to reach readers directly and break into a business that historically has been limited to the lucky few who get syndicated in newspapers or picked up by comic book publishers." Washington Post 06/18/05
Posted: 06/19/2005 9:53 am

Family Returns Book To Libray (It Was 78 Years Overdue) A man has returned a book to the Oakland Public Library 78 years after it was due. "The hardback copy of Rudyard Kipling's "Kim" was due back on Aug. 29, 1927, but no one in Jim Pavon's family realized that it was an overdue library book. 'It's classic -- we all read it. It sat on a shelf or in a box for years. But I guess no one ever noticed that there was a little library card and sleeve on the back cover that said when it was due'." San Francisco Chronicle 06/18/05
Posted: 06/19/2005 9:44 am

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Media

US House Panel Votes 25 Percent Cut In Public Broadcasting Money "The US House Appropriations Committee approved a bill on Thursday that would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by $100 million, or 25 percent, starting in October." Backstage 06/17/05
Posted: 06/19/2005 9:58 am

TV Ratings War - How To Measure? The Nielsen TV ratings company is starting to roll out "people meters" to measure viewing in local markets across America. But some in the idustry are complaining about the shifts in ratings compared to the old method of measuring viewership. A Nielsen exec say that the more accurate meters show an increae in viewer time in front of their TV's... The New York Times 06/18/05
Posted: 06/19/2005 9:38 am

Public Broadcasting Chairman Comes Under Fire In US Senate Prominent Democratic Senators question the direction of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting under chairman Kenneth Tomlinson. "Tomlinson, appointed to the CPB board by President Bill Clinton and to the top job by President Bush, has made ideological balance on PBS and National Public Radio a central theme of his tenure at a time when broadcasters in the field are primarily occupied with possible large cuts in federal funding. The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a 25 percent cut in the CPB's budget for next year." Washington Post 06/18/05
Posted: 06/19/2005 9:26 am

  • The Smoking Emails? CPB Chairman And His Political Witch-hunt An investigation of Corporation for Public Broadcasting chairman Kenneth Tomlinson turns up emails showing consultations with a former White House official about the public TV politics. "The e-mail messages are part of the evidence being collected in a broad inquiry by the inspector general of the corporation into whether Mr. Tomlinson violated any rules that require that the corporation act as a buffer between politics and programming." Washington Post 06/18/05
    Posted: 06/19/2005 9:20 am

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Dance

A Dancer's Special Place American Ballet Theatre principal Jack Soto retires this week after 40 years. "At 40, he can look back to a special place as one of ballet's most creative personalities. While choreographers are essential to the art, dancers like Mr. Soto - and they are few - also define and redefine choreography with bold individuality and implicit collaboration. Peter Martins and Christopher Wheeldon have used him repeatedly in their new works. Just as significantly, as Mr. Soto has proved in familiar ballets, interpretation can become a creative act." The New York Times 06/19/05
Posted: 06/19/2005 9:08 am

  • Previously: Jack Soto's 25 Years At NY City Ballet "Jock Soto retires from the New York City Ballet’s stage on June 19 at the age of 40, after 25 years with the company. For the latter part of that period he has been extolled as a partner—as if that were his main (even sole) virtue, as was, essentially, the case with the company’s Conrad Ludlow in the past and Charles Askegard today." But there was so much more to his dancing... Seeing Things (AJBlogs) 05/15/05

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