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America’s Banned Book Week, 2005 Edition

“Three of the most challenged books of 2004 – King and King by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky, and Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – have been criticised for their homosexual themes. Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, meanwhile, has attracted complaints for its alleged depictions of racism and sexism and its use of violent language.”

Winnipeg Symphony Gets Debt-Free

The Winnipeg Symphony has erased a formerly crippling accumulated deficit. “Two years ago, the orchestra was $2.9-million in the hole after several seasons of major losses. The official deficit at the end of the 2003-2004 fiscal year stood at $1.6-million. Of that, $1.3-million has been covered by the province and the rest by private fundraising and a small amount, about $44,000, by a sustaining fee on some ticket sales.”

When Rock Stars Go Classical (It Isn’t Pretty)

Alan Kozinn puzzles over pop stars’ desires to crossover to classical music. “It seems to be a part of the human condition that having established a specialty, we hanker to do something else. And far be it from me to say that we shouldn’t. But speaking as a classical music critic who also listens to lots of rock – and who wishes that more rock fans found classical music exciting as well – I must confess that I find many of these crossover incursions dispiriting. For one thing, rock stars who become interested in classical music are bizarrely conservative.”

Rise Of The “Movical”

Broadway shows based on movies – “movicals” – are hot these days. “In an era that has few big name songwriters of the ilk of Cole Porter, or Rodgers and Hammerstein, the stage must increasingly rely on other familiar brands. Lord of the Rings is the latest hit film bound for the stage, though one could argue that the production is based on JRR Tolkien’s trilogy – not the Peter Jackson films. But coming hot on the heels of Jackson’s Oscar success, the musical will undoubtedly benefit from the book’s big screen adaptation.”

Is Documentary-Making Going To Get Easier?

The documentary “March of the Penguins” was a surprise hit this summer in America. “This low-budget film now ranks as the second-highest-grossing feature-length documentary, after ‘Fahrenheit 9/11,’ with almost $71 million in box-office receipts in the United States and a DVD version due out on Nov. 29. And that success is raising hopes that penguins can blaze an ice trail for other documentaries created with the tense pace of Hollywood feature films. ‘March of the Penguins’ leads a wave of documentary films that surfaced this year to critical acclaim…”

Why Are America’s Schools Segregated?

“One of the most disheartening experiences for those who grew up in the years when Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall were alive is to visit public schools today that bear their names, or names of other honored leaders of the integration struggles that produced the temporary progress that took place in the three decades after Brown v. Board of Education, and to find out how many of these schools are bastions of contemporary segregation. It is even more disheartening when schools like these are not in deeply segregated inner-city neighborhoods but in racially mixed areas where the integration of a public school would seem to be most natural, and where, indeed, it takes a conscious effort on the part of parents or school officials in these districts to avoid the integration option that is often right at their front door.”

The British Art Show Goes International

Every five years the British Art Show takes the temperature of contemporary art in the UK. “What has changed in the years since 2000 is that British art, like British society, has become international. Though every artist in the 2005 show lives, works, and may have trained here in Britain, they come from the Netherlands, France, Turkey, Serbia, the USA, Italy, Brazil, Pakistan, Uganda, Zambia, Germany, Poland, Canada, Bulgaria and India. That feels absolutely right. London has always been a cosmopolitan city, but over the past five years it has become the centre of the art world.”