E.L. Doctorow’s “The March” wins the National Book Critics Circle prize for fiction for his acclaimed story of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s ruthless Civil War campaign.
Month: March 2006
Library Removes Penguin Book Because of “Gay” Theme
A library in Missouri has removed a story about penguins from its children’s section after parents complained that the book has “homosexual undertones”. “The illustrated book, “And Tango Makes Three,” is based on a true story of two male penguins, named Roy and Silo, who adopted an abandoned egg at New York City’s Central Park Zoo in the late 1990s.”
Corcoran Cuts Staff, Reimagines New Future
Washington’s Corcoran Gallery has cut staff, including its chief curator. The move comes one month before Paul Greenhalgh takes over as director. “Greenhalgh announced the cuts at a meeting Thursday for staff and faculty of the gallery and its College of Art and Design. He characterized the moves as part of an effort to help redirect the 137-year-old institution.”
Ode To The Bass
Odd to say, given its enormous size, but the bass is a largely invisible instrument in the modern orchestra. “I think the size of it gives people the mistaken impression that you have to be a brute to play it. But it’s a misconception, especially these days, with the advancements of the technical abilities of players and a more thorough understanding of body usage.”
Elliott Carter – Hero Or Devil?
Elliot tCarter is either “(a) America’s great living composer or (b) an ogre who has alienated audiences with music of unfathomable density and dissonance.” So which is it?
List: Publishing’s New-Generation Power Brokers
Who are the most powerful people in UK publishing? The Observer has made a list. “The list we have come up with, then, is a snapshot of an industry in flux, and it inevitably reflects the whims of our panel. To single out 50 players from a great cultural industry is almost impossible. Many of the people whose word counts for most pride themselves on their invisibility. Still, we think we have made good choices about a new generation of players.”
Jowell, Husband Separate In Midst Of Financial Scandal
UK Culture Minister Tessa Jowell has separated from her husband after “the ‘painful discovery’ that he did not tell her the full facts about his controversial financial deals.”
The New ErotiFiction
“Ten years ago the bestseller lists were topped by the frustrated Bridget Jones, a fictional creation less interested in sex than in the cigarette she could smoke afterwards. A decade on and chick lit now seems curiously chaste, as lascivious as a warm mug of Horlicks. But a new kind of explicit bedside reading, both fictional and autobiographical, means the three-for-two counter in Waterstone’s now displays the kind of X-rated material more traditionally found in a cornershop in Soho.”
Peter Gelb New Old Met
So Peter Gelb is reinventing the Metropolitan Opera. “Radical as Mr. Gelb’s initiatives might seem to Met-goers who prefer tradition to innovation and opera-as-vocal-display to opera-as-musical-drama, Mr. Gelb’s bold new vision is in fact a version of a bolder old one, as he acknowledges. Mr. Gelb made reference, in the news conference announcing his plans and in a separate interview, to Rudolf Bing, the Met’s legendary general manager from 1950 to 1972. His ambition to focus resources on creating wholly viable theatrical productions echoes one of Sir Rudolf’s top priorities when he took over as general manager at the old Met.”
Collectivity And The Dynamics Of Art
Artist collectives change the dynamics of making art. “One way or another, joint production among parties of equal standing — we’re not talking about master artist and studio assistants here — scrambles existing aesthetic formulas. It may undermine the cult of the artist as media star, dislodge the supremacy of the precious object and unsettle the economic structures that make the art world a mirror image of the inequities of American culture at large. In short, it confuses how we think about art and assign value to it. This can only be good.”