But They Draw The Line At The Oil Portrait Of Mr. T Score one more fight for that ultimate underdog, Rocky. "The 8-foot bronze statue of the fictional film character won another fight yesterday - over its own meaning and worth - when [Philadelphia's] Art Commission voted 6-2 to move the statue to a patch of lawn near the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Supporters maintained that the statue had stood the test of time and had become a beloved symbol of inspiration for Rocky fans. The two opponents felt the statue was unnecessary at that location - the museum steps themselves provided the magic and inspiration." Philadelphia Inquirer 09/07/06
Posted: 09/07/2006 6:14 am
Charles Saatchi On Collecting "I like to show off. I always buy art with the idea that I'm going to show it. Before, I was always mouthing off about how there aren't enough collectors. Now there are just too many. They're all very young and very rich, and they all like to collect art the way they buy their funds." The Guardian (UK) 09/06/06
Posted: 09/06/2006 7:38 pm
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KC Music Director Pulls Out Of Season Opener "Conductor Michael Stern will miss the opening concerts of his second season as the Kansas City Symphony's music director. The orchestra announced yesterday afternoon that Stern has withdrawn from this weekend's performances due to the expected birth of his first child... Filling in for Stern will be David Robertson, the widely-admired American conductor who begins his own second season at the helm of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra September 23-24." PlaybillArts 09/07/06
Posted: 09/07/2006 6:03 am
Parsing Katie's Theme Lost amid all the armchair quarterbacking of Katie Couric's debut as anchor of the CBS Evening News is the fact that a new orchestral theme for the program also made its debut this week. Such a detail may seem unimportant on its face, but "viewers have come to rely on music to explain what it is they are feeling — something CBS, like all contemporary broadcasters, is well aware of." Los Angeles Times 09/07/06
Posted: 09/07/2006 6:03 am
Met's Massive New Media Deal The Metropolitan Opera's wide-ranging new deal with its unions (the flashiest aspect of which will see the company simulcasting six performances in digitally equipped movie theaters across the country) will also allow for "the possibility of digital downloads, video-on-demand, digital radio, ring tones, CDs, DVDs and instant CDs available after certain performances. One hundred additional live performances will be broadcast either over the Internet or on digital radio, with another 1,500 broadcasts from the past 75 years -- the Met's entire recorded history -- to be made available soon through an audio-on-demand service." Washington Post 09/07/06
Posted: 09/07/2006 5:53 am
Baltimore Taps Former Seattle Exec Two months ago, Paul Meecham abuptly resigned as CEO of the Seattle Symphony amid a firestorm of controversy concerning the orchestra's music director, Gerard Schwarz. He wasn't out of work long: this week, the Baltimore Symphony tapped him to be their next top executive. The BSO has had a few controversies of his own over the past couple of seasons, and the hope is that Meecham can bring badly needed stability to an organization that has seen little of it recently. Baltimore Sun 09/06/06
Posted: 09/07/2006 5:43 am
A New Day Dawns In Montreal Kent Nagano has taken his first bows as music director of the long-beleagured Montreal Symphony, and Arthur Kaptainis says that there's no question that the new boss has brought some big new ideas with him. "Textures were clear and rhythms distinct. It was as if we were reading the score with our ears." But the most striking aspect of Nagano's musical style may just be how seldom you notice him. "His podium style is so fluid and so naturally integrated with the sounds he creates that he seems less a conductor than a vessel for the music." Montreal Gazette 09/07/06
Posted: 09/07/2006 5:37 am
Detroit Will Wait Another Year For New Contract The Detroit Symphony Orchestra and its musicians have agreed to extend their current contract by a year, effectively giving the organization a 12-month wage freeze, and allowing both sides plenty of time to negotiate a new deal. DSO musicians agreed to hefty pay cuts in 2002 as part of a plan to revitalize the orchestra's fiscal picture, but that contract came backloaded with large pay increases this past season. Detroit Free Press 09/07/06
Posted: 09/07/2006 5:26 am
Universal Makes Deal To Buy BMG "If approved by the EU competition authorities, the deal would make Universal, already the world's largest record company, the industry's biggest music publisher as well, ahead of EMI and Warner Music." The Guardian (UK) 09/06/06
Posted: 09/06/2006 7:41 pm
Why There Are So Many Empty Seats At The Proms Huge gaping blocks of empty seats for some performances, there are. But this summer's Proms sold more tickets than ever. There are, reports Norman Lebrecht, reasonable reasons that the Proms have empty seats... La Scena Musicale 09/06/06
Posted: 09/06/2006 7:12 pm
LA Opera To Stage First "Ring" The company will mount the four-opera production with the help of a $6 million gift from Eli Broad. Yahoo! (Reuters) 09/06/06
Posted: 09/06/2006 6:56 pm
Met Opera To Broadcast To Movie Theatres "The Metropolitan Opera announced today that it would begin broadcasting live performances into movie theaters across the United States, Canada and Britain, rubbing shoulders with professional wrestling and rock concerts." The New York Times 09/06/06
Posted: 09/06/2006 5:53 pm
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Fantasy Trumps Responsibility In Myanmar The famously brutal military government of Myanmar (aka Burma) is rebuilding ancient temples in an effort to draw tourists, but archaeologists are concerned that the bricklayers doing the work "have no training in repairing aged monuments, and their work has nothing to do with actually restoring one of the world's most important Buddhist sites. Instead, using modern red bricks and mortar, they are building a new temple on top of the old." Los Angeles Times 09/07/06
Posted: 09/07/2006 6:55 am
Losing The Copyright Wars "There was a time when the entertainment industry believed it could stop digital thieves like the Coles with copy-protection software that prevented duplication and dissemination. Commercially released movies have contained copy-encryption software since the fledgling days of VHS. Modern DVDs feature a patented Content-Scrambling System (CSS) that prevents them from being copied using standard burner software. But for all it does to stop piracy, CSS may as well not exist." City Pages (Minneapolis/St. Paul) 09/07/06
Posted: 09/07/2006 6:30 am
Is Culture Still A Part Of WTC Building Plans? "Five years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the planned performing arts center at ground zero is without either institutional leadership or a fund-raising campaign. While the city has indicated that it will play a role in overseeing construction of the center, it hasn't specified what that role will be. This leaves the arts groups chosen to occupy the center — the Joyce and the Signature Theatre Company — in the dark about when it will actually be built." New York Sun 09/06/06
Posted: 09/06/2006 7:22 pm
The Celebrity Gene Are celebrities narcissistic because they're celebrities or were they born that way? A new study reaches conclusions: "Our research also shows that many celebrities exhibit narcissistic behaviour prior to becoming famous, which could indicate a self-selection bias for the entertainment industry by certain personality types," CBC 09/06/06
Posted: 09/06/2006 6:19 pm
This Year's Kennedy Center Honorees "The annual awards, announced today, will go to country music legend Dolly Parton, rhythm and blues balladeer William "Smokey" Robinson, musical theater innovator Andrew Lloyd Webber and classical conductor Zubin Mehta. In addition, the center is saluting Steven Spielberg, perhaps the most influential commercial filmmaker of his generation." Washington Post 09/06/06
Posted: 09/06/2006 5:56 pm
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No Bureaucracy Required Arts groups in New York have begun to despair of ever being granted their promised role at a rebuilt Ground Zero, but one Manhattan theatre company isn't waiting for the politicians to nix their contribution. "An experimental multimedia and theater company, 3-Legged Dog was located at Fiterman Hall, next to 7 World Trade Center, before the 9/11 attack destroyed its space." This week, the company opened "the new 3LD Art and Technology Center, a 12,500-square-foot warren of theaters and offices," just down the block from its old space. The New York Times 09/07/06
Posted: 09/07/2006 6:24 am
Theatre-Goers Vote For Cellphone Jammers "Following an online poll of more than 1,000 people, made up of cast, crew and theatregoers, The Stage can reveal that a huge majority - 90% of respondents - have had shows that they were either watching or performing in disturbed by a mobile phone going off. Alarmingly, around 10% claimed phones went off every time they visit the theatre." TheStage 09/06/06
Posted: 09/06/2006 9:53 pm
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Author, Publisher Settle Reader Lawsuits James Frey and Random House, his publisher, have agreed on a settlement of reader claims over Frey's memoir fraud. "Neither Mr. Frey nor Random House are admitting any wrongdoing, but consumers who bought the book on or before Jan. 26 — when both the publisher and author released statements acknowledging that Mr. Frey had altered certain facts — will be eligible for a full refund." The New York Times 09/07/06
Posted: 09/06/2006 10:10 pm
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TIFF Looking To Shock? This year's edition of the Toronto International Film Festival won't be short on controversy: films to be screened will include one about the assassination of George W. Bush; several about pedophilia, bestiality, and rape; and plenty of politics. Toronto Star 09/07/06
Posted: 09/07/2006 7:10 am
Apparently, "Reality-Based" Is Quite Different From "True" An ABC TV movie about the 9/11 attacks has stirred the national political pot, and the network has been making last-minute changes in an effort to address allegations of bias and inaccuracy from some on the left. "The movie dramatizes what it deems intelligence and operational failures of the Clinton and Bush administrations, relying heavily on public records... [But ABC] is tip-toeing away from the film's version of events. In a statement, the network said the miniseries 'is a dramatization, not a documentary, drawn from a variety of sources, including the 9/11 commission report, other published materials and from personal interviews.'" Los Angeles Times 09/07/06
Posted: 09/07/2006 6:44 am
NPR Cans Classical Shows; Minnesota Picks 'Em Up Two of public radio's most widely listened-to classical music programs are jumping halfway across the country. "Performance Today" and "SymphonyCast" have been dumped by the increasingly news-oriented National Public Radio, and will soon begin being produced by American Public Media, the national distribution arm of Minnesota Public Radio, which also distributes "A Prairie Home Companion," "Marketplace," and many other widely heard programs. "Performance Today" has been dropped by a number of stations over the last few years as classical music has become a tough sell with local stations. Washington Post 09/07/06
Posted: 09/07/2006 5:31 am
Coke And Mentos - When Consumers Hijack Brands "Thanks to widely circulated Web videos of the stunt, the soft drink and candy were joined at the hip this summer. In the aftermath, the companies took divergent paths: Perfetti Van Melle, maker of Mentos, quickly moved to align itself with the consumer phenomenon, while Coke kept a studied distance. The reactions are illustrative of the uncertainties advertisers face in the new world of consumer-generated media, where they need to define what, if any, role they should play when consumers assert control of their brands." Yahoo! (Adweek) 09/06/06
Posted: 09/06/2006 6:46 pm
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