Wednesday, May 10
The Politics Of Ranking Your Friends "If the Internet was once ungoverned by etiquette, those days are gone; MySpace and its siblings, by many accounts the future of the Net, are rife with discussions of good manners versus unforgivable faux pas. There isn't an aristocratic class, just yet, but you can see the lines forming in the sand, renegades and bad boys posting bulletins pell-mell, uploading risque pictures, collecting "friends" as if it's all some big popularity contest — while mannered netizens look on disapprovingly. Screw up and you just might get dumped, online and off." Los Angeles Times 05/10/06
Posted: 05/10/2006 8:18 am
Is The U.S. On The Verge Of Going Bilingual? To judge from the furor raised by conservatives last week when a group of Latin recording artists released a Spanish version of The Star-Spangled Banner, you would have thought that America was on the verge of losing its very soul. Ariel Dorfman says that we'd better get used to it. "This Spanish is not going to fade away as Norwegian or Italian or German did during previous assimilated waves... If this prophecy of mine is right, and America will sometime in the near or distant future be articulating its identity in two inevitable languages, then the question looms: how will the citizens of the United States react to this monumental challenge?" The Guardian (UK) 05/10/06
Posted: 05/09/2006 9:18 pm
What Is Experience Worth? The older we get, the more we like to reflect on the importance of "life experience," and how the passage of time can give human beings an expertise in their chosen field that raw talent never can. But how important is experience, really? After all, talented athletes now begin their professional careers as teenagers, and don't appear to suffer from a lack of life experience. Could the same be true in politics, music, or art? Is it possible that all the talk of seasoning and maturation is nothing more than our fear of those younger than us? The Guardian (UK) 05/10/06
Posted: 05/09/2006 9:13 pm
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Minimalists Soar And Records Set In Tuesday Auction The evening set records for 12 artists ranging from David Hockney and Damien Hirst to Richard Prince and Mike Kelley in a sale that totaled $143.1 million, in the middle of its estimate, $113.1 million to $160.2 million. The New York Times 05/10/06
Posted: 05/10/2006 8:29 am
Art Chicago Sale A Sign Of How The Mighty Have Fallen Art Chicago used to be the top art fair in the US. No more. "Now Art Chicago has been bought by the company which runs the Merchandise Mart, a vast wholesale showroom for furniture, apparel and other companies which also runs a plethora of trade shows." The Art Newspaper 05/08/06
Posted: 05/10/2006 7:17 am
Taking Outsider Art Worship Too Far A new art exhibition in London purports to show striking parallels between so-called "outsider art" often created by the mentally ill and some of the 20th century's greatest "insider" artists. A simple enough concept, but it has at least one critic furious: "A show of 'outsider' art... is well worth doing. Nor is it wrong to point out that, in the 20th century, mainstream artists have been fascinated by this kind of art. What is objectionable is to present the art of people with severe mental illness alongside the work of Francis Bacon, Joan Miró or Francis Picabia, and then to propose that there is no essential difference between the two, that both are simply different manifestations of modernity. This is post-modernist crap." The Telegraph (UK) 05/09/06
Posted: 05/09/2006 9:35 pm
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Sorting Out The Zukerman Affair Why did music director Pinchas Zukerman return early to Ottawa's National Arts Center Orchestra? There's plenty of speculation, but one's thing is sure - his situation with the orchestra is far from resolved. "So we may be in for several more years of Zukerman at the NACO. It remains to be seen whether that turns out to be a good thing, or a new phase in a bad relationship." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/10/06
Posted: 05/10/2006 8:37 am
How Concerts Sell Out In Ten Minutes Have you ever called TicketMaster to buy tickets for a popular concert minutes after they're released only to be told the show has sold out? "Can a show really sell out in a few minutes? Yes, thanks to the Internet. Ticketmaster, the ticket agent for pretty much every big concert in America, sells tickets on its Web site, over the phone (via 19 international call centers), at 6,500 domestic retail outlets, and through arena box offices. According to Ticketmaster, Internet orders now make up 60 percent of sales." Slate 05/09/06
Posted: 05/10/2006 7:52 am
Are You Rockist? (Pssst - Rockism Is Bad) "One thing's for sure: Most pop critics today would just as soon be accused of pedophilia as rockism. This was certainly the case among the journalists, academics, and geeks who gathered at the 2006 Experience Music Project Pop Conference last month. At EMP, rockism talk was so prevalent that it became a kind of running gag." Slate 05/09/06
Posted: 05/10/2006 7:47 am
Africa's Changing Musical Landscape For decades, South Africa was the powerhouse of the African music world, cranking out hit after hit and producing popular new artists at a speed no other country on the continent could match. But today, the base of musical power has shifted: Mali and Senegal are top of the pops, and South Africa is nowhere to be found. Financial Times (UK) 05/09/06
Posted: 05/09/2006 9:03 pm
Barenboim To La Scala? Rumor Mill Says Yes Several European newspapers are reporting that opera insiders expect conductor Daniel Barenboim to shortly be named music director at Italy's famed La Scala opera house, succeeding Riccardo Muti. Barenboim will wrap up his tenure as music director of the Chicago Symphony next month. "Ironically, Muti, 64, who resigned from La Scala in April 2005 after acrimonious relations with orchestra members, is considered one of the leading candidates for Barenboim's Chicago post." Chicago Tribune 05/10/06
Posted: 05/09/2006 8:20 pm
Alsop, DiDonato Take Home Royal Phils The UK's Royal Philharmonic Society has handed out its annual classical music awards, and conductor Marin Alsop took home the prize as BBC Radio listeners' favorite person in the business. "American soprano Joyce DiDonato was named best singer for her performance of Rosina in the Barber of Seville," and a Welsh National Opera production of Wozzeck took top honors for musical and dramatic excellence. BBC 05/09/06
Posted: 05/09/2006 8:12 pm
The Best Composers You've Never Heard Of Contrary to the belief of some, there are plenty of top-notch composers hard at work around the world. But you probably haven't heard of most of them, because there's a lot more to becoming famous than just being good at what you do. The funny thing is, though, that composers who achieve fame in America are frequently unknown in the UK, or continental Europe, and vice versa. How can that happen, with the music world being as small as it is? Well, it's complicated... The Guardian (UK) 05/10/06
Posted: 05/09/2006 7:59 pm
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Getty Chooses Team To Find New Director "The committee will be led by Louise H. Bryson, a Getty trustee since 1998. Other trustees on the committee include Agnes Gund, Joanne Kozberg, Luis Nogales, William E. B. Siart, Mark Siegel and Jay S. Wintrob." Los Angeles Times 05/10/06
Posted: 05/10/2006 8:26 am
Starbucks' Movie Ambitions Starbucks is getting into movies. "Last week, it announced an alliance with William Morris Agency, a talent and literary agency that will help Starbucks identify music, film and book projects to consider for marketing and distribution in its stores." Yahoo! (AP) 05/10/06
Posted: 05/10/2006 7:40 am
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Speaking Up For The City It wasn't easy for internationally acclaimed architect Richard Rogers to make it in New York, but last week's announcement that he would design one of the new Ground Zero towers solidified his reputation in America, as it had already been solidified in his native Britain. "He has long been a persuasive, articulate and often lonely voice on the importance of design and density in cities. His practice is famously run with a constitution, the directors earning a maximum of six times the salary of the lowest-paid architect, and last year £1m was donated to charity." Financial Times (UK) 05/09/06
Posted: 05/09/2006 9:00 pm
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Broadway To High School: Chicago's OK After All Students at a high school in the Bronx were told this week they will be able to stage a production of "Chicago" in their school after all. The Broadway producers of the show had originally said rights for the show would not be granted because the school was too close to Broadway. "No one within a 75-mile radius of the New York production can get the rights. Those who violate the rules could face hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation." Backstage 05/10/06
Posted: 05/10/2006 7:26 am
Creating Billy Elliot (Again. And Again.) "Billy Elliot made a phenomenally successful transfer from screen to stage last year. On Friday, Stephen Daldry's production celebrates its first birthday, and the three original Billys - the cast works on a rotation system - will return for a special gala." And this brings up an interesting question: where, exactly, do they keep finding new Billy Elliots? As it turns out, there's a factory for that... The Guardian (UK) 05/10/06
Posted: 05/09/2006 9:25 pm
Spacey & Old Vic Soldier On With New Season Kevin Spacey, who has come under fire from the London press recently for his management of the city's struggling Old Vic, has unveiled a new season that he hopes will get the critics (and the public) back on his side and into his theatre. "After the critical bruising the theatre's recent output has received, the forthcoming productions include some obvious crowd-pleasers... But the programme does include some more adventurous choices." The Guardian (UK) 05/10/06
Posted: 05/09/2006 9:08 pm
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Number Of Books Published In US Declined Last Year Book sales are down. So publishers have started cutting down on the number of books they publish. "The number of new books and new editions of old works published last year dropped to 172,000, about 18,000 less than in 2004. Publishers, especially small and middle-sized ones, all cut back." Yahoo! (AP) 05/09/06
Posted: 05/10/2006 7:42 am
Report: Minorities Underserved By Industry A report issued by the UK's federal Arts Council says that publishers and booksellers are neglecting minority groups, citing research that says "only 50 of the top 5,000 best-selling books in 2006 so far are by black and minority ethnic writers." BBC 05/09/06
Posted: 05/09/2006 8:28 pm
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Why DVD Piracy Flourishes In Mexico? "Unlike middle-class U.S. consumers, poor people in Mexico can't afford to go to the movies, or even buy or rent authentic videos or DVDs. The typical cost of a movie ticket is 50 pesos (about $5), and more than half of Mexico's workers earn less than $13 a day." But even poor Mexicans can afford to spend 10 pesos on pirated movies sold on the streets... Los Angeles Times 05/10/06
Posted: 05/10/2006 8:20 am
DaVinci Director Declines Disclaimer Director Ron Howard has rejected calls from Catholics to place a disclaimer at the beginning of the film adaptation of The DaVinci Code informing audiences that the story is a work of fiction. The Catholic sect Opus Dei, which is fictionalized in the book and depicted as a murderous secret society, had asked for the disclaimer. Howard's reaction: "It's not theology. It's not history. To start off with a disclaimer ... spy thrillers don't start off with disclaimers." The Age (Reuters) 05/09/06
Posted: 05/09/2006 8:36 pm
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Dancer Meets Critc... Or Is It The Other Way Around? Last summer, in a now-famous letter to The New Yorker, choreographer Tere O'Connor complained that "critics do not know how to read dances…they don’t do the work of finding out what is actually going on in the minds of the artists or what are the contexts in which these works are created. They have reduced dance criticism to an explanatory, superficial, retelling of events." So what should that complicated between dance critic and artist be? Brooklyn Rail 05/10/06
Posted: 05/10/2006 8:48 am
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