Weekend, May 13-14
Great Music - Some Basic Questions "We need to wake up to the fact that people are now asking basic questions. Why are we musical? Why did people write symphonies? Why do we have the string quartet? They seem child-like, these questions, but they're there to provide us with the opportunity to enthuse and explain and demonstrate the answers we first stumbled upon in our musical journey and which encouraged us to make that journey in the first place. Figure out our answers to those questions, and it will help us tackle some more simple, yet more terrifying, questions: why should the state spend money on the arts, why do we have opera and why is it so expensive, why should we have so many orchestras in London?" The Observer (UK) 05/14/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 8:09 am
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Buyers Drive Up Chinese Art Prices Speculators are driving up the prices of contemporary Chinese art. "Most analysts attribute the rise in prices to speculative buyers from mainland China, where an under-regulated, cash-based financial system encourages wealthy people to seek easily portable vehicles for their investments." The Art Newspaper 05/11/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 10:12 am
UK Museums Stop Collecting Many UK museums have stopped collecting art. Why? No money. "Of the institutions surveyed, 60% said they were unable to allocate money for purchasing new items last year. The Art Fund has called on the government to adopt a "more positive" approach to funding collections." BBC 05/13/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 9:55 am
Sorting Out What The Louvre Is "The Louvre is so immense — both in literal space and in image — that it can be hard to fathom that it has struggled to keep pace with the other great museums of the world — and of Paris — that have become hotspots for cultural tourism, bringing people back for more and different art experiences by repackaging and marketing their collections to make them more compelling." Los Angeles Times 05/14/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 8:12 am
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Survey: 50 Percent Illegally Copy Music "In an online poll of 2,135 UK adults conducted by YouGov, 55% said they copied CDs onto computers, iPods, MP3 players and other equipment. Three in five of those questioned - 59% - thought it was legal to do so." BBC 05/13/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 10:01 am
Sizing Up James levine's First Season At The Boston Symphony "The orchestra generally played gloriously for Levine, who has given the guest conductors a new point of departure for their own adventures. The orchestra's collective technique and sound have changed under Levine: There is more blend, more contrast, better balances, infinitely more refinement, and even more power." Boston Symphony 05/14/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 7:49 am
Las Vegas Philharmonic On The Conductor Hunt The Las Vegas Philharmonic is only eight years old. But the orchestra is growing, seems to have found an audience, and has a $1.5 million budget. So it's time to pick a new music director. The candidates are: David Commanday of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra, David Itkin of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and Peter Rubardt of the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra. As part of the selection process, they will serve as guest conductors during the 2006-07 season. Las Vegas Sun 05/13/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 7:10 am
Berlin Philharmonic Takes Itself To School "Fearing the loss of future audiences, the once-staid Berlin Philharmonic has constructed an elaborate education program, something still relatively rare on the Continent. Many orchestras in Britain and the United States have been making similar efforts to draw in youngsters and educate the public, but in catching up, the Berliners have created one of Europe's most ambitious programs." The New York Times 05/14/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 7:03 am
Childhood Secrets Sometimes, the childhood compositions of great composers ought to be left hidden in peace. "One argument says that we need to know everything about great people and that every surviving scrap about them is fair game. For the scholar, yes. For the public reputation of the artist, I'm not so sure. Dead composers are defenseless. They aren't around to censor what happened before the achievements that mattered." The New York Times 05/14/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 7:00 am
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Vancouver's Precinct Of Culture? Vancouver wants to build a "cultural precinct". "Among other things, the development might include a provincial Asia-Pacific Museum of Trade and Culture, a National Gallery of Aboriginal Art and two performance halls. Some observers are skeptical; the provincial government, until very recently, has had an appalling record when it comes to supporting the arts." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/13/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 10:29 am
A Fight To Get gays On The Curriculum A bill in the California state legislature would "forbid the teaching of any material that reflects adversely on persons due to sexual orientation. 'One of the things that contribute to a safe or unsafe environment for kids are the teaching materials. If you have teaching material that didn't say anything at all about gay and lesbian people, it is assumed that they never did anything at all. But if it said anything about gay and lesbian people, the whole atmosphere of the school was safer for gay and lesbian kids, or those thought to be gay and lesbian'." The New York Times 05/12/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 7:31 am
Soaked In Media (For Fun And Relaxation) In Japan, those in search of a reality escape can go to media immersion centers. "The first Gran Cyber Café opened in 1999. Today there are 10, serving some 5,000 people a day. Each has a slightly different orientation — some are geared to teenagers, some to salarymen — but the atmosphere is the same throughout the franchise: equal parts lending library, newsstand, arcade, Kinko's and youth hostel. An inspired extension of the basic Internet cafe, the Gran Cyber Cafés shift their meaning the more you study them, as if by a trick of their trademark low light." The New York Times 05/14/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 6:45 am
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Fans Bury Rowling In Paper JK Rowling complained of a paper shortage near her home. "Fans, who are anxiously waiting for the seventh and final Harry Potter book, sent Rowling everything from a single sheet of paper to entire notepads. A paper merchant even delivered a set of notebooks embossed with the author's name." BBC 05/13/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 10:06 am
A Leading Architecture Firm Does The Splits After a decade working together, Rem Koolhaus and Joshua Prince-Ramus are splitting up, with Prince-Ramus taking all of the architecture firm's 35 members of the New York office with him. "So, no hard feelings, no intrigue? No, both men insist, their parting is simply a response to unfolding circumstances and an attempt to clarify issues of authorship and control. 'It ultimately became a clear decision, but not an easy one,' said Mr. Prince-Ramus, 36. 'The sadness is something we deal with in private,' said Mr. Koolhaas, 61." The New York Times 05/14/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 6:49 am
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New Scottish National Theatre Scores High In Awards Scotland's new National Theatre picks up 11 nominations in the annual Scottish Critics Awards. "The first few months of the National Theatre of Scotland has proved to be both a popular and critical success. It is in line with its innovative model that all its nominations are the result of partnerships and co-productions with the existing talent pool." TheStage 05/12/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 7:54 am
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The End Of The Book Party? Once, book parties "were as central to the book-publishing experience as collecting blurbs and freaking out over your book jacket. How else could you get through this self-induced ordeal without imagining the scene: reviewers and critics and editors and writers. . . . The hugging, the raised glasses, the rueful toast by one's editor about how long the book took, the copies displayed on a mantelpiece. Not so now. In these cost-cutting days, the book party is no longer to be counted on as a well-earned prize." The New York Times 05/14/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 7:05 am
Wales Book Fest An Unlikely Lit Hit "The Hay Festival, which began in 1988 as an insane glint in the eye of its organizer, Peter Florence, has expanded and expanded to become one of the world's best-known and most exciting literary events — the 'Woodstock of the mind,' as former President Clinton, a participant several years ago, put it. (Think of it as a literary Sundance festival, minus the Hollywood swag.)" The New York Times 05/14/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 6:41 am
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Da Vinci Code - The Movie No One's Seen "Sony's strategy with the film has been unusual in that so far, no outsiders have seen Ron Howard's two-and-a-half-hour opus. Sony has forgone the usual advance press screenings and a splashy stateside premiere, forfeiting some coverage in the interest of keeping the picture under wraps. The studio will unveil The Da Vinci Code at the Cannes Film Festival next week." Slate 05/12/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 7:29 am
Tops At Cannes = Little At Box Office What does it mean for a film to win the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival? "The Palme d'Or has very little effect on business in the United States, very little. There have even been cases when the Palme d'Or winner went unsold here for years."
The New York Times 05/14/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 6:55 am
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Will A Royal Ballet Production Revive Design Tradition? "Ballet is a bastard art, a highwire pas de quatre of music, choreography, theatre and design. Though the composer speaks first, for most watchers it is when the curtain rises that they snap that critical first impression. Before the dancers have moved, the audience's senses and intuitions have been switched to a certain frequency by the designer." The Telegraph (UK) 05/13/06
Posted: 05/14/2006 10:44 am
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