Study: Male Voice Vs. Female Voice The brain processes male and female voices differently, says a new study. "The research explains why most of us hear female voices more clearly, as well as that we form mental images of people based only on the sound of their voices. The findings, published in the current journal NeuroImage, also might give insight into why many men tire of hearing women speak: the "complexity" of female voices requires a lot of brain activity." Discovery 08/02/05
Posted: 08/02/2005 4:15 pm
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The Camera Doesn't Lie (It Just Spins A Bit) A new exhibit at the London Portrait Gallery sheds a great deal of light on the shady world of celebrity image-making. "The show takes 10 of the most familiar faces from the photographic age, from Queen Victoria to Gandhi to Greta Garbo and Adolf Hitler, and shows how they manipulated their images in order to further their aims, whether political or artistic or megalomaniacal." The show also points up the media's complicity in such makeovers, noting that many celebrity photos meant to look candid were, in fact, entirely staged. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/03/05
Posted: 08/03/2005 6:35 am
Saving A Whole Lotta Painting Conservators are working to save one of the largest paintings in the world - a 45 feet-by-195 100-year-old religious work in California. "Using 4-foot-long brushes, Polish artist Jan Styka completed the painting in 1897 after working on it 12 hours a day for five years. Styka originally had hoped to show the painting at the St. Louis Exposition of 1904 but there was no room so Styka displayed other works instead." Los Angeles Daily News 08/02/05
Posted: 08/02/2005 5:18 pm
Would You Buy This Art Online? A few years ago the internet was full of companies trying to sell art online. "These days, with New York-based e-commerce firm JupiterResearch projecting that 2005 Internet spending will top $79 billion in the U.S. alone and Web sales will continue to post double-digit growth until at least 2009, the wrangling over art's future on the Internet has been reignited. Critics still insist that unlike books, clothing, and other consumer goods, art really has to be experienced in person before deciding whether or not it's the right fit. But with some 126 million Americans already buying an increasing number of goods electronically, a new batch of entrepreneurs is banking on a bright future in online art." BusinessWeek 08/02/05
Posted: 08/02/2005 4:54 pm
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Rattle's Kids Sir Simon Rattle has long had an obsession with bringing classical music to a wider audience, and his latest project is a daring effort to link two disparate sectors of German society. "Rattle's brave determination to include some of Berlin's most phlegmatic and recalcitrant teenagers into the orchestra's working life, from the very start of his collaboration with the orchestra, has been captured in Rhythm Is It!, one of the most popular German documentary films for years... In a former bus depot on the edge of industrial wasteland in Berlin, the cooperation between the teenagers and an initially sceptical orchestra reaches its height in a performance of Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, attended by an audience of several thousand. " The Telegraph (UK) 08/03/05
Posted: 08/03/2005 5:20 am
Fired As A Fiddler, Hired As A Conductor Violinist Dennis Kim, who was recently dismissed from his position as concertmaster of the Hong Kong Philharmonic after music director Edo deWaart discovered that he had been auditioning for an American orchestra while supposedly on sick leave, has landed on his feet in a big way. Kim was named the new conductor of Korea's Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra this week, following a series of auditions for the position. Kim is Korean-born, though he grew up mainly in Canada. The Korea Times 08/03/05
Posted: 08/03/2005 5:07 am
Montreal Symphonty Strike - A Disagreement Over Suspending Negotiations Why have talks in the Montreal Symphony musicians' strike stopped? "An MSO spokesperson told The Gazette yesterday negotiations were suspended for the month of August because the mediator was on vacation. Musicians' association president Marc Beliveau concurred. Yet a press release from MSO management, dated Thursday, quotes the chief negotiator for management as saying, "Given the gulf separating the two sides, we fully understand why the mediator saw no need to schedule any new negotiating sessions." Montreal Gazette 08/02/05
Posted: 08/02/2005 4:37 pm
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School Shootings Coming To An XBox Near You Protests are mounting against a new Columbine-inspired video game slated to be released by the makers of the infamous "Grand Theft Auto" series. The game, titled "Bully," features a high school student tormented by his peers, who takes his revenge with extreme violence, killing fellow students and teachers. The company, Rockstar Games, describes the game as "humorous," and downplays the violent aspects, but the game's October release is likely to cause old debates about the effects of video game violence to rage anew. New York Post 08/03/05
Posted: 08/03/2005 6:46 am
Investigation More Bad News For Getty An investigation by the State of California of the Getty Trust is the latest bad news for one of the world's richest institutions. "The Getty Trust, with an endowment of more than $5 billion, includes the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, a research institute, a vast library, an art conservation program and a grant-making office. The trust has suffered a number of administrative, legal and public relations blows over the last year. A number of senior officers have left, and staff morale is said to be low." The New York Times 08/03/05
Posted: 08/02/2005 9:17 pm
Art By The Numbers - Surely There's More? "More and more do arts organisations feel they have to demonstrate their financial rather than their artistic prowess as a means of obtaining funds to support their existence. Arts festivals big and small commission economic impact studies to trumpet their success in creating employment, raising local incomes and encouraging tourism; understanding their cultural impacts often seems to take second place. Yet something is missing." Sydney Morning Herald 08/03/05
Posted: 08/02/2005 4:45 pm
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Running With Lawsuits "The family that raised bestselling author Augusten X. Burroughs is now suing him in advance of the movie version of Running With Scissors, Burroughs's 2002 memoir of his years with the family. A lawsuit filed in Massachusetts claims that Burroughs 'mercilessly and repeatedly' defamed family members 'so as to sensationalize his past to make the book marketable while knowingly causing harm and humiliation' to the Turcotte family, with whom Burroughs lived after his disturbed mother turned guardianship of her boy over to her psychiatrist." Washington Post 08/03/05
Posted: 08/03/2005 6:59 am
Assessing London's "Art Terrorist" Calling yourself an "art terrorist" probably isn't a great career move in these times, particularly in London, but the self-styled guerrilla artist Banksy has somehow managed to win himself quite a following anyway. "Over the past few years, Banksy has emerged as an ingenious and dexterous culture jammer, adept at hacking the art world and rewriting its rules to suit his own purposes... Brits have come to expect daring stunts from Banksy, who uses a pseudonym to avoid arrest for past escapades. But critics see him as nothing more than an overhyped vandal." Wired Magazine 08/05
Posted: 08/03/2005 6:19 am
Kaminer To Edit NYT A&L Ariel Kaminer has been named the new editor of The New York Times Arts & Leisure section. "Ariel was deputy editor of the section under Jodi Kantor and, before that, an editor on the Magazine under Adam Moss." New York Observer 08/02/05
Posted: 08/02/2005 4:23 pm
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Great Theatre vs. Middlebrow Tourism Ontario's popular summer theatre festivals are as vibrant as ever, and appear to have recovered nicely from an extended post-9/11 downturn. But what is the true mission of such festivals, exactly? Should Stratford and Shaw be focused on creating a nice vacation destination, or on presenting high art? At their best, the fests can serve both masters, but it's a delicate balance. Philadelphia Inquirer 08/03/05
Posted: 08/03/2005 6:52 am
Where's That Vaunted British Sense Of Humor? British comedy has become increasingly darker, and one theory is that Britons are laughing less, losing their sense of humor. "A survey earlier this year by cruise company Ocean View even concluded that the amount of time we spend chuckling daily has fallen from an average of 18 minutes in the 1950s to just six minutes today. Traditionally, the English only peep out from their caves of national self-disgust to trumpet their alleged good sense of humour, their subtlety with irony, their readiness for laughter. Has our comedy become unfunny, and is our laughter on the brink of extinction?" The Guardian (UK) 08/03/05
Posted: 08/02/2005 5:24 pm
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Novelists Take On Terror Increasingly, some of the world's more popular authors are embracing the reality of terrorism as a subject ripe with literary potential, and are advancing the way that the world thinks about the impact of specific attacks. "These writers are depicting how the air has changed in cities living with terror: the jittery feeling that comes and goes; characters who think they are adjusting, only to lose their grip on reason." The New York Times 08/03/05
Posted: 08/03/2005 6:24 am
Language No Barrier To Harry Translated versions of the new Harry Potter opus won't be available for months yet, but French bookbuyers apparently see no need to wait. In fact, Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince is currently the fifth-most popular purchase at Paris bookstores, despite being available exclusively in English. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is nuts for Harry, as well: illegal Chinese translations are already popping up for sale in Asia, and German readers have been posting their own translations online. BBC 08/03/05
Posted: 08/03/2005 5:56 am
Publisher issues "Corrections" As Part Of Biography The heirs of Carl Jung dispute many points in a biography of the psychologist. "Now, in a compromise that is extremely rare in publishing, the German subsidiary of Random House has agreed to insert two pages of the Jung family's version of descriptions and facts into a translation being published this fall by one of its imprints, Knaus Verlag. The family originally approached Little, Brown & Company, the publisher of the original English-language version in 2003, to seek changes in new editions and translations. But so far only the German publisher has agreed to the family's request." The New York Times 08/03/05
Posted: 08/02/2005 9:26 pm
Art Of The Interview The secret to giving (and getting) a good interview? "As much as the interviewer must ask questions or provide discussion points that inspire or intrigue his or her subject, it is the subject’s job to be open and generous enough for an original and unpredictable conversation. It’s pretty obvious what an interviewer can do to screw up an interview—fail to read the book (or be unable to fake it), ask questions directly from the press materials, rely on a prepared list of topics and refuse to let a conversation take its natural course. But are there things that an interviewee can do to make sure that an interview goes smoothly, or dreadfully?" The Book Standard 08/02/05
Posted: 08/02/2005 8:51 pm
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Well, That'll Teach 'Em "Movie studio Sony is to pay $1.5m to film fans who accused it of using a fake critic to praise its movies, according to the fans' lawyer. In 2001, ads for films including Hollow Man and A Knight's Tale quoted praise from a reviewer called David Manning, who was exposed as being invented. People who saw the films can now get a $5 refund from Sony's pay-out." BBC 08/03/05
Posted: 08/03/2005 5:59 am
Groups Protest Satellite Radio In Canada A group of Quebec arts and culture groups has filed a complaint over the decision by the CRTC to allow satellite radio into Canada. "The group says that the decision violates Canadian broadcasting policy. According to a press release, it believes "the CRTC has made a grave error in judgment that threatens the foundations of the broadcasting system in Canada – the very system that the CRTC should be protecting." CBC 08/02/05
Posted: 08/02/2005 4:10 pm
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The Boom Box In The Orchestra Pit The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's decision to drop its live orchestra in favor of canned music for the upcoming season has been greeted with dismay from all sides. Musicians, dancers, and subscribers alike agree that the move will cheapen the company's performances, and PBT officials can only say that they believe the move was an absolute last resort to keep the troupe within its $6.4 million budget. All sides are leaving the door open to the orchestra's return, even for only a part of the 2005-06 season, if a late infusion of cash can be found. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 08/03/05
Posted: 08/03/2005 5:46 am
The Wonder Of Cuban Ballet Why does Cuban ballet get such a big response? "How much of a salve art offers is difficult to gauge, but the frustrations of Cuban life are revealed in the ballet audience's response. There is something in the experience reminiscent of Furtwängler's rendition of Beethoven's 9th in wartime Berlin. Yet Cuban ballet is an art form caught in an aspic that has melted elsewhere. The Ballet Nacional is a piece of history preserved by the will of an ageing autocrat." Prospect 08/05
Posted: 08/02/2005 4:59 pm
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