For 25 years, the Hawaii Film Festival has been plugging along, flying more or less completely under the Hollywood radar. So Roger Ebert was surprised this year to attend the fest and discover something that looks quite a bit like an event on the rise. “I remember Sundance and Toronto in their earliest days, when everybody at the festival could fit into one hotel banquet room. Look at them now. Then I look at the enormous crowds at Hawaii, its 200 films, its creative programming, and I think, yes, the dream that Jeannette Paulson had when she started the festival 25 years ago is becoming a reality.”
Blog
Vettriano Strikes Back
Why are the critics so hard on artist Jack Vettriano? “Vettriano has accused the artistic establishment of disliking ‘rampant heterosexual behaviour’ and of resenting him because of his popularity with the public and because he does not come from a traditional artistic background. The artist defends himself against charges of plagiarism by countering that the reference volumes at the centre of the criticism are there precisely to give people a source of inspiration.”
Bittersweet Symphony
As the New York Philharmonic opened their stage and their hearts to the displaced musicians of the Louisiana Philharmonic this weekend, Alice Tully Hall became a study in contrasts, with musicians who seemingly have it made in this business sitting side by side with musicians who have seen their world turned upside down. To call the benefit concert, which raised more than $300,000 for the New Orleans ensemble, a triumph would seem to understate the magnitude of the LPO’s plight. But still, for one night in Manhattan, the LPO players could close their eyes and revel in the moment. “It’s bittersweet,” said one LPO violinist. “I’ve lost everything, but I get to play in the New York Philharmonic tonight.”
Russia’s Shame Becomes Box Office Gold
“The biggest post-Soviet film blockbuster packing the country’s multiplexes is a bloody tear-jerker about a topic many Russians would rather forget – the 10-year war that resulted in the Soviet Union’s messy withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989. For many here the film also is apparently read not only as a metaphor for Russia’s Chechen quagmire, but even for the very collapse of the Soviet Union. The movie, Company 9, has grossed $23.47 million since its Sept. 29 opening and is close to doubling the total receipts here of the latest installments of the popular Lord of the Rings and Star Wars films.”
New Van Gogh Self-Portrait?
“An art historian said yesterday she believes she has discovered an early self-portrait of the artist Vincent van Gogh under a painting of a Paris scene. Aukje Verggeese said the portrait came to light when she used X-rays to see a monument visible under the painted surface as she was attempting to pinpoint the scene of the landscape.”
Shakespeare For The Casual Fan
Speculation about Shakespeare – who he was, what he did, even whether he really existed – has become a profitable literary subgenre, with new books constantly being released to propound ever more unbelievable theories of the Bard, and others written expressly to dismiss such pie-in-the-sky ideas. It’s actually become difficult for a casual reader to find a straight-ahead, informative, and engaging biography of the playwright, in the same way that it is hard to find a book featuring an objective dissection of American foreign policy under George W. Bush. But “amid all this specialized debate, there is also a steady flow of less agitated books intended for the general reader, including three particularly insightful and well-written ones in the last year or so.”
St. Louis Musician Endowment Nears Its Goal
As the St. Louis Symphony attempts to dig out of the financial hole it fell into a few years back, one of the key measuring sticks is the salary earned by its musicians, and how it stacks up to other major American ensembles. In summer 2004, the SLSO began a special endowment drive designed specifically to make salary increases feasible within the existing budget – the goal for the drive is $20 million. This week, the orchestra announced that $17 million has been raised for the project, and the overall orchestra endowment now stands at $112 million.
Coming Soon: Webster’s Ninth Collegiate Musical Spectacular!
Now that Strunk & White’s Elements of Style has been reborn as a song cycle, and Broadway appears to have finally run out of all original ideas (see Movin’ Out), Dominic Papatola says that it may just be time for the theatre world to embrace the great English language reference books as inspiration. “The three-volume Columbia Gazetteer of the World sits on my bookshelf at home, and, I’m telling you, you can’t beat it for sheer drama. If Richard Wagner could make a 15-hour opera out of the story of some doofus dwarf and a ring, I see no reason the epic tale of the Encyclopaedia Britannica couldn’t be made into an heroic-scale grand opera.”
Getty Starts Internal Investigation
The board of the Getty Trust has formed a committee to investigate some of the difficult issues that have plagues the institution in recent months. “The committee, composed of five board members, will review issues related to an Italian criminal inquiry into allegedly looted antiquities and an investigation by the state attorney general into spending by the trust and its chief executive, Barry Munitz.”
Detroit Jazz Festival Talking About A Plan…
Last week, a Detroit philanthropist said she’d invest $10 million in continuing the troubled Detroit Jazz Festival. But only if the Music Hall, current operators of the festival, severed their ties. By late in the week Music Hall leaders expressed optimism “that the festival could be restructured without completely severing ties with Music Hall, which has produced the event since 1994, often struggling in recent years to make ends meet.”