No one artist dominates this year’s Grammy nominations. “The most nominations any artist received was six, with four performers tying for that amount. Three were from the rap world — Jay-Z, OutKast and Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes — and the fourth was the R&B singer Beyoncé.”
Month: December 2003
Out Of Nature
Can you make art about nature anymore? “I still find my hackles rising at the glibness with which nature, according to ancient wisdom our nourishing mother, has been dismissed from the scene. In particular, I wonder whether artists, for whom, since the time of the cave-painters, nature has been the chief fount of inspiration, have been too hastily complicit in this dismissal.”
English National Opera Director Quits
Paul Daniel, who has been mujsic director of the English National Opera for eight years, is quitting. The troubled company has just come through a rocky 18 months. “Mr Daniel has been unhappy at ENO since the mid-2002 resignation of Nicholas Payne, its general director. ‘It’s been hard to square what’s happened over the past 18 months. I’ve been emotionally caught up in this. The change has been pretty distressing.”
Peck: Too Many “Stepford” Novels
Dale Peck on the decline of modern writing: “Even allowing for the fact that any living literary community produces its fair share of James Fenimore Coopers and Pearl S. Bucks and Henry Millers and that it takes time to separate the chaff from the wheat; and even taking into consideration the theory that cinematic and virtual media have displaced the printed word as the dominant narrative forms, and that the novel and its grown-too-big-for-its-britches sibling, the memoir, are only occasionally profitable anachronisms; and even recognizing that literacy standards and technological advances have made it theoretically feasible for just about anyone to write and publish a book–even considering all these factors, the number of Stepford novels that are written, published, reviewed, and read every year is completely out of control.”
D.C. Shakespeare Theatre To Expand
Washington, D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre has announced plans for a new 800-seat theatre to go with its existing home in the district’s downtown. The new theater will cost $77 million, and is expected to open in 2007. The project is a gamble, since there is plenty of theatrical competition in Washington, but the company is confident that it can sell 1,200 tickets a night, and says that its subsribers support the expansion.
Revitalizing a Downtown
Benjamin Forgey says that the Shakespeare’s new building, having been wisely placed on a key block of Washington real estate, will be one of the most significant additions to the city’s architectural and cultural scene in recent memory. “Together with MCI Center, it signifies the reinvention of the old downtown as a new center of arts and entertainment. And as part of a big, oft-stalled development taking up three-quarters of a very large, strategically key city block, it demonstrates that complex obstacles can be overcome with enough patience, time, money and, above all, foresight.”
Everybody Hates Martin
What is it about Martin Amis that causes the British literati to shriek and howl and begin sharpening their metaphorical knives? Is it that his famous father is still casting too long a shadow? Or is it Martin’s own predilection for baiting his detractors? Or is it, possibly, simple jealousy for the man’s success, commingled with a passionate intellectual distaste for the vernacular style favored by Amis? In truth, it’s probably a little of each. But whatever the cause, Martin Amis is a hunted man, and he doesn’t seem to mind all that much.
NLRB Rules Against Lincoln Center In Union Dispute
“In a decision issued on Tuesday, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Lincoln Center had violated federal labor law when it sought to have the police arrest union supporters distributing leaflets in front of the center, while it permitted nonunion groups to do so… The labor board ordered Lincoln Center to post a notice acknowledging that it violated federal labor law.” The center’s lawyers are considering an appeal.
Grann Trying Again At Random House
“Phyllis Grann, who oversaw a virtual assembly line of blockbuster books as chief executive of Penguin Putnam but later lasted just six months as the vice chairwoman of Random House Inc., is returning to Random House in a new capacity.” Grann had told acquaintances that her time at Random House was “deeply unsatisfying,” due largely to the lack of real responsibility that came with the job because of the autonomy enjoyed by Random House’s various imprints. “In her new role, as a senior editor of the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, Ms. Grann is expected to acquire and edit as many as 10 books a year, both fiction and nonfiction.”
Met Opera Gets Major Grant For Broadcasts
“The Annenberg Foundation has given $3.5 million to the Metropolitan Opera to help keep its treasured Saturday afternoon live radio broadcasts on the air next season, the opera company said yesterday. The money, it said, is the largest gift ever made to the Met’s annual-giving fund. The contribution is a response to ChevronTexaco’s decision in May to withdraw its support after the 2003-4 season, ending a 63-year relationship that has been the longest continuous commercial sponsorship in broadcast history… But the Annenberg gift takes the Met only halfway there, and for only one year; the broadcasts cost the Met $7 million a year, so another single corporate sponsor is still being sought to replace ChevronTexaco.”