Fordham Spire Design Unveiled In Chicago Plans for Chicago's latest insanely tall building will be officially introduced this week, and will check in at 115 stories topped by a 542-foot spire which would make the skyscraper the tallest building in the U.S. The tower's design, by the Spanish-born architect Santiago Calatrava, is winning raves from Chicago pols and business types, but of course, there are the omnipresent security concerns... The New York Times 07/26/05
Posted: 07/25/2005 9:31 pm
Now Under Construction: The New London Towering skyscrapers and 80-story skylines have so far largely eluded Europe's major cities, but that is starting to change, with London the latest metropolis to consider the addition of massive new superstructures. In fact, London currently has 31 major new developments underway, £100 billion worth of construction waiting to happen, and they will likely change the face of one of the world's most venerated cities. The Guardian (UK) 07/25/05
Posted: 07/25/2005 9:01 pm
Two Companies, One Huge Frickin' Photo Archive (And It's Free!) "Two of America's major photographic houses have launched a joint venture to provide one of the largest freely available archives of pictures on the internet. The collaboration between New York's International Centre of Photography and George Eastman House is expected to include at least 200,000 images by the time it is fully set up next year. They want to add thousands more to this number when rights agreements have been reached with individual photographers or their estates." The Guardian (UK) 07/25/05
Posted: 07/25/2005 8:59 pm
Basic Fairness Or Restraint Of Trade? The UK is about to become party to "a new law by which a living artists or their heirs for 70 years after their death will receive a cut of about 3 per cent whenever a piece is sold. Some commentators argue that this gives poor artists a slice of future success. Others believe it threatens to cripple the market. The law is causing conflict throughout Europe, especially in Britain, where the Patent Office is currently deciding how to implement it. The levy, called 'droit de suite' or 'artist's resale right', was initiated in 1920s France to help impoverished artists and their heirs. In 2006 it is due to be introduced across the European Union in order to stop vendors from avoiding the levy by moving sales away from France, Germany and four other European countries in which the law now applies." Financial Times (UK) 07/25/05
Posted: 07/25/2005 8:49 pm
Art & Animals In Oz "Now in its third year, the South Australian Museum's Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize has become one of the nation's prestige art competitions. A record 609 entries were received for the 2005 event, with 109 short-listed for the final judging next week." The competition also has to be one of the world's most specific art contests, intended to "promote and recognise excellence in art that depicts natural history or wildlife... a noticeable number of artists have also brought topical global issues, such as climate change and sustainability, into their work. However, under the rules of the competition, no man-made elements or settings are allowed to be depicted." Adelaide Advertiser (Australia) 07/25/05
Posted: 07/25/2005 8:40 pm
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You Mean They're Human? "Their rarefied vocations notwithstanding, orchestra players are as normal as most other people. But somehow a stereotype grew up around classical musicians long ago, and it endures to this day." Namely, that they walk around all the time in tuxes or topcoats, that they listen to nothing but the classics, and travel by streetcar or some such antiquated mode of transport. In other words, they are fictional characters in some turn-of-the-20th-century novel. Anyone wanting a dose of what classical musicians are really like need only get to know the members of the New York Philharmonic... Denver Post 07/26/05
Posted: 07/26/2005 6:32 am
The Mozart Problem Next year will be the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, and yes, the orchestras of the world are well aware, and will shortly be inundating you with more Mozart than you can shake a baton at. But during most seasons, Mozart is rarely heard in the concert halls of major orchestras, and increasingly, his work is restricted to specialized festivals. Part of the problem, of course, is that historically informed performance is now the rule, and most symphony orchestras are loath to have half their musicians sit out for a week just so they can play some Mozart, but there's a larger issue hanging over the dearth of Wolfgang. "Artur Rubinstein's comment that Mozart is too simple for children and too difficult for adults is relevant here." New York Sun 07/26/05
Posted: 07/26/2005 6:04 am
Oue Makes Bayreuth History Germany's prestigious Bayreuth Festival has welcomed its first-ever Asian guest conductor, and the result appears to have been a popular success. Conductor Eiji Oue, music director of Japan's Osaka Philharmonic and late of the Minnesota Orchestra, took to the Bayreuth podium to open the festival, conducting Wagner's Tristan & Isolde. Oue, always a firebrand on the podium, reportedly drew cheers for his efforts. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (UPI) 07/26/05
Posted: 07/26/2005 5:55 am
OSM Still MIA The musicians' strike at l'Orchestra symphonique de Montreal has been relatively quiet, if you go by press accounts (or lack of them), but the sudden absence from the scene of Canada's most prestigious orchestra is starting to take a toll on the country's cultural life. This week, the famous Festival de Lanaudière was to serve as a grand stage for the OSM, with soloists Deborah Voight and Ben Heppner along for the ride. Instead, Voight and Heppner sang with a pick-up orchestra. "Last Wednesday, playing Terry Riley's In C, OSM players and their families and friends marched from Place des Arts with police escort along downtown Montreal streets to Phillips Square. They collected signatures along the way and got enthusiastic honks from passing motorists." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/26/05
Posted: 07/26/2005 5:46 am
So Aside From The Crippling Deformity... There are no more castrati, of course, and for very good reason. Over a century ago, the world got together and decided that the practice of castrating boys in their early teens so as to preserve their high voices into adulthood was barbaric, regardless of how nice a sound resulted from the assault. "A new exhibition, however, is hoping to overcome the public's squeamishness on the subject by telling the stories of the band of castrati singers who worked for the composer George Frideric Handel. It will show that for all the pain caused in the 17th and 18th centuries, when up to 4,000 boys a year were castrated in the service of art, the rewards could be immense. They earned fortunes far in excess of what Handel himself earned and more than other singers of the time. They were like the pop stars of today." The Independent (UK) 07/25/05
Posted: 07/25/2005 9:10 pm
NY Phil: Violinist Dismissed For Bad Behavior The New York Philharmonic has responded publicly to a lawsuit brought by a violinist it dismissed at the end of his probationary term with the orchestra, calling his accusations of gender discrimination an "insult all the women members of every section of the New York Philharmonic." The Philharmonic also says that Anton Polezhayev was dismissed primarily for unspecified "behavioral" problems about which he had been spoken to several times. Polezhayev is seeking reinstatement to the orchestra, as well as back pay. The New York Times 07/26/05
Posted: 07/25/2005 8:15 pm
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Van Gogh Killer Gets Life "A Dutch court has sentenced a 27-year-old radical Islamist to life in prison for the November murder of controversial film-maker Theo van Gogh. Mohammed Bouyeri, who has joint Dutch-Moroccan nationality, had made a courtroom confession and had vowed to do the same again if given the chance. The murder in Amsterdam stunned the Netherlands. The court ruled that it was a terrorist act. The judge said the murder had triggered 'great fear and insecurity' in society." BBC 07/26/05
Posted: 07/26/2005 6:12 am
Fan On A Mission "Constantino Brumidi, the Italian-born fresco artist whose ornate Renaissance- and Pompeian-style murals decorate much of the United States Capitol," remains a relatively unknown figure in the corridors of Washington power. "Enter [Joseph] Grano, a fast-talking lawyer and civic gadfly whose causes include historic preservation, and who is now dedicated, he said, to making Brumidi "a folk hero for Americans." As chairman of the Constantino Brumidi Society, a loose-knit group he runs out of his apartment here, Mr. Grano has spent five years poking and prodding Washington's power elite to honor Brumidi: on coins and stamps, with Congressional resolutions, even the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor." The New York Times 07/26/05
Posted: 07/25/2005 9:37 pm
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PICT Director Departing "Stephanie Riso, a co-founder and managing director of Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, will leave the company in January to pursue her career as a performer and composer... Riso co-founded PICT with the company's artistic director, Andrew Paul, in 1996." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 07/26/05
Posted: 07/26/2005 6:55 am
But It Worked On The Home Shopping Network! As it turns out, nobody in New York is much interested in the life of Suzanne Somers. The former sitcom star spent $4 million to bring her autobiographical, one-woman show to Broadway, where it received scathing reviews, flopped hard and closed after less than a week. A further planned tour to Toronto has been scrapped as well. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/26/05
Posted: 07/26/2005 6:42 am
The Little Avant-Garde That Could The problem with running an avant garde theatre, of course, is defining success. Are you successful if your product is so cutting edge that audiences stay away in droves? Or if you are so convincing that you bring in the crowds despite the difficult content? And once you've been discovered by the public, how do you keep your edge in the face of the encroachment of the mainstream theatre world? If you're L.A.'s scrappy City Garage, you just keep right on plugging away like you always have, worrying about the art more than the bottom line, and raising the theatrical standard to a level far higher than the average experimental troupe. "Indeed, City Garage's auteurist single-mindedness, particularly as applied to its original works and adaptations, is unique in Los Angeles theater, perhaps in the country." Los Angeles Times 07/24/05
Posted: 07/26/2005 5:37 am
The Old Vic's Day Of Reckoning London's Old Vic is launching an ambitious project to find the 50 most talented young people in the city's theatre scene, and to give them exactly 24 hours to do something impressive with their moment in the spotlight. "Over the span of a single night and day teams that have never worked together before must write, produce and perform plays. At 10pm the 'companies', each consisting of a playwright, a director, a producer and a handful of actors, is put together for the first time. The playwrights have all night to come up with a script; cast and crew have from 7am to rehearse it and learn their lines, before curtain up at 8pm. It's terrifying for old timers, let alone newcomers. Yet the practice of creating a piece of theatre in the crucible of such a short time is not only invigorating but also immensely instructive." The Telegraph (UK) 07/25/05
Posted: 07/25/2005 9:18 pm
Is Dublin's Abbey Still Relevant? With Dublin's historic Abbey Theatre in the throes of a powerful fiscal crisis, Mary Kenney worries that a large percentage of the Irish public may not be interested in saving it. "Although they say, in opinion polls, that that they approve of a national theatre, not enough ordinary people really go there. [BBC soap operas] Coronation Street and EastEnders, along with Irish television soaps such as Fair City, now provide the everyday stories that were once part of the Abbey repertoire. When you go to the Abbey these days, the audience is often composed of visiting Americans and the well-heeled Dublin bourgeoisie. After it is "restructured", with proper subsidies, I hope that it will connect more to the life of the people." The Guardian (UK) 07/25/05
Posted: 07/25/2005 9:05 pm
Waiting For A Half-Century Samuel Beckett's masterpiece of 20th century drama, Waiting For Godot, is almost more of a caricature than a touchstone these days, with parodies abounding. Even so, 50 years after its premiere, Godot "has lost none of its power to astonish and to move, but it no longer seems self-consciously experimental or obscure. With unerring economy and surgical precision, the play puts the human animal on stage in all his naked loneliness. Like the absolute masterpiece it is, it seems to speak directly to us, to our lives, to our situation, while at the same time appearing to belong to a distant, perhaps a non-existent, past." The Guardian (UK) 07/25/05
Posted: 07/25/2005 8:54 pm
Probably Shoulda Seen This Coming "An abridged version of the Broadway hit Spamalot will open in Las Vegas in 2007 at a custom-built theatre. Casino impresario Steve Wynn plans to stage the show at his Nevada resort at a cost of more than $50m. The musical, written by Eric Idle and based on the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, opened on Broadway in March and won three Tonys in June." BBC 07/25/05
Posted: 07/25/2005 8:34 pm
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Do Not Question Harry, Worthless Muggle! Book critic David Kipen expected to hear from a few disgruntled readers when he gave the latest Harry Potter book a lukewarm review. What he didn't expect was the death threat. "When somebody e-mails to say, 'Seriously bitch u need to watch what teh f -- you say,' it certainly commandeers a critic's attention. Add to that the dozens of correspondents who took the trouble to call me dork, idiot, schmuck or worse, and it's all occasioned some serious soul-searching here on the literature desk." San Francisco Chronicle 07/26/05
Posted: 07/26/2005 7:03 am
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Netflix Doing Fine Profits at the online movie rental service, Netflix, nearly doubled in the second quarter of 2005. "Emboldened by the second-quarter surprise, Netflix management predicted it will finish this year with a profit of $2.4 million to $11.9 million, a reversal from just three months ago when the company warned it might lose as much as $15 million with Blockbuster hot on its trail... Netflix ended June with 3.2 million subscribers, a 53 percent increase from a year ago. Blockbuster's online rental service is believed to have between 750,000 and 1 million subscribers." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (AP) 07/26/05
Posted: 07/26/2005 6:57 am
Assault On Payola (Haven't We Done This Before?) It was back in the early 1960s that the first court cases concerning payola, the odious practice of a record company paying radio DJs to play an artist's songs regardless of quality, hit the press, and the practice was effectively stamped out inside of a decade. But in the past few years, creative new forms of payola have been stampeding through the increasingly corporate American radio industry, virtually unchecked. Now, the state attorney general of New York is pursuing the industry anew, and this week, recording giant Sony BMG agreed to pay a $10 million fine and to halt its practice of paying DJs for airplay. The New York Times 07/26/05
Posted: 07/25/2005 8:29 pm
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