Three years ago, the director of the Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado had to pitch hard with an idea to bring the New York Philharmonic for an annual summer residency. But the orchestra has been a huge hit, with sold-out concerts and overall festival attendance up 23 percent. So deciding to renew the relationship with the New York band was easy despite the $1 million annual cost.
Month: April 2005
Is The British Film Industry Dead?
“It makes no difference how often government ministers and quangos like the UK Film Council talk up the British film industry, it doesn’t exist. Let me repeat that: the British film industry doesn’t exist. It hasn’t existed for more than 30 years. In the past few decades we’ve had some very nice arts ministers, but they’ve been unable to help British films because of the impotence of their departments. The only route to a British film revival is through legislation, but no arts minister has had the power in Cabinet to make this happen – though some have tried.”
Who Wins In Today’s Recording Climate?
The recording business is hurting. “This crucial arm of the serious music industry is not so much in a state of flux as complete turmoil. Technological advances, corporate monoliths and charming (and sometimes wily) cottage industries are all part of a simmering broth of conflicting issues, the outcome of which is, frankly, anybody’s guess. At the moment, the only clear winner is the consumer, offered the widest possible range of attractive offerings at often irresistible prices, but whether there is any prospect of that continuing indefinitely is just one more of those unanswerable questions.”
Billionaire Cancels Museum Plans Outside Paris
A billionaire businessman says he’s canceling plans to build a spectacular new museum of contemporary art outside of Paris because of his annoyance over red tape and official inertia. “François Pinault, owner of one of the finest private contemporary art collections in Europe, is now likely to put it on display in a magnificent 18th-century palace in Venice.”
Does Your iPod Define You?
The old adage used to be “you are what you eat.” But with the advent of digital music and the popularity of gadgets like the iPod, now it’s “you are what’s on your playlist.”
The People Who Lived Before Pompei
Archaeologists have found a prehistoric village under Pompei. “Carbon dating shows that the finds are from prehistoric times, that is, from 3,500 years BC,” Leander Touati said. It was until now believed that Pompei was first inhabited during the Bronze Age. The group of archeologists – part of a larger international project – were mapping a Roman neighbourhood of Pompei when they made the discovery.”
Back To The Human Figure
Only a few years ago, the idea of artists gathering to paint from a model would have seemed impossibly old-fashioned and hokey – and if the model was female and nude, sexist to boot. Yet for nearly three years now, a number of artists – not students putting charcoal to paper for the first time, but successful artists with established styles and audiences of their own – have flocked to weekly invitation-only sessions. ‘There’s something kind of fun about doing something so geeky, so nerdy, so traditional. To do something so anti-conceptual and anti-Modernism feels really good, as if it were going to lead to helping you express things’.”
Looking For Innovation In Australia
Australian arts are stagnant, writes Robyn Archer. “Is there still space in this world for the individual who is not at the top of the hierarchy? What, indeed, of the weirdo who simply wants to pursue the work, outside of the mainstream of fashion? Will it mean that such an artist is again destined for a lifetime of neglect, with the possibility of being rediscovered in a hundred years’ time?”
Why We’re Drawn To Screen Violence
“Why are audiences simultaneously drawn to, and seriously disturbed by, gruesome portrayals of torture? There is something so compelling about the psychosis driving those scenes. They tend to take place in close-up and are often about a conversation. There’s a lot of dialogue — not the quips you would get from an Arnold Schwarzenegger or a Bruce Willis. There’s often this element of `How much can they withstand before they lose touch with who they are — their psychic identity?’ which can be a much scarier concept than the violence. In other words, depictions of torture have an uncanny way of tapping into our most suppressed fears.”
Will Your Phone Kill The iPod?
“Mobile phones that rock, jam, thunder, and swing are on the way. Wireless operators around the globe are working with music studios, phone makers, and artists such as Sean “P. Diddy” Combs in a sweeping effort to turn the mobile phone into a go-anywhere digital jukebox.”