Issues: June 2002

Friday June 28

WRONG NUMBER: Few things get audiences (or performers) more ticked off than cell phones ringing during performances. Now Japanese scientists have come up with a possible solution. “They have developed a wood that is filled with magnetic particles which can block phone signals and could be used to make theatre doors and walls. The magnetic wood effectively blocks the microwave signals, rendering the phones useless and stopping almost any chance of ringtones ruining the performance.” London Evening Standard 06/25/02

I JUST CALLED… On the other hand, young pop music fans consider cell phones standard equipment at concerts. “Mobile phones have quickly become a popular concert accessory. Fans call friends to brag about the show and hold up their phones so others can hear a favorite song.” Nando Times (AP) 06/28/02

Thursday June 27

NO MONEY WHERE THE MOUTH IS: When the San Jose Symphony went bankrupt this spring, city officials were quick to verbally reaffirm San Jose’s commitment to the arts. But this week, the city council slashed the city’s already meager arts funding by nearly 20%. San Jose Mercury News 06/27/02

Wednesday June 26

BETTER THAN NOTHING: Even as other cities slashed and burned funding in the 1990s, New York held firm with a serious financial commitment to the arts. But post-9/11, with a budget crisis looming, new mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a devastating 15% cut in such funding, prompting much protest from the groups to be affected. Six months later, the cuts have been much reduced, and the result is one with which New York arts groups seem prepared to live. The New York Times 06/26/02

Tuesday June 25

A BETTER WAY TO SUPPORT THE ARTS? “When I contemplate the Canada Council, which isn’t often, I wonder: What if it didn’t exist? What would life in Canada be like? Would people not write poems and novels? Would painters not paint, would dancers not dance? For their part, would Canadians not take an interest in other Canadians? Would CanCult itself not exist? Just for fun, contemplate for a moment what might happen if we switched from an arts grant system to an arts credit system: a situation in which public support went, not to the producer, but to the consumer of Canadian arts.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/25/02

LONG OVERDUE INVESTMENTS: Finally Toronto is going to see some major investment in its cultural infrastructure. It’s about time. “While American cities were investing in infrastructure throughout the boom years of the 1980s and late 1990s, Toronto remained devoid of any notable major projects. The saga of the opera house kept stalling, and arts funding was sent to the guillotine during Mike Harris’s Common Sense Revolution.” National Post (Canada) 06/23/02

HELPING OUT DOWNTOWN: A new report proposes a series of measures to assist artists and cultural groups in Lower Manhattan. “In addition to tax and real estate allowances, the report also proposes designating downtown Manhattan as a cultural zone, which would include the commissioning of public art and the sponsorship of public performances.” New York Daily News 06/24/02

Monday June 24

THE FUTURE OF INNOVATION: Should people have the right to control intellectual property? Should corporations? Is it good for society? For innovation? Author Lawrence Lessig proposes that for innovation to continue, a “creative commons” ought to allow for the free flow of ideas. Reason 06/02

Sunday June 23

GOTTA LOVE THOSE GAYS AND BOHEMIANS: A new study sure to make Jerry Falwell cringe suggests that cities with high populations of “gays and bohemians (artistically creative people)” are more likely to thrive economically than those populated by, presumably, straights and dullards. The study focused on the economic impact of the “creative class” on large American metropolises. The Star Tribune (Minneapolis) 06/23/02

Friday June 21

FIXING COVENT GARDEN: Covent Garden chief Tony Hall on addressing the Opera House’s biggest problems – high ticket prices and limited audiences: “I’ve tried to address price through the 50 per cent rule, that is, half the tickets in the house now cost £50 or less, every night. As for capacity, the house only holds 2200 people. One way to bring the ballet and opera from inside to out – and thus to much wider audiences – lies in the power of the screen, both big and small. We relayed Romeo and Juliet to the piazza in Covent Garden, to about 3000 people there, but – here is the new bit – last month we took it by satellite to Victoria Park [in East London]. It’s a poor area, needs revitalising.” Sydney Morning Herald 06/21/02

INVERNESS PLANNING CULTURAL QUARTER: The Scottish city of Inverness is trying to be named Cultural Capital of Europe for 2008. In an attempt to woo the title, the city has announced a £20 million plan for a new cultural quarter. “The cultural quarter is a place that could inspire creativity and inspiration that would lead to the regeneration of the riverside of Inverness and ultimately contribute to the growth and status of Inverness and the Highlands as a whole.” The Scotsman 06/21/02

SO FUNNY, EVEN MY CATS LAUGHED (REALLY): So you think TV and movie critics sit around trying to think up clever little quotes so they can see themselves blurbed in big letters in ads? Hmnnn… “In writing columns and reviews, getting quoted is never my agenda. Nope, not on my radar screen. No ego here. I have too much integrity for that. My validation comes from within.” Los Angeles Times 06/21/02

Thursday June 20

MAKING A SHOW OF CUTS: With states across America facing budget deficits, many have proposed cutting public arts funding. Arts budgets are small compared to overall state budgets, but they’re highly visible (read: they make good poster-children as candidates for fiscal austerity). Backstage 06/19/02

THE ST. PETERSBURG REVIVAL: “This year the annual Stars of the White Nights festival in St Petersburg offers an exclusively Russian extravaganza of opera, ballet and concerts, sending a message of revival of national pride and optimism after the gloom of the 1990s. But while conditions in the ‘Venice of the north’ are getting better, they are still a long way from its imperial heyday. There is not much you can do at 11pm, other than trudge back home through beautiful but eerily empty streets.” Financial Times 06/18/02

Wednesday June 19

ART VS. BASKETBALL: Community activists in Los Angeles are clashing over how best to use a 3-1/2 acre vacant lot in the city’s Little Tokyo neighborhood. Residents want a gym to house their basketball league, but an art museum whose property backs up on the lot wants to turn it into an “art park” connecting the multiple cultural institutions in the neighborhood. Sports usually win out over art in these disputes, but which proposal is better urban planning? Los Angeles Times 06/19/02

Tuesday June 18

LINCOLN CENTER’S NEW LEADER: Bruce Crawford, former general manager of the Metropolitan Opera has been chosen as the new chairman of Lincoln Center, succeeding Beverly Sills. “In addition to presiding over Lincoln Center, the country’s largest and most important cultural institution, with constituents like the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Ballet, Mr. Crawford will oversee the center’s often contentious $1.2 billion redevelopment plan.” The New York Times 06/18/02

PATENTLY WRONG: The number of patents granted has exploded in recent decades. A sign of increasing innovation and progress? Perhaps. But tying up new ideas in patents are “just as bad for society as too few. The undisciplined proliferation of patent grants puts vast sectors of the economy off-limits to competition, without any corresponding benefit to the public. The tension between the patent as a way to stimulate invention and the patent as a weapon against legitimate competition is inherent in the system.” Forbes 06/17/02

THE LOTTERY CRUNCH: Britain’s lottery helped spur a wave of cultural building in the past few years that has transformed the country’s cultural infrastructure. But lottery revenue is shrinking, and estimates for maintaining he UK’s “heritage” over the next 10 years will be “nearly £4 billion, of which £800 million is needed for museums and galleries.” The Art Newspaper 06/14/02

Sunday June 16

COLORADO GOVERNOR CUTS ARTS FUNDING: Colorado Governor Bill Owens used his line-item veto to cut $766,030, or 40 percent of the Colorado Arts Council budget. Owens explained that “grants to these arts programs go to the metro Denver area that already has a dedicated sales tax for these purposes. Because there is a large alternate source of revenue, and given the discretionary, one-time nature of the funds, I am vetoing this line.” Denver Post 06/05/02

Friday June 14

WHERE ARE THE CRITICS? “Unfortunately, critics, and criticism, are becoming more and more irrelevant. Their authority has been undermined by chat rooms, bulletin boards and online reviews from your fellow Amazon.com customer.” And the contrarian critics? They’re almost worst of all – b-o-r-i-n-g. They’ve all got an agenda, and most are compromised in one way or another. LAWeekly 06/13/02

  • NEW LETTERS responding to Chris Lavin’s critique of arts journalism. “Art is about depth, breadth and substance – stuff that a smart quippy writing style insults, a press release kills, and an academic analysis buries. There’s a place in between all these journalistic tones that will allow art and artists to be better revealed. Yes, I believe this, but I’m afraid that our culture as a whole is too embedded in its quick-fix mentality.” ArtsJournal.com 06/14/02

BOUNCING BACK DOWN UNDER: Australian arts groups were affected by 9/11, just like American companies. But the effect was mostly mild – the Sydney Symphony, dependent on single-ticket sales, saw declines, but the Sydney Theatre Company actually posted increases. Sydney Morning Herald 06/14/02

MENTORING WITH SWISS PRECISION: “On the theory that any artist, regardless of age or experience, can benefit from guidance, Rolex S.A., the Swiss watchmaker, has created a novel mentoring program that will link up five up-and-coming artists with five world-class masters in their fields. The five mentors — the conductor Sir Colin Davis, the choreographer William Forsythe, the Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, the Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza and the theater artist Robert Wilson — and their protégés gather tonight for a reception at the Frick Collection, where they will begin their yearlong partnership.” The New York Times 06/13/02

Thursday June 13

LOOKING FOR THE SNOB-FREE ZONE: We are a world of snobs – each of us trying to define ourselves as superior in some way to those around us. And yet, writes Joseph Epstein, “one would like to think that Is there a snob-free zone, a place where one is outside all snobbish concerns, neither wanting to get in anywhere one isn’t, nor needing to keep anyone else out for fear that one’s own position will somehow seem eroded or otherwise devalued? A very small island of the favored of the gods, clearly, this snob-free zone, but how does one get there?” Washington Monthly 06/02

Wednesday June 12

CULTURAL MAKEOVER: Nothing new about cities investing in art. But the middle-class suburban town of Cerritos, California is making an unusually big commitment “investing heavily in art and culture – even commissioning music – and doing it all in the birthplace of auto malls and freeway buffer walls. ‘We want our city to be the best possible for our residents, so we’re making it sparkle more, in carefully considered ways. We’ve already invested heavily in education. Art and culture seems the next logical phase.” Los Angeles Times 06/12/02

MICHIGAN JOINS ARTS-CUT MOVEMENT: Like many governments across America, Michigan is facing tough budget times. And like many other governments, state legislators are proposing major cuts in its arts budget – a “50 percent cut in arts grants, from $23.5 million to $11.9 million. It’s too early to predict whether the cuts will be adopted, but the fact that a joint committee of the state Senate and House will meet over the next week to discuss the cut has arts advocates on the defensive and preparing for a political fight.” Detroit Free Press 06/12/02

Tuesday June 11

MAJOR INDUSTRY: A new study reports that nonprofit American arts groups generate $134 billion in economic activity each year. “The new survey covered 3,000 local arts organizations in 91 cities, as well as 40,000 of their patrons, and drew a statistical picture of a booming business. These groups account for 4.85 million full-time-equivalent jobs, a larger percentage of the workforce than lawyers or computer programmers.” Washington Post 06/11/02

BIRMINGHAM PRINTS AD: The Birmingham News ran an ad for a production of The Vagina Monologues Sunday “after haggling between the play’s staff and The News.” But the paper would not allow the name of the play to be used in the ad. “It was all in one font type, no headline, graphics or photographs, and it didn’t contain the title of the show. Instead, an asterisk directed interested folks to call a phone number for the name.” The paper says about the originally rejected ad: “There is the name itself, ‘Vagina Monologues.’ But that was not the real issue; it was the way the layout was done.’ The ad featured a microphone stand (The Vagina Monologues is performed with a bare stage, no props or sets), and double-entendre tag lines such as ‘spread the word.’ ‘We told them, “If you’ll calm this down, we’ll run it in a heartbeat. Our responsibility is to our readers, to be sure no one is offended.” Tuscaloosa News 06/10/02

Monday June 10

LACK OF DISCIPLINE: American academic culture has changed dramatically in recent years. “The dissociation of academic work from traditional departments has become so expected in the humanities that it is a common topic of both conferences and jokes. More and more colleges are offering more and more interdisciplinary classes, and even interdisciplinary majors, but increased interdisciplinarity is not what is new, and it is not the cause of today’s confusion. What the academy is now experiencing is postdisciplinarity – not a joining of disciplines, but an escape from disciplines.” Wilson Quarterly 06/02

IRAN OPENS UP TO CULTURE? Iran’s president Mohammed Khatami is encouraging a new openness in the arts, even inviting international academics and artists to the country to talk about art. “Artists and artistic activities have been given great encouragement since Khatami came to power in 1997. We are being advised to be active in the cultural scene, to end Iran’s political isolation. The doors were closed for two decades after the Revolution [1979], but now we are opening up and we are facing a generation that longs to know more about recent art movements.” The Art Newspaper 06/07/02

CREATIVITY = ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Richard Florida’s new book suggests that “instead of underwriting big-box retailers, subsidizing downtown malls, recruiting call centers, and squandering precious taxpayer dollars on extravagant stadium complexes, the leadership should instead develop an environment attractive to the creative class by cultivating the arts, music, night life and quaint historic districts – in short, develop places that are fun and interesting rather than corporate and mall-like. It’s advice that city and regional leaders can take or leave, but Florida contends that his focus groups and indices – reporting the important factors needed for economic growth in the creative age, from concentrations of bohemians to patents to a lively gay community – are more accurately predicting the success and failure of metropolitan areas.” Salon 06/07/02

Sunday June 9

UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THE “V” WORD: The Birmingham News in Alabama, has refused to carry ads for a production of The Vagina Monologues. The paper also won’t write about the show, saying that “our first responsibility is to our paid readers. We do not want to take the chance of offending anyone.” The paper evidently objects to the name of the show, and is the only newspaper in North America so far to refuse ads for it. Says one of the show’s promoters: “They told us we could not use the name of the show in our ad. It’s hard to imagine why we’d pay thousands of dollars for a highly censored ad that doesn’t even mention the name of the show.” Black & White City Paper (Birmingham) 06/06/02

9/11 ON THE FRINGE: This year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival will have a strong current of 9/11 art running through it. “The attack resonates throughout the programme. We have been receiving applications since April and it was obvious this was going to be a big thing. It is fascinating, it has really shaken the imagination. The thread seems to be dealing with the emotional response to the events. This year’s fringe is the biggest yet with almost 1,500 shows from 11,700 artists. A quarter of the shows are world premieres and 24% are performed by overseas groups, half of them from the US.” The Guardian (UK) 06/07/02

Friday June 7

HOLLYWOOD TO SECEDE? Los Angeles voters will vote this fall on whether to carve ut Hollywood as its own city, distinct from LA. “Hollywood secessionists have argued that a smaller city, of 160,000 people, would be better able to attack crime, spruce up the area’s famous boulevards and restore Hollywood to its former glory.” Los Angeles Times 06/06/02

LINCOLN CENTER’S TAX PROBLEM: For years Lincoln Center believed it was exempt from city service taxes. Turns out it believed wrong. “After extensive negotiations, Lincoln Center sent a $450,000 check to the city in December. Talks are continuing on another $550,000 in contested charges.” New York Post 06/06/02

IRANIAN PERFORMERS DENIED VISAS: Ten Iranian performers, part of a troupe of 28, have denied visas to perform in this summer’s Lincoln Center Festival “because they were deemed at risk of becoming economic refugees. The other actors in the troupe were given initial clearance, having proved that they are not likely to stay on past the expiration of their visas, but they are now awaiting a security check.” Lincoln Center has reduced the number of performances the company will give. The New York Times 06/07/02

Thursday June 6

ENTERTAINMENT BOOM: The worldwide entertainment industry faced some big challenges last year – the dotcom bust, an economic slowdown, September 11. But despite all that, “the worldwide entertainment and media sector saw spending rise 1.5 per cent in 2001, surpassing the $1-trillion (U.S.) mark for the first time ever. A new survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers says this is just the start of a rally that will see spending of $1.4-trillion by 2006.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/06/02

MASSACHUSETTS – SMALLER ARTS CUTS? Massachusetts was one of the first states this spring to propose wholesale cuts in the state’s arts budget – the state House of Representatives recommended a 48 percent cut in the state’s public arts spending as a way of helping to close a budget deficit. But intense lobbying by arts groups narrowed the state house cut to 24 percent. And this week the state senate’s budget committee recommended keeping funding at this year’s level – $19 million. Boston Globe 06/06/02

  • TAX LAW WORKS AGAINST NON-PROFITS: Boston Museum of Fine Arts director Malcolm Rogers is campaigning against a measure approved by the state’s House of Representatives to eliminate tax deductions for charitable contributions. ”Statistical studies show that for every dollar they save in taxes, people give about a dollar and 20 cents more to charity. Legislators who estimate that the change in tax law would funnel between $180 million and $200 million per year from taxpayers’ pockets to state coffers say they have no choice” as they attempt to close a big budget deficit. Boston Globe 06/06/02

Wednesday June 5

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CULTURAL FLOWERING? Fifty years ago, when Elizabeth took to England’s throne, many predicted a flowering of English culture, a second Elizabethan era. There have been successes. But “alongside its cultural ascendance, England has cultivated the highest illiteracy rates in western Europe, as well as the ugliest cities. Children leave our schools never having heard of Bach or Leonardo, their fertile minds stuffed with three-bar tunes and electronic games. Many will reach the end of their lives never having set foot in the National Gallery or Royal National Theatre, never having glimpsed the opportunity to transcend the ordinary.” London Evening Standard 06/05/02

Tuesday June 4

THE QUEEN’S PARTY: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth threw a big party to celebrate her 50 years on the throne. How big? More than a million people attended the pop/rock concert at Buckingham Palace, far surpassing expectations. The concert “was followed by a display of fireworks and water fountains in a dazzling 15-minute son et lumiere that enveloped the Buckingham Palace in a brilliant kaleidoscope of colour.” And the Queen? “The Queen, wearing ear plugs, and Prince Philip – neither of them natural lovers of rock and pop – planned to attend only the last half hour, arriving to huge cheers at 9.55 pm.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/04/02

WHY THE WORLD DOESN’T TAKE ARTS JOURNALISM SERIOUSLY? Why is arts journalism marginalized in so many publications? Literary critic Carlin Romano believes that “until arts journalists and their supporters examine the intellectual issues of their trade as seriously as investigative reporters probe their own dilemmas over protecting sources or going undercover – marching onto op-ed pages as controversies break, demanding the same attention as American media dopily devote to sports – they’ll continue to be enablers of their own marginalization.” Chronicle of Higher Education 06/03/02

CAMPAIGN TO REOPEN ITALIAN THEATRES: There’s a campaign in Italy to reopen some 361 unused theatres and opera houses. “Italy has still many unused halls, a result of the country’s long history of political polycentrism, which since the early 18th century has encouraged theater and opera to percolate through society in a manner unparalleled elsewhere. In countless small cities, a religious festival or a change of governor could be enough to bring into being a short operatic season, even if this was limited to a few performances of a single work. As one writer has remarked, in the 19th century, opera houses ‘were as numerous as cinemas [are] today’.” For one reason or another many theatres were closed even though they’re fit to be used. Andante 06/04/02

QUEENS OF CULTURE: Is the Museum of Modern Art finally “bringing” culture to Queens, its new temporary home? Not at all – the borough is more than Archie Bunker. “In Manhattan, culture is called to your attention, boxed up, neatly placed along landmarks like Museum Mile. It’s roped off, so tourists know where to find it: Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Broadway, the Met. But in decentralized Queens, culture is more complicated, a mix of clashing international and neighborhood values embodied by old- and new- wave immigrants, as well as native-born locals such as hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, folksy world music man Paul Simon or the late punk rock legend Joey Ramone.” Newsday 06/04/02

LA’S CULTURE BILL: Add up all the cultural projects looking for money in Los Angeles right now and the bill tops $1 billion. That’s enough to build another Getty Center. “The Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles in Exposition Park are the largest players, each preparing to seek $200 million to $300 million.” Also in the hunt is the Orange County Performing Arts Center, which is raising money for a new $200 million concert hall. Los Angeles Times 06/02/02

A WHO’S WHO OF PITTSBURGH CULTURE: Every year the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette arts staff puts together a list of the “top 50 cultural forces” in the city. This year, the staff decided to make it “easier on themselves by grouping its winners into categories. “We created 10 categories in which to place our 50 names: categories for the arts leaders who break with tradition; the opinionated leaders who challenge the city’s notions about culture; the behind-the-scenes leaders who nurture the development of artists; the leaders of small arts groups who foster quality work; and others.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 06/03/02

Monday June 3

ANOTHER FIRE AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE: “Thousands of people, including some of Britain’s most famous musicians, were evacuated from Buckingham Palace last night as a fire broke out, disrupting preparations for tonight’s pop concert. The fire started between the ballroom and the state rooms which form the heart of the working palace and are used regularly by the Queen and members of the royal family.” The Guardian (UK) 06/03/02

SUPERFUND: After much political wrangling, various levels of government finally got their acts together in Toronto Friday and announced long-awaited funding of $232 million for cultural projects in Ontario. “Some people appear to have swapped scripts. Now the rhetoric arts lobbyists have used for years has been co-opted by the politicians. They confidently promise that museum expansions and concert halls will create an economic boom, lure millions of tourists and improve everyone’s quality of life. They’ve become converts to the faith, based on the notion that an arts boom is the vehicle to transport all of us to a future of prosperity.” Toronto Star 06/02/02

JAPAN – THE NEW CULTURE SUPERPOWER? “Critics often reduce the globalization of culture to either the McDonald’s phenomenon or the ‘world music’ phenomenon. For the McDonald’s camp, globalization is the process of large American multinationals overwhelming foreign markets and getting local consumers addicted to special sauce. In this case, culture flows from American power, and American supply creates demand. For the world music camp, globalization means that fresh, marginal culture reaches consumers in the United States through increased contact with the rest of the world. Here, too, culture flows from American power, with demand from rich Americans expanding distribution for Latin pop or Irish folk songs. But Japanese culture has transcended US demand or approval.” The Guardian (UK) 06/03/02

ABOUT NAMES OR ABOUT ART? When Avery Fisher gave $10.5 million in 1973 to Lincoln Center to rebuild Philharmonic Hall, the deal stipulated that the building would forever carry his name. Now the hall needs another massive overhaul and Lincoln Center wants to maybe resell naming rights. “Fisher’s heirs are prepared to go to court to protect the name, although the two sides say they will meet this week to try to work out an understanding. The outcome, analysts say, could set a precedent for how philanthropists and cultural organizations negotiate naming rights.” Nando Times (AP) 06/02/02

Sunday June 2

ADRIFT IN A SEA OF AESTHETIC (ANASTHETIC?): “In these years post-turn-of-the-century, we’re awash in so much choice in entertainment, so much competition for our attention, that we risk losing a sense of our basic selves. Art exists, partly, to articulate identity. Greek drama reinforced that society’s basic myths. Medieval Gothic architecture expressed, in towering grandeur, the superstitions and heavenly dreams of that world. Through much of the 20th Century, painters, dramatists, novelists and filmmakers borrowed from and mirrored one another, and an eager consumer could take solace in sampling a little bit of all of them.” Chicago Tribune 06/02/02

THAT GIANT SUCKING SOUND? Dallas is raising $250 million to build a new performing arts center. “But not everyone on the local performing arts scene considers it a friendly giant. For some, it’s a voracious juggernaut set to gobble up most of the city’s limited cultural money and attention. And its leftovers are unlikely to be enough to go around. Supporters of the center, and representatives of some of the smaller arts groups, argue that the attention focused on the performing arts center is a boon to the cultural scene as a whole.” Dallas Morning News 06/02/02

Media: June 2002

Monday July 1

THE MOVIE SUMMER: The summer movie season is beating all box office records. So far, from May 2 to June 23 box office is up 27.5% over last year. “A key factor this summer is that the hit films are generally playing stronger and longer, unlike last year, when spectacular first weekend grosses were followed by drops of 50% or more in the second weekend.” Los Angeles Times 07/01/02

HURRAY FOR BOLLYWOOD: “Bollywood has never been hotter. Glossy magazines are dedicating pages to Indian-style fashion (henna tattoo, anyone?) and Western directors are scrambling to make movies inspired by these epic tales of love, lust and heartbreak. The Indian film industry produces 1,000 movies a year watched by audiences across the East from Africa to China and by expat Indians around the world. Every day 23 million people pile into cinemas across India (population 1 billion), to watch movies. Even the West is finally catching on. What’s the attraction? Sydney Morning Herald 07/01/02

Friday June 28

ALL IS SWEETNESS AND LIGHT: Whatever happened to the grand old tradition of dark acting? These days it seems that all Hollywood antagonists must be so evil as to be caricatures, and the days of quietly menacing characters, the type who don’t frighten you so much as make you wildly uneasy, have faded away into the ether left from an era when subtlety still had a place in Tinseltown. Toronto Star 06/28/02

BACKING AWAY SLOWLY: National Public Radio has reconsidered its much-criticized policy of requiring webmasters to go through a lengthy ‘permission’ process before posting a link to any part of the public broadcaster’s site. In a statement, NPR acknowledged that vociferous objection from the online world had played a role in the change, but claimed that it had been looking at changing the policy for some time. Wired 06/28/02

CURE FOR THE COMMON MULTIPLEX: “Snacks and soda are banned from the theatre. Most of the movies have subtitles; many are in black-and-white. The actors and directors deal in highbrow concepts like neo-realism and surrealism. More to the point, there’s nary a web-slinger nor a lightsabre in sight. Welcome to Summer At The Cinematheque, the most popular program of Cinematheque Ontario, the film lover’s paradise far from the maddening multiplex.” Toronto Star 06/28/02

Thursday June 27

SUPPORTING ROLES: Why is it that every Hollywood film purporting to be about racial minorities, civil rights, or non-white cultures always seems to end up focusing on a white protagonist? While the film industry revels in its liberal image and loves to pay lip service to minority causes, the movies it churns out consistently relegate black, Hispanic, and Native American characters to supporting status, while the “white-man-on-a-white-horse” protagonist rides in to embrace their cause and save them all. It couldn’t be much more insulting. Chicago Tribune 06/27/02

WHITHER PACIFICA? After the better part of a decade spent in epic battles between network execs and volunteer programmers, the Pacifica network is now squarely in the hands of the dissident broadcasters who appear on its air. The question is, can the inmates really run the asylum, and does Pacifica’s grass-roots, left-wing, and (let’s be honest) brutally unpolished style still have a place in today’s radio landscape? Salon 06/20/02

Wednesday June 26

BBC EXPANDS ARTS PROGRAMMING: In response to charges it has been dumbing down its arts programming, the BBC is expanding its arts coverage. “Perhaps stung by the criticism, BBC1 plans to spend more than £3.3m on arts programmes in the autumn schedules, which will be announced in the next few weeks. This is £1.5m more than last year. The number of hours dedicated to the arts will rise by 40 per cent.” The Independent (UK) 06/24/02

HAVE MONEY WILL PLAY: Is Clear Channel Communications – with 1200 radio stations across America, the country’s largest broadcaster – giving airtime to record labels in return for money? Well, maybe not directly, but some of the company’s new services sure look suspicious. Salon 06/25/02

  • PAY-TO-PLAY: Music payola is becoming a hot topic, with the US Congress threatening to hold hearings and make new laws. Payola is the deal where recording labels pay radio station to play their music. For some large radio conglomerates, it’s become a big income producer. But the system essentially shuts out artists and labels that don’t have the money to get their music played. Salon 06/25/02

Tuesday June 25

PBS CHIEF HOPEFUL ABOUT NETWORK: With PBS ratings falling to historic lows, PBS chief Pat Mitchell rallied the troops at the network’s annual meeting. “That one small part of my musings about ratings has become the message: that I am measuring PBS’ relevance by ratings. Not true, of course. I was actually arguing against ratings as the only measurement of relevance or success.” Yahoo! (Hollywood Reporter) 06/25/02

EXOTIC MAKEOVER: Foreign directors have a long, rich history in Hollywood, from Josef von Sternberg and Billy Wilder to Fritz Lang and Fred Zinnemann, and more recently directors like Czech-born Milos Forman have flourished in America. But many have suffered. Hollywood hires foreign filmmakers for their artistic cachet, then often wastes their gifts on hackneyed material. It’s that classic combination of the American thirst for the exotic and insistence on the familiar.” Los Angeles Times 06/25/02

MASSACHUSETTS CLOSING FILM OFFICE: In the 1990s many US cities and states tried to lure Hollywood movies to shoot on location, trying to harvest some of the millions spent on location shoots. Most states set up film offices to facilitate permits and try to convince filmmakers to come. Now, with states like Massachusetts facing budget deficits, legislators are considering closing their film offices. ”We’re talking conservatively of $30 to $40 million coming into the state for late summer or fall. ‘If there’s no film officer, then it’s unlikely that the studios will come here to shoot on top of the other problems we’re facing.” Boston Globe 06/25/02

Monday June 24

YOUR AD HERE: Product placement is an old story in Hollywood movies. But the new Tom Cruise/Stephen Spielberg movie Minority Report is breaking records. “Twentieth Century Fox and DreamWorks, which co-produced and are distributing the picture, peg its final budget at $102 million U.S. According to product placement reps, the brands could have contributed $25 million to the final shooting budget, offsetting costs handsomely — and guaranteeing a healthy future for the marriage of Hollywood and Madison Avenue.” Toronto Star (Variety) 06/24/02

Sunday June 23

THE FOLLY OF BIG RADIO: Clear Channel Communications is, for all intents and purposes, the face of American radio in the era that has succeeded the notorious Telecommunications Act of 1996. The company has a near-monopoly in many markets, and nationwide, radio has never sounded so bland, so demographically targeted, and so predictable. Clear Channel claims that such tactics are what the public wants, but overall listenership is down 10% since 1996. Furthermore, some reports have Clear Channel bleeding at the wallet at a time when it should be raking in the dough. Is this the death of radio as we know it? Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Washington Post) 06/23/02

  • TAKING ON TELECOM ’96: So, most observers agree, radio has more or less sucked ever since Congress fiddled with it back in 1996. “Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) aims to do something about it. Feingold plans by month’s end to introduce legislation aimed at plugging what he sees as holes in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which opened the floodgate of corporate consolidation.” Washington Post 06/23/02

GOLDEN AGE OF THE DOCUMENTARY? To TV execs, they’re a cheap, easy, low-stress way to fill blocks of time on the schedule. To their creators, however, documentaries are an art, walking a fine line between filmmaking and journalism. And never have documentarians had so many outlets clamoring for their work: from PBS’s endlessly provocative P.O.V. to HBO’s sometimes-seedy America Undercover, the original “reality programming” is becoming the hottest thing in television. Boston Globe 06/23/02

NO BOYS ALLOWED: Quick, name a female filmmaker other than Penny Marshall. Stopped you cold, right? The fact is that, while female actors have made great strides in securing plum roles and top salaries, the world of those behind the camera remains overwhelmingly male. A new summer workshop in New Mexico aims to change that, if only by giving young women access to the knowledge and materials necessary to pursuing a career making films. Nando Times (AP) 06/21/02

THE SUM OF ALL NUCLEAR HOLOCAUSTS: Nuclear war has always been a subject of fascination in Hollywood. From Dr. Strangelove to On the Beach to The Day After, the spectre of nuclear annihilation has traditionally been a surefire way to wind up an audience while making what passes in the industry for a political statement. But the new summer thriller The Sum of All Fears marks a departure from the nuclear norm, and the message is clear: post-9/11, movies like Sum play less like futuristic fantasies than as prophetic predictions of the horrors to come. Los Angeles Times 06/23/02

Friday June 21

WEBCASTING FEES SET: The US Librarian of Congress has cut royalty fees internet webcasters will have to pay to play music. The copyright office had proposed a fee of .14 cents per song. The new rates “require webcasters to pay record labels .07 cents each time a song is streamed live and .02 cents for archived or simulcasted streams. Temporary copies, such as ripped copies of CDs that are used to create the digital streams, will cost companies 8.8 percent of their entire royalty fee.” Webcasters say that the fees will put them out of business. Wired 06/20/02

A US-PROGRAM DUMPING GROUND? The UK is considering allowing American companies to own British commercial broadcasters. But BBC head Greg Dyke warns a parliamentary committee that if it happens, “US media giants would simply ‘dump’ their own shows on the UK rather than invest in British programming.” BBC 06/21/02

NPR’S “CLUELESS” LINK POLICY: National Public Radio has become the object of ridicule on the web for its policy of requiring webmasters to apply for permission to link to stories on NPR’s site. “By Wednesday afternoon, the NPR link form was the No. 1 item on Daypop, which ranks the popularity of items in weblogs. ‘If you take this to its logical end, if you did this to everyone at every site, the Internet would break down. So the policy is borne of either cluelessness or evil – and I’d like to think that the Car Talk and tote bag people aren’t evil.” Wired 06/20/02

Thursday June 20

RECORD HOLLYWOOD: Major Hollywood movie studios took in a record $31 billion last year, up by $1.3 billion from the previous year. “Home video, spurred by the continued rise of DVD sales, was again the biggest contributor to the overall growth, accounting for 40% of all-media revenue, according to a summary of annual global results. Backstage 06/19/02

SEX WIPES AWAY MEMORY: A study reports that a little sex in a TV show wipes away viewers’ ability to remember commercials. “Researchers found that people watching shows packed with sexual innuendo, performers with revealing clothes or sexual scenes were much less likely to remember the ads both immediately after the show and a day later.” Sydney Morning Herald 06/20/02

RADIO FOR THE WORLD: Australia’s SBS Radio is the most multicultural radio operation in the world, broadcasting in 68 languages. “SBS Radio broadcasts 15,000 hours of programs each year to Australia’s major cities. Different languages are allocated varying amounts of time on air depending on the percentage of speakers in Australia, but population numbers are not the only element taken into consideration.” Sydney Morning News 06/20/02

Wednesday June 19

WAR GAMES: Hollywood war movies are everywhere this summer. “Not since the flurry of Vietnam movies in the late 1980s has the combat film been so viable or so visible. And not since the gung ho Reagan-era warnography of Rambo and Top Gun has the brass been as pleased.” Village Voice 06/18/02

Tuesday June 18

THE END OF PBS? With PBS’ ratings falling to historic lows, critics are wondering whether the network will survive. PBS president Pat Mitchell: “We are dangerously close in our overall primetime number to falling below the relevance quotient. And if that happens, we will surely fall below any arguable need for government support, not to mention corporate or individual support.” FoxNews 06/18/02

Monday June 17

STREAK OF INDEPENDENCE: While the big movies rely more and more on boffo opening weekend at the box office, the marketing and distribution of smaller independent films is being rethought. “The challenge is finding the right small movie to schedule opposite a behemoth. It’s an evolutionary process. The increase in independent films jockeying for art-house space has changed the equation, as has alternative programming on cable that’s really satisfying.” San Francisco Chronicle 06/17/02

MISSING WOMEN: “According to an annual study that counts the number of women working on the 250 top domestic grossing films of the year, the number of women directors declined from 11 percent in 2000 to 6 percent in 2001. Women accounted for 14 percent of writers in 2000. In 2001, the percentage dropped to 10.” Wired 06/17/02

Sunday June 16

FEST ME: There are now 1,600 film festivals around the world and 650 in the United States. And oddly, Los Angeles, the home of movies, doesn’t have a top-tier film fest. Why? Shouldn’t it? Los Angeles Times 06/16/02

THE NEW OLD FANTASY: “Perhaps more than ever before, Hollywood is an empire of fantasy. But despite the popularity of these movies — and despite the unmatched power of the studios to blanket the real world with publicity, advertising and media hype — Hollywood is not the center of this empire. It is, rather, a colonial outpost whose conquest has been recent and remains incomplete. Fantasy literature, which in the broadest sense includes modes of storytelling from novels to movies to video games, depends on patterns, motifs and archetypes.” The New York Times 06/16/02

Friday June 14

A CONSPIRACY AGAINST CHICK FLICKS? There seems to be some sort of cosmic film critic law that prevents reviewers from ever reviewing a movie which features strong female characters expressing their emotions without the use of the words ‘chick flick’ or ‘weepie,’ says Deborah Hornblow. But “the predominantly male critical establishment legitimizes and sanctifies the life experiences of men as they are represented in film, never pausing to consider special–or marginal–classification status.” Hartford Courant 06/07/02

PUBLIC BROADCASTER MAKES MASSIVE CUTS: “Dallas public broadcaster KERA cut nearly a quarter of its staff Thursday, citing lower-than-expected corporate and individual donations since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks… Public TV stations in Chicago, Philadelphia and Oregon also laid off workers in the last month.” Dallas Morning News 06/14/02

Thursday June 13

PBS’ RECORD LOW RATINGS: America’s PBS racked up record low ratings this past season. The network is trying to reinvent itself, working to attract viewers who aren’t kids and old people. But can PBS reinvent before its audience completely goes away? “The PBS audience has wandered off to niche cable channels that have cherry-picked one coverage area after another that PBS once had exclusively: The Food Network and Animal Planet in specific areas, for instance, and even Discovery and A&E more directly competing with PBS’ broader vision.” Chicago Tribune 06/13/02

BRIT TV GOES TO THE US: Sales of British TV shows to the US increased 20 percent last year, helped by the success of a couple of hit exports, including The Weakest Link. “Sales to the US account for nearly a third of all exports from the UK and the market is worth £136 million, according to the British Television Distributors Association (BTDA).” BBC 06/13/02

  • Previously: DOES UK HAVE WORLD’S BEST TV? Britain has won the most awards at the Banff International Television Festival, winning nine awards. The US came second with 7 awards. “The U.K. has traditionally dominated the awards, held for the past 23 years in this Rocky Mountain resort town.” National Post (Canada) 06/11/02

Wednesday June 12

BEST ROMANTIC FILMS: The American Film Institute releases a list of Hollywood’s all-time best romantic movies. The oldest film was Way Down East (No. 71) from 1920. The newest was 1998’s Shakespeare in Love (No. 50). The Star-Tribune (AP)(Minneapolis) 06/12/02

Tuesday June 11

DOES UK HAVE WORLD’S BEST TV? Britain has won the most awards at the Banff International Television Festival, winning nine awards. The US came second with 7 awards. “The U.K. has traditionally dominated the awards, held for the past 23 years in this Rocky Mountain resort town.” National Post (Canada) 06/11/02

PROTESTING CONSOLIDATION: A TV group representing creative workers in the industry are warning that consolidation of American media is dangerous for the country. They’re asking the FCC to investigate. “The harm comes about as a direct result of the growing concentration of ownership. The consequences of this new factor in our industry are – and this is no exaggeration – potentially catastrophic.” Nando Times (AP) 06/11/02

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GREAT CARTOONS? “The era of the great cartoons is dead. There’s no great mystery about it. They used to be made for adults, with children only partly in mind, and they were destined for cinema release. They were created by people of great wit and craft who were as comfortable composing symphonic music as cartoon underscore. Cartoons are sold by volume nowadays like the bookseller who sells literature by weight – $10 a kilo.” The Age (Melbourne) 06/11/02

Monday June 10

THINK OLDER: Australia’s Victoria government is urging TV execs to get over their preoccupation with youth and program more to older Australians. A new government report shows that “those older than 55 were the most avid television viewers in Australia, watching an average of four hours and 18 minutes each day. Teenagers watched two hours and 39 minutes, while those 40 to 54 spent three hours and 18 minutes in front of the box.” The Age (Melbourne) 06/10/02

Sunday June 9

TV FOR THE VERY YOUNG – A CHANGE: For years some TV producers of kids shows for the very young believed that attention spans were so short that shows should be cut up into small segments. The approach won Sesame Street 79 Emmys over 33 years. But it turns out video viewing habits for the very young are changing along with the rest of the population, so the show has gone to longer stories. The change seems to be working – Sesame Street’s ratings are up 31 percent in the 2-5 age group. The New York Times 06/09/02

Friday June 7

MOVIES FROM THE ‘AXIS OF EVIL’: An internet site based in Iran has set up a nice little business streaming American movies over the internet. The site has all the latest movies, and charges less than $1.50 per view. Yes it’s illegal, but “legal and technology experts said Hollywood will be hard-pressed to reel in a Web site based in a country that is not a party to international copyright treaties and that has not had diplomatic ties to the United States since 1979. In fact, tensions surged again early this year when President Bush lumped Iran in with Iraq and North Korea as part of an ‘axis of evil’.” SFGate 06/06/02

A TOOL TO CHANGE ART: Digital filmmaking is sweeping the industry. But it is “a cause for misgivings as well as wonderment. It will kill art before it enhances it. It will aggrandise businessmen before it enriches audiences. It had to happen, just as the talkies had to, because technology dictated it, but not because any creative artist craved it.” One thing is certain – it will change the art of making movies – in good ways and in bad. London Evening Standard 06/07/02

WHY AMERICAN TV BEATS BRITISH: “Although there is still an unbudgeable assumption that British television is ‘the best in the world’, and the BBC the guardian of that excellence, a mental roll call of the most innovative and impressive shows on our screens suggests that that confidence is quite misplaced.” The best TV in recent years have been made by the Americans. The Times 06/07/02

HOW LEW WASSERMAN RUINED THE MOVIES: He was mourned as a legend this week. But “missing from all the gushy epitaphs is an example of a single great picture that got made because of Wasserman’s vision. “If the only movies playing at your local cineplex are Spider-Man and the new Star Wars epic, Wasserman deserves much of the blame. Even during the drug-induced brilliance of 1970s Hollywood, Wasserman’s taste at Universal was always conservative, middle-aged, and middlebrow: no Coppolas, no Altmans, no Scorseses.” Slate 06/06/02

  • OKAY, SO THE MOVIES WEREN’T ANY GOOD: “Wasserman, who died Monday from the effects of a stroke, was a major figure in the history of Los Angeles, a key figure in the history of American Jews, a critical figure in the history of American politics, even an important transitional figure in the history of capitalism itself. And, yeah – he changed movies too, not entirely for the better.” LAWeekly 06/06/02

Thursday June 6

AUSSIE E-MAIL MIGRATION: Australian actors and directors have been working in Hollywood for years. Now so are Aussie writers. “Once considered the weakest part of the film industry, writers are jumping from local successes into studio films. And rather than basing themselves in Los Angeles, they are often staying in Australia. So it’s a quiet export of screenwriting talent – an exodus by email.” Sydney Morning Herald 06/06/02

Wednesday June 5

CANADA’S TV ACTORS WANT BETTER DEAL: “Marginalized for decades, largely impotent in negotiations, and too fearful of personal backlash to fight back, some of Canada’s most distinguished thespians have recently begun to find their voice.” For what? “The Canadian film-service industry has grown into a $3.5-billion annual business. But of every dollar spent, technical crews make between 18 and 22 cents, while actors under the jurisdiction of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) earn just two cents – about $600 a month on average for each working actor. Most of the rest goes to producers.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/05/02

FRANCE’S LATEST CULTURAL EXPORT: Many recent French films are violent. “The proliferation of such graphic depictions of sex and violence hints at a hidden France, one very different from the confident, civilised face it turns to the world. It is as if the French tradition of philosophical existentialism has curdled into a kind of nihilism where the individual is not only adrift in a meaningless universe but also personally reluctant to make any moral decisions.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/05/02

TV MAKES OVERWEIGHT KIDS: A new study says that having a television in a pre-schooler’s room increases the risk of obesity. “The relationship between television viewing and obesity among school-aged children, teens and adults is well-established. These new results, published in this month’s edition of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academic of Pediatrics, extend the association to preschoolers.” National Post (Canada) 06/05/02

Tuesday June 4

MOVING TO CANADA: A new study “shows that the amount of money spent to produce films in the United States dropped 17% from 1998 to 2001, while the amount spent on production in Canada grew by 144%.” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (AP) 06/04/02

CAUGHT IN A WEB: Radio stations are evolving their websites into listener loyalty centers. “For everything from rating snippets of songs to answering trivia questions, from knowing secret codes that are given over the air to viewing ads for sponsors,” listeners can “win points from the country station that she can use to enter in sweepstakes or to bid in auctions on such items as DVDs, gift cards and small appliances. Add these reward programs and e-mail blasts to dating hotlines and other gimmicks, and it becomes clear that music stations aren’t just about the music nowadays (if they ever were) and that many stations are becoming comfortable with the Web. ” Chicago Tribune 06/04/02

Monday June 3

MOVIES ARE NEXT: “Movie downloading isn’t a widespread practice, partly because only about 10 percent of Americans have high-speed Internet access at home. But as that figure inevitably rises, the Internet could see an influx of movie-hungry file swappers itching to use their high-speed connections. This could ignite a downloading frenzy, emulating the fast and furious movie swapping already occurring in college dormitories with the fastest Internet links on the planet.” Orange County Register (KR) 06/02/02

  • COLLEGE PIRATES: No surprise here, but college campuses, with their super broadband connections are where most movie downloading is taking place. “Colleges often don’t catch on because they’re too busy trying to balance security and the openness that students, faculty and staff require for their work.” Orange County Register (KR) 06/02/02

IN PRAISE OF THE BLOCKBUSTER: There are only two seasons in Hollywood – summer and Oscar. “A fresh batch of blockbusters now looms before us and, as usual, it’s being met with some ambivalence by fans. On the one hand, summer is showtime for Hollywood, a bombastic season when the runways are cleared and the year’s most anticipated event films are lined up for takeoff. On the other hand, summer usually signals an annual vacation from intelligence, as we’re bombarded with such movies as Godzilla or Pearl Harbor or Gone in 60 Seconds – films that spend six months convincing us they’re the thrill ride of the year, and then two hours making us wish we had an Aspirin and our 12 bucks back.” National Post 06/01/02

THE HOLLYWOOD FORMULA: The road to success in Hollywood goes wherever it takes to be “successful.” “The latest formula for success – the ‘brand movie’ – is working. This summer, Hollywood will release 16 big-star, big-budget films described as brands: films that are sequels, prequels, spin-offs, franchises or based on universally recognised characters from comic books, children’s books or video games.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/03/02

Sunday June 2

FILM-LOVER FEST: “At Cannes this year, the big winners – and most of the 22 competition films – tended to deal with big issues, significant topics. Cannes is, after all, a cinephile’s festival, a gathering for people who make movies or write about them (and, in the market section, those who buy and sell them). But most of all, Cannes is for people who love film — and who still manage to see movies the way most of us did when we were kids ourselves: as an occasion for surprise, pleasure and magic.” Chicago Tribune 06/02/02

FROM WILL AND GRACE TO GERMAN TV: Where do old LA sitcom writers go when they can’t get work in Hollywood anymore? To Germany. “This is, evidently, one of the unexpected byproducts of a global electronic village: You can be 53-year-old Lenny Ripps or 58-year-old Ed Scharlach or 58-year-old Paula Roth, and still matter, creatively, by entertaining German television viewers.” Los Angeles Times 06/02/02

Publishing: June 2002

Sunday June 30

SATIRIST OR ANTI-SEMITE? German academic and novelist Martin Walser’s latest book has been decried by a major newspaper as a thinly veiled collection of vicious anti-Semitism. The plot is ostensibly about a writer who kills a critic, but Walser’s detractors claim that he is “not interested in the murder of a critic in his capacity as a critic. This is about the murder of a Jew.” Naturally, the book sold out on its first day in stores. BBC 06/28/02

CLOSED BORDERS: A collection of leftist intellectuals is taking on the giant Borders bookstore chain over a little-known company policy known as ‘category management,’ which looks an awful lot like ‘dumbing down the product’ to book lovers. Borders claims that their market research supports the policy, but opponents insist that “there is a difference between books and Pop-Tarts,” and that they should not be marketed in similar fashion. The Plain Dealer (AP) 06/29/02

DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS: “Textbook battles are legendary in Texas, where conservative critics frequently complain of liberal bias, and liberals counter with charges of censorship. The latest round, on July 17, when the board begins public hearings on which history and social studies books to adopt, promises to be particularly fierce. Nine conservative organizations have formed a coalition, recruiting 250 volunteers to vet more than 150 books.” The New York Times 06/29/02

THE CURSE OF THE REWRITE: For those who create stories for a living, the prospect of spending days, weeks, or even months on a character or plotline that just doesn’t end up going anywhere is constantly in the back of the mind. So how do the bestselling authors know when they’ve taken a wrong turn, and what do they do about it? The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 06/29/02

Thursday June 27

POWER STRUGGLE AT NWU: The National Writers’ Union is meeting in delegate assembly this week in New Hampshire, and the internal strife is worthy of a Teamsters gathering. At issue is the presidency of Jonathan Tasini, who has been celebrated for winning the right of freelance writers to be paid for online publication of their work, but excoriated for stifling debate within the union and being unresponsive to the needs of the membership. Boston Globe 06/27/02

UK’S JOHNSON PRIZE TO A CANADIAN: “A Toronto university professor, Margaret MacMillan, has won the United Kingdom’s most valuable non-fiction literary prize, for a ‘splendidly revisionist’ account of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Dr. MacMillan, who teaches at both the University of Toronto and Ryerson University and is about to become Provost of Trinity College at the University of Toronto, won the prestigious CDN$68,000 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, for her book, Peacemakers: the Paris Conference of 1919.” National Post (Canada) 06/27/02

AMAZON IN CANADA: After talking about it for months Amazon finally announces its new Canadian store. “Amazon said the bilingual site will have prices in Canadian dollars, will take orders through Canada Post, and will post some reviews in both French and English. Amazon.ca will also give prominence to Canadian artists on the site while giving shoppers access to 1.5 million books, music, videos and DVDs available through the original Amazon.com Web site.” Canadian booksellers have been protesting the plan, saying it will hurt Canadian book stores. Toronto Star 06/26/02

CLEAN SLATE: The original online magazine has a new editor, and Jacob Weisberg is promising that Slate will reinvigorate its cultural coverage, become more things to more readers, and maybe even turn a profit, all in the next year or so. Chicago Tribune 06/27/02

Tuesday June 25

BEST WHAT? As a measure of success, bestseller lists are also powerful marketing tools. To be a bestseller is to guarantee that thousands more potential customers will read your book. But. What exactly is a bestseller? “That may seem like an easy enough question to answer – it’s the book that sold the most copies in the past week, a matter of simple, quantitative fact. In reality, though, the actual process of calculating a bestseller list from week to week often involves as much interpretation on the part of list-compilers as it does actual sales figures. And many observers despise the lists, claiming that they spotlight books for dubious or purely commercial reasons.” Salon 06/25/02

Monday June 24

A GOOD YEAR FOR LIBRARIANS: Almost 21,000 American librarians gathered in Atlanta last week for the American Library Association Annual Conference. The mood was congratulatory. In recent months librarians successfully lobbied to remove requiredments they use software filters on library computers. And Michael Moore was there to thank librarians for lobbying his publisher to release his current book. Publishers Weekly 06/24/02

READING – JUST AN ILLUSION? “Are Americans reading more, or do they just want you to think they are? Sales have been flat in recent years, but praise of books both good and great is on the rise. Since TV host Oprah Winfrey announced she was cutting back on her picks, at least four new clubs have been formed, with literary novels such as Empire Falls among the beneficiaries.” Milwuakee Journal-Sentinel (AP) 06/23/02

Sunday June 23

DIALOGUE REOPENED: A midwest arts magazine which ceased publication in April has been revived by a buyer from Columbus, Ohio. Dialogue, which has been publishing for nearly a quarter-century, plans to expand its focus and its distribution area, and the new owner insists that it will make money as well. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 06/22/02

Friday June 21

BUSH APPEALS LIBRARY FILTERING: The Bush administration is appealing last month’s federal court ruling striking down a requirement that public libraries install filtering software on their computers to block pornography. The court had ruled that filtering software wasn’t able to block porn without also filtering other sites. Wired 06/20/02

  • INS AND OUTS OF BLOCKING: How are libraries dealing with pornography over the internet? In a variety of ways. “Each library system says its approach is meeting its needs — and that, librarians say, is the most important lesson of the pornography wars. ‘Because libraries are so deeply rooted in their communities, librarians have the best read on their communities and how to approach the issues around Internet access’.” The New York Times 06/20/02

WEIGHTY MATTERS: Why do successful American books seem to be getting fatter? “Recently, there seems to have been a correlation between enormous novels and enormous advances. Over the past five years, the American literary scene has been littered with big, fat books marking their author’s claim on the Great (Big) American Novel: David Foster Wallace’s truly infinite Infinite Jest, at 1088 pages; Don DeLillo’s Underworld, 832 pages; and Thomas Pynchon’s most recent, Mason and Dixon, 784 pages.” The Age (Melbourne) 06/21/02

Thursday June 20

NOT SHAKESPEARE: Writing that “no one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar,” a prominent Vassar “literary sleuth” has determined that a poem written in 1612 that he had attributed to Shakespeare with great publicity seven years ago is not by the Bard. He says that “the Elegy he claimed for Shakespeare was actually more likely written by John Ford, a Jacobean dramatist.” New York Observer 06/19/02

THE STORY OF MY (EXAGGERATED) LIFE: So many recent memoirs seem to contain exaggerated (or fabricated) stories. Is it that real life isn’t interesting enough? Or is it that as fiction it wouldn’t ring true? “What gives in the world of nonfiction these days? Why is it leaning so close to — maybe even into — the world of fiction? And why don’t they just call it fiction?” MobyLives 06/19/02

Wednesday June 19

DEFENDING MUGGLES: Author JK Rowling has sold 67 million of her Harry Potter books. But she’s in court defending charges by a Pennsylvania writer who claims Rowling stole key parts of her work for the Potter series. “I am deeply offended that my integrity and good character have been besmirched by the ludicrous allegations that I stole any part of the books.” The Age (Bloomberg) 06/19/02

ACADEMIA ATTACKS STUPIDITY: Why are we stupid? A new book compiles some ideas. “Robert Sternberg’s premise is that stupidity and intelligence aren’t like cold and heat, where the former is simply the absence of the latter. Stupidity might be a quality in itself, perhaps measurable, and it may exist in dynamic fluxion with intelligence, such that smart people can do really dumb things sometimes and vice versa.” Salon 06/19/02

Tuesday June 18

SHARE DARE: Librarians have an inclination to share. And electronic versions of books are an efficient way to share with the world. That’s exactly what publishers are worried about. “Librarians have seized on the potential of digital technology and offered users free online access to the contents of books from their homes, and they are squaring off with publishers who fear that free remote access costs them book sales.” The New York Times 06/17/02

SO WHO NEEDS OPRAH? Several TV book groups have started since the daytime diva decided to pack in her show’s book club earlier this year. Some of them are rivaling Oprah’s affect on sales. For example, Ann Packer’s novel, The Dive From Clausen’s Pier, has become an instant best seller after being chosen by Good Morning America. Washington Post (AP) 06/14/02

Monday June 17

LOOKING FOR SUPPORT: So you’ve landed that publishing contract. Got it made? “While the main advantage to being published by a big press is the distribution, marketing, promotion, and visibility it can offer, all too often that kind of attention is only bestowed upon the clearly commercial novel that is already earmarked to be a winner, usually because of the author’s previous performance. Sessalee Hensley, fiction buyer for all 582 Barnes & Noble superstores, says the sad truth is that only 10 percent of books get any serious marketing or PR support.” Poets & Writers 06/02

BOOK-AS-OBJECT: “Collecting books to read, or at least to refer to, makes every kind of sense. However, most serious book collectors do the opposite. They buy books they never intend to read, books they can’t afford to read because it would damage their value to do so.” London Evening Standard 06/17/02

KNOW IT WHEN YOU SEE IT? Never fails – every year there are a couple of prominent accusations of plagiarism. But there’s a problem – “there is no single, universally accepted definition and, consequently, no effective punishment. We don’t develop a fund of experience or build up much history on this topic. Cases like [those of Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin] come out once or twice every year, and always the same fundamental questions are asked. What is plagiarism? We don’t make much cultural progress on the issue. As with pornography, people think they know plagiarism when they see it. However, the definition of plagiarism changes depending on the writer’s role and motivation.” Poets & Writers 06/02

RANDOM NUMBERS: Random House has posted a $14 million loss for the second half of last year, its first loss in four years. “All major publishers felt a decline in demand for books because of the recession and the terrorist attacks, but none of the other major publishers that publicly report results suffered as much. Revenue for the last six months of the year fell slightly at Penguin Putnam, held steady at HarperCollins and rose to $377 million from $350 million at Simon & Schuster. None reported losses.” The New York Times 06/17/02

Thursday June 13

FICTIONABLE: The Australian fiction market is a respectable size, but “sales figures for fiction are down and fewer first novelists are being published. In 1999-2000 Australians bought 1.1 million new hardback novels worth $17.8 million, 1.2 million trade paperback novels for $13.9 million, and also spent $42.6 million on 8.5 million mass-market novels. In that period, 36 new hardback, 155 new trade paperback, and 1089 new mass-market novels were published. The Age (Melbourne) 06/13/02

Wednesday June 12

PATCHETT WINS ORANGE: American author Ann Patchett has won the Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel Bel Canto, The award is given to the best novel written by a woman, and is worth £30,000, one of the largest literary prizes around. “Bel Canto tells the tale of a group of Latin terrorists who storm an international gathering promoting foreign trade, only to find the president, their intended target, has stayed at home to watch his favourite soap opera.” BBC 06/12/02

WHO BUYS BOOKS: In Australia “the $126-million book industry relies on women for the bulk of its sales. Women not only buy for themselves but for men and children. And it is 35 to 50-year-olds who buy the most. “The closer they get to 50, the more books they buy,” Drum says. A national survey of reading, book buying and borrowing, completed last year for the Australia Council, found that women browsed more in bookshops, read more widely, and were happier relaxing with a book than men were.” The Age (Melbourne) 06/12/02

CAL’S NEW POET LAUREATE: Earlier this year California had trouble attracting enough candidates for the job of the state’s first poet laureate. This week, Quincy T. Troupe, a University of San Diego professor got the job. At the announcement of his appointment in the state capital, Troupe read “a pair of poems, one inspired by California’s coastline, the other by Michael Jordan.” California is the 24th state to have a poet laureate. Sacramento Bee 06/12/02

REJECTION AS A REVENUE STREAM: Tired of those form rejection letters for your Great American Novel? Stymied by your efforts to get your book in front of an editor? A new venture offers tips on how to get your book publishable. But the real lure is that a real live editor from Penguin Putnam will read and critique your effort. It only costs $119. “The plan makes a certain kind of sense: After all, there’s a whole cottage industry of writers conferences, magazines and guides preaching the gospel to aspiring authors. But a publishing company is closest to the ultimate prize, actual acceptance. It could charge writers extra for a bona fide book editor to explain to the aspiring writer why she wasn’t buying his manuscript. Rejection as a revenue stream!” Salon 06/12/02

Tuesday June 11

IS THE BOOK REAL? Rachel Simmons’ Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls has had much play, climbing the bestseller lists and “helping ignite a national debate about ‘mean girls’.” But to one columnist, the quotes seemed not quite right, a little too sophisticated to be real. Contacting the author, she arranged to sample some of the interview tapes to check them. But when the time came, Simmons changed her mind and declined to reveal the tapes. “It must be said that Simmons and her publisher are well within their legal rights to refuse my request.” But “when readers raise legitimate questions about a work’s accuracy, the authors owe it to themselves, their subjects, their works and the world of letters to verify their claims.” The News & Observer (Raleigh) 06/10/02

CALIFORNIA GRAPES: California has chosen John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath for its state reading club, asking everyone in the state to read the book. “Libraries, town halls, schools, universities, bookstores and theaters are planning Steinbeck-themed parties, readings, shows and lectures. And Hollywood, of course, is writing its own script, dispatching celebrities to add glitz to its read-along gatherings.” San Francisco Chronicle 06/10/02

HEY HAY HEH: “Stratford has Shakespeare, Glyndebourne has opera, Hay-on-Wye has books – and its very own literary festival. Perched at the foot of the Black Mountains, the tiny market town of Hay boasts 39 bookshops, two million books and a population of just 1,200. And for ten days each year, the town hosts its very own ‘Woodstock of the mind’, as Bill Clinton dubbed it last year. It regularly attracts some 50,000 book-lovers from across the UK, Europe and the US. Well, that at least is the official blurb.” But has Hay, with its squabbles and feuds and outsized operations, become too big for itself? New Statesman 06/10/02

Monday June 10

BEMUSEMENT AT BOOKER BRUHAHA: American critics continue to be amused at British angst over opening up the Booker Prize to American writers. Would the Americans dominate the competition? “Given the last two decades of ambitious experimentation by British writers, why do intimations of literary inferiority persist? In part, it’s a reflection of the European view of the United States as a bullying superpower, acting unilaterally, be it in the political and military sphere or in the world of cultural commerce. In part, it has to do with what the British critic and novelist Malcolm Bradbury once called ‘trans-Atlantic mythologies’ — deep-seated attitudes that writers on either side of the ocean have long held about one another.” The New York Times 06/10/02

DREAMING WHAT YOU READ: A new study says what you read is linked to what you dream. Researchers found that “adults choosing fiction had stranger dreams – but were more likely to remember them. While fantasy novel fans had more nightmares and ‘lucid’ dreams, in which they are aware they are dreaming. The dreams of those who preferred romantic novels were more emotionally intense.” BBC 06/10/02

THE FICKLE READING PUBLIC: Last year it was reported that Saddam Hussein’s first novel was an Iraqi bestseller. But “Saddam’s most recent novel – The Impregnable Fortress, a moving tale of love and war – has been selling poorly. This despite the fact that Iraq printed 2 million copies of the novel, issued purchasing quotas for each Iraqi province, and declared the work the best-selling novel in Iraqi history even before it was released. Saddam’s son Udai certainly did his filial literary duty to boost sales; he ordered 250,000 copies.” Reason 07/02

REFUGE FOR POETS: New York’s Poets House is 15 years old. “One purpose is to give poets a place to explore the work of other poets. It’s largely from other poets that one begins to be a poet. You’re not going to become one through learning prosody, but through the energizing force of the word. I think every poet begins by simply being enchanted by the sound of words. Like other poets, I remember walking — running rather — through the woods, shouting new words that I had learned.” The New York Times 06/10/02

HOW TO WRITE A BESTSELLER: More than a few people get it into their heads that they can make a fortune writing a bestseller. How hard can it be? “Of course it can’t be done. You might as well stand in a field during a thunderstorm and hope to be struck by lightning. Bestsellers defy analysis. But if you did want to prospect for this fool’s gold, here are four guidelines.” The Observer (UK) 06/09/02

PAUL GOTTLIEB, 67: “In his 20 years as publisher and editor in chief of the country’s most notable publisher of art books he exercised vast influence, not merely on how such books are published but also on how art is presented and promoted at museums around the world. Gottlieb knew just about everybody connected in one way or another to publishing and art.” Washington Post 06/10/02

Sunday June 9

READING INTO FESTIVALS: Nothing new about literary festivals, of course. But they’re getting bigger and more popular. “If the literary festival, whether played out in a windblown north-of-the-border square, in the foothills of the Black Mountains or on the Suffolk coast, represents the public face of contemporary letters, then it also doubles up as the chief agency for establishing its hierarchies and pecking orders. Far more so than best-seller charts, the literary festival is an infallible guide to who’s who and what’s what in the world of books, and who cuts it with the punters.” The Guardian (UK) 06/08/02

Friday June 7

ABOUT IDEAS, RIGHT? Sometimes literary festivals mutate into something other than events about books. “This year the 16th Hay Festival seems less a wholesale celebration of literature than a salute to almost every intellectual and practical pastime known to human life – archaeology, biotechnology, cookery, horseracing, art and much else too.” The Independent (UK) 06/05/02

JUST STORIES? “The past two decades have seen a veritable explosion in biographical studies of philosophers. Since 1982, more than 30 biographies of philosophers have appeared. Of those, 20 have been published in the past decade, a dozen just since 1999. And more are in the works. Some see the trend as principally a reflection of currents in the publishing world, while others say it is a direct result of conceptual shifts in philosophy and in intellectual life more generally. But as the books keep coming, skeptics remain unpersuaded that this biographical ‘turn’ is of any philosophical importance.” Chronicle of Higher Education 06/07/02

WEB FREE POETRY: Poetry in print is a problem – it’s expensive to publish and it has a limited audience. But “on the web, distribution is no problem: it’s all available 24/7, and everyone is equal, at least theoretically. There is the perfect book-buying system in Amazon, there are online poetry magazines and newsgroups. The publishers have websites so you can see what’s available (bookshop poetry sections can be very patchy).Perfect in theory. How does it measure up? Google produces 7.25m pages for “poetry.” The Guardian (UK) 06/06/02

Thursday June 6

OBJECTING TO A CANADIAN AMAZON: The Canadian Booksellers Association is fighting Amazon’s entry into Canada. Canadian law requires that booksellers be majority-owned by Canadians. Amazon figures to get around the rule by forming a partnership with a Canadian crown corporation. The booksellers mainatin that “a review of Amazon.com’s investment in the Canadian distribution and sale of books business would reveal, first, that the new entity would in fact be controlled by foreign interests and, second, that the investment would not likely be of net benefit to Canada.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/05/02

Wednesday June 5

IS IT WHO YOU KNOW? Yale professor Stephen Carter got $4.2 million for his first novel. But “why would a publisher pay $4.2 million to a first novelist manifestly without skills and apparently without gifts?” Newsweek 06/10/02

INSURING PROBLEMS: Add to the woes of independent booksellers the growing cost of insurance. Insurance premiums have risen sharply this year, and some independents fear this may put them out of business. Publishers Weekly 06/04/02

ONE OF THE GREAT DEMOCRATIC SPACES: “All cities have libraries, but only New York has one with a reading room two blocks long, where murals of blue skies and puffy clouds float overhead, and tall arched windows look out to Fifth Avenue on one side and Bryant Park on the other. The Main Reading Room of the New York Public Library is the center of the city’s intellectual life and one of the great democratic spaces anywhere.” Dallas Morning News 06/05/02

Tuesday June 4

BEACH BLANKET BOOKS: It’s beach-book season again. “Perhaps it’s just wishful thinking on the part of your faithful book snob, but it does seem as if there are some books of quality more visible in the mix this year. Perhaps it’s a follow–up to some trends observed last fall, when readers in the new, post–9/11 world passed up lighter fare in favor of books about spirituality and politics, etc. Perhaps it’s just the mini–rebellions made inevitable by the creeping crud of conglomerization taking over all aspects of the business. But whatever the reason, in this year’s installment of Memorial Day book chatter, newspapers (outside of New York, at least) seemed to talk about some better literature than usual.” MobyLives 06/03/02

Monday June 3

SYDNEY’S NEW LITERARY STAR: “The Sydney Writers’ Festival, has, perhaps, finally found a legitimate niche in the city’s increasingly crowded cultural calendar, with audiences this year expected to reach an all-time high of well over 40,000. With an increasingly high profile courtesy of a clever programing mix, the obligatory star guest names, healthy media attention and an even healthier book-buying local market, there is talk that the event may even be outgrowing its relatively new docklands home.” Sydney Morning Herald 06/03/02

RAISING THE POETRY PROFILE: Canada’s Griffin Prize for poetry pays the winner $40,000. But that’s only a small part of the award. “More evidence of the success of the prize is the case of Christian Bök, declared the Canadian winner at a gala dinner Thursday. Bök’s second poetry collection Eunoia (published by Coach House Books) has sold an unheard of 7,000 copies. ‘We’ve reprinted it eight times. Most poetry books sell no more than 1,000, ever’.” Toronto Star 06/02/02

SCANDAL INSECURITIES: Predictably, a wave of books about the Catholic church’s pedophile scandal is making its way into American bookstores. “But as they begin shipping the first new books to stores this week, publishers are proceeding with trepidation, worried that a story of bungling bishops and pedophilic priests, may, in fact, repel the core Catholic audience.” The New York Times 06/03/02

BRING ON THE YANKS: The British literary world’s upset about Americans being included in the Booker Prize is a joke. “Does anyone over there really believe that American lit’ry fiction in this Year of Our Lord 2002 is so superior to that of Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth that it would swamp the Booker competition? What have these people been reading, or smoking? What a joke! The plain fact is that in recent years serious or ‘literary’ fiction from Britain and the Commonwealth has broadened and deepened, in scope and quality alike, even as comparable fiction from the United States has shriveled into what is rapidly becoming self-parody.” Washington Post 06/03/02

Sunday June 2

IN PRAISE OF PAPER: Paperbacks used to be the publishing industry’s “B” team. But “sales of paperbacks have outpaced those of hardcovers over the past several years, growing steadily even when hardback purchases have dipped. Anchor and Vintage, the two paperback-only imprints of Random House, have seen their sales volume increase more than 500 percent since the early 1990s. The surge has been driven partly by the boom in ‘superstores’ – chains like Border’s or Barnes & Noble – but but also by big independent outlets.” The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis) 06/02/02

Visual: June 2002

Sunday June 30

OVERREACHING AT THE GUGGENHEIM: The Guggenheim, that beacon of expansionist artistic fervor, is in trouble. Staff layoffs, cancelled exhibitions, and general fiscal chaos have combined to tarnish the reputation of director Thomas Krens, who has been considered an essential innovator for years. With some in the arts world calling for Krens’s resignation, where is the Guggenheim going, and how will it get there with no apparent cash flow? The New York Times 06/30/02

LIBESKIND’S LEGACY: “Daniel Libeskind has been a leading light in architecture for 30 years, yet he didn’t build a thing until 1999. But the Jewish Museum in Berlin was both a professional challenge and a personal test: his parents had fled the Nazis. As his Imperial War Musuem North opens in Manchester, he tells [The Guardian] how buildings help us make sense of history.” The Guardian (UK) 06/29/02

  • BUDGET CUTS FOR THE BETTER: Libeskind’s new Imperial War Museum almost never made it off the drawing board after the Heritage Fund ordered its budget slashed by an unheard-of 40%. But instead of abandoning the project, Libeskind resdesigned the entire building, and claims that the cheaper version wound up being considerably better than the original. The Telegraph (UK) 06/29/02
  • DIVERSIFYING THE PORTFOLIO: Daniel Libeskind’s stature as an architect often overshadows his earlier career – as a young man, he was a widely hailed concert pianist. This summer, Libeskind is returning to his musical roots, conducting a new production of a Messiaen opera in Berlin. The Guardian (UK) 06/28/02

GETTY COMES THROUGH FOR ST. PAUL’S: Philanthropist and art collector Paul Getty has announced a £5 million gift dedicated to the restoration of the famous facade of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The cathedral’s outer face has been crumbling for centuries under the harsh city conditions, and its famous 64,000-ton dome has been slowly crushing the entire building. The Getty gift brings the cathedral halfway towards its fundraising goal for a full restoration. The Guardian (UK) 06/28/02

DOES CNN CAUSE WAR? A new exhibition in the small Belgian community of Ypres focuses on the 20th century’s nearly ceaseless military conflicts from the perspective of the media types who covered it. The exhibit is wide-ranging, but its central focus can be boiled down to one basic question: has media saturation so numbed humanity to the sight of horrible violence that we are no longer able to be put off by the prospect of death and destruction? Financial Times 06/28/02

Friday June 28

A RIVER AWAY: The Museum of Modern Art is opening its new temporary home in Queens this weekend. “The Modern’s galleries are efficient and airless, like the inside of a storage center, which is exactly what this building is. On the other hand, there is something touching and apt about seeing priceless Cézannes, Seurats and Braques in a makeshift, unadorned setting: they look fresh and by contrast seem to pop off the walls even more than usual.” The New York Times 06/28/02

  • NEW TALES TO TELL: “The opening of the temporary Modern tomorrow in Long Island City is less significant than the closing of the museum’s old quarters. The space was exhausted, and so was the institution’s underlying premise. Since the Modern’s founding in 1929, it has become increasingly clear that its use of the word modern is historically cavalier. This unpromising commission offers a graceful promenade through the history of modern thought.” The New York Times 06/28/02
  • KING OF QUEENS: It’s “a museum that engenders a remarkable sense of intimacy between art and viewer and acts as a pointed challenge to the monumental museum projects that have become ubiquitous in the past decade. In its populist spirit, it is closer to Los Angeles projects like Frank Gehry’s Geffen Contemporary – a gaping warehouse space built in the ethnic enclave of Little Tokyo in 1983 – than to the typical, more refined Manhattan museum.” Los Angeles Times 06/28/02

TO PLUG THE HOLES: The British Museum needs an extra £10 million a year to fix its budget woes. “We still receive 30% less than we did in 1992 due to government cuts. We’ve had to cut back and slim down over the last decade but now the point has been reached where we simply can’t do that any more.” BBC 06/28/02

AND THERE’S LESS DUST THAN A MILL, TOO: Is it really possible to rebuild a town in decline around the arts? The residents of one old mill town in western Massachusetts would say so: since the MASS MoCA museum opened in North Adams in 1999, tourists have flocked to it, complimentary events have sprung up regularly, and the gallery has become as much a pillar of the community as the old mills used to be. Boston Globe 06/28/02

HOW NOT TO OBSERVE: In trying to decide what kind of memorial should be chosen for the World Trade Center, it’s a good idea to look at the Oklahoma bombing memorial (for an example of what not to do). “There are so many symbols here as to obliterate the poetry of any one of them. There are so many faces on televisions inside the museum describing their pain to you that you feel wrung out like a rag. Worst of all, the memorial has nothing to say about the important historical issues that triggered Timothy McVeigh’s madness. The problem is obvious.” New York Observer 06/26/02

FIRST PHOTO GETS THE ONCE-OVER: The world’s first photograph dates from 1826, depicts an idyllic pastoral scene, and is in remarkably good condition for a 176-year-old image. It sits on a pewter plate covered with bitumin, and took three days of exposure to create. The heliograph, as its creator referred to it, is undergoing its first-ever scientific study at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Chicago Tribune 06/28/02

Thursday June 27

IMPOVERISHING THE BRITISH MUSEUM: There are many reasons for the British Museum’s woeful financial condition. But outgoing director Robert Anderson says it comes down to simple underfunding. “It is easy to say that efficiency must be increased, but it comes to the point that people have extraordinary work loads, and their output is already extraordinarily high. We are a flagship museum, and yet in many ways we are impoverished.” The Guardian (UK) 06/26/02

WANTED – BETTER IDEAS: Australia’s most prestigious architecture awards, presented this week, were a jumble of compromises and unfulfilled expectations. One award – for residential design, wasn’t even awarded. “Too many projects are results of Land and Environment Court rulings … slowly the art of architecture is being whittled toward a more predictable and forecast outcome.” Sydney Morning Herald 06/27/02

IN AMERICA WE’D FINE THE ARTIST: The mayor of Ankara, Turkey, decided that a statue of a nude in one of the city’s parks was obscene and anti-Islamic, and ordered it taken down. That was in 1994. This week, an Ankara court ordered the mayor to pay 4 billion Turkish lira for damage to the statue incurred during its removal, plus other damages, plus interest. BBC 06/27/02

eBAY AS ART CANVAS: With 50 million users, eBay has become fodder for artists. “Recently, a Canadian artist did an eBay search for the word ‘malaria’, bought everything connected with it and put an eclectic array of memorabilia on display in an exhibition in London. And an impoverished Newcastle graduate sold his soul on eBay for £11. The so-called ‘item’was bought by a man from Oklahoma who had lost his own soul in a bet.” The Scotsman 06/26/02

ART THAT MEANS SOMETHING (BUT WHAT?): Bill Drummond and Jim Cauty are “famous for two gestures: presenting Rachel Whiteread with a cheque for £40,000 as ‘worst British artist’ on the night she won the £25,000 Turner Prize, and then, most famously, incinerating what appeared to be £1 million in cash on the Isle of Jura in front of a handful of bemused witnesses. Art prank? Scam? Political statement? Drummond and Cauty made an agreement at the time never to explain themselves, and they never have.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/27/02

ART OUT OF THE LIMELIGHT: Catherine Goodman just won the prestigious BP Portrait Award. She’s also known to be Prince Charles’ art adviser. But her work sells for only a few thousand pounds, and she works slowly and accepts few commissions. “Art can be tough if people want a lot of attention. I’m not sure I do. I want to carry on painting and selling and having people tell me what they think of the pictures, but I don’t want to be a celebrity. I’m not sure it’s very good for artists.” The Telegraph (UK) 06 27/02

Wednesday June 26

STOLEN ART RECOVERED: Nineteen works of art valued at £20 million that were stolen last year have been recovered by police in Madrid. “Among the paintings taken in August last year were two by Spanish artist Francisco de Goya – The Donkey’s Fall and The Swing – and a work by French impressionist Camille Pisarro, called Eragny Landscape.” BBC 06/25/02

OLDEST TOMB: “A 4,600 year-old Egyptian tomb, glued shut and with its original owner still inside, has been discovered by archaeologists working near the Giza Pyramids.” The tomb is thought to be the oldest intact tomb ever discovered. Discovery 06/24/02

ANOTHER BIG-TIME AUCTION: “A ‘sensuous’ portrait by Picasso of his mistress at the height of their passion has been sold at auction for more than £15m. Nu au collier fetched £15,956,650 – almost double the estimate of up to £9m – when it went under the hammer at Christie’s in London.” BBC 06/25/02

MOMA’S ATTENTION-GETTERS: What to do when your museum is forced to move from the middle of Manhattan to an old warehouse in Queens? Hold a parade and shoot off fireworks, of course. New York’s Museum of Modern Art may be in temporary quarters, but its curators are making darned sure that New Yorkers know where to find them, with “a procession over the Queensborough bridge,” a series of galas and opening parties, and a massive fireworks display bridging the two boroughs with a rainbow. The New York Times 06/26/02

FRESH BASEL: The Basel Art Fair has scratched and clawed its way to to become one of the modern art world’s preeminent events, and these days, it has also become something of a gauge for the health of the industry. To judge by this year’s installment, all is well: the pace was chaotic, the displays eclectic, and, most importantly, sales were brisk. Boston Globe 06/26/02

DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH: “When it was initiated in 1992, the idea of founding a contemporary art museum in Sarajevo was considered nothing short of crazy, but foundations were laid this week for the museum’s first wing and it already boasts one of the world’s largest exhibitions… Now, the collection includes 120 works of internationally acclaimed artists and its value is estimated at some $7 million.” Nando Times (Agence France-Presse) 06/26/02

THE NEW ALTERNATIVES: “Just when we all assumed that the alternative space movement had met a noble death, laid low by the double-fisted blows of the culture wars and the New York real estate market, a host of new outfits have sprung up, offering an alternative not only to the gallery system, but to our traditional view of an alternative space.” Village Voice 06/26/02

LOSING THE ART OF COLLECTING: Some of Australia’s biggest corporations are getting out of art collecting. Several have put their collections up for auction or donated them recently. “Companies that have opted out of the art market totally or in part include Shell, Rio Tinto, Orica, AXA and BP Australia.” The Age (Melbourne) 06/26/02

WHAT’S WRONG WITH CRAFT? “It is a sad fact that in the art universities of recent years it is the concept constructors – students who produce weird installations or have quirky ideas – who receive the highest marks. Craft creators – those with a natural talent – who want to learn to better their ability, are left unencouraged, often ignored and always poorly marked.” The Guardian (UK) 06/25/02

Tuesday June 25

NOTHING SAYS I LOVE YOU LIKE FLOWERS: A painting of Monet’s Waterlilies that has not been seen in public for more than 75 years sold for just over $20 million on Monday, Sotheby’s auction house said.” Nando Times (AP) 06/24/02

REINVENTING THE MFA: The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is reinventing itself. A decade ago it was deep in debt and on the decline. Now it’s hired star architect Norman Foster to reimagine what one of America’s great museums might become. “To pay for this expansion, and for additions to its endowment and budget, the museum has embarked on a drive to raise a daunting $425 million. Officials here say this is the largest fund-raising effort ever undertaken by an art institution outside New York City. The new building is expected to cost $180 million and be completed in 2007.” The New York Times 06/25/02

REINVENTING THE COOPER-HEWITT: New York’s Cooper Hewitt Museum, America’s foremost design museum, ius cutting back. “Over recent months, more than a dozen administrators, curators, researchers and part-time consultants have left the Cooper-Hewitt, fleeing an atmosphere described by a former employee as ‘draining’and by another as ‘total misery’.” The New York Times 06/25/02

BLOWING UP BOLOGNA? Police apparently intercepted a plan by terrorists affiliated with al-Qa ‘eda to blow up Bologna’s “most important church to erase the offence of a 15th-century Gothic fresco showing Mohammed being tormented by devils in hell. The Milan daily Corriere della Sera reported that in a telephone call intercepted by police in February, one of the suspect’s alleged associates discussed plans for an attack on the Church of San Petronio, which has a large fresco by Giovanni da Modena showing the founder of the Islamic religion in hell.” The Guardian (UK) 06/24/02

MUSEUMS AS PARTY ANIMALS: “Over the past 25 years a new balance – seesaw might be a better term – has been established in national museums between public and private money. In many ways, this is a positive change. Museums are far more responsive to their public now than they used to be. Permanent collections are often more interestingly displayed. Temporary exhibitions are more frequent. The fierce, old, military-style warders have been replaced by friendlier staff. Information about the collections is available on-line.” On the other hand, the amount of energy required to court favor with the giving classes threatens to overwhelm the business of seeing to art. London Evening Standard 06/24/02

BRUTALLY BACK: “Over the past few years, something quite extraordinary has happened to the cityscape of Blairite Britain. Contrary to conservative expectations, some of our most despised structures have been restored, revamped – even given coveted listed status. The modern monoliths we once loathed have become our newest national monuments. Against all the odds, brutalism is back in vogue.” New Statesman 06/24/02

TOW-AWAY ART: Artists unhappy with the growing numbers of abandoned cars on Hackney, England streets, stage an art project to do something about it. “The idea was to create a series of designer ‘car covers’ to turn the burnt out cars on Hackney’s street into works of art.” The zealous city council towed away the decorated cars. “The way to get rid of a car is to decorate it and make it pretty and then the council will move it.” The Guardian (UK) 06/24/02

Monday June 24

ON THE TRAIL OF STOLEN TREASURE: “Theft of historic artifacts is massive worldwide. “Interpol, the international police network, says it is impossible to track the volume of trade in stolen antiquities because so much of it is so far underground. Some pieces disappear straight from digs, before anyone can catalogue them, and into the hands of collectors who never risk showing them publicly. But many involved in the study and preservation – and the buying and selling – of ancient art say that although the change is likely to be slow and fitful, it has begun.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/24/02

AT HOME IN QUEENS: The Museum of Modern reopens this week in its new temporary home in Queens. “On the face of it, Queens and the Museum of Modern Art make the quintessential odd couple. But you do not have to spend a whole lot of time in MoMA’s new neighborhood to realize that the pairing actually makes good sense. Long Island City, the specific setting for MoMA’s new venue, is a place apart, even in diverse, sprawling Queens. It’s a fast-changing flatland of working and abandoned factories, auto body shops and industrial miscellany, with a scattering of attached houses and apartment buildings. The area’s future is up for grabs.” Washington Post 06/23/02

THE CONTRARY FREUD: Over the past 30 years Lucien Freud has been mad, bad and dangerous to know. His pictures pitiless, ambiguous, violent and aggressive, he has been a man of twilight lives between the gutter and the Ritz, mixing with the most rich and socially eminent, yet a man of privacy and mystery whose telephone number no one knows, and who inhabits houses without doorbells, flitting like Dracula from one to t’other, to work on sleeping models through the night. He is as bohemian as Puccini, as much a ruffian as Caravaggio (I once witnessed his stealing a girl from Peter Langan without plunging a dagger into that clumsy lecher’s groin), and as much a creature of the ivory tower as Vermeer. All this lends gloss to his pictures and pushes up the price – the truth is probably much less fabulous.” London Evening Standard 06/21/02

THERE ONCE WAS A MUSEUM IN GROZNY: “Before the war between Russia and the would-be breakaway Republic of Chechnya, there were 3,270 works in the Grozny Museum collection, including 950 paintings. But the museum was bombed, with many of its paintings detroyed. Much of what was left was looted to sell for arms. Now an attempt to rebuild the Grozny Museum. The Art Newspaper 06/21/02

ONE MAN’S SURPLUS IS… Britain’s Labour government has a policy of selling off items that are deemed to be surplus. “While few would quarrel with the Ministry of Defence selling off a disused Army base or the Highways Agency disposing of some surplus road maintenance equipment, the flaws in the policy are becoming clear.” As the policy tags items of artistic or historical importance, critics worry about a sell-off of the nation’s important heritage. The Telegraph (UK) 06/24/02

PECKING ORDER: A huge glass-domed biosphere building in Cornwall is being endangered by seagulls. Seems the birds are mistaking their own reflections in the glass for hostile males, and are attacking the glass panels, doing considerable damage… The Guardian (UK) 06/21/02

REMEMBERING J. CARTER BROWN: “Brown epitomised the American impresario art museum director. He was the first to hold a masters degree in business administration. His diplomatic skills pulled foreign loans to Washington by the planeload. Ever the pitch-man for his institution, he urged benefactors to donate art “for the nation.” The pitch worked, and paintings by Cezanne, van Gogh, Picasso and Veronese flowed in.” The Art Newspaper 06/21/02

Sunday June 23

STRIKE ACTION IN SCOTLAND: Scotland’s nationally run galleries are facing a partial work stoppage by their staff to begin June 30. “The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which represents 120 staff, said the decision would mean a ban on all overtime and the closure of all four galleries on Sundays.” The dispute centers on the contention of the PCS that staffers are underpaid and undervalued, with most making less than £5 per hour. BBC 06/21/02

SPEAKING OF STRIKES… What should the museum-going public make of the strike at the British Museum? “The strike and its causes are symptomatic of the disease that has hit cultural life in Britain… This is an artificially engineered crisis. It is as much the duty of a nation to fund its museums as it is to maintain its monuments. Government funding, currently set at £36 million, has been cut in real terms by 30 percent over a 10-year period according to most accounts.” International Herald Tribune (Paris) 06/22/02

MORE FREUDIAN ANALYSIS: Lucien Freud’s nude portraits, on exhibit at the Tate Britain, say a great deal about his perception of the world. “The naked animal, unidealised and depicted with extreme concentration on physical essence and fact, has come to seem like mainstream Freud: his grand contribution to twentieth-century painting. But to see his career at full stretch is to see how much else was achieved long before and how that past seeps into the future.” The Observer (UK) 06/23/02

THE NAKED SENSUALITY OF CLOTHING: An exhibit at the UK’s National Gallery purports to be about the history of clothing and drapery in classical painting, but Andrew Graham-Dixon sees some down-and-dirty subtext. “As well as offering an interesting and informative potted history of western fashion – showing, for example, how the doublet-and-hose peacock finery of male dress during the Renaissance evolved, through the Enlightenment and beyond, into the democratically inspired sartorial restraint of the suit – [the] exhibition also and, more piquantly, explores the invention and development of what we now know as sex appeal.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/22/02

MUSEUM OF ONE MAN’S MIND: There is always a certain quirkiness in museums designed to house personal collections. The tastes of the individual tend to overshadow any larger objective, and England’s Horniman Museum remains a perfect example as it reopens following a massive renovation. “The museum is now a triumphant architectural blend of the present and the past. The white limestone slabs of the new building echo the delicate white wrought-iron tracery of the conservatory, which is to the side of the main structures, and irresistibly remind the onlooker of hothouses at Kew Gardens or even the original Crystal Palace.” The Guardian (UK) 06/22/02

FINALLY, ART AND EXERCISE TOGETHER! Think of it as an extremely high-tech Etch-a-Sketch crossed with a connect-the-dots game. Two British artists and a state-of-the-art Global Positioning System are creating artworks by tracing roads, highways, and bridges in various UK cities, routes they travel on bicycles while the GPS system records their progress. Their efforts are then posted and discussed on their website, which has already begun to spawn copycat efforts worldwide. Wired 06/22/02

Friday June 21

TYRANNY OF THE ACOUSTIGUIDE: Thinking about reaching for one of those handy acoustiguides now so popular at many museums? Think again. “It makes choices for you. It pick winners. Most museums that use the system restrict it to a (growing) menu of ‘masterpieces’, effectively relegating great tracts of their collection into a sort of art-historical Division Three – there to be scanned indulgently if you happen to have some quirky personal attachment, but clearly far beneath general interest. So immediately your choices are curtailed. Then, once the audioguide has imposed its snobbery on you, it sets about telling you, with varying degrees of skill and subtlety, what you ought to think about the art on show, and this is where the real trouble begins.” Electricreview.com 05/26/03

SISTER WENDY’S PRIVATE TOUR: Sister Wendy’s trip through American museums for her recent series didn’t include a stop at LA’s Norton Simon Museum. So the museum made her an offer she couldn’t refuse, and Wendy obliged with a private tour captured on tape. “It’s a little strange that Sister Wendy, known more for her broad telepopulist appeal than for the eloquence or originality of her insights, should be sequestered in the back room of a deluxe suburban vanity museum. But such an improbable arrangement is actually pretty much par for the course in the long, strange trip of the art nun’s career.” LAWeekly 06/20/02

PRINCE OF A MISTAKE: Earlier this week three works by Prince Charles were put up for auction in Birmingham. Interest in the watercolors was high – they were listed at a few hundred pounds, but they eventually fetched £20,000. The day after the sale, though, it was noticed that a mistake had been made – the art wasn’t painted at all – they’re lithographs. “Worth a few hundred pounds, they were excellent copies of the original works, but of interest more for their novelty value than their artistic merit.” The Scotsman 06/20/02

Thursday June 20

WHERE’S THE PUBLIC IN CHICAGO’S PUBLIC ART FUND? Chicago’s Public Art Fund spends millions on public art, financed by the city’s percent for art ordinance. Some of its projects are highly visible, yet critics charge that the program operates in secret and lacks accountability. How much money does it spend? How does it decide what to buy? You’d think public records would be available, and yet… Chicago Tribune 06/20/02

LOST IN THE WTC: “Among the major losses of a historic and archaeological nature was the Five Points archaeological collection, which, excavated in the early 1990s had been stored in the basement of Six World Trade Center, the building that was destroyed when the facade of Tower One fell into it. Only 18 of about one million unique artifacts documenting the lives of nineteenth-century New Yorkers survive.” Archaeology 06/19/02

TALE OF TWO CITIES: Why is Toronto unable to produce artists in the way that Vancouver is? Perhaps it is structural. From weak schools, a sense of insularity and a lack of serious public art program, Toronto doesn’t encourage a mix of artists. “Vancouver provides a vivid contrast. The city’s leading artists have leapfrogged over Toronto to establish connections in New York, Dusseldorf and beyond.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/20/02

Wednesday June 19

FIRST COMMISSION WINS: This year’s £25,000 BP Portrait Award has been won by Catherine Goodman. Her painting of Antony Sutch was her first commissioned portrait, and the first time in many years that the competition has been won by a formal traditional portrait. Despite the art world skirmishing over conceptual conceptual art crowding out figurative painting, the portrait competition, now in its 22nd year, attracted 760. The Guardian (UK) 06/18/02

WEIGHING ANCHOR: Due to security concerns, the Anchorage, a space under the Brooklyn Bridge used for the past 19 summers as a space for art installations and performances, is being closed because of fears of terrorism. “The 50-foot-tall vaulted ceilings, stone floors, windowless brick and overhead traffic hum gave the ambience a tilt toward the introspective and mysterious. The Anchorage could seem all gothic gloom or cool cave. It changed, depending on the art: a cathedral, a dungeon, a fort.” Village Voice 06/18/02

UNDERSTANDING FREUD: This summer’s hottest art show in London is the Lucien Freud retrospective at Tate Britain. At 79, Freud is generally considered Britain’s top living artist. “Let me be clear about this: at every stage in his long career, Freud has painted wonderful pictures. In a show with 156 works, I am talking about no more than a dozen misses or near-misses, but they are enough to show that painting does not come easily to Freud. He’s a thrilling artist because when he performs, he doesn’t have a net to catch him if he falls.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/19/02

  • A HISTORY OF LOOKING: “For 60 years, Freud has interrogated reality with a tough, unsatisfied intelligence. Eyes stripped as a snake’s, he has studied the visual evidence of life. He has searched for the truths that his paintings will tell.” The Times (UK) 06/19/02
  • ARTIST LAUREATE: “At Freud’s level of artistic dedication he is competing with history. It is a daunting sport for, unlike the athlete, the artist is running against an international field that includes famous contestants who have been dead for centuries.” London Evening Standard 06/18/02
  • ABOUT PAINTING: “The viewer who believes he has discerned a truth about a relationship between artist and subject, however, is likely to be mistaken. It is mostly projection. There is some kind of truth somewhere in there, but it is first and foremost a truth about depiction in painting itself.” The Guardian (UK) 06/18/02

POLLING THE MASSES: “A major exercise to decide on the best way of displaying art in Wales has started.” And while asking the public might seem to be a risky method of deciding policy, that is exactly the route Wales is going. Among the proposals on the table are an expansion of the current National Museum and the construction of a new, dedicated gallery. BBC 06/19/02

Tuesday June 18

ANOTHER TAKE ON DOCUMENTA: Michael Kimmelman writes that the show delivers what it promised. But “calm, clear, remarkably orderly considering its size, the show is also puritanical and nearly humorless. It gives the impression of having been conceived by people for whom the messiness and frivolity of art are almost moral failures. Some control over the organization of a show this size is necessary. Too much is alarming.” The New York Times 06/18/02

  • OVERLOAD: An exhausted Peter Plagens marvels at the sheer size of the event. And how much explanation the art takes. “Never in the history of contemporary-art shows have so many viewers been asked to read so much while standing on such unforgiving concrete floors.” It’s also difficult to sort out. “Hardly any of the art in Kassel lives up to the huge political burden placed upon it.” With the show’s attempt “to get art to act as a rebuttal to the G8’s style of globalization, Documenta has turned itself into a clever, but only occasionally convincing, Didactamenta.” Newsweek 06/24/02

Monday June 17

STRIKE CLOSES BMA: The British Museum is closed today after 750 museum workers went on strike, protesting government cuts in funding. “Some 100 strikers picketed the museum, handing out leaflets to members of the public. It is the first time the museum has been closed by industrial action in its 250-year history.” BBC 06/17/02

NEW ICA CHAIRMAN: Alan Yentob, the BBC’s director of drama, entertainment and children’s programmes, has been named new chairman of London’s Institute of Contemporary Art. The ICA’s previous chairman left in a blaze of publicity, declaring that concept art was “pretentious, self-indulgent, craftless tat that I wouldn’t accept even as a gift”. The Guardian (UK) 06/14/02

  • GLAMOUR BOY: As the BBC’s arts and entertainment supremo, Yentob is an avowed populariser and, after years of rubbing shoulders with the corporation’s glitzier talent, he is now as close to being ‘the glamorous face of BBC management’ as licence feepayers are ever likely to get for their money. Those connections are, of course, what appealed to the board of the ICA when they judged his suitability.” The Observer (UK) 06/16/02

FIGHTING FOR SCRAPS: There is so little high-end art available for sale in the UK that when even a minor sale comes up for auction, there’s a feeding frenzy. The Telegraph (UK) 06/17/02

RECORD ANTIQUITY SALE: A heavily restored ancient Roman Venus sculpture sold in London at auction last week for “£7.9 million, more than twice the estimate and a world auction record for an antiquity. There may now be an export bar to allow British museums to try and match the price, but it is very unlikely any could raise such a sum. The Jenkins Venus, also known as the Barberini Venus, was pieced together from fragments over 200 years ago, and became one of the most admired works of classical art of the 18th century. The Guardian (UK) 06/15/02

LOOKING OUT: This edition of Documenta is the most international and outward-looking yet. “The main themes of this Documenta are migration, precarious post-colonial constellations, cultural intermixing and changing perspectives within a new global society. All the sore points, the terrible conflicts which often trigger or prevent these changes, are given center stage: the tortured Balkans; the misery of the underdeveloped and exploited; racism; the genocide in Rwanda; the hell of a South African gold mine; South American military dictatorships; guerrilla wars; Sept. 11, 2001; the refugee ships sunk in the Mediterranean with their unretrieved bodies, searched for by teams of underwater archaeologists. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 06/16/02

  • Previously: RANT W/O BACKUP: Documenta is the world’s most lavish festival of contemporary art, and it has been staged in Kassel every five years or so since the Marshall Plan came to the bombed-out town. This year its curator advances the idea that America’s domination of world culture is an enervating force, that it is “materializing, hegemonizing and attempting to regulate all forms of social relations and cultural exchanges.” Curiously, there is little art in the show to back up the premise. Washington Post 06/16/02

WHAT’S THE VISION? Rem Koolhaas “may be our greatest contemporary architect, but the nature and volume of his production indicate that he wants to be more than that. He plays the game of cultural critic and theorist, visionary, urbanist, and shaper of cities for the globalized, digitized, commercialized world of the twenty-first century. If we don’t begin thinking critically about what he’s doing, how our cities look and function might greatly reflect his influence – and what we get might not be what we want.” American Prospect 06/17/02

Sunday June 16

FREE ME: When the LA County Museum of Art began charging admission in 1978, attendance slid by 44 percent. Now, nearly 25 years later, despite 3 million more people in LA, the number of people visiting LACMA is roughly the same as it was in pre-admission 1978. As the museum goes out to raise $300 million to makeover its campus, Christopher Knight writes that one of LACMA’s top priorities ought to be eliminating the admission fee. “No one should underestimate the barrier erected by general admission fees. Yet the issue isn’t just a matter of affordability. It also concerns a more fundamental relationship with art.” Los Angeles Times 06/09/02

TEARING DOWN HISTORY: The 20th Century was a bad one for English manors. “More than 1,000 country houses, perhaps one in six, were demolished in the 20th century. The result was an architectural and cultural tragedy that has no parallel in this country since the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century. Superb collections of art were broken up, some of the most delightful gardens and landscapes ever created abandoned, and many of this country’s finest buildings razed to the ground. The causes of that destruction have never been spelt out before, perhaps because the event was too painful.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/15/02

RANT W/O BACKUP: Documenta is the world’s most lavish festival of contemporary art, and it has been staged in Kassel every five years or so since the Marshall Plan came to the bombed-out town. This year its curator advances the idea that America’s domination of world culture is an ennervating force, that it is “materializing, hegemonizing and attempting to regulate all forms of social relations and cultural exchanges.” Curiously, there is little art in the show to back up the premise. Washington Post 06/16/02

IS IT CHEATING? When photography was invented many predicted the end of painting. Didn’t happen, of course. But lately there have been fresh debates about the “fairness” of painters using mechanical devices to help in their work. Does it somehow lessen a work if the artist used visual aids? “I’m guessing that psychoanalysts would diagnose this as displaced anxiety.” The New York Times 06/16/02

CUTTING THE EDGE: Is there anything tougher than being a contemporary art center? Constantly defining and redefining “contemporary” is a balancing act that gets tougher as the organization gets older. The Atlanta Contemporay Art Center is about to turn 30. With funding down and the search for a new director, ACAC is facing an identity crisis – does it still matter? Atlanta Journal-Constitution 06/16/02

THE ART OF RESTORATION: Paris’ small Museum of Jewish Art and History tries to keep politics out. That means it’s “not a Holocaust museum, although reportedly one is being planned for Paris. To museum organizer Laurence Sigal-Klagsbald, ‘restoring Jewish culture is an answer in itself to the annihilation planned by the Nazis’.” Toronto Star 06/16/02

Friday June 14

THOROUGHLY MODERN BIDDING: With Impressionist works too expensive for most collectors, contemporary art has caught the interest of investors. Prices for 20th Century work has been setting records of late. “The stock market is not currently offering many opportunities for people to get involved so when they find something that gives them pleasure, like art, they say ‘let’s do it.’ “. Financial Times 06/14/02

ART FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY: “There’s a transformation taking place in art museums. These temples of contemplation that once catered mostly to adults now offer a full menu of programs aimed at families — not to mention school groups, singles, teenagers, seniors or any other demographic group willing to walk through the front door. At the venerable National Gallery of Art and the exclusive Kreeger Museum, even preschoolers now have their own programming.” Washington Post 06/14/02

BRITAIN’S BEST NEW BUILDINGS: The Royal Institute of British Architects has made a list of the 58 best new buildings in the UK. “The buildings, which range in size from a tolbooth and a private residence to big industrial centres and the Gateshead millennium bridge, have all been selected to receive a RIBA award for their high architectural standards and their contribution to the local environment.” The Guardian (UK) 06/13/02

SCOTTISH GALLERY WORKERS THINK STRIKE: While staff at the National Galleries of Scotland ponder a strike, the museum director is on a paid six-month sabbatical in Italy. And the museum is proposing to increase his salary by almost a quarter. That doesn’t sit well with junior staff. “Here we have a director on a six-month sabbatical, travelling the world, while the lowest-paid members of staff can barely afford to get themselves to work.” The Scotsman 06/13/02

Thursday June 13

MORATORIUM ON COLLECTING: The Denver Museum is building a $62 million addition. To help focus on getting ready for the expansion, the museum has declared a moratorium on acquistions. “The museum will not make purchases or accept any gifts of artworks except those to be exhibited in the new wing, and it will not grant loans of pieces to other institutions or borrow from them.” Denver Post 06/13/02

CLEVELAND EXPANSION: The Cleveland Museum of Art has approved plans for a $170 million-plus expansion. Architect Rafael Vinoly presented plans for the addition this week. The museum hopes to start construction in 2004. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 06/13/02

FOR THE SOUL OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY: London’s Royal Academy has had a very successful few years. But now director David Gordon is leaving, and the RA is at a crossroads. “At issue is whether artists or administrators should run the public side of the organisation, now that it has been transformed into a £20 million-a-year business, putting on world-class exhibitions. With the RA about to embark on a £50 million project to take over 6 Burlington Gardens, the former Museum of Mankind building, the debate has added urgency.” The Art Newspaper 06/10/02

DRAW ME A PICTURE: Is there any place for drawing in art? “If art can be bought ready-made, or if it can be made in some way that has nothing to do with manual dexterity, with a video camera or a computer program, then drawing, this essential act of making, has definitely been marginalized, turned into a sideline, a caprice. A sea change has occurred, one of the fundamental ones in the history of art, or so we are told. But what of those artists who still believe that art is not so much in the conceptualization as in the realization?” The New Republic 06/10/02

Wednesday June 12

BRITISH MUSEUM STRIKE: The British Museum won’t open next Monday because of a 24-hour strike by its workers. They are protesting cuts and management of the museum. “It is believed to be the first time the museum will have closed because of industrial action in its 250-year history.” The Guardian (UK) 06/12/02

FOOD FIGHT: A show of Italian Masters sponsored by the Italian government and sent to Australia has provoked a fierce review that has insulted the Italians. “Attacks on the show feed fears that Australia is regarded by the rest of the world as the back of beyond, a place where nobody would care to send too many masterpieces, and also that Australians are taken for bumpkins, too unsophisticated to realise when they are being fobbed off.” The Times (UK) 06/12/02

DESIGN-CHALLENGED: Wonder why people don’t grow up with an appreciation for good architecture? Start with school buildings. The province of Ontario is building new schools, but the amount spent on design is pitiful. “On their own and strapped for money, some of the region’s school boards are replicating school designs over two or three different sites. Sadly, the new schools in Toronto can’t achieve the robust detailing of the public schools that emerged in the city in the early 20th century.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/12/02

THE COWS COME TO LONDON: The arts cows invade London. “The organisers claim it as the world’s largest public art event. And with more than 150 bovines on display, and another six cities around the world lining up for more cow action, they might not be far wrong.” They’ve earned respect in other cities, even in cities where you wouldn’t expect it. In New York “their cumulative effect on the viewer was to disrupt the flow of thought. What struck me was the extent to which people noticed them and began to treat them in a way that public sculptors hardly dare to dream of – with respect. No one vandalised the New York cows.” London Evening Standard 06/12/02

SETTING UP FOR ART: Howard Hodgkin makes set designs for the theatre. They’re distinctive and drawings of them have been collected up for an exhibition this summer. But don’t call them art. Hodgkin will get angry if you do. “They exist only as part of a performance, on stage, with performers, audience, lighting. Otherwise they’re no more real than those discarded costume sketches people hang on their walls and expect you to admire. Completely ridiculous.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/12/02

DEALER SENTENCED FOR ART SALES: New York art dealer Frederick Schultz has been sentenced to 33 months in prison for trying to sell stolen Egyptian artifacts. “The stiff sentence, coming after Mr. Schultz’s conviction on Feb. 12, is seen as a sign of the federal government’s determination to crack down on the trade in ancient objects that have been illegally taken out of their countries of origin.” The New York Times 06/12/02

Tuesday June 11

A PLAN TO SAVE VENICE: Venice has decided to build a controversial “Thames barrier-type structure with 79 gates, each weighing 300 tonnes” to help control flooding of the city’s lagoon. “But there are fears about how this might affect the Venice lagoon, particularly the possibility that it could further restrict the flushing of the city’s waterways by the tide, making the famous stinking canals more stagnant.” So British scientists have been brought in to “suggest ways to prevent the city becoming the first high-profile victim of global warming anda rise in sea levels.” The Guardian (UK) 06/10/02

THE ANNUAL: Each summer, London’s Royal Academy stages its Summer Exhibition. It’s in its 234th year, and it is the “largest open-submission exhibition of contemporary art anywhere in the world. Any such antiquity will naturally gather some myths, and the most pernicious and unfair myth, unthinkingly retailed, is that the summer show is the repository of the amateur and Sunday painting, boardroom portrait and worthy landscape.” Financial Times 06/11/02

  • HOUSE OF THE ALREADY-DONES: “At this year’s show one is frequently waylaid across a crowded room by some familiar-seeming image, only to realise on closer inspection that it is not actually a Lucian Freud, or a Cy Twombly, or a Richard Artschwager, as one might suppose, but in fact some sedulous substitute.” The Times (UK) 06/11/02

HARVARD MUSEUM CHIEF TO COURTAULD: James Cuno, the director of the Harvard University Art Museums since 1991, has been named director of the University of London’s Courtauld Institute of Art. The appointment is seen as a sideways move for the highly-regarded Cuno, who is also president of the Association of Art Museum Directors in the US. His departure from Harvard is “the latest in a number of high-profile departures from the university since the arrival last year of president Lawrence H. Summers.” Boston Globe 06/11/02

Monday June 10

DOCUMENTING CONTEMPORARY ART: The 11th Documenta opens in Kassel. “Despite contemporary techniques – video, installation, photography – this Documenta 11 fails to match the work of much of the 1990s in loudness, velocity or the frequency of its shock effects. There are fewer illustrations of political theses than feared, and instead more truly classical art than many might have anticipated. In order to avoid making a loss, Documenta 11 must attract 630,000 visitors to Kassel and earn over euro 6.9 million ($6.5 million) by Sept. 15.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 06/09/02

A CONSERVATION SCANDAL: How was the ancient Villa of the Papyri – one of the richest and largest of the ancient Roman villas ever discovered, “allowed to degenerate into a massive dumping site for rubbish while weeds ravaged the ancient mosaic floor, holes in the plastic roof left it exposed to rain, and rising water levels blocked access to the site?” It’s a sad case of bungled bureaucracy… The Art Newspaper 06/07/02

IS THIS ANY WAY TO BUILD A CITY? So Los Angeles might get a new football stadium, and it might not cost taxpayers money. Okay – but potential developers of the project are so far shy about revealing details of the project – like where exactly it might be built. Should Angelinos trust them? The “plans for downtown have yet to show such ambition. They are safe, formulaic, somewhat soulless. They embody an age of corporate gigantism in which decisions are made by committee, and the only real concern is the bottom line.” Is this any way to plan urban landscapes? Los Angeles Times 06/10/02

PAUL GOTTLIEB, 67: “In his 20 years as publisher and editor in chief of the country’s most notable publisher of art books he exercised vast influence, not merely on how such books are published but also on how art is presented and promoted at museums around the world. Gottlieb knew just about everybody connected in one way or another to publishing and art.” Washington Post 06/10/02

Sunday June 9

BRITISH MUSEUM STRIKE PROTEST: Staff at the British Museum have voted to strike to protest plans by the museum to cut 150 workers. The financially-challenged museum is trying to close a £5m budget shortfall. “National treasures will be hidden away from the public, galleries will be closed off and less school children will be educated in the British Museum if the government does not accept that world-class museums cannot be funded by gift shops and cafes alone.” The Guardian (UK) 06/08/02

WHOSE HISTORY? Britain has always had a reverence for its history, and the country is full of historic markers. But “is today’s historic environment – the stately homes, museums, religious edifices, tourist attractions, heritage centres, preservation areas – adequately serving the complex intellectual requirements of a multi-cultural, multi-layered Britain? Not according to a recent report by the Historic Environment Steering Group. This commission of great and good heritage experts worryingly concluded that, ‘People are interested in the historic environment.But many people feel powerless and excluded’.” The Guardian (UK) 06/07/02

Friday June 7

THE FRIDA FAD: “Never has a woman with a mustache been so revered – or so marketed – as Frida Kahlo. Like a female Che Guevara, she has become a cottage industry. In the past year, Volvo has used her self-portraits to sell cars to Hispanics, the U.S. Postal Service put her on a stamp, and Time magazine put her on its cover. There have been Frida look-alike contests, Frida operas, plays, documentaries, novels, a cookbook, and now, an English-language movie. But, like a game of telephone, the more Kahlo’s story has been told, the more it has been distorted, omitting uncomfortable details that show her to be a far more complex and flawed figure than the movies and cookbooks suggest.” Washington Monthly 06/02

RETURN TO REALISM (DID IT EVER GO AWAY?): Painters and sculptors who have eschewed abstraction in rendering their particular take on the visible world have proliferated and thrived, occasionally even generating a movement—photorealism, for example. Now, emerging from the last decade’s polymorphous stew of postmodernism, realist artists are moving back into the foreground. But there’s just one puzzle: no one seems able to define what realism actually is.” ArtNews 06/02

Thursday June 6

THE NEW WTC – A TOWERING CONCEPT? Word is that the architects working on plans for a replacement for the World Trade Center are contemplating a building of about the same height as the Twin Towers. “The tower also could be shorter, perhaps 1,300 feet or 1,350 feet, but it clearly would be no ordinary office building. It would contain about 65 to 70 stories of office floors, with the highest of those floors reaching 900 feet or more. Above them would be an empty vertical space, enclosed in a skeletal extension of the building’s superstructure, making it visible to passersby. This chamber of air, which would be 300 to 400 feet tall, would soar ethereally toward the clouds.” Chicago Tribune 06/06/02

CUBAN CLAIMS FOR ART: Many Cuban refugees fleeing Cuba had to leave artwork behind. “Over the last decade, a growing number of these works have surfaced outside Cuba and been put up for sale. Some left the island via diplomatic channels, others were exported privately and illegally, and some, particularly in the early 1990’s, were put on the international market by Cuba itself as it sought hard currency.” Increasingly, the original owners are making claims for the art. The New York Times 06/06/02

A LITTLE ART SCANDAL: A British internet firm offers exclusive reproductions of “never before published” Old Master drawings from the British Museum. But of course this isn’t right. “The talk of unpublished, rarely seen material is nonsense. But the most misleading thing of all is the omission, in this quasi-official joint-venture parasitic commercial- wheeze website, of the fact that any member of the public, at any time during opening hours, can ask to see any drawing or print in the museum’s collection, and that this access is free.” The Guardian (UK) 06/06/02

TAKES ONE TO CATCH ONE: A British art security expert is defending his use of an art thief to track down two stolen works of art – including a Titian. “The ex-prisoner has been using his former criminal contacts to make inquiries about the paintings, and has claimed that recently he came close to the art thieves.” BBC 06/06/02

QUEEN’S GALLERY USED ENDANGERED WOOD: Queen Elizabeth’s new Queen’s Gallery is under attack because endangered rare tropical woods were used in its construction. “The use of this timber not only goes against the palace’s sustainable forest purchasing policy, but is a snub to the Duke of Edinburgh, president emeritus of the World Wildlife Fund, who said in 1998 that all ‘forests subject to commercial exploitation should be certified under the Forest Stewardship Council certification scheme’.” The Guardian (UK) 06/05/02

Wednesday June 5

MISSING IN ACTION: A more complete list of valuable art items lost in the World Trade Center collapse is being put together. Among them: “first editions of Helen Keller’s books. Sculptures by Auguste Rodin. Artifacts from the African Burial Ground, a centuries-old Manhattan cemetery. Thousands of photographs of Broadway, off-Broadway and even off-off-Broadway shows.” Los Angeles Times (AP) 06/05/02

GOING THREE-DIMENSIONAL: Forget painting – sculpture is the hot artform of choice right now. “Sculpture is no longer the poor cousin of painting. A lot of established painting collectors have turned their backs and started buying sculptures. They’ve filled their walls with pictures and now are looking for objects to put outside in their gardens or in their beach houses.” Sydney Morning Herald 06/05/02

GROVELING TO BE LIKED? The newly reopened Manchester Art Gallery is doubled in size. It’s a handsome new building. But “the displays are presented with a frantically jovial emphasis on accessibility. The room containing the most recent items, for example, is labelled ‘Modern Art – You Cannot Be Serious’, which is more suitable for a tabloid headline on the Turner Prize than a serious museum.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/05/02

WHAT’S IT TAKE? The new Turner Prize short list is up, but one critic is still thinking about last year’s winner. “You have to make suitable contemporary art, and smack suitably of controversy, to stand a chance of winning the Turner Prize; and actually winning it bestows both fame and a heroic aspect. In one sense the winner can be seen to represent all struggling and misunderstood artists whose work may be a darn sight less controversial in international art world terms, but which can be just as misunderstood, if not more so, in one’s own local context. Making art and the way it’s perceived is all relative to the time and place you happen to be in. Fame also means that a lot more people will misunderstand and denigrate your work than before, so it’s a mixed blessing.” *spark-online 06/02

IN PRAISE OF GLASS: Glass is the latest hot material in buildings. “New kinds of glass – for ceilings, floors, walls – are helping define the latest architectural look at home and at work, according to a survey of some 500 exhibitors at the recent American Institute of Architects’ national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Instead of hanging art on the walls, designers can manipulate building materials so that color, texture and mood are integrated into the walls themselves.” Wired 06/05/02

Tuesday June 4

MET DOWN: The Metropolitan Museum in New York has seen a big dip in visitors this year. “The museum has lost about 1 million visitors this year, down from about 5 million in each of the two years before.” That translates to a drop of 20-25 percent. Museum officials say the biggest decline is visitors from Asia and Europe. New York Post 06/04/02

TASTE TEST: New Yorker critic Peter Schjeldahl, art historian Linda Nochlin and writer George Plimpton get together to talk about approaching art. “Taste is the residue of our previous experience, and if we are presented with something that doesn’t fit we immediately try to reject it. I think that’s good. Taste keeps us from being wowed by absolutely everything all the time; without it, we wouldn’t get to work in the morning. Out of a spirit of economy, we try to reject things, or to put them aside, or to think they’re understood. I think that’s healthy, in a way. I think that if you’re a critic you’re supposed to stick with it till you feel sure, and when a work of art defeats all my best efforts to dismiss it, that’s when I go down on my knees and want to shout about it to everyone.” The New Yorker 06/03/02

STOLEN GIACOMETTI: A Giacometti sculpture was stolen from the Kunsthalle in Hamburg. “Thieves had used the crowd of about 16,000 visitors on the center’s extra ‘Long Night’ with opening hours extended until 3:00 a.m. to swap the original bronze for a painted wooden figure.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 06/03/02

Monday June 3

THE BRITISH MUSEUM’S LITTLE PROBLEM: “The British Museum has the collections to make it, with the Met in New York and the Louvre in Paris, one of the three great museums in the world. It is also visited by three million tourists a year, a quarter of all visitors to London, which makes it a showpiece for the capital and for the country. If it is dim and dusty and closed for business, it makes the whole nation look bad.” So how, with all the lottery money put aside for culture in the past decade, does the BM find itself in such precarious financial condition? London Evening Standard 05/031/02

THE QUEEN’S NEW MESS: Critics are piling on Queen Elizabeth’s new gallery to mark her jubilee. “To give it its due, what will be the most enduring physical reminder of the Queen’s golden jubilee does give confused visitors unclear about which parts of the palace are off-limits an unmistakable signal of where they will be welcome. But it looks more like a collection of giant milk bottles, left at the backdoor of the palace, rather than a descendant of the sublime Greek temples of Paestum that [architect John] Simpson fondly imagines them to be.” The Observer (UK) 06/02/02

Sunday June 2

PRICELESS? IT’S JUST A WORD: Recent high prices for paintings gets one reporter thinking about how the value for great works of art is set. “If ‘priceless’ is a real concept to a museum curator, it’s just a word – and a false one at that – in the calculating marketplace, where everything has a price.” What would be the real-world price of some of the Art Institute of Chicago’s most famous pictures? Chicago Sun-Times 06/02/02

NO SMALL MATTER: Smithsonian chief Lawrence Small has roiled the institution like none before him. “Since Small’s arrival, markers of an institution in turmoil have popped up almost monthly: Directors of six museums submitted their resignations. Congress had to step in to save pioneering scientific research. A benefactor withdrew $38 million after her ideas were ridiculed by staffers. And more than 200 academics protested the “commercialization” of the Smithsonian–even faulting its decision to award the cafeteria contract at the National Air and Space Museum to McDonald’s.” Los Angeles Times 06/02/02

ART OF THE MEETING: Documenta is the once-every-five-years assemblage of contemporary art. “Documenta is not this year’s only group show, but Kassel is definitely Rendezvous 2002 for museum directors, curators, dealers, gallery owners and collectors. They will be there because everyone will be there.” The New York Times 06/02/02

Theatre: June 2002

Sunday June 30

REPLACING GORDON: With the news that Gordon Davidson, the dean of Los Angeles theatre, will be leaving his post at the Mark Taper Forum, the city’s theatrical community has been thrown into a bout of “institutional soul-searching.” It’s not that anyone thinks that L.A.theatre won’t go on without the influential Davidson – it’s just that no one seems to be sure what the future will look like, and whether they’ll like it when they get there. Los Angeles Times 06/29/02

Friday June 28

TAPER DIRECTOR LEAVING: Gordon Davidson is stepping down as artistic director of LA’s Mark Taper Forum. “Davidson has been the artistic director of the Taper for 35 years — and of its sister theater, the Ahmanson, for 13 years — longer than any other current artistic director of a major regional theater.” The New York Times 06/28/02

THE SONDHEIM CONNECTION: Washington’s Kennedy Center Sondheim Festival has been a big success, critically and at the box office. So will any of the productions transfer to Broadway? It’s unlikely, though several producers have taken the shuttle down to check out the shows. The New York Times 06/28/02

WHERE’S BILL MAHER WHEN YOU NEED HIM? What’s a theatre company to do when the title of a classic old production risks offending the sensibilities of a modern audience? Why, change it, of course, and tradition be damned. Accordingly, a regional company in the UK will shortly be presenting a lavish production of The Bellringer of Notre Dame so as not to offend theatre-goers with scoliosis. BBC 06/28/02

Thursday June 27

TALL ORDER: “In the latest attempt to establish effective two-pronged leadership at [New York’s] Joseph Papp Public Theater, the board has named Mara Manus executive director to share the helm with the producer, George C. Wolfe… Ms. Manus, who starts her new post in August, has her work cut out for her; the Public has spent the last year trying to get its house in order after two costly Broadway flops, projected budget deficits and the departure of two key donors from the board in protest over management. In addition, the theater has started a $50 million building-improvement plan, which may include the construction of a new 499-seat theater at its East Village home.” The New York Times 06/27/02

THE BILLION-DOLLAR CIRQUE: Cirque du Soleil generates about $325 million with its eight troupes. The company is on a big expansion track, growing at a rate of about 25 percent a year, “rapidly expanding its film, TV, and recording operations. It already has deals with a number of big partners, including the major Canadian TV networks, Bravo in the U.S., Fuji in Japan, and Televisa in Mexico.” By 2007 the company expects to top $1 billion in revenues. Businessweek 06/26/02

Tuesday June 25

DOES GOOD THEATRE TRAVEL? The Bonn Biennale of international theatre is a good idea in theory. But onme quickly understands that not all theatre travels well. “Theater is an art that is tied to locality, and the strength of those ties does not automatically correspond to aesthetic quality. A kind of dramatic theory of relativity has made itself felt in Bonn and has, broadly speaking, produced three categories of play: those that can be understood and conveyed without much trouble; those whose significance in their place of origin can at least be deduced; and those that fall flat and, torn from their originating context, come across as bizarre.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 06/25/02

HIP-HOP AND THE THEATRE: There are signs that hip-hop is becoming more mainstream. And, in the process, starting to have an influence on mainstream theatre. “The message is reasonable enough: that the contemporary theater has abdicated its role in addressing contemporary life, turning a blind eye to emerging generations of artists with new and different stories to tell and a new and different way of telling them.” The New York Times 06/25/02

SINKING LIKE A ROCK: It seems every old rock music act is being remade into musical theatre. Is this really a good idea? “Rock’n’roll may have done a great deal for us in terms of hair and trousers, but its adolescent insistence on cool over the musical’s reliance on joy has subsequently made us all too self-conscious to suddenly break into song.” The Times (UK) 06/25/02

Monday June 24

PUBLIC THEATRE CUTS BACK: New York’s Public Theatre had an artistically satisfying season. But the theatre’s carrying a big debt, it laid off staff in November, and is producing only one show in Central Park this year rather than two. “Like every other cultural institution in the city, we’re dealing with the realities. Instead of two shows it’s one show, but it can run longer and more people can see it.” The New York Times 06/24/02

THEATRE’S ANCIENT ROOTS: “In the millennium between 500 B.C. and A.D. 500, hundreds of theaters sprang up throughout the Mediterranean region, as well as in the Greek and Roman colonies. The the audience recognized itself in the mirror offered by the events on the stage. Yet even when the theater began to sever its religious roots and dilute its political element, it remained true to is original, lofty determination to promote self-knowledge. In order to function, theater in fact requires only three elements: a script, actors and an audience. Endless variations of those elements were played out in ancient times.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 06/23/02

RICHARD RODGERS AT 100: “According to ASCAP, three hundred and seventy-six of Rodgers’s works are still in active circulation (the Beatles, by comparison, have a mere hundred and fifty-four). Thirty movies have been made from his scores, including “The Sound of Music” (1965), which is by every standard the most successful movie musical of all time, and, if you adjust for inflation, the third-largest-grossing film, after “Gone with the Wind” and “Star Wars.” Rodgers’s music has been heard in two hundred and eighty-five other feature films, and in more than twenty-seven hundred television shows. If you were to calculate the number of performances that Rodgers’s shows have had on Broadway, the total would be twenty thousand four hundred and fifty-seven, or, figuring eight a week, the equivalent of fifty years of a Broadway run.” The New Yorker 06/24/02

BACK IN PUBLIC: Playwright Tom Stoppard is back in public. He’s working at the National, and a rather thick new book about him has hit bookstores. “The fizzing cogency for which his plays are famed is hard won. He works long hours, shuns dinner parties because they conflict with his preferred working time, and has no concept of leisure, except that time devoted to his four sons (aged 27 to 36) and two grandchildren.” London Evening Standard 06/21/02

REMAKING A THEATRE INSTITUTION: The annual summer Charlottetown Festival in Prince Edward Island is a cash cow with the tourist appeal of its Anne of Green Gables franchise. But in recent years artistic standards have not been high. Now Duncan McIntosh, who previously ran Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre for five years is “the latest fair-haired boy to be parachuted in to save the Festival. This time, however, it may actually work.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/24/02

Sunday June 23

VALJEAN IN SHANGHAI: After several years of negotiations and logistical complexities, the world’s most populous nation will, for the first time, play host to one of the West’s most beloved musicals. Les Miserables, the Cameron Mackintosh production adapted from the Victor Hugo novel of French revolutionaries, will make its debut in Shanghai this weekend. The performance will be in the show’s original English, with Chinese supertitles projected over the stage. BBC 06/21/02

HE’S SEEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT ON BROADWAY: Brenda and Eddie may have had it already by the summer of ’75, and Anthony may have ditched his job at the grocery store to move out to the country, but the characters in those classic Billy Joel songs of yesteryear will be reunited this fall in an ambitious (and expensive) new Broadway show being put together by Joel and, of all people, choreographer Twyla Tharp. Naturally, the pressure on the creators to pull off a big shot blockbuster is quite high, and Joel is a bit nervous about his introduction to the theater crowd. No truth to the rumors of a preview run in Allentown, PA. Chicago Tribune 06/23/02

Friday June 21

BOLLYWOOD DREAMIN’: It’s the summer of Bollywood in London, and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bollywood Dreams has opened in the West End. Is it something new and different? “It’s a bold, inventive shot at something new that misses the target. Crucially the music by the famous Indian composer, AR Rahman, played by a tiny, 10-strong orchestra, falls blandly between two worlds. Far too often it sounds more western than Indian. The mix is dull.” London Evening Standard 06/21/02

  • Previously: NOW FOR THE REVIEWS: Opening night audiences gave Andrew Lloyd Webber a standing ovation for his new show Bollywood Dreams. Now an anxious wait for the reviews; Lloyd Webber admits the advance ticket sale hasn’t been good, and reviews are likely to determine its fate. ALW needs a hit. His last couple projects haven’t fared well, and his long-running blockbusters have been closing in London and New York. BBC 06/20/02

THE GLOBE IN GERMANY: “Germany’s best-kept theatrical secret is a festival of Shakespeare with stagings in – I kid you not – a Globe theatre. Unlike the London space, there is no yard for groundlings and the theatre has a canvas roof. Made of wood and steel, and painted white, the structure stands, Tardis-like, a cylinder from another world – another country, indeed – next to a not particularly attractive car park usually reserved for punters visiting Neuss’s very ordinary race-course.” Financial Times 06/21/02

Thursday June 20

KING ON TOP: The National tour debut of The Lion King in Dallas has been a hit. In a ten-week run the show attracted 214,000 customers and sold $13 million in tickets. The city also figures the show generated $52 million for the Denver economy. Denver Post 06/20/02

NOW FOR THE REVIEWS: Opening night audiences gave Andrew Lloyd Webber a standing ovation for his new show Bollywood Dreams. Now an anxious wait for the reviews; Lloyd Webber admits the advance ticket sale hasn’t been good, and reviews are likely to determine its fate. ALW needs a hit. His last couple projects haven’t fared well, and his long-running blockbusters have been closing in London and New York. BBC 06/20/02

THAT WAS FAST: Now that Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura has decided not to run for reelection, “plans for The Body Ventura” – a musical that promised, among other things, a sung-through political debate and dancing Navy SEALs – have been scrapped.” St. Paul Pioneer Press 06/19/02

Tuesday June 18

WHAT EUROPEAN THEATRE LOOKS LIKE: “European theater packs itself in for a 10-day run in just one city. Bonn has become Babylon: From last Thursday until next Saturday, 27 works from 19 countries are being performed in 17 different languages.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 06/17/02

SHAKESPEARE – IN NEED OF AN UPDATE? Is Shakespeare’s language too archaic for the modern reader to understand? “Are non-English-speakers, as some Shakespeare scholars have suggested, more at home with their translated Shakespeare than English-speakers with their genuine article?” A new book suggests some updating and clarifications might be in order. The Economist 06/14/02

HE’S BACK… Garth Drabinsky, the Canadian theatre impressario whose empire came crashing down amid scandal a few seasons back, has won some of Toronto’s top drama awards for his comeback show this past season. “Four years ago, in an unceremonious way, I was stripped of every award I ever received in theatre,” he said after accepting the outstanding production award. Toronto Star 06/18/02

Monday June 17

PASSING ON PUPPETS: The Australian cities of Cairns and Bundaberg are banning performances of the show Puppetry of the Penis in their civic theatres. “The show features two men manipulating their penises and scrotum into shapes such as a hamburger, windsurfer and the Eiffel Tower. It has been seen by more than 420,000 people around the world and is now playing in New York, Canada, Germany and New Zealand.” The Age (Melbourne) 06/17/02

CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS? So Broadway had its first down year in a while. “But when you consider the terrible trauma of September 11, which initially looked as if it was going to bring Broadway to its knees, the figures strike me as remarkably resilient. My hunch is that Broadway is actually faring better than the West End.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/17/02

Sunday June 16

THE CASE FOR A NATIONAL THEATRE: “If the American play is ever to survive on Broadway, something must replace the function of the independent producer. To flourish, plays must have sustenance, a place to grow and a means to do so. What better environment than a national theater, right in the middle of Broadway?” The New York Times 06/16/02

  • SHOULDN’T IT BE MORE THAN BROADWAY? Lincoln Center Theater has failed its great original purpose, writes Clive Barnes. “Not from a financial point of view. In fact, I imagine the theater is nicely in the black. Money isn’t the point. But for all its box-office success, the Lincoln Center Theater is doing a remarkably unadventurous job.” New York Post 06/16/02

DENVER THEATRE UP: The Denver Center Theatre closed out its season with a 19 percent increase in attendance for the year. “Season-ticket sales took a beating because of the economic downturn followed by terrorism, but single-ticket sales more than made up for it.” Denver Post 06/16/02

Friday June 14

TONY BOUNCE: The Tony TV ratings might have been bad, but the awards provided their usual boost at the box office. Total revenue on Broadway was up $1 million from the week before. Backstage 06/13/02

THE LOCK ON PROGRAMS: What does Playbill’s purchase of Stagebill mean for theatre programs? “With Playbill the undisputed program provider of choice for Broadway and Off-Broadway, and with Stagebill similarly recognized for ballet, opera, and symphony orchestras, the combined entity will have a virtual monopoly when it comes to providing programs for New York’s major performing arts venues. Because Playbill and Stagebill are also major program providers for venues in Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and other cities, their combined reach will be national and unparalleled in scope.” Backstage 06/13/02

LOOKING FOR SHAKESPEAREVILLE: A replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in Odessa Texas isn’t exactly authentic (plush seats and a climate-controlled theatre with a roof are two of the improvements), but after falling into decline after its 1960s opening, the theatre is rebuilding its fortunes. It aims to be a Texasified Shakespeare village in the tradition of Ashland Oregon, America’s largest Shakespeare festival. The Independent (UK) 06/10/02

REVIEWING “DOWN THERE”: They may not be willing to print the show’s title in an ad, but the Birmingham News has reviewed The Vagina Monologues (where the title shows up in the lead). The BN critic even liked it – we think – calling it a “frank, funny, sometimes poignant production. Birmingham News 06/13/02

  • Previously: BIRMINGHAM PRINTS AD: The Birmingham News ran an ad for a production of The Vagina Monologues Sunday “after haggling between the play’s staff and The News.” But the paper would not allow the name of the play to be used in the ad. “It was all in one font type, no headline, graphics or photographs, and it didn’t contain the title of the show. Instead, an asterisk directed interested folks to call a phone number for the name. ‘Our responsibility is to our readers, to be sure no one is offended’.” Tuscaloosa News 06/10/02

Thursday June 13

ANCIENT OUTDOOR THEATRE: London’s ancient amphitheatre is open again, after being buried for 1600 years. “Modern visitors will be able to follow the route taken for almost 300 years by excited Roman citizens, by gladiators who might survive to become wealthy sporting superstars, and by condemned criminals, who would certainly be torn apart by wild animals or weapons.” The Guardian (UK) 06/13/02

SHAKESPEARE IN CHINA: The Royal Shakespeare Company travels to China, where the audiences are small (it’s far too expensive for ordinary Chinese) but enthusiastic. “Chinese drama is in a critical state. The audience for theatre is very small compared to film and television. But it has a few supporters, mainly among students and better-paid clerks, and it still attracts the leading thinkers and opinion formers. Very few foreign performances are seen in Beijing, so the visit of the Royal Shakespeare Company gives us a chance to communicate with different cultures and different thoughts.” The Guardian (UK) 06/13/02

JUST ONE SCENE: “Cameo. In all the lexicography of actor-speak, no single word is used so often or possesses such nuance of meaning. If Jack Nicholson only had one scene in a movie, you can bet he’d grip the wrists of friends at dinner parties and whisper: ‘It’s a cameo.’ The word is a godsend. For those of you who’ve never asked an actor about the size of his part, cameo is a word that means small – but suggests big.” Just don’t underestimate how difficult they can be. The Guardian (UK) 06/13/02

Tuesday June 11

DENVER KILLS NEW PLAY FEST: Since 1984-85, the Denver Center Theatre Company has staged the annual TheatreFest to showcase new plays and playwrights. In 18 years the festival considered 27,000 scripts and chose more than 200 for full or partial staged readings. “Of those, 45 eventually became fully produced, making up a large chunk of the 96 world premieres the DCTC has presented in the past 23 years. But the company’s budget, which comes from interest generated by Bonfils Foundation assets, was ordered cut after last year’s downward market turn.” So the company is suspending the $160,000 event. Denver Post 06/11/02

PROVING GROUNDS: Gone are the days when big expensive shows had their world premieres on Broadway. More often now, they debut in other cities before moving on. “Mounting a new musical in New York has become so expensive that producers are loath to take the risk of failure. They prefer to wait until shows are proven at places like Theater Under the Stars in Houston, which has just moved into a dazzling $100-million home designed especially to stage lavish musicals.” The New York Times 06/11/02

BOLLYWOOD SHOWS CANCELED: In London it’s the summer of Bollywood, with numerous big Indian productions setting up. But one of the biggest featuring a cast of 100, including “the best known actors and singers from Indian film” is being canceled. “The promoters of From India with Love said the shows could not be staged as the withdrawal of British embassy staff from India left them with no guarantee the cast could get visas in time.” BBC 06/11/02

BIRMINGHAM PRINTS AD: The Birmingham News ran an ad for a production of The Vagina Monologues Sunday “after haggling between the play’s staff and The News.” But the paper would not allow the name of the play to be used in the ad. “It was all in one font type, no headline, graphics or photographs, and it didn’t contain the title of the show. Instead, an asterisk directed interested folks to call a phone number for the name.” The paper says about the originally rejected ad: “There is the name itself, ‘Vagina Monologues.’ But that was not the real issue; it was the way the layout was done.’ The ad featured a microphone stand (The Vagina Monologues is performed with a bare stage, no props or sets), and double-entendre tag lines such as ‘spread the word.’ ‘We told them, “If you’ll calm this down, we’ll run it in a heartbeat. Our responsibility is to our readers, to be sure no one is offended.” Tuscaloosa News 06/10/02

YOUNG PEOPLE – SHAKESPEARE’S HIP: A new poll of young people in Britain reports that a third of young people say Shakespeare’s works are “relevant to their lives and have made an important contribution to the English language. Only 3 per cent of those polled said they would feel intimidated by going to see a Shakespeare production. The survey of 15 to 35-year-olds, conducted for the Royal Shakespeare Company, also found that more of them have visited a theatre in the past year than have been to a pop concert.” The Scotsman 06/11/02

Monday June 10

PLAYBILL BUYS STAGEBILL: Stagebill, one of America’s leading program publishers is being acquired by Playbill, its chief competitor. “New York-based Playbill confirmed it has acquired the rights to publish under the Stagebill name, effective Sept. 1, but offered no other details on the deal, in a prepared statement Friday.” Chicago Tribune 06/10/02

Sunday June 9

SUCCESS BOMB: Sweet Smell of Success was once one of the highest-touted projects coming to Broadway. And yes, it was nominated for big Tony awards. But it wasn’t enough to stave off closing the show next week. Backers will have lost their entire $10 million investment. “Instead of running five years, Sweet Smell of Success barely limped its way through three months. What happened?” Washington Post 06/09/02

PROVING AN AUDIENCE FOR THE AVANT-GARDE? A new avant-garde production of King Lear in Los Angeles is carrying a lot of hopes. Produced “in six sites in a 30,000-square-foot former power plant just off the 5 Freeway, this King Lear features postmodern aesthetics, a suspended car wreck and an array of other, similarly outsized effects. Four years in the making, the production is one of the theater community’s most highly anticipated events this season. However, it will be a tough ticket; only 140 people can see each show during its short run. But more than the usual wishes for a well-received production, those involved hope the success of this King Lear will prove there is, indeed, an appetite here for this kind of large-scale avant-garde work – and will justify their plans to produce more such events.” Los Angeles Times 06/09/02

WHAT AILS THE TONYS: Frank Rizzo is fed up with the Tony Awards broadcast. “Last week’s show on CBS was simply awful, registering the lowest ratings ever. Even the one-hour show on PBS – traditionally the smarter segment – suffered from sameness and self-importance. It doesn’t have to be that way. Remember Rob Lowe dancing with Snow White in a hideous musical number at the Oscars years back? Following that humiliation, the Oscars changed. Why can’t the Tonys?” Rizzo offers a list of suggestions to fix the Tonys. Hartford Courant 06/09/02

END OF AN ERA IN BOSTON: Robert Brustein has ended 22 years running American Repertory Theatre, and, in critic Ed Siegel’s opinion, “the Boston area loses its most important cultural leader.” His aesthetic changed the way theatre is done in Boston. Not that everything was a success – Brustein’s championing of new and experimental theatre and his willingness to take chances led to a lot of duds. But “to put the best light on it, when you swing for the fences, as ART usually does, you are bound to strike out more. The hits and misses are all a function of the ART’s aesthetic, one that at its most adventurous is uncompromisingly postmodernist.” Boston Globe 06/09/02

Friday June 7

LEAST-WATCHED TONYS BROADCASTS STILL HELPS BOX OFFICE: Last Sunday’s Tony Awards TV broadcast got its lowest ratings ever. Some blame the nationally televised Sacramento Kings/LA Lakes playoff game running opposite the awards, which attracted more than three times as many viewers. Still, plays in contention for Tonys saw box office sales double Monday after the bradcast. Baltimore Sun (AP) 06/07/02

GOT THEIR GOAT: Producers of The Goat are protesting a color ad that mistakenly got printed in this upcoming Sunday’s New York Times Arts & Leisure section that proclaims that the play Metamorphoses won a Best Play Tony last weekend. But it was The Goat, the Edward Albee play that won the award. “It wasn’t clear how the mix-up occurred. The section’s entire run is printed Wednesday for distribution on Saturday and Sunday.” Nando Times (AP) 06/06/02

Thursday June 6

BROADWAY’S OFF-YEAR: The numbers are in and they’re not pretty. “A total of 10,958,432 tickets were purchased during the season, a decline of 7.9% from last year, when it reached a record-breaking 11.5 million. It was the first time the numbers fell below 11,000,000 since the 1995-1996 season. According to an in-depth analysis of the season’s statistics released last week by the League of American Theatres and Producers, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the softening national economy, and ‘the ensuing demographic changes of theatregoers’ – meaning fewer tourists in New York City – are all to be attributed for the decline.” Backstage 06/05/02

WHY I LEFT THE RSC: In March, star director Edward Hall famously quit the Royal Shakespeare Company during rehearsals for Edward III. He refused to give reasons, “beyond admitting disagreements over casting, but the press had a field day. Here was one of the rising stars of the younger generation – the kind of blade Adrian Noble’s controversial restructuring was supposed to be attracting – and the son of the RSC’s founder Sir Peter Hall to boot, washing his hands of the project.” Now he talks about the incident: “The notion that I left that show in order to do a commercial production is insulting, preposterous and slanderous.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/06/02

Wednesday June 5

CLOSING SMELL: Failing to win major Tony awards, the Sweet Smell of Success is closing on Broadway. Star John Lithgow: “A lot of critics disliked this show, and a lot of important critics disliked it a lot. The whole time I’ve worked on it, I’ve loved it and thought it was something unique and new and daring.” Nando Times (AP) 06/04/02

Tuesday June 4

FLORIDA BUSH PLAYS HARDBALL: The State of Florida and Miami’s Coconut Grove Playhouse are in a dispute about money. The governor is threatening to veto $500,000 allocated to the theatre if the theatre’s board doesn’t release the state from responsibility for $15 million in maintenance for the Playhouse. “On Friday afternoon, Gov. Jeb Bush’s office faxed the Playhouse an 18-line memo, which caught managers there by surprise. The state, which purchased the Playhouse property in 1980, leases it back to the board for $1 a year. But as the landlord, the state remains obligated to provide maintenance, according to the lease, which runs through 2063.” Miami Herald 06/03/02

GUTHRIE DECIDES TO GO AHEAD: Though Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura vetoed $25 million in proposed state funding for the Guthrie Theatre’s new theatre, “the Guthrie Theater board has decided to continue with design and pre-construction work on its $125 million complex proposed for the Mississippi riverfront in Minneapolis.” The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis) 06/04/02

STRITCH SOUNDS OFF: Producers of Sunday night’s Tony Awards were generally ruthless about pushing winners to keep their speeches short. Most wrapped up the talking as soon as they heard the music nudge them when their two minutes were up. One who didn’t, and was caught mid-sentence was Elaine Stritch. “The 76-year-old Broadway star was thanking her producers when the orchestra started playing over her speech…’Please, don’t do this to me’,” she pleaded as the telecast cut to commercial. “Backstage, Stritch, crying and shaking with anger, said, ‘I am very, very upset. I know CBS can’t let people do the Gettysburg Address at the Tonys, but they should have given me my time’.” New York Post 06/03/02

Monday June 3

THE GOAT/MILLIE TAKE TOP TONYS: Go figure – Thoroughly Modern Millie wins Best Musical at Sunday night’s Tony Awards, but “the critically acclaimed but offbeat Urinetown: The Musical won for direction, score and book of a musical.” So the ingredients for Urinetown were better, but Millie still made the better salad? The New York Times 06/03/02

Sunday June 2

BROADWAY – WHO AM I? “These days … Broadway’s most conspicuous malady seems to be less its economic vulnerability — though that certainly remains a concern — than a severe personality disorder. Seeking to stay healthy in an age ruled by technology and mass-produced images, the mainstream New York theater has never seemed so desperately eager to please or less sure of how to do so.” The New York Times 06/02/02

  • REVIVAL FEVER: “Yes, we’re living in the 21st Century. But if you look at this season’s Broadway marquees – or at the nominations for tonight’s 56th annual Tony Awards – you’ll see Broadway remains obsessed with reviving old shows, turning movies into musicals and beefing up its box office by trading on a movie star’s appeal. Whatever happened to new plays and playwrights? Challenging work? Actors committed to the stage?” Miami Herald 06/02/02
  • SERIOUS COMPETITION: Most years the big notice at the Tonys is reserved for the musicals. Not this year. This year the action’s in drama, with three serious, edgy, first-rate contenders. “For those who thought the Tonys were a sanctuary for conservative old-timers, this race is a real stunner.” Dallas Morning News 06/02/02
  • JAZZING UP THE TONYS: How to make the boring Tony Awards more interesting? “I’d have a show that screamed Broadway in capital lights, a spectacle that Ziegfeld wouldn’t be ashamed to put his moniker on, or at least one that wouldn’t make him churn up his grave after seeing it on TV. Admittedly, I haven’t yet been paid to work out the details, but I could hardly do worse than has been done, could I?” New York Post 06/02/02

WHEN THE TRY-OUT GOES SOUTH: This whole business of out-of-town tryouts before bringing a show to Broadway is presumably to find out what works and fix the things that don’t. But sometimes the reverse happens. The Tony-nominated Thoroughly Modern Millie, for example, started out at the La Jolla Playhouse with “a relaxed comic spirit. Its silliness didn’t feel leaden; it was buoyant.” By the time it got to Broadway it was clear that “the creative team went to work, and apparently couldn’t stop from futzing with every single element, even the elements that worked.” Chicago Tribune 06/02/02

END OF THE AVENUE: Denver says goodbye to a beloved theatre – the Avenue has lost its lease and is closing after 16 years. The place was a dump, but it was home to “perhaps the funniest theater company in Denver history”. “Just the other day I was thinking, I hate this (bleep) hole. I’m not going to miss it here at all. I hate the (bleeping) leaks. It’s hot in the summertime. There are mice downstairs. But now everybody’s started talking and . . . Oh, this is just so sad!” Denver Post 06/02/02

REGIONAL THEATRE IN DECLINE: What happened to America’s regional theatre movement? It all started so promisingly… Robert Brustein says its gone “downhill slowly but steadily, fueled by the disintegration of public finances for serious art, by dependence on the tastes of an indiscriminate subscription base, by an incursion of commercial fare into regional theaters, by the loss of a basic understanding that nonprofit theater was meant to be different than commercial theater. Over the years, nonprofit-theater executives began acting more and more like commercial producers, bringing to their communities not so much Shakespeare, Chekhov and Ibsen – not to mention new generations of playwrights – but the best of Broadway and off-Broadway.” Hartford Courant 06/02/02

LONDON’S AMERICAN ACCENT: American plays and performers have invaded London’s West End, dominating this summer’s offerings. “It’s hard to generalize about the reasons for this, but in a London too often forced to rely on revivals, there is a great hunger for energetic new writing. The spicy, stinging dialogue of so many contemporary American plays appeals to the British, as does the size and scope that the nation’s drama appears to have reacquired since it emerged from the back porch in the 1980’s and early 1990’s.” The New York Times 06/02/02

  • AND AMERICAN STARS? “Could there also be another, less frequently cited factor that makes London attractive: that British critics are seen as something of a soft touch compared with their New York counterparts, who may in turn be less blinded by celebrity glare? One wonders, for instance, whether Gwyneth Paltrow in Proof would have prompted the same set of raves in New York.” The New York Times 06/02/02

Dance: June 2002

Sunday June 30

BACK ON TRACK IN BOSTON? The Boston Ballet has had something of a tumultuous few years, with executives and dancers alike departing the company unexpectedly and under less than ideal circumstances. But this week, the company’s artistic director announced that the ballet will soon be hiring 16 new dancers and four new administrative staff. It’s probably too soon to declare a turnaround, but it’s the first positive sign in what the company hopes will be an eventual reestablishment of its national reputation. Boston Herald 06/29/02

JUILLIARD NAMES HARKARVY SUCCESSOR: “Lawrence Rhodes, an internationally known ballet dancer and administrator and the former director of the dance department at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, has been appointed artistic director of the dance division of the Juilliard School, effective on Monday. Mr. Rhodes succeeds Benjamin Harkarvy, who died in March.” The New York Times 06/29/02

Thursday June 27

DANCING TO VICTORY: The games have been fun. But this year’s World Cup has set a new standard for celebratory dances. “As every anthropologist knows, dance is one of the oldest, most potent ingredients in human ritual. If dance can function as the language of mating, prayer, supplication and commemoration, what more proper way for a team to mark its amazing progress in the World Cup?” The Guardian (UK) 06/27/02

Wednesday June 26

JAFFE’S LAST CURTAIN CALL: 40 may not be particularly old in most professions, but for a ballerina, it is a ripe old age, and one at which most dancers have already hung up their toe shoes. So it was for Susan Jaffe at the American Ballet Theater this week, as the company favorite took her final bows in a well-received performance at the Met. “The 25-minute ovation at the end left Ms. Jaffe, a heap of flowers at her feet, mouthing ‘I love you’ to the audience.” The New York Times 06/26/02

Monday June 24

MISSING INGREDIENTS? In the old days of New York City Ballet, it was a joy to watch talented young dancers come into the company and grow into artists right before your eyes. The stream of promising dancers continues. But somehow these dancers aren’t developing in the ways they once were. “Presumably, part of what is holding the dancers back is their new repertory.” The New Yorker 06/24/02

THE GREAT AMERICAN DANCER: Anyone with eyes can tell why Fred Astaire was considered the great American dancer. He was the first with the most — the pioneer who was also the supreme refiner. On the high end, Mikhail Baryshnikov hailed him as the dancer of the century, and Jerome Robbins created a ballet in tribute to Astaire’s I’m Old Fashioned dance with Rita Hayworth. Starchy Teutonic theorist Siegfried Kracauer praised him for injecting realism in Hollywood films by ‘dancing over table tops and down garden paths into the real world’.” Time 06/22/02

Friday June 21

TALKING ABOUT THE STATE OF DANCE: In Miami 400 dance adminstrators from around America gather for Dance USA. “As the artistic directors of ballet companies from across the country discussed the trials of the past year, money troubles seemed outweighed by advances, such as the number of troupes moving into new buildings or performing arts centers. And in a forum for modern dance choreographers, strategies for attracting audiences ranged from offering birthday cakes at concerts to casting local religious leaders in dances.” Miami Herald 06/21/02

DANCING IN THE REAL WORLD: How to grow the audience for dance? Take it to where people are – the pubs, the streets, the offices. “Site-specific choreography, as Ashford defines it, is a relatively recent phenomenon, although the use of unconventional venues, such as art galleries, museums, warehouses and lofts, for what is known as location-based dance, has a much longer history. These venues provide choreographers with a natural performance space, without the formality and conventions of the theatre. They also allow the audience to experience the performance in a different way.” London Evening Standard 06/21/02

TECHNO DANCE: A Bay Area dance group has created a piece that “combines animation, dance and electronic music to simulate a video game world. The 3-D animation of the characters was created using motion capture – the same technology used to make video games. ‘We’re emulating … the creation of a video game, but we’re creating live performance’.” Wired 06/21/02

POINTE OF DEPARTURE: At a time when many artists are just hitting maturity, dancers reach the end of their careers. This season two of New York’s most prominent ballerinas are retiring: Susan Jaffe of American Ballet Theatre and Helene Alexopoulos of New York City Ballet. New York Post 06/20/02

Thursday June 20

STEVENSON TO DFW: Houston Ballet director Ben Stevenson has been named artistic director of the Dallas Fort Worth Ballet. In 27 years in Houston, “Stevenson doubled the size of the Houston corps, built up a major school of ballet and recruited significant talent. As a choreographer, he gained attention for a great variety of works but was particularly acclaimed for evening-length ballets in the romantic tradition.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram 06/19/02

A NUTCRACKER GONE WRONG: Donald Byrd’s company is shutting down after 24 years. Of course it’s a funding issue, but Byrd says the company’s gamble on a major production didn’t pay off. “For the company, The Harlem Nutcracker was supposed be like capital campaigns for some organizations. It was supposed to push us to the next level of institutionalization. And when you fail at that, you’re like a presidential candidate who doesn’t win the election. You are tossed out and forgotten.” Los Angeles Times 06/19/02

UNCOMMON PRIMA BALLERINA: Royal Ballet star ballerina Darcey Bussell is “tall, beautiful and with that unconscious grace that marks out natural talent; the world has never seen a ballerina quite like Bussell. In today’s age of celebrity, she’s managed what few other dancers before her have: a fearless dedication to her art, as well as an enormous following that has brought her almost pop-star status, with fan clubs, websites, a stint modelling for Vogue, TV appearances, and even interest from Hollywood.” The Age (Melbourne) 06/20/02

Sunday June 16

DONALD BYRD COMPANY CLOSING: After 24 years, Donald Byrd/The Group is closing because of money problems. “A lot of it has to do with debt issues that have been ongoing since Harlem Nutcracker. The $1.2 million production, which had its premiere in 1996, was artistically successful and toured extensively throughout the United States. But Mr. Byrd said he had struggled for six years to pay off the debt arising from it, now about $400,000. His 10-member company, which has an annual budget of just under $1 million, also has an accumulated deficit of another $400,000. Byrd, 52, has been among the most innovative and busy of choreographers in recent years, tackling unusual themes in an unusually eclectic style.” The New York Times 06/15/02

Thursday June 13

TOO LONG AND ELECTRONIC: Generalizations are sometimes dangerous, but it is possible to hold a few obvious truths about this year’s Canada Dance Festival. Choreographers from Toronto and Montreal dominated, the pieces were too long (most were hour-long full-lengths designed to satisfy presenters), and original electronic music seems to be the accompaniment of choice “which seems to be developing a universal template that is best described as cinematic-cum-atmospheric soundscape.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/13/02

BOULDER CUTS BACK: The Boulder Ballet and Philharmonic in Colorado is cutting back operations becauise of mounting deficits, reducing its $2.6 million budget by $400,000. The ballet cuts a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream, while the orchestra cuts two of its nine programs. “We have to stop the financial hemorrhaging and we’re close to doing that.” Denver Post 06/13/02

Wednesday June 12

DANCE OLYMPICS: One hundred and eighteen dancers from 25 countries are converging on Jackson Mississippi this week for the USA International Ballet Competition. It’s held every four years, and “the competition is an expensive, stressful, and time-consuming proposition. But for dancers ages 15 to 26, it offers a chance to network and showcase their skills for representatives of some of the world’s most noted dance companies. Outstanding performers are often rewarded not only with prizes, but with job offers and guest opportunities- a real boon for emerging talents.” Boston Globe 06/12/02

IRELAND LEARNS TO DANCE: Contemporary dance has struggled in Ireland for decades. But last month an international festival of dance played to full houses. Is dance finally finding a place in Ireland? “The question is, can a country of fewer than four million with a capital city of about one million support a thriving contemporary dance scene? Fewer than 30 people in Ireland, mostly choreographers and administrators, rely on dance for full-time employment. If the calculation included all members of Irish dance companies, who mostly work part-time as actors or teachers, the total might reach 60.” The New York Times 06/12/02

Sunday June 9

SPEAKING UP FOR DANCE: Modern dance needs an advocate. As an artform it has a lot going against it in developing infrastructures and acceptance. Contemporary dance is often overlooked in mainstream culture. But in New York “some 400 dance companies, of every aesthetic stripe, are at work in the five boroughs. Dance/NYC aims to give them a unified voice.” The New York Times 06/09/02

BACKSTAGE AT THE BALLET: Running the backstage operations of American Ballet Theatre is a complcated manouevre, a ballet of its own, composed of “scene changes, the size and positioning of the sets, the wardrobe, lighting design and electrical needs. It requires coordination with the ballet masters over rehearsal schedules and artistic changes that crop up over the course of performances. And it demands adherence to a budget that comes out of the $4 million a year allocated to production costs.” The New York Times 06/09/02

KEEPERS OF THE FLAME: New York is home to two of the world’s great ballet companies. But “as excellent as the two companies still are on a good night, both seem to be struggling to reinvent themselves, to reach beyond powerful past identities. Ballet watchers have complained that ABT is neglecting its heritage – the profound works of Antony Tudor and the popular ones of Agnes de Mille. City Ballet’s public has complained about the stewardship of the company that Peter Martins has run since the 1983 death of its cofounder, George Balanchine. Martins hasn’t regularly invited key keepers of the Balanchine flame back into the fold to teach the ballets to a generation of City Ballet dancers who never knew the master. Former company luminaries are instead scattered across the country.” Boston Globe 06/08/02

Thursday June 6

BOLSHOI RESCUE: The Russian government has decided to allocate $180 million to fix up the badly-decaying Bolshoi Theatre. “Four and a half years of rebuilding work would start in 2003, performances would continue while work was being done, and the theatre would only be closed for a few months during the summer.” BBC 06/06/02

Tuesday June 4

ABT COMING UP FOR AIR? American Ballet Theatre is one of the country’s great dance companies. Also one of its most financially troubled in recent years. “After a financially trying two years in which productions were canceled, staff members quit, donors defected and the executive director was forced to resign, could Ballet Theater be heading for fiscal and spiritual health? Apparently not just yet.” The New York Times 06/04/02

REPRIEVE IN FRANKFURT? Last week it was reported that the City of Frankfurt planned to close Frankfurt Ballet and cancel director William Forsythe’s contract. Now Forsythe says that “Frankfurt city officials have told him they want his acclaimed dance company, the Frankfurt Ballet, to continue working in the city after his current contract ends in 2004. But he added that a deal was not assured, as the city’s finances are in dire straits.” The New York Times 06/04/02

Sunday June 2

THE BOLSHOI’S MARKET FORCES: For much of its 200+ year history, the Bolshoi has set its budgets based on artistic need rather than theatre economics. This meant ticket prices could be low. Now things are different, and the Bolshoi has implemented a new ticket pricing scheme that more properly reflects the marketplace for its efforts. “This new ticket-sales system increased ticket revenue by 82 percent in its first month. Further price increases, made possible by a new distribution system with many sales points, should push up ticket revenue to $10 million—almost three times higher than last year’s figures—in the 2001–02 season.” McKinsey Quarterly (registration required) 06/02

People: June 2002

Sunday June 30

ROSEMARY CLOONEY, 74: “Rosemary Clooney, whose warm, radiant voice placed her in the first rank of American popular singers for more than half a century, died last night at her home in Beverly Hills. She was 74. The cause was complications from lung cancer.” The New York Times 06/30/02

MORE CONTROVERSY FOR WEST: Cornel West has built a career out of being simultaneously brilliant and confrontational. He has cut a rap album, published a seminal work on race in America, and feuded publicly with the president of Harvard University. He is also one of America’s most respected acadmics. So when he was invited to participate in a conference on the philosopher Sidney Hook, it came as something of a surprise to organizers when a boycott of the conference was suddenly arranged by several conservative academics. The New York Times 06/29/02

NOBODY LIKES A KNOW-IT-ALL: The winner of this year’s Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs is the definition of an overachiever. He’s a professor at MIT, a yo-yo champ, the creator of the first digital library, and, according to a colleague, “the last person to know everything.” One of the Van Cliburn judges probably summed him up best: “People like that are so annoying.” Boston Globe 06/30/02

WHAT, NO MILITARY TRIBUNAL? British actor Steven Berkoff may not exactly be Ben Affleck on the International Fame chart, but he has several high-profile film roles to his credit, and is well regarded in the acting world. So imagine his surprise when, upon arriving in Michigan to speak at a festival, he was grilled by a low-level immigration official who promptly packed him back off to the UK. The reason: Berkoff overstayed his last US travel visa, in 1997, by one day. BBC 06/28/02

Wednesday June 26

WORST-KEPT SECRET: Less than two months after skipping out on his Metropolitan Opera finale, Luciano Pavarotti has announced his retirement from the stage. Speaking with CNN’s Connie Chung, Pavarotti struck back at critics who suggested that illness was not the reason for his Met cancellation, and set an end date, (his 70th birthday in 2005,) for his long career as the world’s most famous tenor. CNN 06/25/02

JAFFE’S LAST CURTAIN CALL: 40 may not be particularly old in most professions, but for a ballerina, it is a ripe old age, and one at which most dancers have already hung up their toe shoes. So it was for Susan Jaffe at the American Ballet Theater this week, as the company favorite took her final bows in a well-received performance at the Met. “The 25-minute ovation at the end left Ms. Jaffe, a heap of flowers at her feet, mouthing ‘I love you’ to the audience.” The New York Times 06/26/02

Tuesday June 25

THE PATH MOST LONELY: Chicago composer Ralph Shapey, who died last week at the age of 81, was a loner. “Someday when I’m dead and buried, some musicologist will start comparing my music with that of other composers of my generation. He will say, `Shapey was ahead of everybody – Carter, Babbitt, all the rest. They are nothing but imitations of what he did all along.’ I wish I could come back to hear that, I really do.” Chicago Tribune 06/25/02

Monday June 24

REMEMBERING J. CARTER BROWN: “Brown epitomised the American impresario art museum director. He was the first to hold a masters degree in business administration. His diplomatic skills pulled foreign loans to Washington by the planeload. Ever the pitch-man for his institution, he urged benefactors to donate art “for the nation.” The pitch worked, and paintings by Cezanne, van Gogh, Picasso and Veronese flowed in.” The Art Newspaper 06/21/02

BACK IN PUBLIC: Playwright Tom Stoppard is back in public. He’s working at the National, and a rather thick new book about him has hit bookstores. “The fizzing cogency for which his plays are famed is hard won. He works long hours, shuns dinner parties because they conflict with his preferred working time, and has no concept of leisure, except that time devoted to his four sons (aged 27 to 36) and two grandchildren.” London Evening Standard 06/21/02

Friday June 21

MADONNA’S STAR DEMANDS: Reviews of Madonna’s acting performance in the West End were dismal. Still, the show has been selling out nightly, and the singer/actor has been demanding the full star treatment. “Among Madonna’s demands was that her dressing room be decorated in pale shades and fitted with a walk-in power shower. She also insisted that her bouncers remain each side of the stage when she is performing. She asked for the stage to be raised by several feet and decreed that large areas of the auditorium be closed to staff during performances.” So it’s no surprise that the theatre’s manager has just quit. London Evening Standard 06/21/02

Wednesday June 19

J. CARTER BROWN, 67: For 23 years Brown was director of the National Gallery in Washington DC, where he greatly expanded the museum’s collections and oversaw the IM Pei addition. He was founder of the Ovation TV arts channel, and director of the Atlanta Olympics arts festival, as well as chairman of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. The New York Times 06/19/02

  • THE POPULIST PATRICIAN: J. Carter Brown held one of the most powerful artistic posts in the nation, and yet his legacy is one of making art accessible to everyone. “Brown, an unashamed elitist, was also an inclusionist. He was a patrician multiculturist. To a museum that had only shown (and still only collects) objects from the West, he brought African art and Indian art, South Pacific carving, Noh robes from Japan, scimitars from Turkey, Costa Rican gold.” Washington Post 06/19/02

Tuesday June 18

RALPH SHAPEY, 81: Ralph Shapey, who died last weekend at the age of 81, was “perhaps America’s most relentlessly self-challenging composer, his catalogue having roughly 200 pieces for a huge range of ensembles. He also cared a great deal if people listened. In 1969, he went on strike as a composer, refusing to allow performances of his works until conditions for modern music improved. At one point, he even threatened to burn it all, which was possible since none of his music had been published and was all in manuscript.” The Guardian (UK) 06/17/02

Monday June 17

WHAT’S THE VISION? Rem Koolhaas “may be our greatest contemporary architect, but the nature and volume of his production indicate that he wants to be more than that. He plays the game of cultural critic and theorist, visionary, urbanist, and shaper of cities for the globalized, digitized, commercialized world of the twenty-first century. If we don’t begin thinking critically about what he’s doing, how our cities look and function might greatly reflect his influence – and what we get might not be what we want.” American Prospect 06/17/02

Wednesday June 12

DEALER SENTENCED FOR ART SALES: New York art dealer Frederick Schultz has been sentenced to 33 months in prison for trying to sell stolen Egyptian artifacts. “The stiff sentence, coming after Mr. Schultz’s conviction on Feb. 12, is seen as a sign of the federal government’s determination to crack down on the trade in ancient objects that have been illegally taken out of their countries of origin.” The New York Times 06/12/02

Tuesday June 11

HARVARD MUSEUM CHIEF TO COURTAULD: James Cuno, the director of the Harvard University Art Museums since 1991, has been named director of the University of London’s Courtauld Institute of Art. The appointment is seen as a sideways move for the highly-regarded Cuno, who is also president of the Association of Art Museum Directors in the US. His departure from Harvard is “the latest in a number of high-profile departures from the university since the arrival last year of president Lawrence H. Summers.” Boston Globe 06/11/02

Monday June 10

PAUL GOTTLIEB, 67: “In his 20 years as publisher and editor in chief of the country’s most notable publisher of art books he exercised vast influence, not merely on how such books are published but also on how art is presented and promoted at museums around the world. Gottlieb knew just about everybody connected in one way or another to publishing and art.” Washington Post 06/10/02

Friday June 7

RATTLE IN CALIFORNIA: Star conductor Simon Rattle hasn’t performed in the Bay Area since 1988. But it turns out the new Berlin Philharmonic chief is a regular visitor – his kids live there. Tonight he performs as a pianist with his son. In a rare American interview he tells Joshua Kosman that he never really considered leading an American orchestra. “I know that with any American orchestra, I would’ve had to spend a lot of my time fighting for existence, reminding people why we had to be there and taking much more of an educational role than I wanted to take on at this time in my life.” San Francisco Chronicle 06/07/02

HOW LEW WASSERMAN RUINED THE MOVIES: He was mourned as a legend this week. But “missing from all the gushy epitaphs is an example of a single great picture that got made because of Wasserman’s vision. “If the only movies playing at your local cineplex are Spider-Man and the new Star Wars epic, Wasserman deserves much of the blame. Even during the drug-induced brilliance of 1970s Hollywood, Wasserman’s taste at Universal was always conservative, middle-aged, and middlebrow: no Coppolas, no Altmans, no Scorseses.” Slate 06/06/02

  • OKAY, SO THE MOVIES WEREN’T ANY GOOD: “Wasserman, who died Monday from the effects of a stroke, was a major figure in the history of Los Angeles, a key figure in the history of American Jews, a critical figure in the history of American politics, even an important transitional figure in the history of capitalism itself. And, yeah – he changed movies too, not entirely for the better.” LAWeekly 06/06/02

Thursday June 6

NOT VERY COMMITTED: “Edo de Waart, the mercurial chief conductor and artistic director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, will not be returning to Sydney this year to fulfil his obligations with the orchestra, opting, instead, to stay at home in the Netherlands for the birth of his child.” de Waart has ditched other SSO concerts this year, and has complained about the hardship of commuting to Australia from Europe. He has 18 months left on his contract. Sydney Morning Herald 06/06/02

Tuesday June 4

STRITCH SOUNDS OFF: Producers of Sunday night’s Tony Awards were generally ruthless about pushing winners to keep their speeches short. Most wrapped up the talking as soon as they heard the music nudge them when their two minutes were up. One who didn’t, and was caught mid-sentence was Elaine Stritch. “The 76-year-old Broadway star was thanking her producers when the orchestra started playing over her speech…’Please, don’t do this to me’,” she pleaded as the telecast cut to commercial. “Backstage, Stritch, crying and shaking with anger, said, ‘I am very, very upset. I know CBS can’t let people do the Gettysburg Address at the Tonys, but they should have given me my time’.” New York Post 06/03/02

Sunday June 2

ALBEE LIVES: Edward Albee is riding a crest of popularity. His work is being widely produced, and he’s up for a Tony Award for Best Play. “Not bad for a species of writer thought not too long ago to be extinct.” It wasn’t always so. “Until Three Tall Women, he says, none of his plays ever received better than 50 percent good reviews, not even Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ‘ I’ve always been aware of the difference between critical evaluation and value. You learn this. But there are some writers who say, `Oh my God, unless I am loved, unless I am praised, I am nothing.’ That was never particularly of any importance to me’.” Hartford Courant 06/02/02

ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD: Forty years after his first professional gig, Frank Sinatra Jr. is still on the road singing. Singing in the shadow of his famous dad has certainly been an impediment to his career, but he’s still out there trying to keep the ‘era’s music alive. “We’re losing this music. We lost Miss Peggy Lee two months ago. Between Keely Smith, Rosemary Clooney and Tony Bennett, that’s just about all that’s left. A whole era is passing.” Chicago Sun-Times 06/02/02

Music: June 2002

Sunday June 30

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID. OR MUST IT? With classical music increasingly marginalized by a music industry hellbent on profit and promotion, proponents are forced to hope against hope that a snippet of Brahms, Schubert, or Strauss imbedded in a commercial or a movie might catch the interest of some listeners, and lead them into the quickly dwindling fraternity of dinosaurs who still enjoy the stuff. But is such grasping at straws anything approaching a good idea, or does such cavalier excerpting serve to further diminish an already battered art form? The New York Times 06/30/02

BUILDING A BETTER CONDUCTOR: Leonard Slatkin’s third annual National Conducting Institute winds up this weekend. “The NCI is distinguished from other conducting workshops by its comprehensive approach to training in all aspects of music directorship,” including artist management, rehearsal tactics, and how to deal with rich donors, in addition to the traditional stick-waving demands. Andante 06/29/02

  • LOOKING PAST TOKENISM: What is it about the supposedly liberal music world that makes it totally unable to get past its aversion to female conductors? Sure, there are a few moderately well-known women on the podium these days, but no major American orchestra has ever hired a woman as music director, or, reportedly, even had one on its short list. Some claim that its a coincidence, but music insiders will tell you that there is no shortage of lingering misogyny among the management of America’s professional orchestras. Philadelphia Inquirer 06/30/02

IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM… “In a move that contrasts with the hard stance in the United States, Australian music industry officials are gauging a plan to endorse CD-copying vending machines… An Australian maker of CD burners asked the Australian Record Industry Association and the Australian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society to let the machines be operated in public places in return for a small royalty fee for every CD copied.” Wired (AP) 06/28/02

RECORD LABELS GUILTY OF PRICE FIXING: A Washington, D.C. judge has found Universal Music Group and Warner Communications guilty of price-fixing in a scandal involving several recordings of the Three Tenors. The ruling was not a big surprise, seeing as Warner had already reached a settlement with trade regulators. Universal, which is appealing the ruling, is mounting a defense predicated on the idea that it only fixed prices a little bit, and that the whole thing just wasn’t any big deal. Andante (AP) 06/29/02

NEWS FLASH – BABIES HAVE EARS AND BRAINS: In a finding that will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever raised a bilingual child or taught Suzuki piano to a 4-year-old, a Canadian research team has announced that babies and young children are excellent listeners. In addition the “researchers say babies can remember complex classical music, even after a two week delay.” CNN 06/27/02

BUSKING FOR FUN AND PROFIT: In most American cities these days, street musicians are run off by police, yelled at by pedestrians, and derided as a blight on civic beauty by politicians who have somehow equated generic boredom with safety and urban attractiveness. In Canada, they hold festivals for their buskers, and “busking has evolved into a much more creative art form, and includes dancers, jugglers and comedians. In fact, some buskers are classically trained performers.” The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 06/29/02

ROSEMARY CLOONEY, 74: “Rosemary Clooney, whose warm, radiant voice placed her in the first rank of American popular singers for more than half a century, died last night at her home in Beverly Hills. She was 74. The cause was complications from lung cancer.” The New York Times 06/30/02

NOBODY LIKES A KNOW-IT-ALL: The winner of this year’s Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs is the definition of an overachiever. He’s a professor at MIT, a yo-yo champ, the creator of the first digital library, and, according to a colleague, “the last person to know everything.” One of the Van Cliburn judges probably summed him up best: “People like that are so annoying.” Boston Globe 06/30/02

Friday June 28

WITH SECONDS TO SPARE: The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has done it. Under the leadership of former Ontario premier Bob Rae, the financially beleagured TSO has succeeded in raising the $1 million necessary to activate a second $1 million in matching money offered up by Heritage Canada. The influx of cash means that the orchestra is near to reaching financial stability less than a year after fiscal problems nearly caused its shutdown. Toronto Star 06/28/02

STORYBOOK MUSIC: Does it matter what politics or lifestyle a composer had? “Like literature and the visual arts in the previous century, classical music has come under the harsh gaze of a new breed of cultural critic, whose investigations range far beyond counterpoint and sonata form. We now regularly interrogate music for its association with society’s deepest, darkest and often unexamined values.” Andante 06/27/02

ANOTHER INSTRUMENTAL NIGHTMARE: “The Australia Council wants to sell a valuable 18th-century Italian cello, currently on loan to young musician Liwei Qin…a move that will effectively end the council’s vision for a national instrument collection. Insurance premiums and maintenance costs have been cited as reasons for abandoning the collection but this has highlighted another problem. There is no Australian organisation that can arrange the loan of high-performance instruments to needy musicians.” Andante (Sydney Morning Herald) 06/28/02

Thursday June 27

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE COMPOSERS? We have celebrity architects, celebrity artists, authors and playwrights. But where are the composers? “For one reason or other, composers in this celebrity era have fallen off the face of the globe. While paint splashers live like kings and Sunday scribblers walk out with film stars on their arms, men and (increasingly) women who spend arid days hunched over giant staves struggling to resolve a stubborn chord are no longer part of the cultured person’s conversational portfolio.” London Evening Standard 06/26/02

BYE-BYE TO THE 3T: The Three Tenors – that mega-selling phenom of the arena concert world, will come to an end with a concert at this week’s World Cup. 3T began with a performance at the World Cup 12 years ago and has been one of the great cash franchises in the history of tenordom. The announcement comes a day after Pavarottis announced he’ll retire on his 70th birthday in 2005 (leaving plenty of time for what are likely to be innumerable lucrative “farewell” tours). BBC 06/27/02

REHABILITATING TCHAIKOVSKY: There was a time when Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Competition was the most prestigious in the world. But during the 90s the competition declined in quality and prestige. This year’s effort, while not generating any breakout performers, made some steps towards regaining some of its former standing. Andante 06/27/02

SOCCER MOMS GOT NOTHING ON THESE FOLKS: Time was when the world of classical music ate children alive, when kids thrown into the lion’s den of hypercompetitive parents, overbearing teachers, and endless peer pressure would emerge out the other end of the experience battered, bruised, and burned out. These days, kids are actually allowed to enjoy themselves while learning to play their instruments, the experience is more about the process than the end result, and parents are expected to be as closely involved as any parent of a potential Wimbledon champion. The New York Times 06/27/02

WANTED – $50 MILLION (CANADIAN): Canada’s Royal Conservatory of Music would like to begin a CAN$50 million expansion in a few years. So it’s somewhat in need of $50 million, and may be a bit unsure of where to find it. The RCM has never had to conduct a major capital campaign before, and it has now put out an open call for a lead donor. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 06/27/02

OF FAMILY AND MUSIC: It’s difficult to balance family and career in most professions, and music is no exception. “In 2002, it’s no longer a shock to see kids at the opera house. While there have been no comprehensive surveys about women musicians and parenting, anecdotal evidence indicates that more women are juggling thriving careers and motherhood — and succeeding at what seemed nearly impossible a generation or two ago.” Andante 06/27/02

Wednesday June 26

WORST-KEPT SECRET: Less than two months after skipping out on his Metropolitan Opera finale, Luciano Pavarotti has announced his retirement from the stage. Speaking with CNN’s Connie Chung, Pavarotti struck back at critics who suggested that illness was not the reason for his Met cancellation, and set an end date, (his 70th birthday in 2005,) for his long career as the world’s most famous tenor. CNN 06/25/02

BOTH SIDES OF THE GLASS: Philip Glass’s latest opera has debuted in Chicago, and will have its New York premiere this fall. So how is it? Well, if you ask the theater critic, it’s “an initially static but finally moving 93-minute ode to one man’s curiosity.” Ask the music critic, and he’ll tell you that “Galileo Galilei is another of those contemporary operas where you come out of the theater whistling the decor and staging because the music is so forgettable.” Chicago Tribune 06/26/02

ORIGINAL SILENCE: British composer Mike Batt included a blank one-minute track on a recent CD and listed it as a one-minute silent piece. He playfully attributed it to Cage/Batt, his lighthearted tribute to the late John Cage. The group that collects copyright royalties duly billed Batt for rights to the Cage contribution. Says a rueful Batt: “My silence is original silence, not a quotation from his silence.” Andante 06/25/02

OREGON SYMPHONY’S NEW DIRECTOR: After a three year search the Oregon Symphony has chosen Carlos Kalmar as music director, succeeding James DePriest. Kalmar has been director of the Grant Park Festival orchestra in Chicago since 2000. The Oregonian 06/25/02

Tuesday June 25

PULLING THE PLUG ON ONLINE RADIO: Online music broadcasters are describing last week’s royalty fee decision by the Librarian of Congress as a knockout blow. “Online broadcasters will have to pay almost three years’ worth of back royalties in mid-October, coughing up about $260 per listener. For some Webcasters, the amount is so daunting that they said they’ll fold unless Congress intervenes or the labels and artists agree to a smaller payment.” Los Angeles Times 06/24/02

LET’S TRY SOMETHING ELSE: With recording companies declaring war on their consumers for music swapping and music fans angry at producers for high CD prices, maybe it’s time to take a breath and try something new. Critic Tom Moon suspects there are plenty of fans out there willing – even eager – to support the artists whose music they like. But a new business model has to evolve. “Where the present industry model discourages anything but the purchase of a full CD, the new, enlightened one would offer free online singles and EPs, loss-leaders that give fans the chance to make an informed purchase.” Philadelphia Inquirer 06/25/02

THE PATH MOST LONELY: Chicago composer Ralph Shapey, who died last week at the age of 81, was a loner. “Someday when I’m dead and buried, some musicologist will start comparing my music with that of other composers of my generation. He will say, `Shapey was ahead of everybody – Carter, Babbitt, all the rest. They are nothing but imitations of what he did all along.’ I wish I could come back to hear that, I really do.” Chicago Tribune 06/25/02

Monday June 24

FOR ATLANTA’S NEW SYMPHONY HALL… The Atlanta Symphony picks Santiago Calatrava to design its new $240 million concert hall. “If the orchestra’s pick is brave by Atlanta standards, it is also canny. Calatrava’s status and star quality ensure media attention, and his iconic, sculptural buildings are the kind that can galvanize a community.” That’ll be important – the orchestra still has to raise all that money… Atlanta Journal-Constitution 06/23/02

  • ARCHITECTURAL CALLING CARD: “The most curious thing about the ASO’s decision came in the reaction. Unlike the other two architectural finalists, Calatrava seems immune to all criticism. Everyone capitulates before his interstellar eyeballs (City of Science Museum in Valencia, Spain) and his kinetic, retractable wings (Milwaukee Art Museum). One London critic has called Calatrava ‘the Mozart of modern bridge design’.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution 06/23/02

Sunday June 23

TIMIDITY AT THE OPERA HOUSE: Opera is thriving in the U.S. these days, as the advent of supertitles and the reinvigoration of the notion that opera is just theatre with better music draw a new generation into the fold. Furthermore, the new popularity has led to a flurry of newly commissioned operas by big-name composers. But so much of the contemporary output seems to be lacking in a certain daring – are composers pandering to the crowd, afraid to challenge them too much, lest they alienate the public again? The New York Times 06/23/02

THE JOB NO ONE WANTED: When Gerard Schwarz announced last year that he was stepping down as conductor of the New York Chamber Orchestra that he founded a quarter-century ago, everyone agreed that he would be hard to replace. But no one expected what has now become reality: the NYCO, financially devastated and unable to find anyone to take on its music directorship, has cancelled its upcoming season, and is likely to fold completely. Andante 06/23/02

D.C. OPERA EXEC TO STEP DOWN: “Walter Arnheim, who has served as the executive director of the Washington Opera for the past 2 1/2 years, will retire on June 30, the end of the company’s fiscal year, it was announced late yesterday afternoon.” Arnheim declined to make a statement personally, and there is some speculation that the decision may not have been entirely his. Washington Post 06/22/02

TCHAIKOVSKY PRIZEWINNERS: The 12th International Tchaikovsky Competition wrapped up this weekend with Japanese pianist Ayako Uehara taking first prize in high-profile piano division. For the first time in the competition’s history, the judges did not award a first prize in the violin division. Andante (Kyodo News) 06/22/02

  • GETTING PAST PERCEPTION: The Tchaikovsky Competition was the artistic pride of the Soviet Union, a chance to prove to the arrogant West that Russians were possessed of a proud and strong musical tradition. “But in the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the competition’s reputation declined, amid allegations of low standards, corruption and jury-rigging. This year, the Tchaikovsky Competition is trying to regain its former prominence by including international performers at the top of their fields among the judges.” Voice of America 06/23/02

LOOKING AHEAD AT RAVINIA: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s summer festival at Ravinia is one of the most successful of its kind, due in large part to its stellar lineup of conductors, soloists, and high-quality repertoire at a time of the year when many orchestras play nothing but pops and Strauss waltzes. But with Ravinia director Christoph Eschenbach expected to step down to concentrate on his music directorship in Philadelphia, speculation has begun about who should succeed him. And, for the first time in modern memory, most of the leading candidates seem to be talented young Americans. Chicago Tribune 06/23/02

HOW NOT TO RUN A SUMMER SEASON: Two years ago, just as many American orchestras were beginning to own up to massive debt and cut costs accordingly, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra was launching an ambitious new summer concert series and promising to broaden the orchestra’s appeal in its hometown of Birmingham. Two summers in, crowds have been disappointing and the series is hemorrhaging money. One local critic thinks she knows why. Birmingham News 06/21/02

CLAW YOUR WAY TO THE TOP: There are thousands of talented young musicians in the world, all striving to claim one of the precious few spots as a top international performer. No instrument is more competitive than the piano, as pianists, by and large, lack the option of an orchestral career, and the battle for attention can be fierce. So what does it take to get to the top of the heap? Three of the UK’s success stories have some thoughts. The Telegraph (UK) 06/22/02

GOTHAM PIPEDREAMS: “Neither of New York City’s biggest concert halls, Avery Fisher Hall or Carnegie Hall, has a symphonic pipe organ, but its churches keep building them. The latest is the Roman Catholic Church of St. Vincent Ferrer on the Upper East Side, where a huge truck recently brought nearly 4,000 pipes from the Schantz Organ Company in Orrville, Ohio, for a new organ in the gallery.” The St. Vincent organ is just the latest in a series of eclectic, original instruments making their mark on the city’s music scene. The New York Times 06/22/02

THE NEW TECHNO: Techno music was one of those movements that brought a modicum of elitism and intellectualism to the ordinarily low-brow world of pop, even as it spawned a subculture based on high-energy dance and heavy drug use. But, like so many movements before it, techno has been waning in recent years, as less-threatening elements of its blueprint were incorporated into mainstream pop. Now, a new techno-based act is gaining prominence in Europe, leading some to speculate that the genre’s future is in musical theatrics, with the music only one part of a giant sensory experience. Wired 06/22/02

Friday June 21

THE 6 MILLION PHENOM: After two years the soundtrack from the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? “the Grammy-winning album of blues, mountain and other Americana music, has sold more than 6 million copies and is still hovering on Billboard’s chart of the Top 20 albums in the country.” This despite the almost total absence of playtime on commercial radio in the US. The album has been so successful, it’s spawned new recording labels hoping to promote this genre of music. Nando Times (AP) 06/20/02

ELECTRONIC WINS: For the past decade, the mainstream and electronic music industries have tried to turn electronic music into a pan-cultural worldwide phenomenon. Globally, this effort has been indisputably successful. Electronic music is pop music in Europe. Kids play with Roland Grooveboxes, not Stratocasters, and dream of being the next Paul Oakenfold, not the next Paul McCartney. But not in the States, even though house and techno were of course invented in Chicago and Detroit.” But electronic music has scored with the rave underground, where it flourishes. Salon 06/20/02

SEASONS OF OPERA: Toronto’s new opera house will be called the Four Seasons Opera House after the founder of the hotel chain donated $20 million for the $150 million project. Toronto Star 06/20/02

Thursday June 20

NOSTALGIA OR DECLINE? “Unfortunately, Elvis’s record-breaking 18th UK chart topper has led to an outbreak of what might be termed ‘They don’t make ’em like they used to’ syndrome. So, the question is, does pop music really keep getting worse? Or do our tastes just get stuck in a rut? I think the answer lies in the way we listen to music and in particular the level of intensity and concentration we bring to something that, I would guess, most adults consider a pleasurable diversion rather than the core of their very being.” The Telegraph (UK) 06/20/02

  • Previously: ELVIS LIVES: Elvis has just scored his 18th No. 1 hit in the UK. A DJ funky remix of Elvis Presley’s A Little Less Conversation. How? Soccer. The song was used in a sports ad and has become Britain’s unofficial World Cup anthem. The Times (UK) 06/17/02

PLAYING FOR NO ONE? Where’s LA’s jazz scene? Actually there’s plenty of innovative playing going on. But it’s underground – in the schools and in small out-of-the-way venues. The bigger clubs are mainstream and few of the hot young players have much visibility. “The playing is brilliant. But no one, no one, seems to be creating music that is connecting to an audience out there.” Los Angeles Times 06/20/02

  • FINDING THAT CERTAIN AUDIENCE: Even in St. Louis, which has a rich jazz tradition, keeping the music scene healthy is a matter of promotion. “Jazz is an improvisational art. And so is jazz marketing. Attracting crowds to clubs, concert halls and festivals requires much more than just booking talented artists and waiting for lines to form, promoters say. Staging a successful jazz event also is a matter of timing, budgeting and good, old-fashioned luck.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch 06/16/02

HIP-HOP NOT JUMPING SO HIGH: “Sales of hip-hop albums in the first quarter of 2002 were down an eye-opening 26% from the same period last year, by far the largest drop among major pop genres, and longtime observers on the scene have been grumbling that innovation and star power are on the wane.” Los Angeles Times 06/19/02

OVER THE CLIFF: “Europe’s top orchestra and four of America’s Big Five are changing hands, the biggest baton handover in memory.” This kind of top-level turnover would be cause for concern in any industry, writes Norman Lebrecht. But the orchestras have botched it. “With conservatism in full cry, musical America is entering an epoch of dullness that one would hardly cross the road to experience, let alone the Atlantic. The slow decline of symphonic concerts has taken a sharp downturn with the shunning of the next generation. This sorry outcome could have been foretold, and has been.” London Evening Standard 06/19/02

Wednesday June 19

MUSICIANS – SMARTER THAN THE REST OF US? A new study says that musicians have larger brains than other people. “Medical scans found that instrumentalists and singers have 130 per cent more grey matter in a particular part of their brains compared with those who are unable to play a note.” But how do you explain Ozzy Osbourne? The Scotsman 06/18/02

DUMBING DOWN IN CHICAGO? You’ll excuse orchestra musicians if they’re a bit over-sensitive about the state of their profession. In the last decade, symphonies around the country have cut back on the amount of “serious” classical music they perform, and increased promotion of pops and “crossover” concerts in an effort to increase audience size. To this point, the so-called “Big Five” orchestras have dodged the trend, but now, Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians are grumbling that their trustees are exchanging musical integrity for quick-and-dirty fiscal fixes. Chicago Tribune 06/19/02

CLAWING BACK IN NYC: The economic impact of 9/11 on New York’s arts institutions was much wider-reaching than most people realize, and three of the city’s smaller orchestras very nearly went under as a result. But less than a year after the attacks decimated the Big Apple’s cultural landscape, things are looking up, and some are even beginning to speculate that the orchestras of Brooklyn, Long Island, and Queens will actually be better off than they were pre-9/11 when all is said and done. Newsday (New York) 06/18/02

BLAME THE TEACHERS? So many classical musicians sound the same – middle of the road and bland. Is it because of how they’re trained? “This sort of standardisation of education over the last hundred years has certainly raised the degree of professionalism. But standardisation has also become a danger. Is it any surprise that musicians tend to sound the same, look the same, and function as replaceable parts for orchestras, concert seasons and advertising? Is it a surprise that the individuality that might make for a remarkable moment of experience at a concert is missing?” Ludwigvanweb 06/02

SEARCHING FOR WERNICKE’S RING: “On 16 April, shockwaves resounded throughout the opera world with the news of the sudden death of German director and designer Herbert Wernicke after he collapsed on the streets of Basel, Switzerland… Wernicke’s loss was felt most keenly, perhaps, in Munich, where he was in the midst of that most formidable of tasks, a new production of Wagner’s Ring cycle.” The city is going ahead with the cycle anyway, and billing it as a tribute to Wernicke, with the whole production based on his production notes. Andante 06/19/02

NEW OPERA HOUSE FOR OSLO: The Norwegian parliament has approved plans for a new opera house for the nation’s capital, after more than five years of political wrangling. The hall will be built in Oslo’s inner harbor, and will have a maximum price tag of US$416 million. Aftenposten (Oslo) 06/18/02

INTERLOCHEN AT 75: Aspen might be the largest American summer music school. But Interlochen, in Michigan is the oldest. This year the school is celebrating its 75th anniversary. “Founded in 1928 by music educator Joseph Maddy, Interlochen grew by fits and starts to become the largest and oldest institution of its kind in the world. ” It attracts 2,100 students from all 50 states and 41 countries, from Aruba to Uzbekistan. Traverse City Eagle-Record 06/17/02

Tuesday June 18

TELECONCERT: The band Korn has played a concert in New York that was transmitted live in “30 cities across the United States in a move that could open up a new way to watch bands. Some 6,000 people watched the group in 40 cinemas thanks to a satellite link and digital projectors, on top of the 3,000 who saw them in person at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom.” BBC 06/17/02

RATING PAY-PER-PLAY: This week the US Librarian of Congress will decide what royalty fees internet radio stations will pay to music producers. “Depending on how the rates are set, some insiders believe the announcement could put some Web broadcasters out of business.” Nando Times (CSM) 06/17/02

ORCHESTRAS LOOKING UP: Thirteen-hundred orchestra administrators met in Philadelphia last week to talk about the state of the business at the annual American Symphony Orchestra League meeting. Despite a few orchestras with financial problems, “the overall health of orchestras is so strong that they are in better shape now than they were one or two decades ago.” Andante 06/17/02

SINGLE-MINDED: “Singles have long been seen by the industry as the most important kind of sales tool, the trailer for the album.” But singles have fallen on hard times. Sales are down, and the format is dyng. “Ruthlessly segmented by marketing formats, the pop singles market has become far too complicated for anyone but the most committed of professionals to understand.” New Statesman 06/17/02

PLAYING INTO PAIN: Seventy-six percent of orchestra musicians surveyed report having sustained physical injuries in their careers serious enough to make them miss work. Minnesota Orchestra cellist Janet Horvath became concerned enough about the effects of job injuries that she’s written a book. “The problem has always been the stigma and the embarrassment: If you hurt yourself, you must be a bad player. That’s been the mindset. It’s taken 20 years of work for people to understand that most of the injuries we see are cumulative.” The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis) 06/18/02

E-COMPETITION WINNER: Mei-Ting Sun wins the International Piano E-Competition in Minneapolis. The compatition attracted attention because Yefim Bronfman, one of the judges, listened via remote hookup in Japan. “At first Mr. Bronfman found it disconcerting to listen to performances on a self-playing piano, he told officials of the competition. So he followed the musical scores of the Schubert works as he listened. But he increasingly took advantage of the video relay that was coordinated to the performance. ‘Watching the television screen helped to make it believable’.” The New York Times 06/18/02

RALPH SHAPEY, 81: Ralph Shapey, who died last weekend at the age of 81, was “perhaps America’s most relentlessly self-challenging composer, his catalogue having roughly 200 pieces for a huge range of ensembles. He also cared a great deal if people listened. In 1969, he went on strike as a composer, refusing to allow performances of his works until conditions for modern music improved. At one point, he even threatened to burn it all, which was possible since none of his music had been published and was all in manuscript.” The Guardian (UK) 06/17/02

Monday June 17

WORRIED ABOUT RADIO: Recording companies and artists are growing concerned about the growing monopolies of radio stations and their power to decide which songs get played. “In the next few weeks, United States lawmakers are expected to introduce legislation backed by both artists and recording companies who are suddenly joined against what they consider their newest enemy: the radio conglomerates whose practices, they contend, cost them millions of dollars each year.” The New York Times 06/17/02

USE ME/ABUSE ME: The recording industry is worried about sales of used CDs. “The industry worries that the expanding used market is cannibalizing new-CD sales, as well as promoting piracy by allowing consumers to buy, record and sell back discs while retaining their own digitally pristine copies. One proposed remedy being debated by record label executives is federal legislation requiring used-CD retailers to pay royalties on secondary sales of albums.” San Diego Union-Tribune 06/14/02

ARTISTS DEMAND BETTER DEAL: Recording artists are demanding better treatment from recording companies. “In recent weeks, several long-simmering lawsuits and legislative reforms seeking to change the way major labels handle artists’ contracts have come to a boil. The biggest player in this movement is the Recording Artists Coalition (RAC), led by Don Henley, which wants to shorten the length of deals and require labels to offer artists health benefits.” New York Daily News 06/17/02

THE ASPEN IDEA: The music festival at Aspen, Colorado was founded in 1960 with the idea that the arts would flourish in “the tranquil serenity of the great virgin outdoors. In the years since its inception, the Aspen Music Festival, which began as an adjunct of the institute, has grown exponentially from a cluster of small impromptu chamber performances to a meticulously planned nine-week extravaganza with more than 200 events, 100,000 annual visitors, five orchestras and a budget that tops $11 million a year.” Opera News 06/02

ELVIS LIVES: Elvis has just scored his 18th No. 1 hit in the UK. A DJ funky remix of Elvis Presley’s A Little Less Conversation. How? Soccer. The song was used in a sports ad and has become Britain’s unofficial World Cup anthem. The Times (UK) 06/17/02

Sunday June 16

MUSIC CONSUMERS SUE RECORD LABELS: A couple of music consumers are suing major recording companies for embedding copy-protection in CD’s. They want the court to “either to block the discs or require warning labels identifying them as inferior in quality and hazardous to computers. Copy-protected discs use a variety of electronic techniques to deter digital copying. Some can’t be played at all on computers and other devices with CD-ROM drives, while others try to confuse the drives so they can’t extract the disc’s data.” Los Angeles Times 06/16/02

MUSIC CRITICS WHO KNOW MUSIC? Northwestern University is launching a new degree for music critics. The course will include classes in music and journalism. Sounds like a simple idea, really, but it isn’t offered in many places. “We need a new paradigm for what a good journalist does. The old paradigm was that any good reporter can do a good job of covering any subject, regardless of how complicated it is. The new paradigm says: `Wouldn’t it be good if people really knew what they were writing about?'” Chicago Tribune 06/16/02

STICKING WITH CONVENTIONAL: The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs is about music rather than careers. But music critic Scott Cantrell is disappointed that judges chose conventional performances to win rather than the performer with a more idiosyncratic approach. Dallas Morning News 06/16/02

  • FOR THE LOVE OF IT: The Amateur competition reminds listeners that making music is a personal experience. “There was the sometime librarian who co-owned a café and a shoe repair shop and designed circus tents, the financial manager with a Harvard MBA and a black belt in karate, the television news anchor who took master classes with Sir Georg Solti and became third runner-up in the 1985 Miss America Pageant.” Toronto Star 06/16/02

100 YEARS OF STRING QUARTETS: A festival in Baltimore considers the evolution of the string quartet in the 20th Century. Festival organizers reviewed more than 400 works by nearly 80 composers. “The string quartet genre, which emerged somewhere around 1760 (roughly around the time the symphony genre began to develop), underwent dynamic developments after 1900. Composers felt free to use the idiom in an astonishing variety of ways, often departing substantially from quartet traditions.” Baltimore Sun 06/16/02

THE MOST-EXPENSIVE ORCHESTRA: The Philadelphia Orchestra, recently arrived in its new concert hall, has hiked ticket prices, making it the most expensive orchestra in America. The most expensive ticket will cost $130, plus a $2 building-use surcharge. The orchestra says the increase is unrelated to moving into the new hall. “The reasons for the higher prices: Orchestra board members and administrators are betting that the listening public can and will pay more, and the ensemble can use the extra revenue to pay down deficits.” Philadelphia Inquirer 06/12/02

Friday June 14

AX IN AN E-FLAP: There has been plenty of press on an international piano competition taking place this weekend in the Twin Cities, largely due to the participation of two famous judges, Yefim Bronfman and Emanuel Ax, who would be doing their judging from remote locations with the help of an internet-based recreation system. But when the New York Times reported yesterday that Ax had pulled out, questions arose about whether the cancellation had just occurred, or whether the competition’s sponsors had waited until the last possible minute to announce it, in order that press coverage would not be scaled back. The Star Tribune (Minneapolis/Saint Paul) 06/14/02

MONTREAL MOVES ON AMID FALLOUT: The consequences of Charles Dutoit’s ouster in Montreal continue to mount. Just as the orchestra seemed to be moving on, appointing a 13-member committee to search for Dutoit’s successor as music director, two more star soloists, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emmanuel Ax, announced that they were cancelling their engagements with the ensemble for next season. Andante 06/13/02

LOOKING FOR THE NEXT TENOR: With the era of the Three Tenors gasping and wheezing to a close, the obvious question rears its head: who’s next? Could it be the much-maligned Andrea Bocelli, whose fans are so devoted as to resemble pop fans? What about Salvatore Licitra, who pulled off a stunning New York debut while standing in for Pavarotti at the Met last month? And isn’t it about time Ben Heppner got a turn in the big spotlight? Boston Herald 06/14/02

MORE INTRIGUE IN EDMONTON: Last winter’s bitter battle between the management and musicians of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra centered around the orchestra’s deposed music director, Grzegorz Nowak, and developed into a heated discussion over whether musicians have a right to some control of their orchestra’s direction. In the thick of the fight, Nowak threatened to take the ESO musicians (who by and large supported him) and start his own orchestra. Plans have been scaled back a bit, but Nowak is making good on his threat. Edmonton Journal 06/13/02

  • TOO MUCH MUSIC? Grzegorz Nowak insists that his new chamber orchestra is not designed to compete with the ESO, and points out that the two ensembles will perform on different dates, and even share musicians. But the relationship is sure to be somewhat antagonistic, and some critics are worried that the city cannot support two separate concert series. Edmonton Journal 06/14/02

BURN BABY BURN: Music fan are being offered an easy new way to burn CDs in Sydney – vending machines. “There are about 20 Copy Cat machines installed in convenience stores and photocopying shops around Sydney where burning a CD costs $5, plus $2 for a blank. The machines are ostensibly legitimate because they come with a notice warning users about copyright infringements.” Sydney Morning Herald 06/14/02

  • THE DIGITAL CATCH-22: The debate over CD-copying technology and music piracy is more complex than either side usually cares to admit. On the one hand, the industry is quite aware of studies that show that copying technology has led to a wider and more voracious market for purchased CDs. On the other, the professional music pirates who are glutting the world market with discs are a major threat to profit margins. What’s a giant corporate media industry to do? Wired 06/14/02

FINALISTS TO REDESIGN AVERY FISHER HALL: Lincoln Center has chosen three architects as finalists to redesign Avery Fisher Hall. Sir Norman Foster, Raphael Moneo and the team of Richard Meier and Arata Isozaki will reimagine the hall, which is to be redone as part of a proposed $1.2 billion makeover of Lincoln Center. The New York Times 06/14/02

Thursday June 13

THE DOWNLOAD EFFECT? A prominent economics professor studying the effect of music downloading wonders why there isn’t more of an impact on CD sales. Sure, sales were down a bit last year, and it could be explained by the recession. Estimates of downloads are five times greater than CD sales. Yet CD sales are only down 5 percent. Perhaps digital trading isn’t hurting legit sales? Salon 06/13/02

  • ANOTHER TRY AT PAY-PER-DOWNLOAD: Trying to head off music pirates, “Universal and Sony plan to sell tens of thousands of high-quality digital albums for $US9.99 and singles for up to US99¢ through online retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy and Sam Goody.” So far pay-to-download sites have not been successful, but the two companies hope the drastically reduced prices will attract buyers. The Age (Melbourne) 06/13/02
  • IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM… “Other major labels are likely to follow as the record business grapples with the rise of online music copying through unauthorized services such as Napster, Kazaa and Morpheus and potentially billions of dollars in lost sales. Rather than trying to force consumers to buy music on the labels’ terms, the services signal that record companies are slowly adapting to Internet-fueled changes in the marketplace.” Los Angeles Times 06/12/02

E-JUDGING: A new international piano features an e-judge – pianist Yefim Bronfman, who will tune in to performances sitting in Japan, while the competition plays out in Minnesota. “Mr. Bronfman, whom the contest’s Web site (www.piano-e-competition.com) calls an “e-judge,” is to sit in a 200-seat recital hall in the international headquarters of the Yamaha Corporation listening to the performances of the young pianists in St. Paul as reproduced onstage through a Yamaha Disklavier Pro piano, essentially a 21st-century player piano. The contest does raise questions about the uniqueness of live performance and the appropriate uses of ever-advancing technology in music.” The New York Times 06/13/02

  • THE E-MASTERCLASS: Meanwhile, violinist Pinchas Zukerman will conduct a masterclass in Ottawa today for a trio playing in New York. The class will be held at 2 pm (ET) over high-speed internet, and anyone can tune in to the 90-minute lesson. MSNBC 06/13/02

AN ORCHESTRA TRAVELS ON ITS STOMACHS: What makes a great orchestra? “Someone should write a doctorate some day on why certain middle-sized cities (Birmingham, Dresden and Cleveland) manage to generate and sustain world-class orchestras, while others (Glasgow, Frankfurt or Seattle) fail to do so.” Outgoing Cleveland Orchestra music director says success comes down to parking spaces. And lockers. And food. “My gimmick is I pay them a lot of money. Think about it. Our musicians don’t have problems with traffic. They can get to work in 10 minutes. They all have parking spaces. They all have lockers. There’s a good canteen. Compared with a London musician’s living, it’s heaven.” The Guardian (UK) 06/13/02

WHY I SWORE OFF MOZART: Norman Lebrecht has had his fill of Mozart. One performance too many? “It is so widely assumed that Mozart must be good for you that, in Alabama, the Governor sends Amadeus’s greatest hits to pregnant women in the hope of turning their embryos into Einsteins, and in Sweden they play K467 in labour wards to ease the pangs of parturition. The Mozart Effect is becoming a tenet of nursery education. Myself, I am more concerned at the risk of brain rot.” London Evening Standard 06/12/02

Wednesday June 12

NEW ENDINGS: Puccini never finished Turandot, his last opera. It is usually performed using an ending written by one of the composer’s contemporaries. But “this year a newly composed ending to Puccini’s opera is causing a huge international stir. In quick succession there have been a first concert hearing in the Canary Islands, the first stage production in Los Angeles, and now the first European production in Amsterdam. And no wonder when it is the work of Luciano Berio. Here is a unique meeting of minds between two imposing Italians – both leading composers of their day, both steeped in opera, but reaching out across a gap of three generations.” Financial Times 06/12/02

THEFT ON A GRAND SCALE: Sales of pirated music cds doubled in 2001 to 950 million, says a new report. But overall the number of “pirated recordings, including CDs and cassettes, totaled nearly 2 billion in 2001, up just slightly from a year earlier. The figure means that two out of every five recordings sold worldwide in 2001 was an illegal copy. Illegal music sales outnumber legal sales in 25 countries, compared with 21 countries a year earlier.” Boston Globe (AP) 06/11/02

THE SYDNEY CLAP: “Quelle horreur! Audience members are increasingly clapping at the wrong time in classical music performances. Over the past year organisers from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra have noticed the trend in many local concerts. Recent SSO performances of Brahms, with acclaimed Canadian pianist Jon Kimura Parker at the Sydney Opera House, reportedly featured continual bouts of clapping in parts meant to be silent. But, perhaps to the disgust of classical music buffs, neither institution seems particularly worried.” Sydney Morning Herald 06/12/02

SET OF DESTRUCTION: Opera Carolina in Charlotte is out almost $600,000 worth of sets for its production of a Carlisle Floyd opera were accidentally destroyed. The company was storing the sets in a building loaned to them by a local real estate management company. The company decided earlier this year to have the building demolished, but forgot to tell the opera company. Charlotte Observer 06/11/02

Tuesday June 11

MUSIC’S TERRIFIC COSTS: Lessons, instruments…the costs add up. It can cost $500,000 to train a student to become a professional musician. So does that mean that only rich kids get the support to become first-rate musicians? “Most musicians who end up as professionals come from affluent backgrounds. There’s a number of talented students who come from more ordinary families, but they have great trouble trying to buy high-quality lessons and instruments.” The Age (Melbourne) 06/11/02

Monday June 10

BURSTING THE BUBBLE: Why is the recording industry in danger of collapse? “It is hard to think of a more profound business crisis. You’ve lost control of the means of distribution, promotion, and manufacturing. You’ve lost quality control – in some sense, there’s been a quality-control coup. You’ve lost your basic business model – what you sell has become as free as oxygen. It’s a philosophical as well as a business crisis – which compounds the problem, because the people who run the music business are not exactly philosophers.” New York Magazine 06/10/02

SAVING SAN DIEGO: The San Diego Symphony has twice gone bankrupt. America’s seventh-largest city has never been able to field an orchestra to compete with cities of similar size. And yet, a $120 million gift to the orchestra promises to put it on solid enough footing to build something real. Here’s the story of how the orchestra came back from financial ruin to play another day. Los Angeles Times 06/09/02

DIGITAL PIRACY – MORE THAN JUST THEFT: Stealing is wrong, right? And piracy is stealing, right? So who’s getting hurt by all this digital music downloading going on over the internet? Maybe it’s more valuable to musicians that their work is “stolen?” After all, aren’t reputations and demand established by familiarity and how much your music is out there and appreciated? Just a thought. NewMusicBox 06/02

THE CASE OF THE MISSING STRAD: In April a $1.6 million Stradivarius violin was stolen from a shop in New York. But what’s the point? “I don’t understand it, this thief. What would this person do, keep it for themselves, play it in solitude? Whenever it surfaces, it will be recognized.” All of the more than 600 surviving Stradivarius violins have been extensively catalogued and photographed. Orange County Register (NYDN) 06/09/02

SAVING ORCHESTRAS FOR THE FUTURE: How to get new audiences to come to classical music concerts? Orchestras discuss the issue endlessly. “You hear all this talk about marketing the ‘excitement’ of orchestras. Well it’s not always about excitement. It’s about contemplation, introspection, idealism.” The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis) 06/09/02

WHO TO PAY? “At the end of last year, a windfall amounting to more than $250,000 (U.S.) owing to hundreds of Canadian musicians who had performed on recording sessions for major labels during the past five years was sitting idle in an American trust fund because no one knew it was there or how to collect it.” Toronto Star 06/10/02

Sunday June 9

THE GENDER ORCHESTRA: Are there “girl” musical instruments and “boy” musical instruments? A new study says yes. Boys consistently preferred instruments traditionally identified as male. “Using accepted British, Australian and North American classifications, ‘male’ instruments in this study were deemed drums, saxophone, trumpet and trombone, as opposed to the more ‘feminine’ apparati of flute, violin, clarinet, cello.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/08/02

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN SOUND AND MUSIC: It’s certainly not a new idea, but using everyday sound as fodder for music is finding new fans. “A California group called Matmos makes pieces of music entirely out of the recorded sounds of plastic surgery being performed. A British technician called Matthew Herbert makes dance music entirely out of the sound of a McDonald’s meal being unwrapped and consumed. They are both part of a trend sometimes known as ‘glitch,’ which is music made without any instruments, entirely of found sounds, which are then arranged into musical patterns. Glitch is primarily about what fun can be had with samplers and computer-editing programs, but it is also about bridging the gap between pop music and conceptual art.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/08/02

THE NEW CHOPIN: When Chopin wrote his 24 piano preludes, he experimented with a 25th in E-flat minor, but abandoned it. Now a University of Pennsylvania professor has reconstructed the piece. It “shows a degree of experimentalism we hadn’t known before. At the same time, that’s why it doesn’t work. You’ve got the experimentalism in sound, but the chord progression isn’t that strange.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/08/02

THE ULTIMATE CROSSOVER? The Andrea Bocelli phenomenon just keeps on going. “Bocelli’s success has been prodigious, and controversial. For the opera mavens in the Internet chat rooms, he’s an impostor, a pop-star microphone singer who has no business singing opera. For millions of fans he is a pop star – his Romanza album sold 25 million copies worldwide, and at one point only the Spice Girls topped him on the charts; some of his fans probably wonder what all this opera stuff is about and wish he would just sing more soulful power ballads.” Boston Globe 06/09/02

Friday June 7

GOING HOME: Across America there is a growing movement to take classical music concerts back into private homes. Chamber music was written for smaller spaces, and a number of organizations have sprung up to stage home concerts – sometimes with big-name performers. Christian Science Monitor 06/07/02

GENDER-TYPING: There are more and more female classical music critics writing today. It’s a field traditionally dominated by males. But “isn’t it funny that her increased acceptance in the ranks of critics — that is, among the shapers rather than receivers of opinion — happens to coincide with the striking decline, purely in terms of space, of classical music coverage in news outlets across the nation?” Andante 06/06/02

RATTLE IN CALIFORNIA: Star conductor Simon Rattle hasn’t performed in the Bay Area since 1988. But it turns out the new Berlin Philharmonic chief is a regular visitor – his kids live there. Tonight he performs as a pianist with his son. In a rare American interview he tells Joshua Kosman that he never really considered leading an American orchestra. “I know that with any American orchestra, I would’ve had to spend a lot of my time fighting for existence, reminding people why we had to be there and taking much more of an educational role than I wanted to take on at this time in my life.” San Francisco Chronicle 06/07/02

MORE THAN JUST THE MUSIC: Today’s pop musicians have to be so much more than good musicians. Media smarts are essential. “For quite a few years now, having a distinctive sound has not been enough to prevent people from being one-hit wonders. Today’s pop musicians need to be all-round talents and their careers depend less on the music than on marketing.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 06/07/02

JANSONS TO LEAVE PITTSBURGH: Conductor Mariss Jansons is quitting as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony after the 2003/2004 season. “Jansons’ long-standing disappointment over low attendance at Heinz Hall concerts was not given as a reason for leaving, said PSO officials, nor did he mention any of his recent frustrations with orchestra musicians over artistic direction. And while he’s previously expressed the feeling that the arts get too little respect in Pittsburgh, orchestra officials said Jansons made no mention of that in announcing his departure.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 06/07/02

  • THE SPECULATION BEGINS: Finding a replacement for Jansons “seems especially difficult, as major orchestras in Europe and the United States have filled most of the vacancies that were the talk of the classical music world in the past three years.” Here’s a speculative list. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 06/07/02

Thursday June 6

RESISTANT TO PROTECTION: Recording producers want to protect their music from piracy and unauthorized copying. They might be able to accomplish it by embedding codes that prevent digital copying. But there’s one big problem – music consumers, the kind that actually buy music, won’t buy protected discs. What to do? Wired 06/06/02

SJ SYMPHONY WOES LONGSTANDING: Does this week’s closure of the San Jose Symphony mean the city can’t support its arts institutions? Not necessarily. “The symphony’s problems have been entrenched and long-standing. The programming and leadership of music director Leonid Grin has been criticized as limited in scope and dynamism. When the orchestra stopped giving concerts in October, it was already $2.5 million in the hole.” San Francisco Chronicle 06/05/02

REMEMBERING MEET THE COMPOSER: Over 15 years, beginning in 1982, Meet the Composer commissioned more than 700 works. “Thanks in part to the MTC’s efforts, the 1980s witnessed a marked increase in the commissioning and performance of new scores. By 1992, however, the initiative’s funding dried up and all but six of the residencies came to an end. Some orchestras simply dropped the position when they were forced to pay for it. Others, like the Philadelphia Orchestra, maintained it for several years but eventually eliminated it for budgetary reasons.” Now a festival to commemorate the program’s accomplishments. Andante 06/06/02

BLACK MUSICIANS M.I.A.: Coalitions of musicians have been working to change the kinds of contract deals they get from recording companies. Notably missing from the efforts? Black musicians. “There is the perception of those [black] artists who do know about these movements, who do get to hear about them—and many have not—that this is a white movement, that this is something that white people are doing. And there is a distrust of white people and their intentions.” Village Voice 06/04/02

WHERE WERE THE YOUNG? “Queen Elizabeth II’s reign has coincided with the explosive birth and ongoing evolution of a vibrant pop culture. Although it may have had little impact on Her Majesty’s dress sense, she has presided over rock and roll, the beat boom, psychedelia, heavy rock, prog rock, reggae, punk, ska, indie, new romance, electro pop, acid house, hip hop, trip hop, Britpop, jungle and garage.” Yet the big concert celebrating her reign was composed almost entirely of the geriatric set. Big names, sure, but where are the younger pop musicians? The Telegraph (UK) 06/06/02

NOT VERY COMMITTED: “Edo de Waart, the mercurial chief conductor and artistic director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, will not be returning to Sydney this year to fulfil his obligations with the orchestra, opting, instead, to stay at home in the Netherlands for the birth of his child.” de Waart has ditched other SSO concerts this year, and has complained about the hardship of commuting to Australia from Europe. He has 18 months left on his contract. Sydney Morning Herald 06/06/02

Wednesday June 5

SAN JOSE SYMPHONY GOES BANKRUPT: After trying to revive itself through fundraising, the San Jose Symphony calls it quits. The orchestra had already shut down operations last winter but had hoped to regroup. “The announcement concludes months of uncertainty about the future of the 123-year-old institution. With an estimated $3.4 million in debt and just $300,000 in assets, the symphony seemed increasingly likely to fold. Concert attendance had fallen off. To make ends meet, the organizers borrowed money on credit. The symphony’s status has been in limbo since it was shut down last October because of mismanagement and spiraling debt.” San Jose Mercury News 06/03/02

  • PLAYERS LET LOOSE: “Symphony leaders hope to resurrect the organization in a new form, but nobody knows when that might happen. San Jose Symphony players never made a full income there. Most earned around $24,000.” San Francisco Chronicle 06/05/02

ROYAL OPERA STRIKE? The Covent Garden backstage costumers department is threatening to go on strike. “Angry staff claim the management is refusing to honour an agreement made 18 months ago to increase the salaries of the craftspeople who make the wigs and costumes.” The Guardian (UK) 06/05/02

Tuesday June 4

TO PROTECT (NOT SERVE): “At least two Canadian record companies will begin testing copyright-protected CDs this summer, But record executives in Canada and the United States are worried about possible consumer backlash. If music-lovers conclude that the sound quality of copyright-protected discs is inferior, or the discs “gum up” the CD players in their cars or the hard drives in their computers, or they see the technology as a Big Brother-style intrusion and restriction by impersonal, profit-hungry labels, the conventions that have governed the commercial recording industry for decades could be further eroded.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/04/02

YANKS ABANDON BRITS: “Americans who embraced Beatlemania, progressive rock and the New Romantics have been left cold by Britpop and U.K. Garage. A music industry report released this week says the British share of Billboard’s annual top 100 albums chart has plummeted from a high of 32 percent in 1986 – when bands like Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys and Simple Minds rode the British wave – to just 0.2 percent in 1999 and 1.7 percent in 2000. Last year, the share was 8.8 percent – but more than one-third of the British sales were of a single album: The Beatles 1 anthology.” New York Post 06/03/02

DOHNANYI FINISHES IN CLEVELAND: Christoph von Dohnanyi finishes his term with the Cleveland Orchestra. His “20 years at the Cleveland Orchestra came to an end with a concert performance of Wagner’s Siegfried, which stretched from early twilight to midnight. Opinions about conductors and orchestras tend to be filed under separate categories, but the Cleveland-Dohnanyi experience argues for chemistry rather than individual ingredients.” The New York Times 06/04/02

Monday June 3

BRITAIN’S MUSIC MYTH: “Britain has a long and inglorious tradition of attempting to subjugate the planet by asserting its culture. This is the perceived superiority upon which an empire was built, and it should have withered away years ago when we realised foreign countries didn’t need British tastes to be fully functional. But old prejudices die hard, and it’s ironic that they persist in that supposedly rebellious establishment, the music business.” The Scotsman 06/02/02

WHEN MOVIES NICK MUSIC: “Nothing wrong with learning about lovely pieces of music through movies, of course. One tends to hear them fragmented and without context that way, but still, better to hear the pieces there than never at all. But I still find it odd that we begin to refer to these enduring works with the names of the films or even the commercials that used them five minutes ago.” The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/01/02

MASUR MADE EMERITUS: They may have terminated his contract, but the New York Philharmonic still has feelings for outgoing music director Kurt Masur. The orchestra has named Masur “music director emeritus, making him the only person other than Leonard Bernstein to receive an honorary title from the symphony.” Nando Times (AP) 06/02/02

  • I COME TO PRAISE HIM: “For once Mr. Masur was speechless. He embraced Mr. Mehta, warmly grabbed the hands of every orchestra player within reach, and acknowledged the outpouring from the shouting, standing audience. But there was no speech. He seemed genuinely overwhelmed. On the other hand he may have been reluctant to speak. What could he have said? The occasion was surely bittersweet, since the board that had just honored him had also pushed him into premature retirement. The tension in the hall was palpable during the short ceremony.” The New York Times 06/03/02
  • LONG FOND FAREWELL (YEAH, YEAH): “Masur’s departure from New York is increasingly taking on the form of a study in paradoxical familiarity. He must go, but the idea is that he has to look a little as though he wanted to go. Is that why he is being swamped with laurel wreaths? Are New Yorkers now praising him because they’re feeling guilty?” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 06/02/02

SAME OLD SAME OLD: American orchestras have announced next year’s seasons. So why do so many of them look alike? Same pieces, same presentation. “What makes our orchestras’ schedules look so repetitive is not only that they repeat one another but also that they keep repeating a few well-tried formulas, right through their programming.” The New York Times 06/02/02

AFRAID OF OPERA? What’s up with Opera Theater of St. Louis’ new promotional ads? ” ‘I’m not afraid of opera,’ say the ads on radio and in print, thus equating the world’s greatest and most glorious art form with trips to the dentist.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch 06/02/02

Sunday June 2

MUSICIAN, INC, PART I: “Concert ticket prices are skyrocketing – especially for bands born in the anti-materialist ’60s. Concert ticket prices have shot up 54 percent in the last five years, compared with only 24 percent for movie, sports and theater tickets. The Rolling Stones are charging a jaw-dropping $350 for the best seats to their U.S. tour; the top tickets on Paul McCartney’s just-ended tour sold for $250. And as prices rise, so does tension between disgruntled music fans who cry “sellout” and the musicians who say they’re just going by supply and demand – that if they don’t charge these prices, scalpers will.” Dallas Morning News 06/02/02

  • MUSICIAN, INC, PART II: More and more big-name musicians are choosing not to sign (or re-sign) with large music labels, instead recording and producing on their own labels. “It just goes to show you that we basically traded in a larger machine for a more well-tooled machine. It’s like all small businesses. You do more specific targeting and cut out waste.” Chicago Tribune 06/02/02

AMATEUR FOR THE LOVE OF IT: The Third International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs beging this week in Dallas. “The amateur competition draws some powerfully driven contestants, people with distinguished careers in medicine, academia, technology and law. This year’s slate includes a missionary, a couple of accountants, a veterinarian and an architect.” Dallas Morning News 06/02/02

CROSSING OVER TO WHAT? Classical crossover music is a hot category these days, but why? “Is crossover – the name given a recording by a classical artist venturing into a non-classical area of music and aimed mainly at non-classical record buyers – a healthy means of bridging the gap between the classical and non-classical markets, or a crass ploy to kick new life into sagging sales? Is it creating new audiences for classical music, or merely fueling the demand for more crossover? In today’s anxious, Internet-battered market, nobody has any definitive answers.” Chicago Tribune 06/02/02

WHERE ARE THE MEN? “The once-glamorized male jazz singer practically has vanished from America’s cultural radar. Worse, the men are AWOL at the very moment that their female counterparts, as well as jazz instrumentalists of both sexes, are enjoying resurgent popularity.” Chicago Tribune 06/02/02

  • ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD: Forty years after his first professional gig, Frank Sinatra Jr. is still on the road singing. Singing in the shadow of his famous dad has certainly been an impediment to his career, but he’s still out there trying to keep the ‘era’s music alive. “We’re losing this music. We lost Miss Peggy Lee two months ago. Between Keely Smith, Rosemary Clooney and Tony Bennett, that’s just about all that’s left. A whole era is passing.” Chicago Sun-Times 06/02/02