Tuesday, May 23
It Ain't Art Unless It's Making People Angry
Architecture may be the only artistic pursuit left that we really argue about. That isn't to say that people don't have musical, artistic, and theatrical preferences, but architecture remains "a subject that is fraught with genuine conflict, and it seems to have acquired an extraordinary capacity to make all kinds of people extremely angry about issues that range from the most intensely personal to the most diffusely political."
The New York Times Magazine
05/21/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 10:11 pm
Warum Nicht Sind Sie Lachend?
Contrary to popular belief, Germans do have a sense of humor, as any native speaker can tell you. But translating English humor to German never seems to work, and the language itself may just be the reason. "At a rough estimate, half of what we find amusing involves using little linguistic tricks to conceal the subject of our sentences until the last possible moment, so that it appears we are talking about something else... But German will not always allow you to shunt the key word to the end of the sentence to achieve this failsafe laugh... The German language provides fully functional clarity. English humour thrives on confusion."
The Guardian (UK)
05/23/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 9:00 pm
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Two New Manhattan Towers Are A (Brilliant) Throwback
"The condo market that helped propel the change has begun to cool in many American downtowns. But the shift in skyscraper architecture from commercial to residential has been so sharp and widespread that it's difficult not to think of Norman Foster and David Childs as an anachronistic pair: as, say, a couple of contemporary composers who have produced dueling string quartets or two television network executives deciding to launch competing half-hour, laugh-track sitcoms that also happen to be very well-made."
Los Angeles Times
05/23/06
Posted: 05/23/2006 7:41 am
A Way To Sell Canadian Art Globally
A Vancouver gallery has found a way to tap into a global market for art. This Thursday the gallery hosts "an estimated $6-million, biannual, on-line live auction of traditional and contemporary Canadian art, ranging in estimated price from $1,000 to $350,000. The auction that includes works by Emily Carr, Lawren Harris, Maurice Cullen, Jean-Paul Riopelle and E.J. Hughes will be held with gala glitz in a downtown Vancouver hotel ballroom. But it will also be broadcast simultaneously over the Internet, capturing a global audience with an increasing taste for Canadian art."
The Globe & Mail (Canada)
05/24/06
Posted: 05/23/2006 7:15 am
The New Forgers
"In a sobering development, forgers have been purchasing the works of minor European artists, altering them in a process known as "Russification," painting on the signature of major Russian artists, and selling them for many times their worth. Perhaps even more alarming is that they're fooling the most reputable auction houses in the world."
The Globe & Mail (Canada)
05/24/06
Posted: 05/23/2006 7:13 am
The Tate's New Art Org Chart
"The first major rehang of Tate Modern's collection formally opens today. The four suites of galleries housing the collection were until recently divided into unwieldy, catch-all themes - Landscape/Matter/Environment, Nude/Action/Body, Still Life/Real Life/Object, and History/Memory/Society. These have been replaced by Poetry and Dream, Material Gestures, Idea and Object, and States of Flux. All this is a tad snappier, but more than the labels needed to change. The new displays are a major improvement. At times, they are spectacular... But from today, who will notice these fine-tuned alignments, the worried-over niceties and accidental pleasures?"
The Guardian (UK)
05/23/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 9:14 pm
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Finally, We Can See The Big Picture
The Tate's grand rehang amounts to an admission that it was a mistake, when the museum first opened in 2000, to abandon all reliance on chronology in organizing the collection. And interestingly, now that some semblance of linear time has been restored, Rachel Campbell-Johnston says that we can finally see how non-linear the art of the last 100 years has actually been. "The narrative of art history, [the re-hung collection] reminds you, is seldom a single linear progression. Modernism is not a single movement but a struggling protean force."
The Times (UK)
05/23/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 9:10 pm
Expected To Be A Huge Hit With 18-to-34-Year-Old Nerds
A UK game show has obtained permission to film episodes in the British Museum, and producers say they hope to "conquer the Louvre, the Cairo museum, [and] the Smithsonian" next. "Each episode of the show is built around a period of history, starting with ancient Mesopotamia, and the series uses some of the museum's most famous artefacts, including the 2,700-year-old Flood Tablet, a cuneiform-inscribed clay tablet with an Assyrian version of the Old Testament story of Noah's ark."
The Guardian (UK)
05/23/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 8:55 pm
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The Lou Harrison Legacy
A festival celebrates the ultimate outside. "Harrison's music does not stand apart from so much as, like a giant sponge, absorb all around it. A feisty individualist, he was an outsider artist who happened to be the ultimate musical insider. He was an expert geneticist-composer who made musical hybrids no one had ever heard before, particularly in his pioneering grafting of Asian musical instruments and genres onto Western ones. And he wrote melodies — gorgeous, unpredictable, brain-sticking melodies — with the best of them."
Los Angeles Times
05/23/06
Posted: 05/23/2006 7:45 am
Summing Up The Met Opera's Volpe Years
"Volpe admits that ticket sales have plummeted at the Met, but blames 9/11 traumas. He points strenuously to a few innovative productions, but rests his laurels on a stubborn pursuit of tradition. There is no question that this dictator kept an orderly house in a world notorious for chaos. Even Volpe’s detractors praise his organisational skills. It cannot be surprising that he will soon join a consulting firm run by his buddy Rudolph Giuliani, ex-mayor of New York."
Financial Times
05/17/06
Posted: 05/23/2006 7:31 am
The Rebirth Of Classical Recording
Self-produced recordings are the hottest thing in classical music these days, and artists and orchestras around the world are embracing the concept as a more than viable alternative to dealing with disinterested major labels. Even more promising is that fact that there doesn't appear to be any one road to self-produced success, and musicians are quite literally tailoring their recording process to suit their needs.
The Independent (UK)
05/23/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 8:37 pm
Peace Reigns And Dollars Flow At SF Opera
Three years after agreeing to wage and benefit cuts in an effort to help their organization dig out from under a $4.4 million deficit, the musicians of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra have a new contract which will restore the cuts, and boost minimum salaries to nearly $81,000 within five years. "The agreement was reached after a week of negotiations and well in advance of the current contract's expiration date in August."
Monterey Herald (AP)
05/22/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 8:30 pm
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Is America Heading To Cultural Divide?
Steven Tepper and Bill Ivey argue that a rift in America's culture is opening up between those who can access ever more sophisticated cultural offerings and those who are slaves to the WalMart CD choices.
Chronicle of Higher Education
05/19/06
Posted: 05/23/2006 8:28 am
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The Woman Who Brought Black Dance To The Fore Dies At 96
Katherine Dunham, who died this past weekend aged 96, "was one of the first American artists to focus on black dance and dancers as prime material for the stage... Though Miss Dunham's academic credentials as an anthropologist were impeccable, including a doctorate from the University of Chicago, it was her gift for seduction that helped most to pave the way for choreographers like Donald McKayle, Talley Beatty and Alvin Ailey."
The New York Times
05/23/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 9:59 pm
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Delay Of Home For Washington Shakespeare
The Washington Shakespeare Company is "scheduled to lose its longtime home in the unglamorous but spacious Clark Street Playhouse. The company was supposed to move into a kind of time-share in Signature Theatre's old Shirlington space (along with Classika Theatre and perhaps others), but construction delays on Signature's new theater mean the company will need its old venue next fall."
Washington Post
05/24/06
Posted: 05/23/2006 7:24 am
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Book Expo Panel On Publishing Conservatives
"Saturday afternoon at the huge new Convention Center here, filled to capacity this past weekend by that massive annual trade show of the book biz called BEA (BookExpo America), a group of conservative editors and sales execs took a chance. They gathered in their chosen venue, Room 203AB, for a panel on 'Selling and Promoting Right of Center Books Via Left of Center Channels'."
Philadelphia Inquirer
05/23/06
Posted: 05/23/2006 8:26 am
Is Book Fashion Going Over The Top?
"The latest trend in book design is similar to fashions in clothing and decor. There is an abundance of lyrical, embellished covers with elaborate vintage typefaces. Almost an overabundance..."
Sydney Morning Herald
05/23/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 9:56 pm
The New Libraries
Not so very long ago, libraries housed books, microfiche, frequently impenetrable card catalogs, and not much else. And it was fine, really. No one complained. But as the internet age came and flourished, libraries had a hard time keeping up, and many of the services they provided became easier to find online. But today, libraries around the world (or at least, those lucky enough to have the resources) have begun to reinvent themselves as multipurpose facilities that are once again relevant to students, scholars, and anyone looking for an answer.
The Herald (UK)
05/23/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 9:28 pm
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In Some Jurisdictions, This Would Be Considered A Confession
"[Filmmaker] Jean-Claude Brisseau, 62, was convicted by a court in Paris last December of forcing actresses to masturbate during casting 'test' shots to 'satisfy his own sexual impulses'. He was given a one-year, suspended jail sentence and fined €15,000. In a movie shown all this week on the fringes of the Cannes festival, M. Brisseau tells the story of a director whose life and career are ruined after he asks actresses to perform erotic acts during auditions." The film has been generally well-received, but many critics have remarked on the surreal nature of it all. The Independent (UK)
05/23/06
Posted: 05/22/2006 9:36 pm
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
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Remembering Katherine Dunham
"In her unparalleled career in dance, where she educated the world about the power of African dance as found throughout the diaspora, Dunham mixed academic research and showbiz flair. An anthropologist as well as a choreographer, she studied dance in the Caribbean islands, blending movements she found there with Western dance. Her style was not scholarly; she reveled in eroticism. She sought not to re-create specific rites but to transport the audience the way a spiritual experience might."
Washington Post
05/24/06
Posted: 05/23/2006 7:22 am
A Baryshnikov Plan
The new Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York aims to correct some balance in American cultural life. "Misha feels America has let the arts down. There's no money for arts in education, artists aren't subsidized - in fact, they're looked at as liberal freaks. It's a very sad state of affairs. Everything we're doing is to make it better."
Newsday
05/21/06
Posted: 05/23/2006 7:08 am
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