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Wednesday, August 2
Sleek, Prefab Housing: Not As Promising As It Looks? "The last thing the fledgling prefab movement needs at this point is aggressive marketing or more hype. What it needs is a reality check," Christopher Hawthorne argues. New, high-design, supposedly accessibly priced prefab housing is wildly popular in theory, but in reality it's been little tested beyond homes built for architects. "That's allowed the houses' creators to remain coy about cost overruns and other obstacles they've encountered as they try to work out the kinks of prefab construction. Meanwhile, the prices prefab architects quote to buyers have been climbing." Los Angeles Times 08/02/06
Posted: 08/02/2006 5:15 am
L.A. And Getty Agree On Mural's Restoration "After decades of fits and starts in the bid to preserve a politically provocative Siqueiros mural on an Olvera Street building, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and leaders at the J. Paul Getty Trust say they've made a $7.8-million deal to split the cost of making the 1932 work accessible to the public at last." Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros' "America Tropical," depicting "a crucified Indian peasant under an American eagle," was covered in the 1930s. Los Angeles Times 08/02/06
Posted: 08/02/2006 4:45 am
Hermitage Theft May Be An Inside Job, Or May Just Carelessness The precious trinkets lifted from St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum sometime this summer may have been purloined by staff members, museum officials say. "The items had not been insured because they were in storage; only exhibited artworks at the Hermitage are insured. Prosecutors have opened a criminal case but police say there remains a possibility the items, dating from the 15th to 18th centuries, had gone missing internally as a result of the museum's chaotic catologuing, and might yet be recovered." The Guardian (UK) 08/02/06
Posted: 08/01/2006 8:55 pm
Paddington Station Spared From The Wrecking Ball London's historic rail station at Paddington has gotten a reprieve from the train company that planned to demolish it to make way for an office development. "The proposed demolition... had approval from Westminster council and English Heritage, but was fought passionately by architectural historians. If it had gone ahead it would have been the most extensive destruction of a Grade I structure" since historical listing of buildings began in the UK. The Guardian (UK) 08/02/06
Posted: 08/01/2006 7:59 pm
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Ditch The Stupid Tuxes Already! Charlotte Higgins recently took some time off from attending live classical concerts, and upon returning to the concert hall, she was struck by how absurd orchestra musicians look in their white ties and tails. "For the musicians, these heavy clothes can barely be comfortable on searingly hot nights; in any case, it is interesting to note that more and more conductors (who, unlike the rank and file orchestral players, have the power to dress as they please) abandon dinner jacket or tails whenever possible... Formality and dignity do not have to go hand in hand with antediluvian dressing. You would have thought that someone would have asked Paul Smith to design their orchestra's kit by now. Or Prada (what a delicious thought)." CultureVulture (Guardian Blogs) 08/01/06
Posted: 08/01/2006 8:40 pm
BC Museum May Have A Strad "A community museum in British Columbia has discovered a violin in its collection that may be a rare instrument created by 17th-century maestro Antonio Stradivari. The violin has been held at the New Westminster Museum and Archives since the 1980s." But the violin has yet to be authenticated, and the museum admits that it may well turn out to be a copy. "An authenticated Stradivarius violin typically fetches between $2 million and $3 million." CBC 08/01/06
Posted: 08/01/2006 8:33 pm
No,You're Out Of Order! Two London orchestra executives are taking great umbrage with a Guardian critic who recently painted the classical music industry as out of touch with the public and obsessed with money and marketing gimmicks. "Money is important - it keeps orchestras in business - but it is wrong to say that the extra commitment is not there... Little in life remains unaffected by the market economy - including English symphony orchestras. To succeed, we have to attract sponsors and be able to fund our activities. Diversifying and trying new ventures, such as producing DVDs aimed at six-month-olds, allows us to reach out to new audiences and become self-financing." The Guardian (UK) 08/02/06
Posted: 08/01/2006 8:25 pm
So Bad It's Good, Perhaps? The Edinburgh Festival is a huge event and a potentially overwhelming experience, and anyone could use a hand in selecting which concert might be their best bet, and which one they should avoid like the plague. The ever-helpful Michael Tumelty is on hand to point out that this year's fest features a performance by a Hungarian orchestra of what nearly everyone agrees is the worst concert piece ever written by Richard Strauss. It's just mind-numbingly awful, simplistic, and clearly tossed off by the composer while he waited for something better to do. So which concert would Tumelty recommend you not miss? Yeah, um, that one. The Herald (Glasgow) 08/02/06
Posted: 08/01/2006 8:16 pm
A Grand Silence Among the unusual amenities available to patrons of Minneapolis's new Cesar Pelli-designed public library are two refurbished grand pianos that anyone can sign up to practice on. "But unexpected problems with soundproofing, acclimating and tuning in the new building have caused delays," and the pianos will stay silent for the forseeable future, until the library comes up with a plan to fix the problems and the money to pay for it. The Star Tribune (Minneapolis/St. Paul) 08/01/06
Posted: 08/01/2006 7:33 pm
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Money, A Life In Art Don't Have To Be Mutually Exclusive Steady income, financial know-how and health insurance aren't impossibilities for artists after all. "Mostly self-employed or relying on part-time teaching jobs, many artists tend to have shaky finances and scant prospects for improving them aside from going into another profession. But some institutions have sprung up in recent years to try to help — and ideally thrive financially at the same time." Los Angeles Times (AP) 08/02/06
Posted: 08/02/2006 4:59 am
University Merger Pending In Scotland "Plans are being drawn up for a new university for Scotland which will be the fourth largest in the country. Senior officials from Paisley University and Bell College in Hamilton are currently holding talks about merging the two institutions and creating a new university for 18,000 students... The idea is to create a university which is large enough to tackle the chronic problems of under-representation in higher education in the west of Scotland." The Herald (UK) 08/02/06
Posted: 08/01/2006 9:11 pm
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Director Harold Scott, 70 "Harold Scott, an actor, producer and director and the first black artistic director of a major American regional theater, died at his home in Newark on July 16." The longtime head of the directing program at Rutgers University and a collaborator with actor Avery Brooks, he led the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park from 1972 to '74. The New York Times 08/02/06
Posted: 08/02/2006 7:10 am
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D.C.'s Source Theatre To Become Arts Center "After six months of uncertainty about the Source Theatre Company, the Cultural Development Corporation, a private, nonprofit group, announced yesterday that it is buying the theater's building at 1835 14th St. NW and will make it an arts center. The moribund, 33-year-old Source Theatre Company will cease to exist, but the building will be called the Source." Washington Post 08/02/06
Posted: 08/02/2006 8:42 am
Writing Drama, Not Propaganda, With A Political Conscience What, John Heilpern wonders, makes good political theatre? "Brecht, the most overtly political playwright and propagandist of the 20th century, didn’t change a thing politically.... Nor has any play in history. Remember, no 'Lysistrata' ever stopped a war. No play or work of art ever changed the world. They change the way we perceive the world." New York Observer 08/07/06
Posted: 08/02/2006 6:15 am
In Battle Of Shaw Vs. Stratford, Shaw Wins Canada's Stratford Festival may have the bigger budget and the better-known name, Tony Brown concedes. "But I still prefer the almost always-invigorating work done at the Shaw Festival, in the twee-little village of Niagara-on-the-Lake in the wine-producing region just north of Niagara Falls. The Shaw Festival is smaller -- it spends $20 million a year, has 68 actors and is staging 10 shows this summer in three theaters -- but it is smarter by a country kilometer." Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 7/30/06
Posted: 08/02/2006 5:34 am
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PR Savvy Now An Author's Job Requirement "Just as America has turned into a 'sink or swim' society, publishers keep abandoning worthy authors to a marketplace stacked against them. And they do this while newspapers and electronic media are ditching arts coverage. In such a world, a little barnstorming self-promotion is a basic survival skill." Dallas Morning News 07/31/06
Posted: 08/02/2006 7:50 am
Once Again: We All Know The Kid Is Fictional, Right? It's come to this: authors Stephen King and John Irving have publicly pleaded with J.K. Rowling to spare the life of the boy wizard Harry Potter in the final installment of her bestselling series. The plea, which was made straight to Rowling's face at a charity reading in New York, may have fallen on deaf ears, however, as the famously secretive Rowling refused to make any promises. Sydney Morning Herald (Reuters) 08/02/06
Posted: 08/01/2006 9:23 pm
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How Illegal File-Sharers Give Themselves Away "A wealthy software executive named Shawn Hogan has vowed to fight a copyright-infringement lawsuit in court rather than settle with the Motion Picture Association of America. According to the MPAA, Hogan made the film 'Meet the Fockers' available for download through a BitTorrent file-sharing network. Hogan denies that he did anything of the sort. How do investigators find their targets? They join the networks." Slate 08/01/06
Posted: 08/02/2006 9:05 am
For Women, Blogging Equals Social Connection "We've seen how blogs affect politics and public opinion. In the blogosphere, Daily Kos and the Huffington Post are just as esteemed as the New York Times and the Washington Post. Newspapers, once too haughty to even acknowledge the presence of blogs (let alone the power), have carved out a respectful reciprocal relationship: Newspapers provide information, bloggers play the watchdog role, we all have the opportunity to listen, communicate and contribute to this marketplace of ideas." And female bloggers, it turns out, often blog to build community. Philadelphia Inquirer 08/02/06
Posted: 08/02/2006 6:45 am
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Innovate Or Die Carlos Acosta is the hottest thing going in the London dance world, and the Royal Ballet's biggest current star. But as well as things are going for Acosta and the Royals at the moment, the dancer fears that his industry is gambling with its future. "The dangerous dearth of young choreographers and new full-length ballets, he said, means that the future classics of the repertoire are not being created." The Guardian (UK) 08/02/06
Posted: 08/01/2006 8:50 pm
Let's Not Go Overboard At least one London dance critic thinks that Carlos Acosta's fear for the future of dance is way overblown. "Ballet is in no immediate danger of dying - as an artform it still generates far more new work than opera. And though Acosta may be too modest to acknowledge it, while the profession boasts stars of his calibre, the public will always come flocking." The Guardian (UK) 08/02/06
Posted: 08/01/2006 8:40 pm
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