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Stories
for Wednesday, January 3, 2001
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- STILL
THE BEATLES: The Beatles album of greatest hits
has sold more than 20 million copies in the past
few months, putting it on course to be the best-selling
album of all time. Why, 30 years after the group
broke up, do its songs resonate for so many people?
New York Times 01/03/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
- THE
ART OF DIGITAL: There are those critics (and
you know who you are) who believe there is no such
thing as digital art. Why? "Digital media are
not easily written about as art. It is another leap
that has to be taken. Until digital works are seen
in an art context they will not be assessed properly
- that's the biggest challenge. And no one knows
how [or why] digital technology is art." Los
Angeles Times, 01/03/2001
- THE
LITTLE-GUY CONSORTIUM: Big recording companies
are consolidating and folding up their classical
operations. And small labels have a hard time advertising
and getting shelf space. Now a new consortium of
small classical labels hopes that by consolidating
their efforts they'll thrive. Sonicnet 01/02/01
- JOHN
ADAMS ON BEING A COMPOSER TODAY: "It's
been my impression that in terms of commissions
there's never been a more bullish period in American
history. There are all these operas being commissioned.
San Francisco Opera has commissioned 4 or 5 operas,
and the Met is on a big commissioning program, Chicago,
those are all the big ones, and the smaller companies
are commissioning like crazy, and orchestras are
commissioning works, so it seems like actually this
is a tremendously good time to be alive as a composer
of large-scale works." NewMusicbox 01/01
- HARD
TIMES FOR NEH: America's National Endowment
for the Humanities has had some rough years recently.
And things don't figure to get much better anytime
soon. "The most serious political problem on
the Hill now seems at least partly demographic:
Since the retirement and death of Sid Yates, all
of N.E.H.'s Congressional founding fathers (except
Ted Kennedy) have now departed the scene. Although
the humanities have had strong supporters in both
houses and on both sides of the aisle since 1995,
the core stalwarts have not been replaced."
Chronicle of Higher Education 01/02/01
- KLIMTS
RETURNED: Eight paintings by Gustav Klimt that
were stolen by the Nazis and later turned up in
an Austrian gallery, have been returned to the family
from whom they were stolen and are on display in
Canada. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/03/01
- THE
INNOCENT: A staged reading of a new script based
on the statements of 87 prisoners wrongly convicted
and sentenced to the death penalty and later proven
innocent attracts a star cast: Debra Winger, Richard
Dreyfuss, Steve Buscemi, Susan Sarandon and Tim
Robbins. The Guardian (London) 01/03/01
- THE
PLAY'S THE THING (BUT MAYBE NOT ON CABLE) One
year ago this month, the Broadway Television Network
(BTN) kicked off an ambitious plan to broadcast
Broadway musicals on a pay-per-view basis. The channel
has had mixed success. Although executives maintain
that BTN's development is modelled on a five-year
plan, first-year viewership figures and scheduling
have been lacklustre. "...On Broadway, questions
are being raised about BTN's future." New
York Post, 01/03/01
- GLOBAL
SLOWDOWN: For the second year in a row, Hollywood's
international box office take has tumbled. In an
international marketplace plagued by depreciating
local currencies, escalating marketing costs and
a global exhibition slowdown, distributors will
be lucky to clear $6 billion, down 10% on last year's
$6.66 billion target and way short of 1998's boffo
$6.8 billion." Variety 01/03/01
- CHANGING
ECONOMICS? "Everyone concerned with literature
wants to know what is going to happen to the homely
old trade of book publishing in the Era of the Net."
For one thing, maybe "brand name authors no
longer need publishers; and more controversially
maybe some publishing houses might have better balance
sheets if they didn't have to pony up the immense
sums paid to these brand names - $64 million, was
it, to Mary Higgins Clark?" The New Republic
12/28/00
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