Can't Buy Me Love (Or Happiness) "Several economic studies affirm that the correlation of income and happiness is nowhere near what people think. One finds that in developed societies there is slightly more happiness at the 75th percentile of income than at the 50th, but that above the 75th percentile more money doesn’t matter." Boston Globe 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 5:36 pm
Cure Cancer? Or Fund The Arts? Hmnnn "It's a rising concern for many potential donors to the arts: What is the justification for donating to the opera when the money could help stamp out malaria - or stem global warming, reform education or solve any of a number of humanitarian crises?" The Wall Street Journal 10/14/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 9:31 am
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Did Pennsylvania Fund A New Barnes Before It Got Permission To Move? "Buried deep inside Pennsylvania's voluminous, multibillion-dollar capital budget for fiscal year 2001-02 was $7 million for 'restoration, stabilization and site enhancements for the Barnes Foundation.' Fifteen pages later, the budget set aside another $100 million for 'design and construction of a museum facility' to house the Barnes collection."
Los Angeles Times 10/16/06 Posted: 10/16/2006 9:41 am
Hi, I'm Julie, I'll Be Your Museum Shadow A growing number of museums are spying on their patrons, trying to better understand how visitors interact with the museum. "Known collectively as 'visitor studies,' the movement has its own experts, its own literature, its own conferences. Spying is only part of the equation."
San Diego Union-Tribune 10/15/06 Posted: 10/16/2006 6:22 am
Denver Mobs Its New Museum Thirty-five thousand people showed up for the opening weekend of the new Denver Art Museum. "The large weekend crowds resulted in the museum running out of free tickets to enter the new $110 million wing less than 24 hours into the event."
Rocky Mountain News 10/15/06 Posted: 10/16/2006 6:18 am
Steven Holl Busts On Denver Project (But The Reasons Are Instructive) When architect Steven Holl was selected to design a new Denver courthouse in December, "it was a celebratory moment for a city anticipating a building with his signature way with light. But in August and September the terrain between city and architect turned from tension to termination."
Rocky Mountain News 10/15/06 Posted: 10/16/2006 6:15 am
A Museum That Makes You Doubt Star Buildings Paris' new Branly Museum is a disaster, writes Robert Campbell. "Everywhere in the Branly, the architecture crowds out the treasures it contains. It's the mud-like interior you remember, not the displays. This is one of many museums now being built that have been conceived as tourist destinations. The architecture is supposed to be part of the tourist magnet."
Boston Globe 10/15/06 Posted: 10/15/2006 5:40 pm
Doubling Children In Houston Houston's Children's Museum is doubling in size. "Designed by Robert Venturi, one of the United States' best-known architects, the museum's current home opened in 1992 and was designed to accommodate 350,000 visitors a year. Annual attendance runs at about 600,000."
Houston Chronicle 10/15/06 Posted: 10/15/2006 5:19 pm
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Music Industry Question Digital Rights Policies "The major record labels by and large insist their music must have some sort of digital rights management protection before they'll license it for digital distribution. Increasingly, the wisdom of this stance is coming under scrutiny. DRM, they say, simply forces consumers to buy hardware with proprietary technology that enriches software companies rather than artists or labels." Yahoo! (Reuters) 10/15/06
Posted: 10/16/2006 6:07 am
Ticket Prices Decline Ticket prices for pop concerts have been going down in the past year. "Nationally, the average ticket price for the top 100 tours tracked by Pollstar magazine dropped to $50.27 last year, from $53.55 in 2004." Detroit Free Press 10/15/06
Posted: 10/16/2006 6:04 am
Chicago Symphony - Doing Better Business Than Expected This past year the orchestra had "stronger than expected ticket sales, subscription renewals, fund-raising and deficit reduction. In an environment of concern about the future health of classical music, executives and board leaders of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association almost seemed surprised at the good news." Chicago Sun-Times 10/15/06
Posted: 10/16/2006 6:01 am
What Will The Recording Business Of The Future Look Like? "The labels that survive will do so by spreading sales across a wider range of talent, rather than concentrating on a handful of megasellers to ensure profitable quarterly statements to satisfy anxious shareholders. The new marketplace isn't being built for the 10-million selling act. It'll be about building a foundation for artists that sell less than 100,000 albums." Chicago Tribune 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 5:17 pm
The New Met - Cue The Monkey Suits? Peter Gelb is making wholesale changes in how the Metropolitan Opera does business. "Some critics no doubt will be waiting for the Met's new GM to cross the line between selling that art form and selling it out. Gelb addressed that recently when he recalled seeing one of those "Euro-trash" productions that try anything to connect. It was a "Rigoletto" conceived by a German film director as "Rigoletto Meets the Planet of the Apes." Set amid the shattered remains of the world's opera houses, it had the singers dressed, yes, as apes. 'There will be no ape suits in our new productions'." Los Angeles Times 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 11:43 am
The Musicians Who Make House Calls "Since 2004, Musicians on Call has regularly serenaded those in Britain unable to attend concerts and, according to its mission statement, draws on scientific research that suggests that listening to live music lowers blood pressure, anxiety and depression. The orchestra seems eager to establish a footing in New York, where it spends about 10 days a year, and its members are starting to treat the city as a second home." The New York Times 10/14/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 10:30 am
Trombone As Star? (Really?) "This season there are four — count ’em, four — major trombone premieres in the United States. The others are at the New York Philharmonic, the Harrisburg Symphony and the Hartford Symphony. The premieres suggest that an instrument that has rarely been invited into the spotlight has finally hit the big time..." The New York Times 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 10:04 am
The Cincinnati Symphony Audience Problem Attendance at Cincinnati Symphony concerts has plummeted this season. "Does the orchestra have too much "product" for its customers? Does it need a massive marketing campaign? Will a planned renovation of Music Hall, to add patron amenities such as a café and an attached garage and create a smaller auditorium, improve the attendance?" Cincinnati Enquirer 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 9:42 am
"Orchestral Terrorism" At The Seattle Symphony Orchestra management says someone is targeting musicians who support embattled music director Gerard Schwarz. One player says the retaliation includes "someone anonymously denting my horn, scratching my car, stealing from my orchestra mailbox, desecrating my photo with pinholes to the eyes and forehead, and phoning my home and threatening my family. I have never before encountered orchestral terrorism until now." Seattle Times 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 9:22 am
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Britain's Golden Age Of Culture? "This is a golden time for the arts in Britain; we have an embarrassment of riches on our hands. Barely a day seems to go by without news of another first night at the theatre, or the opening of another blockbuster exhibition, or the announcement of a great new season of concerts." The Observer (UK) 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 10:59 am
Rome's Mayor Takes On Culture "He transformed two old palazzos into the House of Cinema in the Villa Borghese and the House of Jazz near the Baths of Caracalla. He has been a staunch defender of Richard Meier’s ultramodern Ara Pacis Museum, which came under sharp criticism for being misplaced and ill-conceived after it opened to the public last spring. Then there is the Notte Bianca, an all-night cultural event in which Rome literally opens up its cultural treasures to guests and residents." The New York Times 10/14/05
Posted: 10/15/2006 10:34 am
Pamuk: Proposed French Ban On Armenian Genocide-Deniers Is Wrong The French parliament is debating whether to make it a crime to deny the Armenian genocide. But Turkish Nobel-winner Orhan Pamuk (who was put on trial for writing about the genocide) objects to the idea. "The French tradition of critical thinking influenced and taught me a lot. This decision, however, is a prohibition and didn’t suit the libertarian nature of the French tradition." The New York Times 10/14/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 9:37 am
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When A Director Goes Off The Rails John Moore writes that he knows the relationship between critics and the community in which they write can be complicated. But a confrontation between Cleveland Plain Dealer theatre critic Tony Brown and the head of the city's biggest theatre was "just absurd. How can the head of a regional theater company lead his institution to great standing when he is behaving like a child? Bloom has lost credibility with his staff and subscribers and brought embarrassment to his theater." Denver Post 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 5:46 pm
- Previously: Cleveland Director Assaults Critic's Review Cleveland Play House director Michael Bloom made a very public critique of Plain Dealer theatre critic Tony Brown. "Inspired by an unfavorable review Brown had written of the play and his direction, [he} spied Brown in the back row of the theater, hurried down the aisle and ran the critic down in the lobby, where he passionately delivered an intimate and unrestrained critique of the review." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 10/09/06
Paul McCartney, The Brand? "According to documents lodged with the trademarks registry in London, the multi-millionaire former Beatle has begun a process to trademark his name for use on goods as wide-ranging as pantihose, waistcoats and vegetarian food." The Guardian (UK) 10/14/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 11:19 am
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Back To The 60s There's a revival of musicals from the 60s and 70s. Why now? "After raiding much of the Rodgers-Hammerstein canon of 1950s and 1960s hits during the past decade, and much of the '80s Fosse and Sondheim output, too, a voracious Broadway revival market needs more new (old) blood." Seattle Times 10/15/06
Posted: 10/16/2006 6:48 am
Stuff Happens... In Boston A small Boston theatre stretches to do David Hare's play about the Iraq war. "The play goes behind the scenes to try to show, step by step, how and why the Bush administration led America into war and persuaded the British to join it. The claims the play makes were controversial at the time... That Iraq was essentially an opportunistic venture where a small group in the White House chose to exploit 9/11 for their own political ends. That was controversial. It has now become standard history." Boston Globe 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 6:09 pm
Portland Theatre's New Digs Portland Oregon's biggest theatre gets a handsome new home. "We really needed to be in a space where we could reinvent and expand our relationship with the community. We needed a place that said, 'This is Portland.' " Seattle Times 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 5:53 pm
A Utopian Undertaking On Broadway (On So Many Levels) Tom Stoppard's new play is a mammoth undertaking. It requires "six and a half months of constant rehearsals — full days and part days — and 115 performances, including the three marathon performance days. Even harder when it’s an ensemble piece, where the actor’s name will appear somewhere in the crowd below the title. And harder still when it’s at a not-for-profit theater, with its do-gooder pay scale." The New York Times 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 10:07 am
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Pamuk Nobel Richly Diserved "This year, the Academy has done the right thing, thank God, saluting a writer who, in the words of the Nobel citation, 'has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures'. With Turkey and its record as much in the news as it was in 2005, Orhan Pamuk has become the first Turkish writer in 100 years ever to receive this supreme accolade." The Guardian (UK) 10/14/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 10:55 am
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Understanding The Gross-out Movie Phenomenon "American males under 25 are the world's most lucrative filmgoing demographic. With its ready stream of sight gags to plaster on trailers and posters, this is not a hard genre to market; the less sophisticated the movie, the better. But does grosser necessarily mean funnier?" The Telegraph (UK) 10/15/06
Posted: 10/16/2006 6:13 am
Hollywood's Latino Problem "Although major studios are eager to court Latinos — a group that sees more English-language movies than any other ethnic or racial group — they have been hard-pressed to find Latino executives who can spearhead their efforts. An equally rare commodity: screenwriters, directors and producers who are successful at pitching movies about Latinos." Los Angeles Times 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 6:01 pm
XM - Back To Top 40 XM satellite radio recreates the old-style Top 40 format. "Weaving together tape-recorded snippets found in listeners' attics, on eBay or in the possession of the nation's obsessive subculture of radio-jingle collectors, Young captures the sound and spirit of the AM stations that once dominated American popular culture as hardly any phenomenon has in the four decades since." Washington Post 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 12:02 pm
The Virtual Star New software tranfers the expressions of an actor's performance into a computer-generated avatar. "The Image Metrics software lets a computer map an actor’s performance onto any character virtual or human, living or dead." Will this mean the end of live faces on our movie screens? The New York Times 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 9:47 am
Are Movie Studios Being Squeezed Out? Movie investors are increasingly bypassing Hollywood studios and dealing directly with producers. "The reason is a simple desire for more control. Wall Street financiers want a greater say over what movies they finance and who makes them; producers want more artistic independence and a larger share of the profits. The studios themselves are nudging the trend along, too, since they are making fewer movies." The New York imes 10/13/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 9:33 am
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The Well-Connected Choreographer Michael Clark is "the most extraordinary and extraordinarily well-connected dancer in modern Britain. Draw a circle between the Young British Artists, the more frayed edges of rock music, high fashion (Kate Moss is a patron) and serious classical dance (his other patron is Mikhail Baryshnikov), and you can find Michael Clark open-mindedly ensconced at any point." The Telegraph (UK) 10/15/06
Posted: 10/16/2006 6:42 am
An Evolved NYCity Ballet Returns To Chicago It's been 26 years since New York City Ballet has been to Chicago. The company has changed, and along with it the Balanchine repertoire at its core. "He [Balanchine] would find it anathema if this company became a museum of his works. He expected they would evolve and change. `In 50 years, my ballets will be completely different,' he said. He didn't see that as wrong." Chicago Tribune 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 5:25 pm
Sarah Michelson - Going To The DOGS Choreographer Sarah Michelson's breakout hit "Group Experience has spawned so many imitations that the dance concert as self-conscious rock gig, with the audience as part of the action, has become a recognizable subgenre." Newsday 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 10:49 am
Jorma Elo Is Everywhere Choreographer Jorma Elo has a full slate of new pieces debuting in high places this season. "Unlike most successful choreographers, who start out as dancers then switch to full-time dance making once they have enough work, he continued to perform with the Nederlands Dans Theater until just two years ago. Asked why, he said simply, 'I loved it'." The New York Times 10/15/06
Posted: 10/15/2006 9:54 am
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