Blogging Your Way To Better Writing Skills? Good Luck. When blogging first started to become a major online phenomenon, many bloggers were fond of claiming that the medium would lead a resurrection of interest in quality writing. It hasn't happened, of course, as anyone skimming any of the millions of poorly written, grammatically atrocious journals can attest. "Of the 27 million or so "daily diaries" floating like space junk in the blogosphere, there are a handful that aren't bad. Some are well written and insightful. But understand that we're talking about a precious few needles in a mighty big haystack." Wired 04/27/06
Posted: 04/27/2006 5:58 am
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Big Names Abound At Spring Auctions "Some of the greatest hits in art history are coming to Sotheby's and Christie's in Manhattan this weekend: a van Gogh portrait of Madame Ginoux; a 1941 Picasso painting of his mistress Dora Maar with a black cat perched on her shoulder; and a haunting 1902 Blue Period Picasso of Germaine, one of his earliest muses... The record-breaking prices at last fall's auctions in New York and those in London in February encouraged sellers, making the war between Sotheby's and Christie's so cutthroat that both houses have been doling out large guarantees — undisclosed amounts promised to sellers regardless of a sale's outcome — to win the business." The New York Times 04/27/06
Posted: 04/27/2006 6:31 am
Can Rich Guys Ever Be Good Artists? There are plenty of examples throughout history of artists who wound up making a pile of money from their work, but Jonathan Jones suggests that when extravagant financial success comes too soon, an artist can quickly lose his/her edge, or at least the perspective needed to relate to the audience. "Dalí and Warhol both lost the spark of brilliance as money became central to their lives. At least in Warhol's case there was a pertinence, even a kind of martyrdom, to his immersion in the dollar sign, the ultimate Pop icon. When you become as rich as this, being as rich as this becomes your story. If you don't make art about being a multimillionaire, you are being dishonest. If you do, you can hardly claim the universality of great art." The Guardian (UK) 04/27/06
Posted: 04/26/2006 9:10 pm
Restoring Lord Nelson The 18-ton statue of Lord Nelson that stands atop the huge granite column in London's Trafalgar Square has been through a lot over the years. "When Edward Baily's statue was displayed at ground level before being winched into place in three enormous sections it was a sensation: more than 100,000 people came to see it." But now, the elements have had more than 150 years to wear on Baily's design, and a major conservation effort is underway. The Guardian (UK) 04/27/06
Posted: 04/26/2006 8:39 pm
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NYC Opera Close To Getting A New Home "The New York City Opera is close to a deal to build a concert hall in the base of a new apartment building planned for the former American Red Cross site near Lincoln Center... In the new building, the opera company is to have a theater of about 1,800 seats with the expected cost about $350 million. The design for the interior was done by Hugh Hardy, that of the building itself by Christian de Portzamparc. The financial details are not fully worked out, and people involved in the project emphasize that the deal is not done. Still uncertain, for example, is how much the city might contribute." The New York Times 04/27/06
Posted: 04/27/2006 6:42 am
The Jesus & Commerce Chain For mainstream rock fans, the very idea of Christian Rock can cause sneers and laughter. But the genre has exploded in the last two decades, and increasingly, Christian bands are nearly indistinguishable from their secular counterparts, save for two things: the lyrics are about God, and the Christian albums sell better. "Instead of growing apart, mainstream rock and Christian rock seem to have grown closer since the 1980's. Consider the modern-rock and emo bands who dominate contemporary rock radio; they're full of earnest and rather clean-cut young men who often seem more interested in the power of love than the power of lust. So what difference would it make if those plaintive lyrics were about a Him instead of a her?" The New York Times 04/27/06
Posted: 04/27/2006 6:27 am
Toronto Opera House Gets A Sound Check Opening night may yet be weeks away, but a packed house got a chance this week to hear the first full test of the acoustics of Toronto's new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. "It was immediately clear that music is truly front and centre in this space. The singing from the stage and playing from the orchestra pit sounded clean and mellow. The lyrics were clearly intelligible." Toronto Star 04/27/06
Posted: 04/27/2006 5:45 am
Philly's Brass Section Looking Considerably Less Male Hot on the heels of having hired one of the few female tubists in the professional orchestra world, the Philadelphia Orchestra has hired another prominent woman as its new principal french horn. Jennifer Montone, who has been principal horn of the St. Louis Symphony, will become the first female principal horn of any of the so-called "Big Five" orchestras in nearly sixty years. Orchestras have been hiring women for decades, of course, but the brass sections of many ensembles have remained overwhelmingly male. Philadelphia Inquirer 04/27/06
Posted: 04/27/2006 5:37 am
Charleston Sym Expects A Significant Deficit South Carolina's Charleston Symphony is on pace to end the current season $211,000 in the red, even after extra contributions to the orchestra's endowment fund by the outgoing board chair and his wife. There are also concerns about advance ticket sales for next season, which are down from previous years. Charleston Post & Courier (SC) 04/27/06
Posted: 04/27/2006 5:22 am
Europe's All-Star Chamber Orchestra A chamber orchestra can be a tricky ensemble to maintain - there aren't many that qualify as full-time employment, and that can hurt the ability of the orchestra to attract the best players. But the Chamber Orchestra of Europe has found a unique model which has attracted (and kept) some of the best musicians in Europe coming back season after season for what is sometimes described as the world's best pickup band. "With no permanent base, members have to travel from their home countries to wherever a project is taking place; fees, subsistence and hotel bills add a further burden... But it continues to thrive artistically through acclaimed concerts and award-winning recordings, having formed close partnerships with many leading conductors." The Telegraph (UK) 04/27/06
Posted: 04/27/2006 5:16 am
Watching The Music Sway Anyone who says that classical music is a purely aural medium has probably never seen an orchestra in action. The movements of a conductor can range from subtle to violent, and musicians can be seen moving independently or in concert. Charlotte Higgins says that observing the physical movement of an orchestra is half the fun of the performance. The Guardian (UK) 04/26/06
Posted: 04/26/2006 8:28 pm
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Latest From The True/Hecht Trial: The Sicilian Connection Prosecutors in the art theft trial of former Getty Museum curator Marion True and art dealer Robert Hecht are weaving a complex tale of antiquities fraud, using dozens of documents to establish a pattern of misconduct. The latest testimony in the case has focused on a Sicilian antiquities dealer whom prosecutors allege had illegal dealings with collectors and museums around the world. The New York Times 04/27/06
Posted: 04/27/2006 6:38 am
The Good Luck Symbol That Dare Not Speak Its Name "The swastika's recent marginalisation is undeniable. Where it was once an ancient symbol of love, laughter, joy, peace and good luck for cultures across the world, the days when an innocent civilian or institution could display a swastika willy-nilly are now long gone since Adolf Hitler appropriated the symbol for his Nazi party, which ended up taking control of Germany and systematically murdered at least 9 million people and caused a war in which 50 million more died. Since Hitler, things have been quite difficult for the swastika. This reality has been particularly hard hitting for the branch of [a London bank] which, it turns out, has two of the provocative symbols on display in mosaics on the floor of its entrance." The Guardian (UK) 04/27/06
Posted: 04/26/2006 9:06 pm
A Museum's Savior, A Shameless Self-Promoter, Or Both? When Marine Reservist Matthew Bogdanos led an improvised mission to recover the thousands of artifacts looted from the Baghdad Museum of Art after the American invasion, he quickly acheived not only success, but fame in the art world, fame which he has savvily leveraged into a lucrative career as a public speaker, even as he continues to pursue stolen art. "With this high profile has come criticism -- from some museum officials, archeologists, and soldiers in other branches of the military who served in Iraq." Boston Globe 04/23/06
Posted: 04/26/2006 7:56 pm
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The Forgotten Composer John Foulds is best remembered these days as a footnote in the history of early 20th century music, but if conductor Sakari Oramo and critic Malcolm MacDonald have their way, Foulds will soon join the ranks of the century's best composers. "While a Foulds revival has been stuttering along for a couple of decades now, you would be forgiven for not having heard of him. Although he was a well-known musical figure in his heyday in the 1920s, after his death Foulds disappeared from the musical map... Oramo's championing of Foulds reveals a composer whose music had some of the pastoral qualities of his friend Vaughan Williams, but was wildly eclectic and, in many ways, ahead of its time." The Telegraph (UK) 04/27/06
Posted: 04/26/2006 9:40 pm
Wouldn't Wordsworth Have Been Better With A Bass Line? John Betjeman may not be a household name in America, but to Britons, he was an adored figure and a beloved poet laureate. This summer, the UK will mark Betjeman's centenary, and the country's DJs will be celebrating his legacy as a pioneer in the world of... funk? Well, yes: "In 1974, at the age of 67, Betjeman launched an extraordinary new recording career. He released the album Banana Blush on the Charisma label - then best known for Genesis and other prog-rock travellers such as Van der Graaf Generator. Banana Blush was followed by three similar albums, with the poet reading his works over a musical backing that includes tea-dance jazz, brass bands, rock guitar and, yes, the occasional fat and funky bassline." The Guardian (UK) 04/27/06
Posted: 04/26/2006 8:56 pm
Painter Joash Woodrow, 78 "The chance discovery in a Harrogate bookshop in 2001, by the painter Christopher P Wood, of six volumes of an engraved Victorian art history, wildly and exuberantly annotated in a series of Picasso-esque drawings and collages by the then completely forgotten painter Joash Woodrow, led directly to the re-emergence of one of the most significant artistic figures in postwar British art... In the months that followed, it became apparent that this was no isolated figure at the margins of art history but an artist of sophisticated interests and training." The Guardian (UK) 04/27/06
Posted: 04/26/2006 8:52 pm
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British Agents Cheating Their Clients Theatrical agents in the UK are being accused of charging aspiring actors thousands of pounds in fees in return for securing work that never materializes. "New laws from April 2004 made it illegal to charge up-front registration fees, although did allow agencies to charge a 'reasonable' sum to include someone in a publication or directory. But [a report in a UK trade magazine] made clear that the majority of performers were unaware of the new laws from the Department of Trade and Industry. Moreover, the rules were being flagrantly breached by many agents." The Independent (UK) 04/27/06
Posted: 04/26/2006 9:22 pm
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Everybody's A Cryptographer... Apparently, the pull of The DaVinci Code is so strong that not even members of the bench can resist it. The judge in the now-dismissed plagiarism case against author Dan Brown has admitted that he embedded a code of his own within the text of his 72-page ruling, and says he will confirm its contents once someone breaks the code. The New York Times 04/27/06
Posted: 04/27/2006 6:34 am
Co-Authored By A Marketing Committee The Kaavya Viswanathan plagiarism case has brought to light a profession many outside the publishing world have probably been completely unaware of: that of the "book packager." Alongside Viswanathan's name (and those of countless other authors) on the copyright page is the name "Alloy Entertainment," which specializes in coming up with ideas, characters, and plotlines that test well with a certain demographic of readers, then hiring an author to flesh out the details. "Alloy owns or shares the copyright with the authors and then divides the advances and any royalties with them. This Sunday, books created by Alloy will be ranked at Nos. 1, 5 and 9 on The New York Times's children's paperback best-seller list." The New York Times 04/27/06
Posted: 04/27/2006 6:21 am
- My Subconscious Made Me Do It Kaavya Viswanathan continues to insist that she never intentionally copied passages of her novel from two books by Megan McCafferty, and said in an appearance on NBC's Today Show that her love for McCafferty's works must have led her to unconsciously paraphrase the author's words. Meanwhile, lawyers from Viswanathan and McCafferty's respective publishers are discussing the potential implications of the plagiarism, even as Viswanathan's publisher says that it has no intention of withdrawing the book. Boston Globe 04/27/06
Posted: 04/27/2006 6:20 am
Ottakar's Final Chapter? Ottakar's is a quirky and offbeat chain of UK bookshops beloved by its clientele. "Writers, publishers and readers have been in a state of high anxiety since last autumn when it was first mooted that HMV (which owns Waterstone's) wanted to take over Ottakar's for some £97 million. The Office of Fair Trading received the largest postbag in its history from anxious bibliophiles arguing that the literary world would end - very nearly - if it was gobbled up by its larger rival. Now, with approval for the bid expected any day from the Competition Commission, things have suddenly became even more exciting - and nerve-racking." The Telegraph (UK) 04/27/06
Posted: 04/26/2006 9:30 pm
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Embracing The (Very, Very, Very) Small Screen The idea of movies made specifically to be viewed on cell phones is still a hard sell to many in Hollywood. But there is no question that some of the shorts being produced for the tiny screen are of extremely high quality, and many are counting on mobile movies to be the next big content boom. "This week at the San Francisco International Film Festival, 20 movies made for mobile devices with 2-inch-by-3-inch screens will be shown as part of the festival's Pocket Cinema program." Wired 04/27/06
Posted: 04/27/2006 6:02 am
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