The iPodding of America Yes, iPods are a fine invention, and there's no doubt that the ability to carry your entire music library with you (now with video!) is far preferable to the old one-note portable music players. But how healthy is it for everyone in America to travel around in a self-imposed isolation bubble, preferring the iPod sountrack to the sounds of the world? "Behaviors that seem weirdly antisocial when they emerge quickly take on the bland, banal tone of business as usual. Cell phone yakkers in airports and elevators barely get noticed now. And it's no longer odd to pass someone in a grocery store aisle who's peering intently at the tomato paste cans and chatting away into some barely visible headset." Are those infernal white ear buds just the latest escapist plague? San Francisco Chronicle 10/20/05
Posted: 10/20/2005 6:48 am
When Once America Reached Out To The World With Culture "From the late 1940s through the end of the 1980s, the American government — along with the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations — sponsored lectures and conferences abroad on American history and literature; art exhibitions featuring America's Abstract Expressionists and postmodern painters and sculptors; international tours of jazz musicians, symphony orchestras, and ballet companies, as well as of Broadway musicals and dramas; visiting professorships where American academics taught in foreign universities..." These interactions promoted understanding. But all the programs went away and now... Chronicle of Higher Education 10/14/05
Posted: 10/19/2005 7:47 pm
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New Wind At The Baltic The new director of the Baltic Gallery, the UK's largest contemporary art space after Tate Modern, is making some changes. "He hopes to instil common sense into the gallery, which until this year lacked simple visitor facilities such as a cloakroom and information desk. 'We are taking a new approach in our philosophy towards our visitors. The visitors are the reason we are here - with the artist. I was telling our managers earlier today that as a mindset we have to hug each visitor'." The Guardian (UK) 10/19/05
Posted: 10/19/2005 9:55 pm
Christie's In China Christie's has signed a deal to become the first Western auction house in China. "Under the agreement, settled this week, Christie's will license its name, provide experts and oversee the entire auction process, from the acquisition of works for sale to the printing and design of the catalog. Its first sale - 45 examples of modern and contemporary Chinese art - is scheduled for Nov. 3 at the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel in Beijing and is expected to bring $10 million." The New York Times 10/19/05
Posted: 10/19/2005 8:17 pm
Where The Architects Are - Beijing Beijing is being totally remade. "A city that, until 1990, had no central business district, and little need of it, now has a cluster of glass towers that look like rejects from Singapore or Rotterdam. And these, in turn, are now being replaced and overshadowed by a new crop of taller, slicker towers, the product of the international caravan of architectural gunslingers that has arrived in town to take part in this construction free-fire zone. Rem Koolhaas, Jacques Herzog, Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel and Will Alsop are all building, or trying to build here." The Observer (UK) 10/16/05
Posted: 10/19/2005 7:35 pm
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If It Vibrates, It's An Instrument A sound lab at the University of California, Berkeley, is aiming to make it possible for almost anything to be an instrument - synthetically, of course. "Any object that vibrates and makes sound -- like a cymbal or a gong -- oscillates for a period of time. These oscillations create complex vibration patterns based on a staggering number of variables, from the flexibility and thickness of the material to the force applied. [The lab's new] software tackles the problem of predicting sounds by breaking down an object into various imaginary pieces, whose joints represent vibration points." Then, all the user needs to do is choose which vibration points to "strike," and voila! An instant instrument is born, regardless of how unlikely it would be in the real world. Wired 10/20/05
Posted: 10/20/2005 6:11 am
Vanished Voices "In June last year, the 34 members of the Scottish Opera chorus were unceremoniously sacked before going onstage to perform Puccini's La Boheme at Edinburgh's Festival Theatre. A few weeks later, they gave their last performance and went on to try to find other work... Scottish Opera was in financial turmoil. Its annual budget of £7.4m had been spent – it needed bailing out, and fast. The opera board wanted an advance on its 2004-2005 budget from the Scottish Arts Council to pay for salaries but the Scottish Executive demanded that, in order to secure the money, Scottish Opera had to restructure – thereby axing 88 jobs. For the chorus, it was a decision that changed their lives." The Herald (Glasgow) 10/20/05
Posted: 10/20/2005 5:51 am
Greek Opera To Get A Real Home (Finally) A coastal site in the south of Athens has been chosen as the future home of the much-neglected National Opera of Greece. If things go according to plan, a huge performing arts complex will rise on the site, which beat out two other potential locations in the city's downtown. "The aim of the complex is to provide a cultural hub combining music halls, museums and galleries such as that in the Spanish town of Bilbao, famed for its striking architecture." Kathimerini (Athens) 10/20/05
Posted: 10/20/2005 5:43 am
Chicago Still Running Deficits, But Things Are Looking Up The Chicago Symphony ran up another sizable deficit in the 2004-05 season ($1.3 million, to be exact,) but that figure represents a major improvement over the previous season and is $700,000 less than the deficit the orchestra had projected for the year. Fund-raising was up by 4% overall, and the budget for fiscal 2005 was reduced 2.6% from the previous year. Ticket sales also rebounded from a slow year in 2003-04, and were up by 7% overall, with nearly 85% of subscribers renewing their seats for 2005-06. The CSO's internal plan calls for achieving a balanced budget by 2006-07. Chicago Sun-Times 10/20/05
Posted: 10/20/2005 5:30 am
Average Spending On Music? £21,000 A new study estimates that the average person spends about £21,000 on music during their lifetime. "The figure includes the amount spent on equipment and concert-going as well as music on CDs and records. Music enthusiasts are likely to spend more than double that, parting with just over £44,000 in a lifetime." BBC 10/19/05
Posted: 10/19/2005 7:41 pm
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New York Gets Its Own Arts Management Program "The Kennedy Center announced yesterday it is expanding its arts management initiative to include a concentrated program in New York. Called 'Arts Advantage/NYC,' it is a cooperative effort among the center, Time Warner and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Michael M. Kaiser, the Kennedy Center's president, said the venture would use the techniques employed in consultations for minority arts organizations and mid-size American orchestras, but would focus on unique issues in the New York arts world." Washington Post 10/20/05
Posted: 10/20/2005 6:58 am
Striking Doris The union representing airline mechanics has been striking against Minnesota-based Northwest Airlines for two months now, with little to show for it. But the union has begun a strange strategy of attacking individual members of Northwest's board of directors on unrelated fronts. One of the oddest attacks: a pamphlet distributed as presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was releasing her latest book, calling her "the great prevaricator" (a reference to Goodwin's plagiarism scandal two years ago) and urging air travelers not to buy her books. Yes, Goodwin is a member of the Northwest board. But a real policy player at the airline? Alex Beam thinks not... Boston Globe 10/20/05
Posted: 10/20/2005 6:17 am
Is New York's Cultural Dominance Slipping? Is New York still the culture capital of the world? Was it ever? Lots of New Yorkers would certainly claim that it was, is, and will always be, but then, most New Yorkers also believe that the world ends just west of New Jersey. A realistic look at history reveals that "there was only a relatively brief time when New York City, no longer overshadowed by Europe, was universally considered the art capital of the world." Worse, a good deal of serious art and culture is being replaced (not only in New York, but across America) by attention-grabbing "events" intended simply to draw huge crowds. "It is clear that the arts and culture have risen in importance for cities all over the world, which increases the competition for talent." Gotham Gazette (NY) 10/20/05
Posted: 10/20/2005 5:15 am
Columbia U And The Demise Of NAJP Columbia University says it wants to be a player in the arts. The university's president said he wanted the Journalism School to study the field of journalism as well as teach it. So why did the J-school ax the National Arts Journalism Program which served both purposes? New York Observer 10/19/05
Posted: 10/19/2005 8:19 pm
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The Madwoman Who Started A Movement "Alma Lee is affectionately known as the 'madwoman' who built the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival from the ground up and kept it going for 18 years. When Lee steps down as artistic director at the end of December, she will undoubtedly be celebrated for her tenacious work ethic and many earnest deeds." But those who know Lee say that the best way to understand her is through the endless stories told by anyone fortunate enough to have spent time in her inner circle. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/20/05
Posted: 10/20/2005 6:31 am
Solzhenitsyn Cottage Burns A cottage where Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote some of his most famous works has burned down. "An official at the local fire department said the dacha burned down on Wednesday night. The newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets said it was being rented by a Georgian man and that faulty electrics had sparked the blaze. It was unclear how much of the writer's old papers remained there, although the newspaper said there were rare photographs and writings about the writer's life." The Guardian (UK) 10/19/05
Posted: 10/19/2005 10:27 pm
Steve Kurtz: A Life Under Investigation A year and a half after his wife died, artist Steve Kurtz is still fighting American prosecutors who accused him of bio-terrorism. He says his persecutors "have to have something to show for the millions of dollars they've spent on this. They're trying to create a kind of hysteria, a horrible kind of vigilantism. It's right out of Hitler's handbook. The final goal is to silence and intimidate voices of dissent." The Guardian (UK) 10/19/05
Posted: 10/19/2005 10:15 pm
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Welcome To Workshop Hell. May We Take Your Dignity? "There is a land for playwrights called Workshop Hell. It resides in the rehearsal halls and the mostly empty auditoriums of this nation's theaters. In Workshop Hell, new scripts are pushed to their feet in readings and semistaged productions. They're critiqued and commented upon and massaged. Those workshops most frequently lead to... another workshop. And another. And sometimes, another. For writers caught in Workshop Hell, seeing their script under the full illumination of stage lights can be a distant dream." St. Paul Pioneer Press 10/20/05
Posted: 10/20/2005 6:46 am
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Time: 100 Best Books What are the 100 all-time best novels? Time magazine made a list... Time 10/18/05
Posted: 10/19/2005 7:36 pm
Publishers Sue Google The Association of American Publishers has filed a lawsuit against Google for its print-digitizing project. "The suit was filed on behalf of McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, Penguin Group (USA), Simon & Schuster and John Wiley & Sons. AAP President Patricia Schroeder said that the publishers viewed legal action as a last resort and had filed suit only when Google refused to agree to making separate permissions requests for each in-copyright book it scans in the libraries of Stanford University, Harvard University and the University of Michigan." The Book Standard 10/18/05
Posted: 10/19/2005 7:23 pm
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Stern Losing Audience Even Before Satellite Switch As shock jock Howard Stern prepares to depart his longtime employer for satellite radio at the end of the year, the industry is waiting with bated breath to see if Stern can make good on his promise to be the first personality to successfully bring a large chunk of audience with him to pay radio. But an ominous sign is already making itself known in the Stern universe: this fall's ratings book shows Stern with his lowest traditional radio ratings in years. At his Washington affiliate, "Stern's share of radio's most lucrative audience (adults age 25 to 54) fell by nearly one-third during the July-September period, bottoming out at 3.4 percent." Ratings in Stern's New York home base fell by 15%. Washington Post 10/20/05
Posted: 10/20/2005 6:53 am
When The TV Has Everything Ever Made Television of the future will be radically different. "You'll not only be able to watch every film, but also every TV program, news show, documentary, music video, and video blog, and all of it will be playable wherever you go. Great, you think: Thousands of channels, millions of choices, and still nothing worth watching. Nevertheless, "nonlinear TV"—watching the tube on our schedule, not the broadcasters'—is our destiny. The revolution will not be televised, however, until the companies that funnel the content into our homes figure out how to control it. The best advice for now: Study the music industry and do the exact opposite." Slate 10/18/05
Posted: 10/19/2005 7:55 pm
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Joffrey Still Rules The Ballet Roost In Chicago Seventeen years after the death of its founder and a decade after moving operations from New York to Chicago, the renowned Joffrey Ballet lives on, and this week the company begins celebrating its 50th anniversary. "The Joffrey was the most American of [New York's] three major classical companies in its embrace of pop culture and its youthfulness. And it was also the troupe that drew in new ballet audiences of all ages... The company is now a continual presence in [Chicago] with four two-week seasons a year. And it is moving toward establishing itself as the third leg of a classical triumvirate with the Lyric Opera and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra." The New York Times 10/19/05
Posted: 10/19/2005 5:37 am
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