Seattle’s Northwest Chamber Orchestra has always survived on the financial edge. But, like most orchestras, in recent years it has seen its expenses rise and its income shrink. So maybe the orchestra needs to rethink its model?
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Picasso, Chagall Stolen
A Picasso and a Chagall have been stolen from a Palm Desert gallery. The Picasso, “Femme Regardant par la Fenetre,” is a 1959 linoleum cut in shades of brown and black of a nude woman reclining and looking out a window, printed by the artist and worth about $53,000. The Chagall, a 1964 lithograph titled “The Tribe of Dan,” is a multicolored religious work in blues, yellows and reds, also printed by the artist. It illustrates one of a series of 12 stained glass windows Chagall made for an Israeli university, and is worth about $35,000.
Christmas In All Its Forms
“Whatever non-Christian aspect of Christmas you treasure (maybe it’s your mom’s shortbread), you needn’t feel guilty. Even though this is the time of year when many people say our society has lost sight of the true meaning of the season, there’s no reason you shouldn’t enjoy all of the magnificent secular infrastructure that now surrounds Christmas. It’s too good to pass up.”
Where’s Our Sense Of Utopia?
“There is no doubt that we’re living in anti-utopian times. The political imagination is, if not dead exactly, certainly in a coma. Politics today is about fiddling, making a tweak here or there but not changing anything much. We can’t conceive of a future much better than the present. Perhaps we imagine that computers will be quicker and mobile phones cleverer, but there is little notion that human beings could live vastly more fulfilled and improved lives than our own. There is no sense that history holds possibilities that we haven’t yet imagined. Utopian impulses persist, of course, but these impulses are for the most part expressed in banal ways.”
Theatre Of High Ambitions And Low Cost
Several off-Broadway theatres are keeping ticket prices low and the theatre experimental. It’s working. “These spaces measure success less by commercial cachet than by how well they keep up with exciting new work. All of them keep an eye on not only submissions and recommendations but also on offerings at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and one another’s work. While each has a different economic model and aesthetic emphasis, all have infrastructure in place to market and offer technical support for everything on their stages, which means they have the prerogative, and the incentive, to choose only work they want to see there, whether or not their name is above the title as producer.”
Hollywood Limps Out Of A Down Year
“This is the third straight year of decline in Hollywood ticket sales – the first such stretch of bad news in 40 years. Because of the continued falloff – sales are down 12.6 percent from 2002 – a growing number of analysts wonder if America’s movie habits are changing permanently.”
Africa Ponders Cultural Policy
African ministers of culture met in Kenya this week to talk about the need for cultural policy. “The meeting with the theme Culture, Integration and African Renaissance’ was quite relevant at a time when the impact of the globalisation on the African continent and its culture can no longer be ignored. This was therefore a watershed conference that gave direction to the member states of the African Union on the need to curve out common approaches to cultural matters within the international cultural forum.”
Judge Strikes Down California Restrictions On Sales Of Violent Video Games
“A federal judge has blocked a California law that would have made it illegal to sell or rent violent video games to minors, saying he doubted whether such sales could be banned even if the games were proved to cause violent behavior among children.”
Washington Ballet’s Confusing Labor Woes
“The dispute over whether the dancers had declared a strike last week (management’s view) or were locked out by management (as the dancers claim) has been given a new twist. For the past two days, when the dancers have shown up for their previously scheduled rehearsals, they have been turned away by Artistic Director Septime Webre. Money is not the primary issue. The thorny questions involve how much control Webre should have. Can he hire and fire without restrictions? Can he change the size of the company? Should there be limits on how he conducts rehearsals to prevent injuries?”
Investigating Fairness In The NYT Book Review
Were New York Times staffers unfairly favored in the Times’ best books list of the year? (six NYT writers’ books made the list). Times public editor Byron Calame investigates: “What’s fair is particularly challenging in the world of the book section. There, reviewers are expected to express their opinions, but readers also have the right to expect that books are assessed based on their merits, not just on a critic’s ideology or personal grudges and preferences. The complications only grow when some of the authors are on the staff of The Times.”