It’s a mad project – mad – demented, even. “Take the egos of 19 composers and assign them roles in a compositional undertaking in which they have to conform to a single overriding artistic direction, to be interpreted by a dozen ensembles sometimes playing outdoors in a massive site. There will be “333 musicians, 2,000 bell-ringers, hordes of scouts and cadets, and thousands of Montrealers and visitors are expected to mass at the gardens of St. Joseph’s Oratory and be surrounded by the sound of the $1-million Symphony of the Millennium – a work collectively composed by 19 people. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Month: May 2000
A LITTLE VIVALDI WITH YOUR TOMATOES?
MP3.com announces it will supply background music to supermarkets and retail stores over the internet. Stores can program in their own commercials. – Variety
CAN’T BUY ME LOVE?
Everyone likes to beat up on Broadway’s Tony Awards. But they can still make a show’s future, so they mean a lot. Some producers are “spending as much as $250,000 to advertise a show with a good chance of winning best musical, trying to book television appearances and in some cases picking up the telephone to cajole Tony voters they know.” – New York Times
THE FUTURE OF BROADWAY
A while back, Stephen Sondheim complained to the New York Times’ Frank rich that too much of Broadway’s recent fare is “recycled culture,” and lumped shows like “Lion King” in with spectacles like “Cats.” What’s he want to go dissing “Lion King’s” Julie Taymor for? “He should be championing her. Sondheim and Taymor are kindred spirits, erudite and verbal to a degree that makes them outsiders in the context of Broadway.” – New York Press
TOUGH TIME TO TOUR
Who’s to blame for the sad state of Britain’s touring theatre companies? “This is not a story of villainous theatre managers unable to recognize a good thing when it is stuck under their noses. It is the story of an often ignored, certainly underfunded and distinctly unglamorous sector of theatre that is in crisis.” – The Guardian
SAG STALEMATE
As the commercial actors’ strike in the US enters its fifth week, there’s little hope of a speedy resolution on either side. Actors want cable jobs to adopt residual-payment structures; advertisers insist on flat-rate buyouts. As production days dwindle, the strike’s economic impact on L.A. is estimated to reach up to $25 million. – Times of India (Reuters)
AN ARTFUL DEATH (TO CREDIBILITY)
The latest in everlasting bliss: the Final Curtain cemetery theme park, where you can have a dance floor installed over your gravesite, or a video camera in your coffin to show time-lapse display of your corporeal decay. Too strange to be true? Not to 39 newspapers, 19 radio stations, six TV stations, 10 magazines and 20 Web sites who fell for the story. Performance artist and media scammer Joey Skaggs strikes again. – Salon
CAN’T WIN EVEN WHEN YOU WIN
Ten years ago during the height of the culture wars, the Contemporary Arts Center and Dennis Barrie, its director, were indicted for exhibiting a show of Robert Mapplethorpe paintings. The CAC (and Barrie) were later acquitted. But “the disheartening implication of the Cincinnati case is that even when you stand up to the bullies, you can’t win. Barrie and the CAC made their stand, and the First Amendment saw them through. But this is how the current—and real-life—leader of Cincinnati’s Citizens for Community Values evaluates the impact of that trial today: “The community at large learned that not everything is protected by the First Amendment.” – Village Voice
THE TAXMAN COMETH
Australia’s new tax laws have hit artists hard. Artists who don’t actually turn a profit on their art now can’t claim art-related deductions. Since only a small percentage of artists are able to support themselves working full-time on their art, the vast majority rely on income from other salaried work, and most will feel the squeeze come tax time. – The Age (Melbourne)
“JUST CALL IT McMOMA”
Getting your museum noticed these days requires “surreal amounts of money” these days, not to mention the promotional instincts of PT Barnum. The Museum of Modern Art’s Glenn Lowry has been “resculpting” MoMA so that the museum gets its fair share (of money and attention). He has hired a crack marketing team at private-sector salaries and has chosen to oversee projects that include building a Philippe Starck-meets-Amazon.com art and design Web store, and renting part of the museum’s art collection to a billionaire Japanese real estate mogul. – New York Observer