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Monday, May 22




Visual Arts

Outsourcing The Gift Shop Museum gift shops aren't what they once were, and the biggest change is one that you'll never see on the surface as you browse amid the trinkets and exhibit books: "the trend for institutions to hire outsiders, chain retailers, to run their gift shops... For museum stores, outsourcing is more than a tempest in a replica teapot. It's a threat to a gold mine." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/22/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 6:51 am

Mao On The Block A Chinese-American collector has announced plans to sell a well-known official portrait of Chinese leader Mao Zedong at auction in June, where it is expected to fetch at least $120,000. The pending sale has sparked a furor in Chinese internet chat rooms, with many observers saying that the portrait belongs in a national museum, not a private collection. The New York Times 05/22/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 6:20 am

An Architect Revered (If Not Well-Known) "Although Tadao Ando is not yet a household name in England (a public square in Manchester is his only UK project to date), in his own country, and indeed throughout the ranks of his profession, this former boxer is revered. His studio gives a clue as to why." The Telegraph (UK) 05/21/06
Posted: 05/21/2006 8:15 pm

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Visual Arts stories submitted by readers
Blowing Art-Theory Smoke The Chronicle of Higher Education 5/12/2006
Merrin Gallery in Italy's Antiquities Dragnet? Scoop Media
Raiders of the Lost Art Los Angeles Times 5/8/06
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Music

Féting Joe Volpe Outgoing Met Opera general manager Joseph Volpe went out in style on Saturday night, as the focal point of a five-and-a-half hour gala featuring the biggest stars of the opera world. "About 30 solo artists, along with the Met chorus and ballet troupe, performed 36 selections under the direction of a tag team of conductors... Even with a top ticket price of $5,000, the house was packed." The New York Times 05/22/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 6:16 am

Like Practicing Your Driving Skills In A Ferrari One of the toughest things about being a young conductor is finding opportunities to learn the craft in front of a real, high-quality orchestra. So a spot at the National Symphony's annual National Conducting Institute, where participants get to spend three weeks learning from one of America's top orchestra and its music director, Leonard Slatkin, has become one of the most sought-after privileges for up-and-coming conductors. Washington Post 05/22/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 5:35 am

Maazel's Gift When conductor Lorin Maazel purchased a 550-acre farm in Virginia, his original intention was to have a place where he could escape the music world and live like a hermit. Instead, though, Maazel chose eventually to open his house "to local children in an expansive home-schooling project; to neighbors for chamber music concerts by the likes of stellar cellist Mstislav Rostropovich; and, lately, to music students and young professional singers, who have created a fully staged opera production." Baltimore Sun 05/22/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 5:21 am

Levine To Return James Levine "is returning to the podium after an unprecedented four-month hiatus. The Boston Symphony Orchestra's music director fell onstage in Symphony Hall at the end of a concert in March, sustaining a rotator-cuff injury to his right shoulder that required surgery." But the conductor will emerge this summer at Tanglewood... Boston Globe 05/21/06
Posted: 05/21/2006 7:56 pm

Japanese Music Apart From The World Japanese traditional music isn't much of a player in the international Woorld Music scene. "There are no travelling stars of the ancient music of the Imperial Court known as gagaku, no sell-out albums by players of the sighing bamboo flute called the shakuhachi. The music doesn't lend itself to "fusion"; you couldn't really imagine the deep meditative twanging of the koto or zither put against a Latin beat." The Telegraph (UK) 05/21/06
Posted: 05/21/2006 7:48 pm

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Music stories submitted by readers
'Nixon' is one production all opera fans should see Chicago Tribune 5/19/06
Musical gift for city babes Dominion Post (New Zealand) 12 May 2006
Schwarz Surprise Seattle Weekly 5/17/06
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Arts Issues

God Wanted: Must Be Humble And Good At Fundraising For arts groups in search of leadership, times are changing, and increasingly, a thorough knowledge of the art involved is not always a prerequisite for the job. "More typically, organizations seem to be looking for a do-it-all type -- a fundraiser, a visionary, a seasoned manager and a respected scholar in the field. Increasingly, though, fiscal responsibility is a major part of the job." Philadelphia Business Journal 05/19/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 5:29 am

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Arts Issues stories submitted by readers
Smithsonian Salary Cap Passes Panel Washington Post 5/11/06
A string of successes Atlanta Journal-Constitution 5/3/06
Duo's string of lawsuits target San Diego arts organizations San Diego Union-Tribune 04/23/06
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Theatre

Drama Desk Awards Handed Out "The Drowsy Chaperone was chosen best musical of the New York theatre season, and The History Boys was named best play in awards given Sunday by the Drama Desk, an organization of theatre journalists and critics... Lead musical performance prizes went to John Lloyd Young for playing pop star Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys, and Christine Ebersole for her work as both a mother and daughter in Grey Gardens, a look at two eccentric Long Island relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/22/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 6:56 am

A Broadway Season That Didn't Deliver "The dispiriting quality of last Tuesday's nominations for the Tony award — including double-digit nods for "The Drowsy Chaperone" and "The Color Purple" — are hardly cause for celebration. True, bulletins on the musical's failing health have been posted with weary regularity since at least the 1960's. But in the Broadway season that just ended officially, this once lively art seemed finally to have crossed the border that divides flesh from ectoplasm." The New York Times 05/21/06
Posted: 05/21/2006 8:10 pm

Chicago's Grand Old Shubert Gets A Facelift "For longtime Shubert attendees, the newly glorious auditorium will be a jaw--dropper. Over the years, the finer details had become obscured. Relighted and freshly and exquisitely painted in a rich, dark red-and-gold theatrical palette, the moldings, leafing and other decorative elements that had been present for 100 years now pop with astonishing new vivacity. 'All of the incredible detail had been painted over in that beige and brown. Now people will finally be able to see it'." Chicago Tribune 05/21/06
Posted: 05/21/2006 7:37 pm

Think Small - Why Twin Cities Theatre Thrives "A few years ago, we analyzed several comparable metropolitan areas that have solid theater reputations and realized that yes, we had the largest (by budget) regional theater in the country and the largest children's theater and the most-successful dinner theater. But the analysis showed that the healthy current of small and midsize companies was the secret ingredient that pushed the Twin Cities ahead of like-sized metros and made us competitive with the big guys. These smaller troupes provide work for actors, designers, directors, writers, costumers and carpenters. For audiences, they enrich the ecosystem's diversity." The Star-Tribune (Mpls) 05/21/06
Posted: 05/21/2006 7:34 pm

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Publishing

Updike Savages Book World's "Digital Revolution" Assessing the impact of the internet on the publishing world has become a cottage industry in itself, and even more than a decade into the online age, no one is truly sure of what the eventual balance between paper and screen will be, and the battle between the "technorati" and the "literati" is raging behind the scenes. This weekend, at one of the publishing industry's biggest annual events, the oft-subsumed debate exploded into the open, courtesy of the mouth of author John Updike. Washington Post 05/22/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 7:04 am

Amidst The Hype, Struggling For Attention BookExpo America is a massive event, bringing together "some 25,000 publishers, booksellers, authors and agents." With a crowd like that, you'd suppose that an up-and-coming author looking for a book deal couldn't help but strike pay dirt. You'd suppose wrong. "Getting the attention of the booksellers, who are besieged by the blitzkrieg campaigns of the large and medium-size publishers, is particularly difficult for small presses or self-published authors, who often must overcome negative perceptions." The New York Times 05/22/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 6:33 am

Real Sales With Bill Maher Amazon.com has enlisted the service of comedian Bill Maher to host a new online talk show intended to help sell the books and music Amazon proffers. But will Maher (who is one of the most vocally political comedians since Bill Hicks) be able to keep his political views out of the program and avoid alienating a sizable demographic? Amazon is banking on it... The New York Times 05/22/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 6:25 am

The Best Work Of Fiction In The Past 25 Years? "Early this year, the New York Times Book Review's editor, Sam Tanenhaus, sent out a short letter to a couple of hundred prominent writers, critics, editors and other literary sages, asking them to please identify "the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years." The results - in some respects quite surprising, in others not at all - provide a rich, if partial and unscientific, picture of the state of American literature, a kind of composite self-portrait as interesting perhaps for its blind spots and distortions as for its details." The New York Times 05/21/06
Posted: 05/21/2006 8:22 pm

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Media

Should BBC Leave Rock Radio To The Private Sector? A European think tank is urging the BBC to sell off two of its main radio services, arguing that Radio 1 and Radio 2 (which play pop/rock music) serve no compelling public interest beyond pure entertainment, and that their existence stunts the growth of commercial radio stations. BBC 05/22/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 5:55 am

DaVinci Hype Pays Off Handsomely Despite a slew of bad reviews, the film version of The DaVinci Code opened a strong number one at the weekend box office, taking in $224 million worldwide. The film's distributor believes it to be the second biggest opening in film history, behind only the final Star Wars installment. BBC 05/22/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 5:52 am

What Happened To Hollywood Glamor? "What does it mean to be glamorous anymore? What did it mean in the first place? Is Jessica Simpson glamorous when she's playing Daisy Duke? Is she glamorous as herself, eating tuna out of the can? Or is she glamorous only when she's posing for InStyle, in-styled within an inch of her life?" Los Angeles Times 05/21/06
Posted: 05/21/2006 7:53 pm

LA Suffers In The Movies... Is there something odd or negative about the way Los Angeles is perceived by the rest of the world? If so, maybe it's the way the city has been portrayed by the hometown movies industry... Los Angeles Times 05/21/06
Posted: 05/21/2006 7:29 pm

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Dance

Is Dance Done In Cleveland? It's a question worth pondering after the high profile failure of the city's big touring dance program... The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 05/21/06
Posted: 05/21/2006 7:42 pm

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