“In many ways, the writers at Pitchfork and the Village Voice bloggers are picking up where the late rock critic Lester Bangs – who wrote for Rolling Stone and, later, a pre-blog Village Voice – left off, adding a dose of irony lifted from satirical magazine the Onion to his self-referential, often impenetrable reams of excited babble. Thanks to the bloggers’ often highly subjective rants, bands become much talked about on the internet long before they enter the charts. It’s all about being in the know, or at least pretending you’re in the know.”
Blog
A New Chicago Skyline?
Chicago is famous for its skyscrapers. But a whole new generation of soaring edifaces is being proposed that would transform the skyline. “Every week, it seems, a rendering of a new tower is splashed across the front page or the business page in the hopes of generating positive “buzz” and attracting potential buyers and investors. Some of this may be pure hucksterism. Nothing like a sexy architect’s rendering to drum up a prospective tenant or two. Still, every proposal bears watching. It’s the ugly one we ignore that — surprise! — will get built.”
Italy Contacts Princeton Museum
Italian authorities have contacted Princeton University about two vases they say were stolen from Italy. “This week, Princeton said it had been contacted in December 2004 by Italian law enforcement officials about the vases, which university officials said the museum legally acquired in 1989.”
In Search Of Pianos
“The piano-manufacturing business these days has gone the same way as many industries: the brand name is kept, but the instrument is made more cheaply in China, Korea, Japan, or Eastern Europe. Global competition means less variety. The Pearl River piano factory in China has 4,000 employees and is increasing production to 100,000 pianos a year, which they fabricate for more than twenty different companies around the world. How many people, when going to buy a piano, realize that their Bechstein could have been made in Germany or in Korea by Samick, depending on the model number (and price); or that the Boston piano designed and sold by Steinway is made by Kawai?”
Antiquities Trove Discovered In Egyptian Museum Basement
“For the past century, artefacts have been stored away in crates there and forgotten, often allowed to disintegrate in the dank, dusty cavern. Forgotten until now. The recent theft and recovery of three statues from the basement have prompted antiquity officials in Egypt to increase an effort already under way to complete the first comprehensive inventory of artefacts in the basement.”
Met Museum In Talks With Italy Over Stolen Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Italian culture ministry officials have agreed to meet to discuss objects in the New York museum’s collection that Italy says were looted.
Dallas’ New Performing Arts Center Breaks Ground
“The $275 million project, which will include the Winspear Opera House, the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, the City Performance Hall, the redesigned Annette Strauss Artists Square and the Grand Plaza, is expected to be ready for performances by 2009. Resident companies will include The Dallas Opera, Dallas Theater Center, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Texas Ballet Theater and Anita M. Martinez Ballet Folklorico and other local arts organizations.”
Ballet Internationale Quits
Indianapolis’s Ballet Internationale has shut its doors after 32 years in business. Its affiliate academy and satellite operations closed as well. “After a comprehensive review of the organization’s financial situation, the board determined that Ballet Internationale is not viable in Indianapolis under the current structure. A bankruptcy filing would be forthcoming.”
Looking For The Women
Where are the women composers? “For centuries men have dominated the history, theory and politics of music. In addition to history books that glossed over women’s contributions, early music theory distinguished between harmonically weaker ‘feminine’ cadences and strong, resolute ‘masculine’ ones. It’s easy to see why a woman might find this offensive. Music itself is neither masculine nor feminine, Joan Towers argues. It’s either good or it’s bad. ‘Everything in music goes counter to what we think of as feminine or masculine. It just doesn’t apply’.”
The World’s Books Online
“Creating a virtual Library of Alexandria has long been a dream of techies and book-lovers alike. Project Gutenberg, a digitisation initiative dating back to the 1970s, currently boasts over 17,000 books in around 45 languages. This summer, European nations backed a “digital library” plan to place literary works online. For readers, the idea of being able to access the aggregate knowledge of humanity on a single device from anywhere in the world seems a benefit of mythic proportions, and the obvious next step in man’s quest —from stone slabs to papyrus to movable type to ethereal digital bits—to document the world in words and symbols.”