American Cultural Domination (Except When It's Not) "The world is moving toward a uniform material culture, dominated by mostly material American influences: technological innovations, fashion, Hollywood and the celebrity culture it promotes, hip-hop, and rock 'n' roll. But the pervasiveness of the trappings of American culture obscures the central cultural paradox that lies within the globalization process: Although people around the world may wear, eat, and listen to American products, they continue to maintain their deeply ingrained values, beliefs, and underlying assumptions." Chronicle of Higher Education 12/08/06
Posted: 12/06/2006 7:11 am
Errant Arendt Attention Philosopher Hannah Arendt is being celebrated on the 100th anniversary of her birth. But "if her star shines so brightly, it is because the American intellectual firmament is so dim. After all, who or where are the other political philosophers? The last great political American philosopher, John Dewey, died in 1952. Since then American philosophy — with the partial exception of Richard Rorty — has vanished into technical issues; within the subfield of political philosophy, the largest of its figures, John Rawls, remains abstract and insular." Chronicle of Higher Education 12/08/06
Posted: 12/06/2006 6:44 am
Smelly Assault (Even If They're Cookies) The California Milk Processor Board, whose 'Got Milk?' campaign is famous around the world, thought they had the next big milk promotion. They installed ads at bus shelters that emitted the scent of fresh-baked cookies. But the ads have quickly disappeared after the transit authority "received several complaints from bus riders concerned that the aroma might not be safe." Yahoo! (Reuters) 12/06/06
Posted: 12/06/2006 6:28 am
How Walt Disney Took Over The World "Even now, forty years after his death, the slight figure of Walt himself is almost impossible to pick out from the parti-colored throng of movie clips, projects, and moral tendencies that march under the banner of 'Walt Disney.' Say the name to most people and you know what will flash onto their mind’s eye: unashamedly bright hues, flying elephants, singing bears, corporate dominance, happy endings, and a helping of values that slip down as easily as ice cream. How did we arrive at this blinding apotheosis?" The New Yorker 12/04/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 11:19 pm
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Pork Barrel Portraits The expectation has been that Canada's new National Portrait Gallery would be built in Ottawa, the capital. But it appears from internal government documents that the project will be built in Calgary instead. Why Calgary, home of the Stampede ad mythologizer of the cowboy? Prime Minister Stephen Harper hails from the city. 'Nuff said.
The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/06/06 Posted: 12/06/2006 7:38 am
Boston's Hip New Contemporary Boston's Institute for Contemporary Art has a stunning new building on the city's waterfront. "With the possible exception of a lighthouse, there's probably never been a building more intensely involved with the sea. The ICA and the harbor enjoy the architectural equivalent of a dating relationship." The Boston Globe puts together an impressive multimedia package to explore what the new buildng means to the city.
Boston Globe 12/06/06 Posted: 12/06/2006 6:06 am
Restoration Hard Ware - Restore Bamiyan Buddhas? "Five years after the Taliban were ousted from power, Bamiyan’s Buddhist relics are once again the focus of debate: Is it possible to restore the great Buddhas? And, if so, can the extraordinary investment that would be required be justified in a country crippled by poverty and a continued Taliban insurgency in the south and that is, after all, overwhelmingly Muslim?"
The New York Times 12/06/06 Posted: 12/05/2006 11:02 pm
In Search Of A Little Turner Razzle Dazzle The Turner Prize has lacked a certain oomph for the last few years, writes a former winner. "Many pundits bemoan the razzmatazz of the Turner and the proliferation of cultural prizes in general, feeling that they are undignified and inappropriately competitive in the arts. I think they are a good way to engage the public in the debate of what makes good art. In a world where a zillion cultural products beg for our attention, prizes strive to champion quality. If, in doing that, they occasionally include the media-friendly option, so be it."
The Times (UK) 12/05/06 Posted: 12/05/2006 10:58 pm
Art In The Schools? (Or Money In The Bank) "Three years ago, the Philadelphia School District went on a treasure hunt to gather up about 1,200 artworks. There were paintings, sculptures and tapestries from more than 260 schools. A Chicago art consultant brought in to catalogue the works said the entire collection could be worth $30 million. But now that the School Reform Commission is struggling to resolve a $73.3 million budget deficit, art experts, along with members of various school communities, are worried that district officials could be tempted to sell the artworks."
Philadelphia Daily News 12/05/06 Posted: 12/05/2006 10:04 pm
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America's New "Big 5" Orchestras (One Man's List) Fred Kirshnit embraces the idea of a "Big Five" American orchestras. But his five aren't the traditional culprits... New York Sun 12/05/06
Posted: 12/06/2006 7:57 am
Did Jazz Die In The 1970s? To counter the claim, jazz bloggers have been weighing in with lists of what they coinsider classice from the era. And a new 70s jazz canon is being created... The New York Times 12/06/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 11:08 pm
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Cultural Olympiad Iced From The Schedule An ambitious arts and culture program for Vancouver's 2010 Olympic Games that was supposed to begin this year has been put on ice until 2008.
The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/06/06
Posted: 12/06/2006 7:44 am
Report: LA Arts Support Badly Skewed A new report says that big established Los Angeles non-profit arts organizations are wildly favored over smaller non-profits. The report notes "a disconnect between the local nonprofit arts community and the for-profit entertainment industry," and one unidentified arts executive quoted in the study describes L.A.'s signature industry as "a local economic machine that takes ideas from the arts community but doesn't give back." Los Angeles Times 12/06/06
Posted: 12/06/2006 6:20 am
Is "Middle-Class Guilt" Holding Back Arts Funding? "Given the overall success of the arts in Britain, given the quality of exhibitions and live arts programming, given the way that new capital projects have led to artistic innovation; given the fact that past funding increases went directly into the arts themselves and not into the (miserable) salaries of those who run the arts (NHS administrators, please note!); given such a record, why are we so tortured with self doubt, so crippled with apology and self-abasement?" The Guardian (UK) 12/04/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 10:19 pm
Welsh Culture Minister's Radical Arts Funding Reforms Rejected "Almost every one of the hotly opposed proposals from Welsh culture minister Alun Pugh to demolish much of the traditional arm’s-length principle over control and funding of the arts have been rejected by the review committee he was forced to set up." TheStage 12/05/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 10:07 pm
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Remembering A DC Theatre Institution Mike Malone, the choreographer, director and teacher who died Monday at age 63, was a stalwart of the Washington theater community for nearly 40 years. He believed in building institutions where the arts would be an avenue for creativity for young people, and enjoyment for all. Washington Post 12/06/06
Posted: 12/06/2006 7:19 am
Pamuk: "Im Not A Bridge-Builder" Orhan Pamuk, on the eve of getting his Nobel Prize for literature, says he's not interested in the larger cultural connections some want to impose on his work. Pamuk, author of "My Name is Red", "Snow" and half-a-dozen other novels said he wanted to be considered above all as a writer and not as a bridge between Muslim and Western cultures. "Bridge builder? I don't like it. I am not writing fiction to explain civilization. This is not my urge." Yahoo! (AFP) 12/06/06
Posted: 12/06/2006 6:34 am
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Gay Themes, Boulevard Forms: Where New York Bests Britain "Whatever its faults, New York theatre has virtually patented a new form: the gay comedy of manners. Its origins lie in Mart Crowley's 1968 play The Boys in the Band, dealing with a surprise hetero visitor to a gay birthday bash. Crowley's work launched a series of plays that combined a gay agenda with mass audience appeal. In Britain, leaving aside Joe Orton's taboo-breaking farces, the only real equivalent is Kevin Elyot's My Night With Reg (1994). When will our own writers wake up to the fact that there is now a big market for gay boulevard comedy?" The Guardian (UK) 12/05/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 6:36 am
Organizing To Save Theatre Museum A group of cultural heavyweights has banded together to protest the imminent closing of London's Theatre Museum. "The organisation is demanding the V&A withdraws its notice of closure on the museum and is looking for alternative ways to manage the institution. In the longer term, it also wants to investigate 'broader possibilities for properly housing' the museum’s collections, potentially moving them to a new location." TheStage 12/04/06
Posted: 12/04/2006 7:22 pm
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The Book As Technology The Sony eBook is the latest "book killer" to hit the market. It won't replaced the traditional book. "Yet it is useful to remember that the printed book is just that — a technology, a tool designed for a specific purpose, no less than the shiny new Sony Reader. And the prospects for the book's survival do not depend on mere nostalgia, a fogeyish attachment to dusty shelves, and the smell of moldy paper. No, the reason why the printed book is likely to survive, at least for our lifetimes, is that it is the best tool we have for reading works of literature." New York Sun 12/06/06
Posted: 12/06/2006 7:50 am
Thomas Pynchon Steps Up To Defend McEwan From Plagiarism Charges "In a move described by his British publisher as 'unknown', Pynchon, an American who is never seen in public, does not give interviews and whose whereabouts are a closely guarded secret, sent a typed letter to his British agent yesterday to say that McEwan "merits not our scolding but our gratitude" for using details from another author's book." The Telegraph (UK) 12/05/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 10:55 pm
Book Prize Winners To Get Publishing Deals "A division of Simon & Schuster has agreed to publish the top three winners of the Sobol Award, a new literary contest that offers a $100,000 first prize, but also has been criticized for charging entry fees and requiring that it serve as the winners' agent." Yahoo (AP) 12/05/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 10:49 pm
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Canadian Film Treasures Dead To Rights "Thanks to spiralling copyright licensing costs, payable to whoever holds the copyright (unions, archives, creators, corporations) -- and thanks, too, to the rising cost of insurance to protect against copyright claims -- more and more public film footage is no longer available to the Canadian public, nor for use by Canadian creators." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/06/06
Posted: 12/06/2006 7:42 am
Hollywood's Moroccan Dreams Morocco has become a hotbed of American movie production. Why? "In the post-September 11 world, most U.S. movies that deal with or are set in the Arab world have found their options for location shooting limited because of safety concerns. And Morocco has been the beneficiary." Yahoo! (Reuters) 12/05/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 10:44 pm
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Royal Ballet Lands An Outsider Choreographer The company named Wayne McGregor as its new resident choreographer, and it's an oddly inspired choice. "The world as seen by Wayne McGregor is a world apart from the warm, centrally heated classrooms of the Royal Ballet School and the dainty interval sandwiches of Covent Garden. It is a mindset that engages with the real world of conflict and abandonment, of cruelty and technological revolution, of commonality and infinite human difference. It is a new world for the Royal Ballet, a renaissance by any other name." La Scena Musicale 12/05/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 10:10 pm
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