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Senator Dodd's Quiet Campaign Connecticut senator Senator Christopher J. Dodd is "seeking to correct what he and other lawmakers regard as a longstanding injustice: a dearth of images of women and members of minorities in one of the nation's most visited buildings" - the Capitol. The New York Times 08/13/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 9:44 pm
Making Monet Look Like A Hack...But Who Seems To Care? Edinburgh's mamoth Monet show has Richard Dorment wondering if Monet "may not be the most overrated painter of the 19th century. Monet was a virtuoso, like the composer Rossini. Both were prolific with their enormous talents. Ravishing though it is, their work needs to be taken in small doses so that you don't notice how formulaic and repetitive it can be. This sprawling, grab-bag of a show looks at the period 1878-83" and reveals a formula applied over and over again. "So what if the show is lousy? It's Monet, stupid. The box-office queues are long, and the gift shop is busy. The cynicism of the whole enterprise boggles the mind." The Telegraph (UK) 08/13/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 7:28 pm
Historic UK Building Material At An End - Preservationists Fret The British government has decided not to allow a lime quarry to operate, thereby effectively ending "production of traditional lime mortar in the UK and a history stretching back to the Romans. Made by burning lime in kilns, it was used on most buildings erected before 1800. Without a homegrown source, some fear that builders and enthusiastic amateurs will use cement as an alternative for repairs, causing damage to historic brick and stonework." The Guardian (UK) 08/12/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 7:14 pm
Artist Wants To Rebuild Berlin Wall A German artist wants to rebuild the Berlin Wall in plastic. He's been "working for three years to raise the €25m (£18m) he says it will take to rebuild a 29-mile plastic copy of the Berlin Wall across the city." He hopes to build it in time for when the city hosts the World Cup in 2006. The Guardian (UK) 08/12/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 7:11 pm
Julian Schnabel - Gone Before His Time Once Julian Schnabel was hot. Now not... "Everything Julian Schnabel does has only one meaning: it's over. The story of American art that seemed so epic, so inexhaustible, from Jackson Pollock in the 1940s to Robert Smithson and Gordon Matta-Clark in the 1970s, is over. How can a culture become so creative so suddenly, and then, as suddenly, dry up? You have to admire Schnabel's cojones for carrying on at all, so ruthlessly has he been expunged from the memory of the art world." The Guardian (UK) 08/12/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 7:08 pm
The Preservation Problem Preservation of contemporary art is a huge concern. "High-tech art is at risk of literally fading away, leaving buyers with nothing to show for their money. Time is running out for museums, galleries and private collectors wanting to preserve their digital photography and video art, as recent research has shown that the deterioration is quicker than people realised. Institutions around the world are tackling this problem, and scientists at Basel University have been researching stability in photography since 1965." Financial Times 08/12/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 7:01 pm
Music Giants To Merge? Two of the big five music recording companies - Warner and BMG - are in final negotiations to merge. "The industry heavyweights are negotiating the nuts and bolts of combining their recorded music empires but are closing in on an agreement that would create the world's second-biggest music company, the sources said." Toronto Star (Reuters) 08/13/03
Posted: 08/13/2003 7:55 am
See The Concert, Buy The Music "Throughout this event-heavy summer, live concerts are being recorded onto discs and sold shortly after the performances. Post-concert CDs are typically two- or three-disc sets that sell for about $20 each. Few major acts have agreed to participate in this new concert merchandising segment, and most of the activity is taking place at small venues. Revenue has been modest. Still, two high-profile concert-CD startup companies believe they can eventually win the faith of the industry's biggest names." Toronto Star 08/13/03
Posted: 08/13/2003 7:53 am
The Basis Of Music? "The chromatic scale — the musical scale that follows the notes of the piano and of which the Western seven-tone do-re-mi scale is a subset — may not be based on number ratios, as many physicists and mathematicians have proposed, but rather on human speech, according to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of Neuroscience..." Los Angeles Times 08/12/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 10:16 pm
I Just Called To Hear That Pop Song... In the UK, consumers are buying songs for the ringers of their mobile phones. The tones generate huge profits for recording companies. "An estimated £70m of ringtones will be sold in 2003 - up from £40m in 2002. Most pop hits are available to buy as mobile phone rings - as are other popular tunes such as TV themes - for between £1.50 and £3.50. Many young mobile phone-owners change their ringtones regularly to keep up with the latest songs." BBC 08/12/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 6:47 pm
Burnout On Creativity This summer Canada lost its "most inviting art magazine and interesting cinema." Why? "Burnout. Principal founders hit the wall following years of pouring staggering amounts of energy into cultural projects that offered poverty-level financial returns. 'We got exhausted and infuriated. Any one factor would not be enough to close down the magazine, but if you add it all together'..." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/13/03
Posted: 08/13/2003 7:24 am
European Heat Wave Kills Box Office, CD Sales The heat wave in Britain is affecting the movie box office and sales of music. "Box office business at the weekend was down 13% on the previous week, while many films suffered a drop in earnings." Music album sales were also down about 15 percent. BBC 08/12/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 6:51 pm
Gregory Hines - He Pushed His Artform "He had shone in so many ways: a stellar tap dancer, choreographer, actor, teacher, mentor, loved one. If you missed his appearances at tap festivals, you might have enjoyed his gritty portrayal of Jelly Roll Morton in Jelly's Last Jam on Broadway. Although you might never have seen him tap, you might have caught him in one of his appearances on Will & Grace. His death caught most of us off guard; he let only those closest to him know that he had been diagnosed with liver cancer a little over a year ago." Village Voice 08/12/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 10:00 pm
- The Legacy Of Gregory Hines Many of today's young dancers owe much to Gregory Hines. "If you saw Hines dance, you saw his dynamic continuation of a dance tradition inherited from legendary hoofers such as Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson, Honi Coles, Sandman Sims, The Nicholas Brothers and Teddy Hale, to mention a few." Denver Post 08/12/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 6:58 pm
- Previously: Gregory Hines, 57 Actor/dancer Gregory Hines has died of cancer. He was best known for his roles in films such as The Cotton Club (1984), based around the seminal 1920s New York jazz club, in which he played Sandman Williams. He was also cast alongside Mikhail Baryshnikov in the thriller White Nights (1985), and alongside Billy Crystal in the comic cop thriller Running Scared (1986)." BBC 08/10/03
What Eschenbach Meant To Ravinia After nine years, Christoph Eschenbach leaves as music director of the Ravinia Festival this week. "If James Levine kicked Ravinia's international profile up several notches, Eschenbach certified it as a full-service festival - a place where young musicians and seasoned artists can strike sparks off one another, where top-level chamber music thrives, where amazing things can appear out of nowhere like the fireflies that dance among the picnickers on the lawn. He has set the spontaneous tone for a summer place where performers unwind in postlude concerts that have been known to go on well past midnight." Chicago Tribune 08/12/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 6:42 pm
Phantom At 7000 - Bigger Than Star Wars... The musical "Phantom of the Opera" plays its 7,000th performance in London. The musical has "packed theatres the world over and grossed £1.6 billion at the box office - more than any other film or stage play, including Titanic, Star Wars and ET. Written-by Andrew Lloyd Webber and produced by Cameron Mackintosh, Phantom opened in October 1986 starring Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman." London Evening Standard 08/12/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 7:23 pm
Fringe At Center Stage It used to be that the Edinburgh Fringe was an adjunct to the tonier Edinburgh Festival. No longer. "For the 250,000 odd who pour into the Scottish capital - a 50 per cent population increase - the chief draw is the Festival Fringe (August 3 to 25). Once a mere tangent to the snootier international festival, it is now the world's biggest arts event. Scorning fears of SARS, terrorism and war, hotel-room bookings are buoyant, ticket sales are robust and records have already been broken: there will be 21,594 performances of 1541 shows by 668 companies in 207 venues, the first time the number of venues has topped 200, 24 more than last year." The Age (Melbourne) 08/12/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 6:30 pm
The Problem When Your Book Exceeds Expectations David Lipsky got his book launched with plenty of buzz. His publisher was foursquare behind him. And the opening round of publicity created aa run of sales any publisher would envy. One problem? You can't buy the book anywhere. Lipsky's book sold out of its first printing of 40,000, and making more takes three weeks or longer. By then, will people stiull be lining up to buy it? The story shows how cautious publishers have become... New York Observer 08/13/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 10:30 pm
Why Literature Matters What's the point of literature? "Literature is a conversation across the ages about our experience and our nature, a conversation in which, while there isn’t unanimity, there is a surprising breadth of agreement. Literature amounts, in these matters, to the accumulated wisdom of the race, the sum of our reflections on our own existence. It begins with observation, with reporting, rendering the facts of our inner and outer reality with acuity sharpened by imagination. At its greatest, it goes on to show how these facts have coherence and, finally, meaning." City Journal Summer/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 10:06 pm
Canadian Idol - Hotter Than Hockey So it's fair to say that "Canadian Idol," the TV talent show competition, is a hit in Canada this summer. But it isn't just a hit - it's a ratings monster, scoring some of the best numbers ever for a Canadian TV show. "The show pits young Canadian crooners against each other for a shot at a recording contract. It has become so popular that it is even beating some numbers from this year's Stanley Cup." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/13/03
Posted: 08/13/2003 7:21 am
Net Gain - Indie Film The internet has emerged as an important force in the indie film industry. "The emergence of virtual film festivals and the continued presence of veteran Web sites such as iFilm and AtomShockwave's AtomFilms has made the world of indie filmmaking more accessible to the technologically savvy and has given aspiring writers, directors, producers and actors a new means of making connections. What the Internet has done for filmmakers is to lower the point of entry." Backstage 08/12/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 10:22 pm
Dallas Public Station Sold Dallas public broadcasting company announced it will sell a station. "Broadcasting deals announced Monday would replace one of Dallas' two public broadcasting stations with a religious channel and add a Spanish-language station to the area's growing roster." Dallas Morning News 08/12/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 6:55 pm
Australia Making Fewer Films Are fewer features films being made in Australia? Yes, says the Australian Film Commission's chief executive. And the reason is lack of funding - both private and government. "There's less money to make them. The funding that's available through either direct or indirect government support is less than what it has been in the past." The Age (Melbourne) 08/13/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 6:24 pm
Massed Singing In The Rain A mass public performance of dance from the movie "Singing in the Rain" is being mounted in Australia as part of the Melbourne Festival. "Thousands of people are expected to don raincoats and gumboots at Federation Square on October 9 to learn the dance immortalised by Gene Kelly in the film of the same name. A Melbourne Festival spokeswoman said as far as they knew, it was the first time a mass production of the the dance with members of the public had been undertaken." The Age (Melbourne) 08/13/03
Posted: 08/12/2003 6:27 pm | 
