Do The Stuckists Know Anything About Good Art? The Stuckists are sharp critics of what has been the main stream of contemporary art. "Opposed to conceptual art, anti-art and postmodernism, they also deride what they see as a cosy relationship between the elite of the art world, using their own works to launch satirical attacks on people who they believe to perpetuate the status quo. But is it art?" The Guardian (UK) 08/27/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 12:47 pm
UK's Best Buildings This Year? Here's a gallery of contenstants for this year's Stirling Prize. The Guardian (UK) 08/26/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 12:41 pm
Iraqi Cultural Leader Quits Iraq's top cultural official has resigned. "Donny George has resigned as President of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) in Iraq, citing his frustration at lack of funding and at growing interference from the radical Shi’ite party now in control of the government ministry to which SBAH is attached." The Art Newspaper 08/25/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 6:53 am
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Jazz At Lincoln Center - One-Man Band? Wynton Marsalis is the face of and driving force behind the organization. "Once you’ve made that decision that the Jazz at Lincoln Center brand really can work well with your brand, Wynton’s power as the spokesperson — the front man, if you will — for Jazz at Lincoln Center really kind of takes on a life." The New York Times 08/27/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 8:00 am
Sharing Talent With The World An anonymous guitarist makes a video of his virtuoso rock version of Pachelbel's Canon and it becomes a sensation on YouTube, watched more than seven million times. It's a phenomenon that speaks to the way talent is being shared and embroidered. The New York Times 08/27/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 7:53 am
A Requiem For Tower Records The Tower Records bankruptcy marks the end of a generation. "If Tower is looking for a convenient scapegoat, it could well point its corporate finger at Seattle's Beacon Hill, where Amazon.com resides. Record retailers such as Tower liked to boast that they offered far more breadth and depth in music selection than the mall stores or the music departments of the discounters. But even the music retailers couldn't match the universe of offerings from Amazon, which didn't have the carrying cost of bricks-and-mortar stores." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 08/25/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 7:35 am
Winning Wagner (Now Wait A Few Years) Seattle Opera holds a Wagner competition. "The contrast of demonic emotions with the more mundane prospect of building an operatic career gave a special poignancy to the competition at the Seattle Opera, the most Wagner-centric of American opera companies. Unlike the army of teenagers who appear for piano or violin competitions, the finalists were mostly in their mid-30’s, which put them barely on the brink of being likely to perform a major Wagner role onstage. The proper age for initiating a Wagnerian career seemed like a movable goalpost throughout the competition, getting older and older." The New York Times 08/27/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 7:32 am
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Lessons For Rebuilding New Orleans Those planning an approach to rebuilding New Orleans neighborhoods might take some lessons from a planned community in Denver. "It appears that people will accept modern design in an apartment or a loft or when affordability is the main consideration (since undecorated construction costs less). But when it comes to houses, most people prefer something more old-fashioned. A successfully rebuilt New Orleans—whoever plans it—is likely to be a similar mix, of edgy and traditional, of downtown plate glass and neighborhood picket fences." Slate 08/24/06
Posted: 08/24/2006 8:53 pm
MacArthur "Geniuses" Go For Non-Profits The foundation famous for its "genius" awards is giving money to up and coming non-profits. "The Creative and Effective Institutions Awards range from $250,000 to $500,000. The winners all have annual budgets of $2.5 million or less, and, though small, they are considered comers in their fields. The awards are an extension, of sorts, of the foundation's famous five-year, $500,000 grants for creative individuals, but those "genius" grants have no strings attached. The grants to the non-profits were sized to meet specific needs or purposes." Chicago Tribune 08/24/06
Posted: 08/24/2006 9:00 am
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Canadian Composer John Weinzweig, 93 He was consdered the dean of Canadian music. "He introduced contemporary techniques through his own avant-garde pieces and a lengthy teaching career that touched the lives of the country's greatest musicians. 'In many ways, if it weren't for him, we wouldn't have the wealth of Canadian composers that we have now'." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/26/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 7:16 am
Eudora Welty On Film Five hours of film of writer Eudora Welty has been found in the archives at the National Endowment for the Arts. "This is the only known 60 millimeter film of Eudora Welty reading and discussing her work. This is the earliest known footage of one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century."
Yahoo! (AP) 08/26/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 6:56 am
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Canadian Wins Edinburgh Comedy Award "A Canadian comedian's take on a debauched weekend away in Amsterdam has won this year's £8,000 'if.commedies' prize, the new name for the Perrier award, one of the most highly regarded accolades in comedy." The Observer (UK) 08/27/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 12:43 pm
Best Of The Fringe (In Repertory) Fringe festivals offer so many plays, how do you sort out the best and makes sure people get to see them? The New York Frings has an idea: "Ten of the audiences’ and critics’ favorites from the current festival will run in repertory at two downtown theaters through Sept. 24 in what the organizers, Britt Lafield and John Pinckard, say will become an annual showcase called FringeNYC Encores. For the Fringe, this provides another opportunity for its shows to be noticed by producers and earn a possible commercial transfer." The New York Times 08/27/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 7:40 am
Kandernebb - A Partnership That Survives Death There's a new musical out being billed as the latest from John Kander and Fred Ebb. But Ebb died (of a heart attack) in 2004, so how can this be? The two had such a close partnership, it's impossible to thibnk of one without the other. "If that relationship, which produced the scores to 'Cabaret' and 'Chicago' and 'Kiss of the Spider Woman,' was often misunderstood as romantic, it’s not hard to see why: the two men worked in the theater, neither had a wife, and over the course of their 42-year collaboration their last names had all but fused into one, a songwriting entity that Mr. Kander, now a vigorous 79, calls 'Kandernebb'." The New York Times 08/27/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 7:19 am
At Edinburgh - An Angry Theme As usual, there are all manner of productions at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. But "the vein that runs through the festival this year is anger: anger at the state of the world in general, and anger at America in particular. Comedians need only display a picture of President Bush to provoke hollow laughter or indignant booing, depending on the context." The New York Times 08/26/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 7:11 am
Lloyd Webber Goes Russian Andrew Lloyd Webber has chosen his next project. It's a musical adaptation of "Mikhail Bulgakov's fantastical tale of the Devil, a talking cat, Christ and Pontius Pilate, a tormented writer named Master and a girlfriend named Margarita, who becomes a witch. A Faustian tale that satirizes the oppressive Stalin regime, the novel is considered a major work of 20th century Russian literature." Yahoo! (Playbill) 08/26/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 7:08 am
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A New Norman Mailer Novel January will see a new novel by Norman Mailer, his first in ten years. "The title of the new book is 'The Castle in the Forest,' Random House said in a statement. It said a synopsis was not available." Yahoo! (AP) 08/26/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 7:43 am
The Good Old Days In Canada (As In 3000 "Serious" Readers) "The adjective 'serious' was never precisely defined, but it was understood to describe those readers who could be counted on to go to a bookstore at least once a week and buy one or two titles on each occasion, mixing purchases of fiction with those of non-fiction. Since then — a time some publishing types like to call the B.C. Era (as in 'Before Chapters/Indigo') — that estimate has dropped, I'm told, to between 1,600 and 2,000, the result, one imagines, of the competing distractions-attractions of the Internet and the rise of digital media." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/26/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 7:14 am
Encyclopedia To The World A goal of Wikipedia is to create articles in as many languages and cultures as possible. But "how do you create an online encyclopedia when few native speakers have access to the Internet? What use is an encyclopedia when literacy rates among a language’s speakers can approach zero? And who should control the content of an encyclopedia in a local language if not enough native speakers are moved, or able, to contribute?" The New York Times 08/26/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 7:04 am
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The Biggest IMAX Movie Ever (But Now What?) "Edutainment funded by Lockheed Martin doesn't sound like box-office gold, but The Dream Is Alive is the top-grossing movie in IMAX history. It has earned more than $150 million since its 1985 debut, putting it several million dollars ahead of such competitors as 1998's Everest and 1991's Antarctica. Yet for all its success with such films, the IMAX Corp. dislikes being thought of as a purveyor of mega-sized documentaries. It now wants to show Hollywood blockbusters on its trademark six-story screens—a strategic shift that seems to have caused the company considerable trouble." Slate 08/25/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 12:58 pm
Why Do We Care How Much Money A Movie Makes? "These days, the summer moviegoer has two things vying for control of his imagination: the movies and the box-office receipts. Each operates according to an outsized, cartoonish aesthetic. Even for those of us who chuckle at the notion that summer blockbusters are special-effects abominations that have "ruined" the movies, it's striking that the numbers should exert such a hold over us." Slate 08/25/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 12:54 pm
Video Games Crank Up Their Music Offerings Music for video games is getting a big upgrade, with more sophisticated quality. "The game itself is interactive, the story line is interactive, so to the extent that you can make it work, and it doesn't mess up the experience, the music should be interactive as well." Yahoo! (Reuters) 08/26/06
Posted: 08/27/2006 7:37 am
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Colorado Ballet Secures Live Music The company has made an agreement with musicians that will provide live orchestral accompaniment for the dance company's first three productions in the upcoming season. "Last season, a decision to eliminate live accompaniment for performances of "Cinderella" resulted in an increased commitment by both sides to avoid such cut-backs in the future." Rocky Mountain News 08/25/06
Posted: 08/24/2006 11:07 pm
TV Dance Show Sells Out A Tour "Fox got good ratings with its summer dance competition 'So You Think You Can Dance,' and the viewer enthusiasm didn't end with last week's finale. The 10 finalists are going on tour, and all 37 dates, which went on sale last Saturday, sold out in just a few hours." Los Angeles Times 08/24/06
Posted: 08/24/2006 6:54 am
A Summer DanceSchool To Die For When Thomas Melone's daughter couldn't find a dance partner, Melone invited an ABT star to make an appearance. Then he built a beautiful dance studio/school in Martha's Vineyard and recuited stars of the dance world to come run it in the summer. The result: a dance program to die for... The New York Times 08/24/06
Posted: 08/24/2006 6:47 am
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