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Monday, August 15




Ideas

Is Gambling A Head Case? "Researchers are learning that the heads ? or to be more accurate, the brains ? of pathological gamblers are biologically different from those of most of the estimated 73 million Americans who are able to play bingo, pull the arm of a slot machine or flip some aces and then simply stop. Not only does the research shed light on how this addiction is both similar and distinct from other addictive disorders, it also could contribute to new treatments." Los Angeles Times 08/08/05
Posted: 08/14/2005 8:13 pm

How Tourism Is Killing Art The crush of tourists is ruining the world's great cultural monuments. "We are just now beginning to get beyond the phase of shock-horror reports about the destruction caused by tourism. There are possible solutions, some already in place, especially in the field of eco-tourism. Because this started more recently than cultural travel and is usually run by people with a greater sensitivity to issues of exploitation, it has often developed in a constructive and thoughtful way." The Art Newspaper 08/12/05
Posted: 08/14/2005 9:31 am

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Visual Arts

A History Of Architecture In Denver Branch Libraries Want an architecture tour of Denver? You could do worse than tour the city's branch libraries. "Virtually from the beginning of Denver's library system, its leaders have believed that form was as important as function, more or less consistently investing in high-quality architecture." It's "a surprisingly comprehensive lesson in 20th and 21st century architecture from arts and crafts and other historic styles through modernism and post-modernism." Radical or not, all the libraries have been accepted by patrons, and most have become local landmarks. Denver Post 08/14/05
Posted: 08/15/2005 8:34 am

Chicago's Corkscrew To The Sky Catches On With Public Architect Santiago Calatrava's proposed twisty spiral skyscraper has caught the imagination of the public. "Whatever it expresses, the twisting tower clearly has struck a chord with the public. Consider the nicknames already given to Calatrava's skyscraper -- the drill bit, the big screw, the twizzler, the birthday candle. The twisting tower also is a hot topic today among architects and architecture students. As designers explore new ways to break out of the old box, they prize buildings that suggest motion and feeling. Calatrava's design promises to bring to the skyscraper the same Baroque exuberance with which Frank Gehry has infused fresh vitality into the once-staid world of art museums and concert halls." Chicago Tribune 08/14/05
Posted: 08/15/2005 8:31 am

Demolish This (Not Hardly) Is the UK's Channel 4 show "Demolition" one of the dumber shows ever aired? The show has viewers vote on their most-hated building, and the show promises to buy the building and tear it down. "How can you seriously argue that, when heading the list of 'vile' buildings scheduled for consideration by the demolition jury, is the new Scottish parliament? The same parliament, designed by the late Enric Miralles, that is currently hot favourite to win this year's Stirling Prize as the best building in Britain. Whose life is going to be made better if the Scottish parliament is demolished? And how do Channel 4 think that they are going to demolish it anyway, should it win?" The Observer (UK) 08/14/05
Posted: 08/14/2005 10:11 pm

  • Killing Buildings Isn't Sport "The case against Channel 4's Demolition is clear. This programme is a crude way of bringing what is supposed to be an informed debate on the state of contemporary architecture to a mass audience. Yet all it really does is pander to the shamefully destructive spirit that lurks somewhere in all of us." The Guardian (UK) 08/14/05
    Posted: 08/14/2005 10:03 pm

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Music

Hip-Hopping Mozart "The home of Britain's classiest opera parties is about to strike out in a new direction by staging 'hiphopera', complete with f-words and rap music, in the country house setting of Glyndebourne. The transformed version of Mozart's masterpiece is part of an increasingly successful attempt to draw new, and particularly young, audiences to the venue, which has a largely unfair but deep-rooted image of exclusivity and expense." The Guardian (UK) 08/14/05
Posted: 08/14/2005 9:50 pm

Can Music Remember? "Sixty years after the end of World War II, across German-speaking Europe, classical music has been invoked as a medium of public memory, an accompaniment to the fitful process of reckoning with the past. In these countries, as firsthand memories of the war dwindle, music is serving as a kind of proxy allowing postwar generations to approach a difficult history. But why, other than the convenience of an anniversary, is this music being called to speak now? And what exactly can it remember?" The New York Times 08/14/05
Posted: 08/14/2005 9:55 am

CD Burners A Bigger Threat To Big Recording Companies Than Downloading? "Music copied onto blank recordable CDs is becoming a bigger threat to the bottom line of record stores and music labels than online file-sharing, the head of the recording industry's trade group said Friday. Burned" CDs accounted for 29 percent of all recorded music obtained by fans in 2004, compared to 16 percent attributed to downloads from online file-sharing networks." Yahoo! (Reuters) 08/13/05
Posted: 08/14/2005 8:51 am

World Music - A Tension Between Art And Selling Recordings World music can be endlessly inventive. "The debate throughout the polity in recent weeks has centred on issues of multiculturalism and tolerance. The world?s problems are not going to be solved by people playing crazy rhythms, and meaning it, but it is a small indicator that we are travelling in the right direction. There is another imperative at work here, however - that of selling records. Music is an industry, as well as an art form and a cultural tradition; and it happens to be an industry that is finely honed in its marketing and promotional techniques. And, wouldn?t you know it, the requirements of commerce and artistic integrity occasionally fail to gel." Financial Times (UK) 08/13/05
Posted: 08/14/2005 8:43 am

Payola - Can You Buy Hits? It's called "taste magnetics: People experiencing art together are apt to concur on its merits. When you laugh, I'm more prone to smile. When you flinch, I grimace. We're swayable. Taste magnetics also helps account for the persistence of payola, or radio 'pay for play.' That bogeyman of the music biz is back. Reactions seem split: Camp 1 cries, 'See why the radio is so full of lousy music?' while Camp 2 yawns, 'Same as it ever was; you can't buy hits.' Each has a point." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/13/05
Posted: 08/14/2005 8:20 am

America's Best Orchestras? Which are the best American orchestras? After a year in which he heard most of the contenders, Mark Swed has some observations about where the new powerhouses are... and what it takes to be the best. Los Angeles Times 08/14/05
Posted: 08/14/2005 7:54 am

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Arts Issues

Charlotte Looks For $150 Million In Arts Funding Charlotte (NC) arts leaders are looking to pass a major package of funding support. "Discussions on a series of new and revamped museums and theaters began four years ago. For much of the past two years, executives at the Arts & Science Council, the umbrella group for most local arts groups, have lobbied city leaders for funding while constantly revising and reshaping their proposal. Under the current incarnation, all but $10 million of the $150.5 million proposal would be paid through various taxpayer revenue sources." MSNBC (CBJ) 08/15/05
Posted: 08/15/2005 7:53 am

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People

Artist Charged With Million-Dollar Theft Prominent Australian artist Richard Dunlop has exhibited in galleries around Australia and has lectured at universities. "On Friday police raided his house, seizing prints, oils and sketches." He's being charged with stealing artwork worth up to $1 million "from a gallery in Brisbane in 1994 and from a Sydney gallery owned by the prominent dealer Ray Hughes between 1996 and 2003. Hundreds of pieces are believed to be involved." ABCNews (Australia) 08/15/05
Posted: 08/15/2005 8:00 am

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Theatre

From SASE To The Steppenwolf Stage Unsolicited plays never make it to the Steppenwolf stage, even though thousands of scripts get submitted each year. But John Wells' play did. "In a matter of months, Wells' play "Men of Tortuga" has gone from "self-addressed return envelope enclosed" to a gripping full production, currently running through Aug. 28 as part of Steppenwolf's new First Look Repertory festival in the Garage Theatre. There, Wells' first play sits alongside "The Sparrow Project" by the nationally established author Melanie Marnich and "A Blameless Life" by Joel Drake Johnson, a fairly prominent Chicago scribe known for his warm humanism. Actually, "Men of Tortuga" doesn't just sit. It blows its companion pieces out of the garage." Chicago Tribune 08/14/05
Posted: 08/15/2005 8:27 am

How One Of The "Worst-Ever" Shows Got To London's West End "Behind the Iron Mask" had some of the worst reviews ever seen in London's West End. "One theme running through many of the reviews was summed up by Sheridan Morley in the Daily Express: "How did Behind the Iron Mask get as far as a first rehearsal, let alone a first night?" How did a production that the nation's critics could see in an instant wasn't fit for public consumption end up doing battle on one of the theatre world's most fiercely commercial markets? How did a script littered with potholes end up being accepted at one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's theatres and how was anyone persuaded to work on it? The answer, according to one person close to the company, is with a great deal of money and naivety." The Guardian (UK) 08/15/05
Posted: 08/15/2005 8:10 am

Anne Landers On Stage A new play about Anne Landers makes its debut, but the stars aren't the actors. "It's the darn letters. Many of the famous ones are here: 'Would it be possible for me to be buried in my 1937 Dodge instead of a casket?' 'I like to do my housework with no clothes on. . . . ' What could be more apt? Such is the dirty little secret of the advice biz. Pick the letters well, stick 'em in print, and people will flock to the column. After all, nothing is more soothing for the ego than reading about someone else's crisis. Oprah Winfrey and her post-Landers ilk, you could argue, merely take those Ann Landers-type letter writers and stick a camera in their faces." Chicago Tribune 08/14/05
Posted: 08/14/2005 9:27 pm

Art Of Random Selection A couple of big festivals - one carefully chooses what art gets in as recommended by a jury. The other throws names into a hat and it's luck of the draw. It's not that one way is about quality and the other isn't. "The thinking is that a nonjuried show is the one place where everyone has an equal opportunity. The other thinking is that this is supposed to be something that gets away from this tradition of sitting back with arms folded and judging something based on its quality." St. Paul Pioneer-Press 08/14/05
Posted: 08/14/2005 9:11 pm

Edinburgh Fringe May Cut Free Sunday Every year for 25 years, the Edinburgh Fringe has hosted a free Sunday, offering hundreds of acts and drawing 200,000 people. But costs have doubled in the past few years and organizers say they can't afford it. "We love Fringe Sunday. It's fantastic, a wonderfully inclusive occasion that gets a broad mix of people which you wouldn't see in theatres. But costs have risen from £32,000 in 1998 to £65,000, and are set to rise in years ahead, while income from catering concessions was less than half that figure." The Scotsman 08/12/05
Posted: 08/14/2005 9:03 pm

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Publishing

Stereophonic History (Well, That's Two Ways To Look At It) The Society for Historians of the Early American Republic has a decidedly different take on American history than the popular historians. "Whereas popular historians like David McCullough and Richard Brookhiser turn out bios of the old white guys who stare back at us from our money, SHEAR members present papers with titles such as "Self-Help and Self-Determination: Philadelphia's African American Community and the Abolitionist Challenge", and "Hawking Hallowed Ground: Utopianism and its Discontents in Philadelphia's Rural Cemeteries". Is this a happy form of stereo - on one side, the founders, founders and more founders mantra of the media; on the other, the from-the-bottom-up social history of professional scholars? Or is it sheer dysfunctionality in the field of early American history?" Philadelphia Inquirer 08/14/05
Posted: 08/15/2005 8:44 am

Where Are The New Indian Stars? Arundhati Roy's huge success in 1997 sparked a frenzy of anticipation for more Indian writers. "The truth is, however, that since 1997 there has been no new galaxy of stars emerging to match the stature of those of the 1980s and 90s. Many of the Indian novelists who were signed up with such excitement 10 years ago failed to repay even a fraction of their advances. The only Indian-themed book to win the Booker - The Life of Pi - was written by Yann Martel, a white Canadian. In India itself, there is no new internationally acclaimed masterpiece, no new Roy." The Guardian (UK) 08/14/05
Posted: 08/14/2005 9:40 pm

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Media

A Revival For Aussie Film Industry? Australian movies have had a tough time at the box office in recent years. "After last year's record low box-office share of 1.3 per cent, the struggles of even huge budget Hollywood movies this year make finding an audience seem even tougher. A release that triumphs in the multiplexes and revitalises the film industry has proved desperately elusive since the Hollywood-backed Moulin Rouge took $27.4 million and Lantana made $9.8 million four years ago." But some big-budget movies about to be released give Australian movie-makers hope. Sydney Morning Herald 08/15/05
Posted: 08/15/2005 8:06 am

A Seismic Shift In Entertainment There are fundamental changes taking place in the ways we're getting our entertainment. "We are our own entertainment navigators now. We don't need a middle man to figure out and present entertainment for us. We can create entertainment ourselves. That's not a fad -- that's a fundamental shift. We are our own directors and our own producers now. That's especially becoming a reality in home entertainment. We now can get a comparable moviegoing experience -- quality picture and surround-sound effects -- without going to the theater." Chicago Sun-Times 08/14/05
Posted: 08/14/2005 10:02 pm

Seattle Radio For Pod People A really unusual radio station that's prospering? "Seattle's 720-watt KEXP, partly funded by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, last month became the first station in the U.S. to offer a "podcast" of full-length songs from albums for Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod music players. Podcasts typically are free broadcasts delivered via the Web to computers, allowing users to transfer the digital audio and listen anytime. In the next few weeks, KEXP says it will become the first to make its live radio broadcasts suitable for cellphones and handheld organizers." Seattle Times (Bloomberg) 08/14/05
Posted: 08/14/2005 8:51 pm

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Dance


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