Month: March 2000

HEART OF A NATION

The New Zealand government has appointed a commission of cultural experts to study how the country can boost culture and help make it better contribute to the economy. “What we don’t want to happen is for everyone to trundle up and say, ‘Give me a lot of money and I could do a lot better.’ We assume that.” – New Zealand Herald

THE POCKETBOOK ARGUMENT

Berlin’s cultural institutions are crying about being underfunded. Now the city’s tourism office warns that any further cuts in cultural funding will imperil the city’s tourism. “Key to solving the acrimonious debate between cultural institutions, city politicians and national culture officials over who can best to manage the capital’s culture, how to manage it, and how much money to spend, is a willingness to begin deep-going restructuring,” says the official charged with promoting tourism. – Die Welt (Germany)

DOWN FROM THE MOUNT

Charlton Heston, speaking at Georgetown University last night, declared a culture war. “Our culture has traded in the bloody arena fights of ancient Rome for state fights on Sally, Ricki, Jerry, Maury, Jenny and Rosie. . . . Our one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all, now seems more like the fractured streets of Beirut, echoing with anger.” – Washington Post

DEATH OR TRANSFIGURATION?

Sven Birkerts says computers are eroding our ability to read deeply. Internet speed discourages reflective reading of literature and we skip across oceans of information without diving deep. “We’ve reached a critical juncture in the transition from print culture to screen culture,” he says, and “We’re metamorphosing from individual and private people to fungible, Web-linked brain connectors in a bright, buzzy, gregarious info-hive.” He couldn’t be more wrong, declares one critic. – Salon

ADVENTURES IN DANCE

London’s 13-year-old modern dance troupe Adventures in Motion Picture (AMP) announces it will move into the Old Vic Theatre as company-in-residence beginning in 2002. Under choreographer Matthew Bourne, AMP’s “outrageously entertaining shows drew on traditions of showbiz, classical ballet, and film, and rapidly attracted a public far wider than hard-core dance fans.” Once the company takes up its new residence, it will become the only major British dance company, other than the two Royal Ballet companies, with its own home-base theater. – The Guardian

FASCINATED BY CANOES

The first-ever Bill Mason art exhibit and sale opened Friday in a tiny gallery outside Ottawa, but don’t bring your checkbook – all 50 paintings were sold within 22 minutes of the show’s opening. Phone purchases were scheduled to begin half an hour after the doors opened – but that was already eight minutes after the last ‘sold’ sticker went up. “It’s almost as if Mason created these tiny glimpses of art just for people who appreciate the charms made accessible by a canoe” – All About Canoes News

SCHOPENHAUER IN PRIME TIME

Who says TV is all fluff? About to bow on British TV 4 – on Saturday evenings no less – is a series on serious philosophy, billed (no doubt for the ratings) as “a guide to happiness.” Series producer Alain de Botton says Seneca speaks to road rage and Schopenhauer to a contented love life. – The Economist 03/29/00  

CREDIBILITY ROADSHOW

Public TV’s “Antiques Roadshow” is a major hit with viewers and a cult phenomenon. But now the show has a credibility problem.  It “heavily uses two antiques appraisers whose company was found liable in federal court of defrauding the owner of Civil War heirlooms. The two appraisers have also staged at least one phony appraisal on the program, according to sources and court records.” The show has vigorously stuck by the duo. – Boston Herald 03/29/00