The Sin of Omission Musician and rock critic Stephin Merritt has lately become a target of several of his fellow critics, who have branded him a racist. Merritt's crime? Making a list of his favorite songs that included no black artists, disliking modern hip-hop, and saying that he liked the song, "Zip A Dee Doo Dah." The flame war has ignited a debate over the line between musical taste and the wider culture. Or as one writer put it, "If the number of black artists in your iPod falls too far below 12.5 percent of the total, then you are violating someone's civil rights." The New York Times 05/18/06
Posted: 05/18/2006 5:51 am
The Politics of Privacy The debate over privacy vs. security has been raging in Washington and across the country recently, thanks to the controversial surveillance tactics being used by the Bush Administration. But in such a globally connected world, what is privacy, anyway, and can we really afford it? Bruce Schneier says the issue is far simpler than many people make it sound, and the obvious conclusion is that we can't afford not to make privacy a priority. "We are not deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for reflection or conversation. We keep private journals, sing in the privacy of the shower, and write letters to secret lovers and then burn them. Privacy is a basic human need." Wired 05/18/06
Posted: 05/18/2006 5:43 am
Click here for more Ideas stories...
Ideas stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
National Gallery Admits Copyright Violation The National Gallery of Art, in Washington, DC, has admitted copyright infringement and agreed to pay two Edouard Vuillard scholars $37,500 for publishing a catalogue that uses their research without authorisation or acknowledgement. The Art Newspaper 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 6:27 pm
What Accounts For The Turner's New Conservatism? "The Tate has been unhappy about the tabloid hostility the prize encounters, not thinking that all publicity is good publicity, though it was vicious attacks that made the Turner an institution." Bloomberg 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 6:21 pm
Click here for more Visual Arts stories...
Visual Arts stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
Burn Bright, Burn Out: How Opera Works Today As Joseph Volpe prepares to step down from the helm of the Metropolitan Opera, a glance at this weekend's gala celebration of his tenure can tell a lot about the state of modern opera. "It's interesting that Mr. Volpe's gala, celebrating a nearly 16-year reign that is being bruited as one of the Met's most illustrious, is focused so firmly on the present... Career development is not a high priority in today's opera world. What is a priority is finding the latest stars and getting them up in front of the public, in as many places as possible, and in as many attractive roles as possible, regardless of how well suited they happen to be to a particular role." The New York Times 05/18/06
Posted: 05/18/2006 5:56 am
Perhaps He Should Be Development Director, Then? Earlier this month, Seattle Symphony music director Gerard Schwarz received a three-year contract extension, which will carry him through his 26th season with the orchestra. But when you talk to people inside the organization, it sounds as if the reasons for keeping Schwarz at the helm have very little to do with music. He has been sued by his own musicians, accused of having little to say musically, and while there can be no doubt that Schwarz has been a masterful raiser of money, one observer says that "The [symphony] board is already a laughingstock around the country for allowing itself to become hostage to the fund-raising abilities of its music director." Seattle Weekly 05/17/06
Posted: 05/18/2006 5:33 am
David Robertson Revives St. Louis Symphony "The nation's second-oldest orchestra had been demoralized by contract talks and artistically adrift by the coming and going of dozens of guest conductors after illness forced Hans Vonk's retirement in 2002, two years before he died. Robertson's inaugural season, which wrapped up last weekend, featured eclectic, imaginative programs that juxtaposed classical and contemporary music by international and American composers." Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP) 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 7:36 pm
The New English National Opera (Uh-Huh) "Watching English National Opera calls for nothing less than a complete renunciation of the critical faculties if one is to imagine that the company has turned a corner since the past year’s upheavals that swept away two music directors, a chief executive and a chairman in less time than it takes to make an opera." La Scena Musicale 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 6:38 pm
Recording Companies Sue XM Radio Over Device The recording industry is suing XM satellite radio over a device that allows customers to record music from the satellite radio service. "The recording industry said XM's Inno device, which stores music and divides it into tracks, infringes copyright. The lawsuit seeks $150,000 in damages for every song copied by XM customers to an Inno gadget." BBC 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 5:41 pm
Click here for more Music stories...
Music stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
Corporate Funding? It Has Its Downsides "The art world's increasing reliance on the private sector for funding creates a series of challenges. First, rich companies tend to be interested only in the best-known brands. Second, if not handled carefully, sponsorship can leave galleries open to accu-sations of kowtowing to commercial interests." New Statesman 05/22/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 7:48 pm
Click here for more Arts Issues stories...
Arts Issues stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
People stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
What Happened To The Promise Of Black British Theatre? "Today's theatre houses several outstanding, award-winning young black playwrights, such as Roy Williams, Kwame Kwei-Armah and Debbie Tucker-Green. But two decades since I was first inspired by British theatre, the black presence is little more than marginal." The Guardian (UK) 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 7:17 pm
The End Of London's Theatre Museum? "The proposals on the table are hopeless. Either the museum is to stay in its current premises until its 22-year lease expires, bolstered by some undefined partnership with neighbours such as the Royal Opera House. Or the Covent Garden premises will be vacated, and exhibition space for the collection shoe-horned into the V&A's South Kensington site. Such blinkered thinking has dogged the Theatre Museum ever since it was first mooted in the 1950s." The Telegraph (UK) 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 6:58 pm
Click here for more Theatre stories...
Theatre stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
Venture Capital + Literature = ...Um, We'll See "The Literary Ventures Fund is a tiny nonprofit, founded last year with offices in Boston and New York, that 'seeks to challenge the status quo of literary publishing,' as its Web site boldly proclaims. LVF hopes to help exceptional works of fiction, literary nonfiction and poetry find the readership they deserve -- by using an economic model more frequently associated with Silicon Valley." Washington Post 05/18/06
Posted: 05/18/2006 6:58 am
Arts Council England: Where Are Books By Asians, Blacks? Why don't UK publishers publish more black and Asian poets? Arts Council England wants to know. "The move comes after research indicated that 8% get work into print despite their popularity at poetry readings." The Guardian (UK) 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 7:23 pm
Harper's Returns To A Serial Diet Robert Lennon is "becoming the first writer in 50 years to have his fiction serialized in the pages of Harper's Magazine. While the serialization is noteworthy—the magazine will run Lennon's Happyland over the course of five issues starting in July—how Lennon's novel wound up at the magazine is almost more so." Publishers Weekly 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 6:42 pm
Mourning Indie Bookstores - Just Nostalgia? "Ever since the rise of the book superstore in the 1990s, we have been flooded with lamentations for the rapidly disappearing independent booksellers. The real change in the book market is not the big guy vs. the little guy, or chain vs. indie stores. Rather, it's the reader's greater impatience, a symptom of our amazing literary (and televisual) plenitude." Slate 05/15/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 6:32 pm
Click here for more Publishing stories...
Publishing stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
The Show That Made Gay Okay (Even If We Don't Remember It) When NBC's long-running sitcom, Will & Grace, says its final goodbyes tonight, it will probably seem to most viewers a minor event. And that, says Gail Shister, is a testament to just how far American audiences have come in their perception of gay culture since the show debuted in 1998. "If Ellen opened the door, Will & Grace burst into the room with a marching band, tastefully accessorized... Without a single sermon, [the show] advanced the national conversation about homosexuality." Philadelphia Inquirer 05/18/06
Posted: 05/18/2006 6:48 am
M-SPIFF Goes From Almost Postponed To More Than Solvent This year's edition of the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival (M-SPIFF) almost didn't happen, due to financial problems, staff changes, and other difficulties. But the festival went off as scheduled in the end, and this week, organizers announced that the event finished in the black, with even a small surplus left over after all the bills were paid. Minneapolis Star Tribune 05/18/06
Posted: 05/18/2006 6:42 am
Telefilm Canada Not Getting Its Hollywood Hotshot, After All "The English-Canadian film industry reacted with more wry amusement than outrage yesterday after learning Michael Jenkinson, the man hired by Telefilm Canada to whip the moribund feature-film sector into shape, would not be showing up for work. Less than three weeks after Los Angeles-based Jenkinson was exuberantly introduced at a Toronto press conference as Telefilm's newly minted go-to-guy with a mandate to revitalize English-language cinema, a red-faced Telefilm issued late Tuesday a vague press release that suggested business complications in California had forced Jenkinson to back out at the final hour." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/18/06
Posted: 05/18/2006 6:36 am
Bleeding Howard As the number of listeners purchasing and using satellite radio increases, an unexpected problem is becoming a major irritant to some of those still relying on terrestrial radio. Many satellite users employ a small mini-transmitter to allow their satellite signal to be heard on their existing FM radios, and despite the limited range of the transmitter signal, complaints have begun rolling in to FM stations whose frequency is the same as the mini-transmitters that listeners are being forced to listen to Howard Stern or Opie and Anthony "bleeding" into the FM signal from some unknown location. Boston Globe 05/18/06
Posted: 05/18/2006 6:25 am
Click here for more Media stories...
Media stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
Raising The Bar(re) On Academics The career trajectory of a dancer is so short that, from a very early age, talented specimens are encouraged to devote themselves heart and soul to their art, and not to waste a minute on frivolities like, say, higher education. The result is that many dancers, who can expect to retire their toe shoes before they turn 40, are simply not qualified to do anything else once they do retire. Two prominent New York ballet companies have been looking to change that unfortunate equation, offering its young dancers the chance to take classes at conveniently located colleges, even as they continue their rigorous dance studies. The New York Times 05/18/06
Posted: 05/18/2006 6:04 am
Victoria Dreams Of Dance Series Big plans are in the works for the Victoria Dance Series Society since receiving a major financial boost last week. BCNews 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 7:42 pm
Click here for more Dance stories...
Dance stories submitted by readers
More reader-submitted stories... | submit a story
