Author: Douglas McLennan

FILM AND THE POLITICS OF REPRESSION

“The decade of the 1980s in Argentina was characterized by profound political, economic and social upheavals. Yet the Argentine film industry in this period had retained a remarkable ability to stay afloat and adapt to the radical shifts of the forces in power. This skill was seen not only in production but in the areas of distribution and exhibition as well. The connection between the different governments and the national cinema was more complex than what emerged from the accounts of Argentine and foreign scholars about filmmaking during the 1980s.” – The Idler

STORE THIS HERE

“Think about it – every time you see a web page that’s using a piece of clip art with a dog looking surprised, there are anywhere from six to a thousand other web sites using the exact same image, all stored in different places. This is what my Information Mechanics professor used to call a ‘waste of space’.” That’s why I invented a program for the Library of Congress to erase duplicate information. – *spark-online 08/00 

YOU CAN TAKE THE AUDIENCE OUT OF THE BAR, BUT…

Pittsburgh’s undergoing a building boom of cultural facilities. “But despite our new wealth, it sometimes seems as if we’ve invested in our venues but not in ourselves. A blue-collar work ethic is a good thing, but 25-cent manners meant for the neighborhood tavern don’t fly in a $25 million theater designed to radiate culture. Anyone who’s recently been to a film, play, dance performance or music concert has seen a recital of the Pittsburgh Inconsiderate Symphony.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

ON JESSYE NORMAN

“She is 54 now, and past her vocal prime. Time has accentuated her tendency to sing sharp, and the sheer brazen splendour of the sound she once produced is irrecoverably tarnished. As if to compensate, she has developed a grand manner on the platform – complete with radiant smiles, gracious waves and a rapt pose suggesting fervent prayer to the Almighty – which forcibly brings to mind the Irish adage of ‘all gong and no dinner’.” – The Telegraph (UK)

FAUST – A WORLD PREMIERE

“When one of Germany’s most celebrated theatrical directors, Peter Stein, determined to mount a production of the complete uncut ‘Faust,’ Parts 1 and 2, it became an event of national magnitude. Asserting that no one has ever presented an unedited staging of the work, Mr. Stein calls his “Faust” a world premiere, and it has certainly gained the equivalent attention. Tickets for the production, which opened on July 22 at Expo 2000 in this northwestern German city, sold out within hours when sales began in January. The premiere was front-page news in every paper in the country.” – New York Times

WHY I HATE EDINBURGH

“Brian McMaster is the man who runs the Edinburgh International Festival, and sometimes it is hard to tell whether he just has a perverse love of emptying theatres or whether it’s all more sinister than that and that he is, au fond, an out-and-out sadist, who gets his kicks out of boring people into a state of mental derangement.” – The Telegraph (UK)

THE O’KEEFFE FIASCO

The controversy over the authenticity of a set of watercolors purported to be by Georgia O’Keeffe is the biggest scandal in years to hit the National Gallery of Art. “Whether a grand deception or just a garage-sale dream gone wrong, it never should have happened. The warning signs were there from the start, but they were swept away by a tsunami of money and wishful thinking.” – Washington Post

SF-LAND

  • Plans for a huge history museum with “fake fog, a mini Golden Gate Bridge and a re-creation of the 1960s-era Haight-Ashbury district” have Bay Area residents conflicted. “Opponents deride the plan as a kitschy, Las Vegas-style tourist trap and consider the fight to stop the 70,000-square-foot San Francisco Interactive History Museum no less than a battle for the city’s soul.” – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)