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The Zen Of Air Guitar (It’s Really Big)

“In recent years, the air guitar has become a cult phenomenon, sparking air-eoke tournaments in cities across the nation. Undoubtedly, the most impressive offshoot of the air-guitar craze is the invention of the Virtual Air Guitar, a computerized pair of gloves developed by students at the Helsinki University of Technology that monitors a player’s hand movements and pumps accompanying electric guitar riffs through an amp.”

The Critic As Rock Star

Sasha Frere-Jones is pop music critic for The New Yorker. And he “occupies the somewhat unprecedented position of being both one of the most influential critics in the game — his colorful, incisive critiques are accessible enough for the layman, yet are revered by the cliquish music-crit community — while simultaneously moonlighting as would-be rock star.”

There’s A Fine Line Between Art And Theft

“In the postmodern world it seems, one man’s art can be another man’s property.So it was that a member of the Vancouver Police Department strode into the ultra-cool Contemporary Art Gallery on a lovely, sunlit afternoon one day last week to inform the gallery that [a local businessman] wanted his signs back. The gallery was caught red-handed. The signs were right there, bold as brass, in the gallery’s big front windows… The gallery quickly agreed to return Mr. Grandy’s signs, but not without considerable bemusement and wonder at it all.”

Director: Critics Caused LOTR‘s Early Closing

It’s official: Lord of the Rings is dead in Toronto, where the multi-million dollar show was launched less than a year ago. The show’s director lays the blame for the untimely demise squarely at the feet of the Toronto press, which did not exactly embrace the show. “Calling London the ‘spiritual home’ of The Lord of the Rings, Mr. Wallace argued that the production, which will open in the West End next June, has a distinctively British sensibility that North American critics did not appreciate.”

Ontario’s TVO Handed Cash, Told To Refocus

Ontario’s public broadcaster TVOntario will be getting a major makeover in the next two years, courtesy of the provincial government. An additional CDN$25 million has been allocated to TVO for the express purpose of refocusing its mission on education. The channel (not affiliated with CBC, Canada’s nationwide public broadcaster,) will also be permitted to “use a portion of the much-needed government funds to replace its antiquated television cameras with digital equipment.”

So What Really Went Wrong?

Emotional ranting aside, it’s unlikely that snarky critics were actually responsible for Lord of the Rings falure to connect with Toronto theatre audiences. “Despite some innovative stagecraft, The Lord of the Rings, in the version critics saw at least, was a hollow, lifeless affair with no real emotional pull to the storytelling, the music or the acting. The story itself proved confusing to anybody not familiar with J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy of books. Not even the lengthy synopsis in the program was of much help.”

Sometimes, You’ve Gotta Leave Home To Truly Appreciate It

Poland has had a complicated history, and the country’s artists have sometimes struggled to craft a true national identity. A new show in Chicago traces the 20th century history of Polish art, especially as it involves the migration of Polish artists to Paris. “Factors contributing to identity also changed, so that at the start of the exhibition looking to Western Europe was progressive whereas at the end it was thought to interfere with national allegiance. But this makes the show more interesting rather than less.”