Month: April 2000

GET A JOB

What is it about pop music entertainers that makes them think they can do anything they fricken well please? “They produce movies. Star in movies. Write movies. Write novels. Diddle about with stocks and shares and web-related ventures. Import absinthe. Model for Calvin Klein. Become priests. Today’s pop star has the attention span of a cocaine-addled gnat. No wonder it takes them an average of six years to make an album. No sooner have they completed a bass-line, or a bleeping noise, or whatever it is that they specialise in, than they are seized by ennui and disillusionment and have to rush off and chase dreams that we, the public, have not endorsed and should not be expected to indulge.” – The Scotsman

UNEASY PAIR

“The relationship between poetry and pop music is caught up in ongoing debates about definition and categorisation. It is often described in terms of rivalry – John Keats versus Bob Dylan is the favoured pairing, in a ding-dong bout between supposedly high and low cultures. Dylan is certainly a better standard-bearer than Vanilla Ice, but his lyrics – lacking the complexities and nuances of Keats’s poems – tend to reinforce notions that the poet’s art belongs to an altogether different sphere of creativity.” – Financial Times

SPIES FOR ART

“From 1950 to the late 1970s, the Central Intelligence Agency covertly spent many millions of dollars spreading American art and American ideas while hiding behind a front organization, the Congress for Cultural Freedom. The CIA practiced stealth subsidy. That project was clownish in some ways – and totally undemocratic. In theory it was a terrible idea. But what didn’t work in theory worked in practice. It left unwitting readers of CIA publications with highly conflicted feelings. I, for one, sternly disapprove of the whole idea but also remain permanently grateful for it.” – National Post (Canada)

UNDERGROUND ART

In a bid to promote access to Seoul’s cultural resources the city’s artists have gone underground – to the subway. “The subway theater project, which was conceived late last year, is aimed at providing commuters and passersby with an easy access to a wide range of cultural experiences. In addition, the project is designed to help artists who are unable to hold shows either due to limited spaces or from lack of money.” – Korea Times

I LOVE MY BOOKS, DAMNIT

Movie critic Roger Ebert knows all the hype about e-books, but it doesn’t matter. “Let’s assume ClearType looks terrific and that Microsoft makes good on its prediction that by 2010 its e-books will weigh 8 ounces, run for 24 hours, and hold as many as a million titles. Do I want one? No. I treasure my books with a voluptuous regard.” – ZDNet

THE TAXMAN COMETH

Italian tax officials are after Luciano Pavarotti again.  Three months after the 64-year-old singer – reportedly worth £300m – agreed to pay £1.6 million in back taxes in 36 monthly installments, the Italians want another £3 million in taxes they say the tenor avoided paying by claiming Monaco as his permanent residence. – BBC 

DAILY RITUAL

There is no other 20th-century painter quite like Balthus. At the age of 92 he still paints, still in his own way, as always, resolutely ignoring the art-isms of his time – “I was never interested in other modern painters because I had my painting, which preoccupied my mind more than anything else.” – Financial Times