No one has yet found a way to keep the thoughtless, mindless and noisy peoples of the world out of its concert halls and theaters, and incidents of audience misbehavior have been mounting of late. Perhaps what’s needed is a strategy from completely outside the musical marketplace: Starbucks, say. “Starbucks, it seems, faces the challenge of encouraging its customers to linger a while, but not to fall asleep, and certainly not to change their socks. People should feel comfortable, but not too comfortable, because that… is when they can start to behave in unwelcome ways.”
Author: sbergman
Iran Up In Arms Over Another Movie
Only months after expressing outrage over what it deemed the racist content of the Hollywood war movie 300, the government of Iran is protesting the inclusion of “an animated film about a woman growing up in revolutionary Iran” in the Cannes Film Festival. Calling the film’s selection a transparently political act, Iranian officials say that the film paints “an unreal picture of the outcomes and achievements of the Islamic revolution.”
Rare Raphael Portrait To Be Sold At Auction
“A painting by Renaissance artist Raphael is expected to fetch £15m when it is sold in London later this summer. The portrait, of Florentine ruler Lorenzo de’ Medici, has not been seen in public for 40 years – but will be displayed at Christie’s from 30 June. The auctioneer describes the work as the most important Renaissance portrait to be sold at auction for a generation.”
Private Equity Firm To Acquire EMI
UK-based recording industry giant EMI has agreed to be acquired by a private equity firm for £3.2bn ($6.3bn). The deal comes less than a year after EMI declined a merger offer from Warner Music, and Warner could still make a competing offer before EMI’s shareholders vote to approve the offer on the table.
Louisville Orch Back In The Black
The Louisville Orchestra, which has been in severe fiscal trouble several times in recent years, seems finally to have turned things around. This week, the orchestra announced that it expects to finish the year with a healthy surplus, and will use some of the money to pay its long-suffering musicians a bonus. The organization also recently finished paying off more than $1m in bank loans, and the board president celebrated by setting fire to the loan documents at an official ceremony.
Another Orchestra Assault (But This One’s Serious)
A concert by the local orchestra in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik was disrupted earlier this month when a nationalist member of the city council forced his way into the hall, threatened the guest conductor (apparently over his Serbian heritage,) then head-butted the orchestra’s executive director, who was attempting to keep the assailant from the stage.
Celebrated Austrian Director Succumbs To Cancer
“Award-winning theater and opera director Dietmar Pflegerl died on Thursday, May 17, at age 63 in his hometown of Klagenfurt, the capital of the southern Austrian state of Kärnten. He had been diagnosed with cancer five years ago, but adamantly refused to let it interfere with his work.”
Why Blogs Will Never Replace Serious Criticism
Blogs and online video may have changed the media landscape, but Richard Schickel says that it would be a mistake to confuse user-generated opinions with professional arts criticism. “Criticism — and its humble cousin, reviewing — is not a democratic activity. It is, or should be, an elite enterprise, ideally undertaken by individuals who bring something to the party beyond their hasty, instinctive opinions of a book (or any other cultural object)… Opinion — thumbs up, thumbs down — is the least important aspect of reviewing.”
Basically, Everyone Ends Up Looking Like A Jerk
In case anyone wondered, the recording industry is still suing college students for downloading free music, and students are still expressing shock that there are financial consequences for illegal piracy. “The students coughing up the cash question why they’re the ones getting in trouble,” and the industry wonders why they’re portrayed as the bad guys for legally enforcing their copyright. And around and around it goes…
Sneaking Across The Border (And Getting Paid For It)
A Canadian watchdog group says that the country’s TV broadcasters are buying more American programs than ever before, and using public money intended to encourage homegrown productions to do it.