“Today, fads ping across continents and disappear so quickly that the coolhunter, even the whole notion of “cool,” has become passé. Every big-city scenester or bored teenager on the planet has a blog or mass e-mail anointing the moment’s hot restaurants, hobbies and handbags. Add to this, mass obsession with celebrity style and global corporatization and you can get nearly the same chai latte or straight-off-the-runway skirt in Columbus, Ohio, that’s available in Manhattan or Milan. Trend-spotting has, in essence, become just another trend…”
Blog
Are Computers Failing Our Children?
“A University of Munich study of 174,000 students in thirty-one countries, indicates that students who frequently use computers perform worse academically than those who use them rarely or not at all. Whether or not these assessments are the last word, it is clear that the computer has not fulfilled the promises made for it. Promoters of instructional technology have reverted to a much more modest claim—that the computer is just another tool.”
Ballet Pacifica Makes A bid For The Big Time In Southern California
The company has a new director, and the Irvine-based group has ambitious expansion plans. “Ballet Pacifica would make its debut in fall 2006 outside Orange County. The company’s first home repertory season would include three different programs performed in spring 2007 at the new $200 million concert hall. Again, dates have been ‘penciled in,’ but contracts have not yet been signed, Arts Center officials confirmed.”
Is Digital Downloading Classical Recording’s Saviour?
So says a spokesman for Naxos. “This is all pure profit for us. There are no post-production costs – no booklet to print, no (disc) pressing costs, no jewel case costs. And really, it hasn’t hurt our CD sales. People out there look at the price of a download in a different way. This is disposable music. It’s a way for them to sample something without making a large investment. They’ll pay the 99 cents for one cut and either decide to try the whole album or not. If they like it, they’ll maybe go out and purchase the CD.”
Aussie Arts – Money And Censorship
“In John Howard’s Australia, libraries, museums, theatres and orchestras are on the same list as ports and roads and hospitals – traditional institutions, and necessary parts of the civic fabric. To understand what’s happened under Howard to the arts in general and theatre in particular – the odd mix of generosity and meanness, celebration and indifference, abuse and support – it’s best to keep in mind the lessons learnt in the kafuffle over the orchestras: that the bedrock arts policy of the Howard Government is not support for the arts – it’s support for arts institutions. Big, traditional institutions. And in the way we understand these things in Australia – let’s not talk of what’s possible in Europe – the big traditional arts companies are flourishing under John Howard as never before.”
Is Toronto Living Beyond Its Artistic Means?
Toronto has gone on a tear of arts building in recent years. “After they have congratulated themselves on the arts building boom, Torontonians should start to wonder about who’s going to pay the price in the years ahead. Most of us would rather forget it, but the truth is that Canadian arts institutions are seriously underfunded and have been for at least 10 or 15 years.”
Is Stratford Sick Under The Surface?
Ontario’s Stratford Festival “currently has the ruddy bloom of financial fitness in its cheeks.” But Richard Ouzounian writes that “a distressing number of voices feel that its artistic arteries are clogged to the danger point.”
Milwaukee Symphony Players Take Pay Cut
The Milwaukee Symphony has signed a new contract with its musicians. It’s not good news for the players. The deal includes “a minimum salary of $53,625 (down from $59,125) for 39 weeks of work (down from 43). The four-year contract gives the orchestra ‘breathing room’ – time to improve marketing, reverse a long-term audience slide, balance the operating budget, establish fiscal transparency and restore donors’ faith in the institution.”
Scots Look Enviously At Welsh Opera
While Scottish Opera languishes, the Welsh National Opera thrives artistically. What’s the difference? “It is simply the fact that good-quality opera is not something that can be done cheaply and cannot be done with uncertainty over year-to-year financing, which is what we have had. In opera, we have to think at least three years ahead when we book people and organise our events. When we don’t know from year to year how much money we are going to have, we can’t plan properly. In Wales, they make it a priority.”
TV – The Modern Movie PR Machine
“Kissed off by critics as a sad emblem of the state of modern journalism – loud, jaggedly edited amalgams of gossipy supermarket tabloid and studio press release – shows like “Access Hollywood” and “Entertainment Tonight” have nonetheless never been more important to the marketing of Hollywood, and have never had more competition. At a time when high-profile movies can live or die on the strength of their opening weekend, such shows offer a big potential audience – an average of 3.2 million viewers a night for “Access,” 6.7 million for “E.T.” – as well as a prized commodity in Hollywood: free exposure.”