“Modern architects have always been sensitive about the public’s ambivalence towards their buildings, and the last thing they wanted was a programme highlighting their dislike of a string of high-profile modern buildings and clamouring for their demolition. The critics need not have been so nervous. What the poll showed was the public’s remarkably sanguine attitude towards modern buildings, despite numerous Lottery-funded projects that might have been expected to generate controversy.”
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Apres The Geriatric Rockers? Rien?
Today’s biggest pop music draws, those capable of filling stadiums and charging big ticket prices are getting on in years. Younger artists of their stature aren’t coming along, and presenters are worried. “I don’t know what the Social Security plan is for those of us in the concert industry who will be waiting for the Stones and McCartney to still be touring in 10 to 15 years. But we need to worry about how to fill those arena, amphitheater and stadium dates with an artist-driven or event-driven tour.”
Needed: A Turner Prize For Music?
“The idea is taking root that contemporary music really ought to come out of its shell and tell the world it exists. ‘We need a Turner Prize for Music’ is the cry often heard. Which isn’t to say that the composing world lacks prizes. Some of them, such as the Grawemeyer Award, awarded by the University of Louisville, have far larger prizes than the Turner. But they’re invisible. There’s no awards ceremony, no party, no TV cameras. The annual Royal Philharmonic Society Awards is a glitzy affair, but composers are only one category among many.”
Why Does Springer Make A Great Opera?
“The operatic potential of The Jerry Springer Show seems blindingly obvious, at least in hindsight. Like characters in an opera, Springer’s guests come on stage and immediately reveal their innermost secrets, then pitch into emotional exchanges with their wives, boyfriends or boyfriends’ girlfriends. Love, hate, sex, power: All the big operatic themes are there, minus the singing. There’s even a built-in chorus: the studio audience, with its volatile sympathies and free-floating hostility.”
Ratings Drop After DC Station Drops Classical Music For Public Radio News
Last February, Washington DC public radio station WETA ditched its classical music format and went news. Did the switch backfire? “After two ratings books, two fund drives and nine months of the new programming — a mix of news and talk shows from National Public Radio, the BBC and other outside sources, much of it oriented to foreign affairs — WETA’s audience is smaller, no more generous than the classical audience was, and no more reflective of the demographics of the Washington area.”
The Anti Anti-Piracy Backlash
A backlash is developing against recording companies’ anti-piracy measures. “Some at Sony BMG candidly say that copy-protection software, particularly a program which has since been discontinued, but which was embedded in a number of discs, such as the latest Burt Bacharach CD At This Time and Ray Charles’s Friendship, has been a massive blunder at the worst possible time of year.”
Is Flap Over Wikipedia Accuracy Warranted?
The storm over erroneous entries on Wikipedia is more thunder than substance. “Of course, the flip side of the enormous flexibility provided by the Wiki format is that “anyone” includes people who are driven by motivations other than community spirit. But vandalism, malice, racism, spam, and the like can be kept to a minimum, as long as there are more good guys than bad guys. This is obviously happening at Wikipedia, or no one would be using it.”
The Sudoku Craze
“Since the arrival, at the very end of 2004, of the number grid game sudoku, Britain – like Israel, France, India and the US – has become a puzzle nation. The statistics are amazing. Sudoku puzzles now feature in most national newspapers, and are moving on to mobile phones and pay-to-play websites. The magazine Puzzler Sudoku was first launched in March with a circulation of just 15,000. It now sells 300,000.”
Cindy Sheehan, Onstage
Nobel-winning playwright Dario Fo has written a play about peace activist Cindy Sheehan. “Peace Mom received its world premiere in London on Saturday night, starring British actress Frances de la Tour, with both Sheehan and Italian dramatist Fo in the audience. The one-woman show is based on extracts from Sheehan’s letters to Bush and other writings.”
The Children’s Theatre Boom
One sign of the growing ambitions and importance of children’s theatre in America are the elaborate new theatres being built to house them. The Kennedy Center is opening a new $9 million Family Theater that is “the first self-contained new theater to be christened at the center in 26 years. Built with federal funds in a space that formerly housed the AFI Theater, the playhouse is a significant facet of the center’s five-year, $125 million effort to upgrade arts education.”