“Like CEOs in the troubled airline industry, Young Frankenstein creator Mel Brooks and producer Robert F. X. Sillerman have embarked on a cost-cutting rampage in a desperate effort to keep their Spruce Goose of a show aloft. Their most dramatic move: slashing the lead actors’ salaries by 50 percent.”
Month: June 2008
Showcasing The Art Of Philly’s Skyline
“Galleries devoted to architecture are well established in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. But despite being the second oldest AIA chapter in the country, founded in 1869, Philadelphia has lacked its own showplace.” But that’s about to change, following the opening of a new architecture museum in the city.
Drawing A Crowd
A New York artist looking for a way to shock the public into paying attention to his work appears to have found one after he stenciled “The Assassination of Barack Obama” onto the window of the storefront housing his latest collection. Also paying attention: the NYPD and the Secret Service.
A Jazz Festival That Looks Unflinchingly To The Future
“With its devotion to the jazz avant-garde, [the New York-based Vision Festival] serves as a gravitational center, pulling musicians in from the margins. Its programming… confirms the continuing vigor of experimental improvised music.”
Kelly Retrospective At Basel
“Unlike most dealers at the Art Basel fair, who are showing a smorgasbord of the artists they represent, the New York dealer Matthew Marks has mounted an exhibition honoring one artist, Ellsworth Kelly, who turned 85 last month.”
Obscenity Charges Dropped In Sydney Art Case
“Australian police have dropped an obscenity investigation into photos of nude children at an art gallery that sparked a major debate on censorship… Police had shut the exhibit hours before it was to open and confiscated dozens of portraits of naked adolescent boys and girls.”
The Uncompromising Composer
Charles Wuorinen is not the type of composer anyone would ever mistake for a populist. “Words that have been used to describe his works [include] difficult – modernist – rigorous – impenetrable – gnarly – imposing – severe.” Yet in an age when modernist composition is supposed to be out of fashion, Wuorinen is thriving.
Boston Symphony Claims Massive Economic Impact
“Seeking to back its claims of a substantial economic impact on Boston and the Berkshires, the Boston Symphony Orchestra has released a study that found that the world’s largest symphony organization and its visitors generate more than $166 million in economic activity each year.”
Columbus Cancels Musician Contracts (Or Tries To)
“The Columbus Symphony has terminated its labor contract with musicians — a move intended to save the cash-strapped orchestra $800,000 in wages. [But] a musicians-union official said yesterday that the symphony’s board of trustees can’t cancel the agreement.”
Why Do Women Need A Special Prize?
Is there still a need for women-only literary prizes like the Orange Prize? “What is it about being a woman that is particularly under threat, in need of attention, or indeed distinctive from being a man when it comes to picking up a pen?”