Agnes Gund, one of New York’s leading cultural figures, has resigned from the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation board. “Governor Pataki (and it saddens me to say, Senator Clinton has joined him) has caved and virtually ensured that there will be no cultural component to the redevelopment. I hate to walk away from this situation and leave it to you and the others to sort out. But I am afraid that the governor and those few family members have succeeded in destroying what could not be destroyed on that awful Tuesday, which is our hope.”
Blog
Going Nuclear – What “Atomic” Sounds Like
“A montage of sounds runs through the score: alarms, screams, strange metallic grindings, scratchy tunes poking through radio static. In the orchestra, the tension jumps from tectonic timpani rumbles to dry staccato sprints in the strings, to gelid woodwind chords. Occasionally, Adams’ score rises to a raging shout, and at other times it relaxes into arias of consolatory beauty. But it never ceases to quiver.”
Yahoo! Plans Its Own Digital Book Project
Yahoo is starting its own program to digitize books, following Google’s much publicaized project. “Yahoo will help digitise 18,000 works of American literature plus material from national and European archives. It hopes to avoid the legal action that has dogged Google’s plan by adopting an opt-in policy on copyrighted works.”
NYT’s Ben Brantley On The State Of Theatre:
“On Broadway, I think reviews are less and less relevant. So much of the Broadway audience now is tourists, who want to approximate the experience of going to a theme park. At the moment we are in the midst of ‘the theatre of celebrity’. If you can get a star, preferably from TV or the movies, and especially if they are willing to take their clothes off – you are guaranteed a hit.”
Download Music Sales Up, Total Sales Down
Sales of downloaded music have tripled in the past year and now account for 6% of record industry sales, worth $790 million. “However, revenue from sales of physical music formats, like CDs, fell 6.3% and the overall market by 1.9%. That translates to a global drop in the market from $13.4 billion (£7.6bn) to $13.2 billion (£7.5bn), for all music sales – regardless of format.”
The Hurricane, The Violinist, And The Violin Maker
Samuel Thompson survived Hurricane Katrina with little more than the violin that is his professional livelihood. He became famous after a photographer took a picture of him playing for victims at the Superdome. The Massachusetts woman who made Thompson’s instrument was glad to see her instrument…
Is Arts Coverage About To Change At The LA Times?
“After five years of sagging circulation and advertising, new managers at the Times are pushing for more coverage of Hollywood and celebrities. They want shorter stories and more regional reporting in the intensely competitive bedroom communities around Los Angeles.”
Denver Taking Back The Tickets
In 1998, Denver’s major performing arts organizations began selling their tickets through a single service run by the Denver Center. But the combined ticket selling hasn’t gone well, and one by one, the organizations have gone back to selling their own tickets. Denver Center “did a great job for a lot of years, but they had to serve a lot of clients, and a lot of clients with really different needs. And then ‘The Lion King’ would go on sale, and it would be overwhelming for everybody,”
Americans Watching Record Number Of Hours Of TV
“During the 2004-2005 television season, members of average American homes collectively spent 8 hours and 11 minutes per day watching TV. (The season ran from Sept. 20, 2004, to Sept. 18, 2005.) The figure – 2.7 percent higher than last year and 12.5 percent above viewing levels a decade ago – represents the greatest amount of time being spent watching TV in American homes since Nielsen began measuring national audiences in the 1950s.”
“Atomic” Explodes
“New operas are always big events, but the hype surrounding this one went off the scale. This climax contains some of the most powerful and haunting music Adams has written. It relies on one of the most astonishing bits of stagecraft Sellars has conceived. It expands your consciousness in the way opera is uniquely qualified to do on those rare occasions when the art form is working with all its cylinders firing.”