Look at publishing industry statistics and you’d think this was a Golden Age for he book trade. “If, on this evidence, you were tempted to call this a golden age of publishing, you should first talk to the publishers. To them, the IT revolution cuts both ways. It has inspired a boom, but it also threatens to turn the book world upside down.”
Blog
The Compositional Catch-22
Musicians and orchestras love to pay lip service to the concept of promoting new music, but increasingly, composers are facing a world in which their services are viewed as optional. “Something fundamental has changed in the music marketplace: Where once patrons consisted of people outside the music business – church leaders, emperors, members of the bourgeoisie, impresarios – today they are almost always from within. The world of classical music is becoming self-absorbed, for it is the musician himself who commissions new music with the flickering hope of selling it as a commodity to consumers. Consumers, in turn, are becoming too obsessed with iPods, the Internet and video-on-demand to bother with live concert performances.”
Shelley Winters, 85
“Actress Shelley Winters, who went from blonde siren to respected double-Oscar winner during a distinguished Hollywood career, died yesterday at the age of 85.”
The Music Vending Machines
Is this the year music kiosks take off with the public? Lots of big players are getting in to them. But there is also a great deal of skepticism as to whether kiosks actually fulfill any consumer demand.
NACO Players Divided Over Zukerman’s Leadership
Details are continuing to emerge in the sordid tale of Pinchas Zukerman’s abrupt “sabbatical” from Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the divisive and outspoken Zukerman appears to have left behind a divided orchestra. “While it’s not unusual for orchestra musicians to have varying opinions about their leader, some longtime NACO musicians say they’ve become polarized in a way they have never been before… The kind of reasonable debate musicians used to have about conductors has become difficult.” Furthermore, some within the NACO are openly acknowledging that the orchestra’s artistic standard has diminished under a conductor they see as authoritarian and uninterested in expanding his artistic horizons.
New York’s New Antiquities Theft Unit
Manhattan’s attorney general has appointed a special unit “dedicated to investigating and prosecuting antiquities theft and trafficking”. It will be headed by Matthew Bogdanos, “better known as the US Marine Corps Reserves colonel who led the investigation into the looting of the Baghdad Museum and helped recover more than 5,000 artefacts.”
Bringing Art To America’s Beach Party Capital
Not so very long ago, Miami was a cultural wasteland, a city of beach bums and water skiiers with little to no artistic presence. Today, Miami and its sprawling South Florida surroundings are fast becoming one of America’s most intriguing arts centers. Why the change? One organization that had a lot to do with it is the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this month.
Detroit Tries A Few Gimmicks
Orchestras across the country are scrambling to attract new audiences with such gimmicks as video screens, loquacious conductors, and hot young soloists, but much of the experimentation is in the trial-and-error realm, since there isn’t a lot of evidence concerning what works and what doesn’t. The Detroit Symphony launched a new series this season aimed at cultivating demographics it doesn’t currently see much of, but Mark Stryker says the idea will need a lot of tweaking before it yields dividends. Moreover, its possible that orchestras are barking up the wrong tree with the idea that younger audiences want less substance and more flash.
Barnes Move Is Years Away
When will the Barnes Collection move from its current home in to Philadelphia? Well, not even the foundation knows for certain, but it would seem that the transplant won’t happen until mid-to-late 2009, or perhaps even early 2010.
Selling The Scandal (Right After You’ve Manufactured It)
As horror films become ever more violent and gruesome, the PR reps whose job it is to get us to the cinema to watch people being tortured have developed an almost amusing strategy. Rather than shying away from controversy and claiming the high ground, studios and promoters do whatever they can think of to upset a few easily offended people and use the supposed outrage to promote the gorefest as some sort of oddly subversive experience. In fact, scandal has become such a reliable predictor of financial success that in Hollywood, “controversy is cultivated more often than it occurs naturally.”