Utah arts groups are struggling. But voters have recently approved bonds for several big cultural building projects. Indeed, there’s a building boom going on in Salt Lake City as about $500 million in new cultural facilities are contemplated.
Month: April 2004
Is New Jersey In For An Arts Funding Increase?
“After two years of budget cuts totaling about $4 million, the New Jersey arts community has something to celebrate: a proposed increase of $6.6 million in state funding for arts organizations and projects.”
Photos – Does Size Matter?
There was a time – not all that long ago – when photographs were small and handheld. But “photographs have been steadily expanding in size, along with their importance in the eyes of critics and their value in the marketplace.” Is there a relationship between size and importance?
Is Mickey Mouse Over As A Cultural Icon?
What’s happened to Mickey Mouse? Once one of America’s most-loved cultural icons, the Mouse doesn’t cut it in today’s culture. “Boring,” “embalmed,” “neglected,” “irrelevant,” “deracinated” and, perhaps most damning, “over” are some of the adjectives that cropped up in recent interviews with people in the cartoon, movie and marketing businesses. And strangely for such a well-known figure, Mickey doesn’t even have a back story: no clearly defined relations, no hometown, no goals, no weaknesses.”
Stern To Satellite? Execs Hope…
As Howard Stern gets forced off the radio airwaves by the morality police, satellite radio execs hope Stern will jump to them. “Like cable television, satellite radio does not face federal indecency scrutiny because it is only available to paid subscribers. So the indecency dust-up has satellite radio companies executives salivating.”
The New Immigration, The New Culture
The culture of immigrants who passed through Ellis Island in the 20th Century has reverberated through the city’s popular culture. But the culture of a more recent waves of immigrants is only slowly seeping into the city. “Nearly 1 million immigrants have settled in New York since 1990, and today 36% of city residents (or 2.9 million) are foreign-born, a figure rivaling the previous high of 41% reached in 1910, according to U.S. census statistics. The borough of Queens, where once-deteriorating neighborhoods have been revitalized by a flood of newcomers, is now thought to be the nation’s most ethnically diverse county.”
The Sad Seedy Side Of Legendary
Legendary performances take on an aura of their own. “The trouble with legends is that they simultaneously attract and repel. There’s a serious downside. The world of legend worship is patrolled and inhabited by very sad people, almost all of them men. This is not a world that suffers fools gladly. There is something embarrassing about being part of it.”
Art From Vandalized Books
For a year, someone came into the San Francisco Library and destroyed books with gay or lesbian themes. The culprit was finally caught, but until after many books were vandalized. Loath to throw out the books, librarians gave them to artists so they could make art from them. The resulting projects are now on display
US In Iraq – Loud Music As Weapon
Once again, US troops are using loud American rock music as a weapon against its foes. Last week the Americans blared music into Fallujah, hoping to set militants nerves on edge. “The loud music recalls the Army’s use of rap and rock to help flush out Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega after the December 1989 invasion on his country, and the FBI’s blaring progressively more irritating tunes in an attempt to end a standoff with armed members of the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas in 1993.”
Today’s Music: Give Me That Old Time Religion
Christian music is big business now. “Sales of praise and worship albums have doubled since 2000, to about 12 million in 2003. While music sales over all slumped last year, including Christian music in general, worship music was up 5 percent. A series of CD’s marketed on television by Time-Life, “Songs 4 Worship,” has drawn a million subscribers and sold about 8 million CD’s since 2000.”