For aging musicians, the decision to retire, if it ever comes, usually comes as a result of the ravages of age. “The performer, unlike the creator, is as much athlete as artist, and thus is slave to the flesh.” But when an artist doesn’t know enough to exit the spotlight, it makes for an uncomfortable situation for audience, critic, and performer alike.
Author: sbergman
Welcome To The Age Of The Cultural Omnivore
An Oxford University study says that the notion of a cultural elite made up of upper class individuals is no longer relevant to modern culture. “‘Univores,’ ‘Omnivores,’ ‘Paucivores’ and ‘Inactives’ are the new categories we can all find ourselves in.”
Audiophile Label Embraces Computer Playback
“Reference Recordings, the Bay Area-based audiophile label founded by John T. “Tam” Henderson in 1976, has adopted a unique approach to computer and music server playback.” Rejecting existing high-end audio CDs, the company will begin marketing a new kind of disc that it says mimics its master audio files nearly perfectly.
Hey! That Guy’s Writing! Get Him!!
When Tonight Show host Jay Leno returned to work this week without his striking writers, there was an assumption on the part of the union that WGA member Leno would not do any writing of his own for the show until the strike was resolved. Instead, Leno has been performing full-length monologues, and the guild is not pleased.
Fixing Philly’s Planning Problem
Those who care about architecture in Philadelphia have been continually frustrated by the city’s haphazard approach to urban planning. “This big-league city treats critical land-use questions with the amateurism of a small town. Actually, many small towns do it better.”
Riedel’s Crystal Ball
New York theatre pundit Michael Riedel sees more labor strife and a revamped Tony awards broadcast in the air in 2008. “Ancient rules governing which shows can and cannot appear on the Tonys will be jettisoned, and popular hits [from past years] will get as much stage time as this year’s crop of nominees.”
Strike Fallout Just The Latest Late Night Drama
“Late-night network talk shows are soap operas dressed up as entertainment; their return after two months of reruns turned out to be yet another chapter of a national psychodrama, not about the rift between writers and producers, but about the perennial Oedipal struggle for succession — ‘The Tonight Show’ and its discontents.”
Bad News From Saskatchewan
“The Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra is in debt to the tune of about $300,000, a musicians union official said Thursday… The deficit is equal to about 25 per cent of the symphony’s operating budget, although it’s not clear how the organization got so far into debt.”
Century-Old Music School Gets Shiny New Home
The latest entrant in Minneapolis’s cultural architecture boom is the new riverfront headquarters of the MacPhail Center for Music. “Its $25 million new home… is a steel-clad, state-of-the-art facility that’s wired for recording throughout, with an elegant 225-seat wood-paneled concert hall [and] 56 practice rooms specially tuned for the acoustic needs of instruments ranging from piccolos to snare drums.”
Orchestrating Change For Parisian Youth
“In the heartland of French rap music, Zahia Ziouani is striking a chord with struggling youths in a Parisian suburb who flock to her music school and are joining her symphony orchestra.” The ensemble draws on the poverty-stricken Paris suburbs, known mainly for producing a generation of angry, disaffected rap stars.