Bureaucracy In Action There's quite a debate going on in Canada over health care, and in particular, over government bureaucracy and its role in 'streamlining' hospitals and clinics perceived as inefficient. But how can us arts folk understand such a debate? One doctor is happy to provide a useful analogy: what if the Montreal Symphony were similarly 'streamlined'? "All 20 violins were playing identical notes! This constitutes needless duplication. The staff of this section should be cut drastically... For considerable periods during the concert, the oboe player and the percussionist had nothing to do. Both jobs could be done by the same person... The position of conductor, a non-player who amazingly is paid the highest salary, should be eliminated [and replaced with] an inexpensive metronome." McGill Reporter (Montreal) 02/09/06
Posted: 02/09/2006 6:06 am
How The Internet Was Saved (The First Time) It was ten years ago that Congress passed a sweeping law that would have stunted the Internet (it was later challenged and defeated in the courts). "The Communications Decency Act, or CDA, was passed by Congress as part of the Telecommunications Act and signed into law by President Clinton on Feb. 8, 1996. The law aimed to extend to the internet the same "decency" standard that applies to broadcast TV and radio, and is now most famous for leading to fines for Howard Stern and CBS television for explicit language and a wardrobe malfunction respectively." Wired 02/08/06
Posted: 02/08/2006 7:54 pm
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McMichael Plucks Frick Director "Thomas J. Smart, director of collections and exhibitions at [Pittsburgh's] Frick Art & Historical Center since July 1999, will leave the museum to become executive director of The McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Toronto, Ontario... The McMichael collection includes First Nations and Inuit artworks and is the foremost venue in Canada for paintings by the Group of Seven, landscape artists who were active in the first half of the last century." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 02/09/06
Posted: 02/09/2006 6:58 am
The Science Behind That Fresh-Looking Landscape The science of art conservation is sort of like working a jigsaw puzzle without knowing for sure what the final picture is meant to look like. "Over and above conservators' hands-on skills, scientists need to know the standard form of materials under study and be able to recognize what is novel or unusual about the composition of an object, whether sculpture, watercolor, painting or any combination of these." Washington Times 02/09/06
Posted: 02/09/2006 6:00 am
Computer Turns Up Fake Pollocks? A physicist has used computer pattern analysis to identify consistent patterns in the drip paintings of Jackson Pollock. He's "determined that half a dozen small paintings recently discovered and claimed by their owner to be original Pollocks do not exhibit the same patterns." The New York Times 02/09/06
Posted: 02/08/2006 10:00 pm
Soviet-Era Preservation Moscow has been tearing down much of its Soviet-era architecture. But now "Moscow is seeing a rash of cool industrial conversions that draw inspiration from projects like London's Tate Modern. It has yet to turn the tide of destruction but embattled preservationists believe it's a sign of hope for the future:" The Guardian (UK) 02/08/06
Posted: 02/08/2006 8:56 pm
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How Many Musicians Do You Really Need? When the CEO of the Lousiville Orchestra paused in the middle of negotiating a new contract with the orchestra's musicians last month to speculate publicly that the organization might shut down if serious changes did not occur, the musicians were stunned, and then furious. This week, they offered to take a wage freeze and benefit cuts and to submit the whole contract to mediation. But CEO Scott Provancher isn't hopeful that mediation will accomplish anything, and he remains convinced that only a wholesale reduction in the number of full-time musicians in the orchestra can save the company from Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Louisville Courier-Journal 02/09/06
Posted: 02/09/2006 7:32 am
The New York DigiPhil "The New York Philharmonic, not known for its quick-stepping ways, is entering the new world of digital downloading under a three-year recording deal with Deutsche Grammophon... [The record company,] using live recordings by the orchestra, will release four concerts a year, probably through iTunes and perhaps through other Web sites." The full concerts will cost $8 to $10, and listeners will also have the option of downloading individual pieces. The new deal was made possible when the Philharmonic musicians agreed to a revenue-sharing deal, rather than insisting on being paid a flat fee up front for the project, as has always been traditional. The New York Times 02/09/06
Posted: 02/09/2006 5:55 am
Life After Daniel Building an orchestral season without a music director is always a challenge, but the Chicago Symphony is hoping an unconventional approach to the challenge will engage audiences. "The season, built around an innovative tie-in to Yo-Yo Ma's ongoing Silk Road Project, is jammed with more than two dozen visiting conductors," some of whom are undoubtedly candidates to succeed the outgoing Daniel Barenboim at the helm of the CSO. Chicago Sun-Times 02/09/06
Posted: 02/09/2006 5:42 am
- Less Barenboim, More Crowd-Pleasers The new Chicago Symphony season seems to have veered in a decidedly populist (read: anti-Barenboim) direction, says John van Rhein. "There will be a conspicuous drop in the kind of rigorous modernist programming Barenboim favored -- no Schoenberg, no Elliott Carter." Behind the change in tone is CSO President Deborah Card, "[whose] primary mandate is building up an audience that has fallen somewhat during the Barenboim years. And so her administration continues to stress consumer-friendly initiatives such as Classic Encounters and the popular Friday-night film series." Chicago Tribune 02/09/06
Posted: 02/09/2006 5:40 am
Yes, There Are Still Grammys for Classical And Jazz Conductor Leonard Slatkin, composer William Bolcom, and an orchestra from the University of Michigan were the big winners among classical nominees at the Grammy Awards last night. Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony took home the award for best orchestral performance, and the Emerson Quartet's complete set of Mendelssohn quartets won best chamber music performance. In the jazz division, major awards went to Wayne Shorter, Pat Metheny, and Sonny Rollins. International Herald Tribune (AP) 02/09/06
Posted: 02/09/2006 5:20 am
NY Phil To Record American The New York Philharmonic is back in the recordinjg business. The orchestra has announced "an agreement with New World Records to issue two CD recordings per year of live performances of contemporary American repertoire." NewMusicBox 02/08/06
Posted: 02/08/2006 10:09 pm
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China Becomes Leader In Visual Art Exports "China has now become the second largest exporter of 'visual arts', accounting for 19% of world exports in this category (particularly statuary). World trade in all categories of cultural goods (including visual arts, heritage goods, books, newspapers, recorded media, audiovisual, etc.) almost doubled from $39 billion in 1994 to $59 billion in 2002, representing around 1% of total world trade."
The Art Newspaper 02/08/06
Posted: 02/08/2006 6:18 pm
New Orleans Theatres' Future In Doubt "The storm took out all four of New Orleans' major performing arts theaters, severely flooding two of its oldest — the Orpheum and the Saenger, both listed on the national registry of historic places. But in the five months since Katrina, as renovations have been under way at the Saenger, recovery at the Orpheum — which had no flood insurance — has been all but stagnant. And the future of the 85-year-old theater, which for years has served as home to the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, is uncertain." The Times-Picayune (New Orleans) 02/08/06
Posted: 02/08/2006 5:54 pm
Poll: Welsh Want To Keep Arts Funding Separate Only 22 percent of Welsh want their government to fund the arts directly. "Some 56% wanted the Arts Council of Wales (ACW) to continue funding and developing the arts. The survey followed a defeat for Labour, which had tried to take over responsibility for arts funding." BBC 02/08/06
Posted: 02/08/2006 5:17 pm
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Solzhenitsyn: Ready For His Close-Up "Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has been called the conscience of the [Russian] nation, but his reputation has risen and fallen as tumultuously as Russia itself since the collapse of the Soviet Union." So what are the odds that the former exile would suddenly become the biggest TV star in the country he has spent his life critiquing? The New York Times 02/09/06
Posted: 02/09/2006 6:38 am
The 80-Year-Old Ballerina The world may never see a better advertisement for 80 than Maya Plisetskaya. Gliding on to the stage at Moscow's Kremlin Palace Theatre, at the end of a glittering gala on her actual birthday, the stunningly fresh-faced ballerina dances a lilting solo piece written for her by choreographer Roland Petit. And then, after a standing ovation from the 6,000-strong audience, she does it again. The Telegraph (UK) 02/08/06
Posted: 02/08/2006 10:20 pm
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D.C. Experimental Theatre Closes Up Shop "[Washington, D.C.'s] Source Theatre Company, which provided a home for experimental plays and fledging artists for more than 28 years, has ceased operations and agreed to sell its building. Source had been struggling financially for several years and has received almost $1 million in public funds." Washington Post 02/09/06
Posted: 02/09/2006 7:07 am
Scrap It Before The Critics Get A Look At It Minneapolis-based Theatre de la Jeune Lune, which won the 2005 Tony Award for best regional theatre in the U.S., has announced that it will cancel the final production of its 2005-06 season after deciding that the adaptation of "The Old Man Who Read Love Stories" would not be ready in time for its June debut. The company "is known for its unconventional approach to producing and programming. In 2004, the company canceled a week's worth of performances of "The Ballroom" after opening in order to rework the show after disappointing critical and commercial reaction." St. Paul Pioneer Press 02/09/06
Posted: 02/09/2006 7:02 am
Why They're Doing It Is Another Question Entirely Remember when "robotic acting" was an insult? It still is, you say? Not according to one New York troupe. "The underground theatrical superstars Les Freres Corbusier [are premiering] the first production of Hedda Gabler in which half of the major roles are played by robots. Not humans in funny suits, but walking, talking machines performing live onstage. It's titled, naturally, Heddatron." Wired 02/09/06
Posted: 02/09/2006 6:27 am
The Complete Works Of Shakespeare (Unconventional Edition) Yes, the Royal Shakespeare Company is performing the complete works of Shakespeare. But some of the productions will be... shall we say, unconventional. The Guardian (UK) 02/08/06
Posted: 02/08/2006 9:01 pm
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Shopping Spree - Europeans Buy US European companies are buying up US publishers. "Why do foreign media firms find American publishers attractive even as U.S. media conglomerates look to dump them? For American companies, book publishing is a slow-growth niche business. For the Europeans, it's something quite different. These foreign companies that now own U.S. publishers generally lack the scale of U.S. media conglomerates." Slate 02/08/06
Posted: 02/08/2006 5:41 pm
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When Movie Titles Attack "We seem to have entered a golden era of woeful movie titles... Is `The Squid and the Whale' the worst movie title of all time, or is it still a tie between `Chu Chu and the Philly Flash' and `Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things'?" And can anyone remember the difference between a movie titled 'A Lot Like Love,' one called 'Just Like Heaven,' and that instant classic, 'Just Friends'? And don't even get us started on filmmakers who title their masterpiece with a sound effect... Chicago Tribune 02/09/06
Posted: 02/09/2006 6:49 am
Well, Duh. Girls Are Icky! "A study of the most popular G-rated movies of the past 15 years has found that three-quarters of the characters are male, raising concerns that Hollywood is inadvertently telling children that women are less important than men." Boston Globe 02/09/06
Posted: 02/09/2006 6:42 am
If You Can't Beat 'Em, Prop 'Em Up Emboldened by several years of electoral and judicial victories, religious conservatives in the U.S. have become extremely vocal when they spot a Hollywood project that a) they don't like, or b) is aimed squarely at religious audiences but fails to pander in just the right way. As a result, the major studios have become a bit nervous when releasing any film with vaguely religious or sectarian overtones. So what are the producers of the new film version of The DaVinci Code doing to stay out front of what will surely be a wave of religious right-generated negativity? Why, they're providing the soapbox, of course. The New York Times 02/09/06
Posted: 02/09/2006 6:32 am
Hollywood in For Slow Years? Job growth in Los Angeles' entertainment industries is expected to slow in the next two years as business models change. "Video-on-demand and mobile entertainment are two of the new opportunities, but they also threaten traditional business models and network broadcast television in particular." Backstage 02/08/06
Posted: 02/08/2006 6:25 pm
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Flamenco Beyond The Stomping Flamenco is expanding beyond its traditional moves. But "to those who don't get flamenco, no amount of funky music, smart costumes and crossover choreography will overcome their suspicion that, as a form, flamenco is limited. Compared with classical ballet or South Asian dance, it doesn't adapt well to the telling of stories or the invention of character; compared with the variety that has evolved within modern dance, it has a very restricted range. Between the stamping, the castanets, and the coiling, undulating arms, non-believers don't accept there is much to see." The Guardian (UK) 02/08/06
Posted: 02/08/2006 9:33 pm
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