The Canadian Post Office has created its first stamp honoring a living person – jazz legend Oscar Peterson. “It was a special 80th birthday tribute to Canada’s legendary jazz pianist. Peterson said he always considered himself proud to be a Canadian, “But to have the honour of this stamp issued in my likeness goes beyond my wildest dreams.”
Blog
Britain’s Top Ten Paintings?
Radio 4 has posted the top ten contenders in its poll picking the greatest painting in Britain. Any painting hanging in a British collection is eligible, regardless of its country of origin.
Jerry, The Opera: No Funding Pressure…
A tour of Jerry Springer, The Opera is in doubt, and some are saying it’s because Arts Council England bowed to pressure from religious groups and denied funding. But a Council spokesperson says: “The decision not to provide funding for the tour was financial, as the musical was already a ‘commercial success’, and not over fears of a religious backlash. It is nonsense to say that the Arts Council has refused to fund the tour of Jerry Springer over fears of protests from Christian groups, or anyone else.”
Best Art. Best What?
So Britons are picking the best art in Britain. What kind of exercise is this? “Cognoscenti may dismiss the list as the work of a country that does not know much about art but knows what it likes on a nice birthday card. Populists may hail it as a triumph of popular taste over critics, conceptualists and postmodernists. And regionalists may regret that only two of the works on the list are in galleries outside London.”
A Seismic Shift In Entertainment
There are fundamental changes taking place in the ways we’re getting our entertainment. “We are our own entertainment navigators now. We don’t need a middle man to figure out and present entertainment for us. We can create entertainment ourselves. That’s not a fad — that’s a fundamental shift. We are our own directors and our own producers now. That’s especially becoming a reality in home entertainment. We now can get a comparable moviegoing experience — quality picture and surround-sound effects — without going to the theater.”
Anne Landers On Stage
A new play about Anne Landers makes its debut, but the stars aren’t the actors. “It’s the darn letters. Many of the famous ones are here: ‘Would it be possible for me to be buried in my 1937 Dodge instead of a casket?’ ‘I like to do my housework with no clothes on. . . . ‘ What could be more apt? Such is the dirty little secret of the advice biz. Pick the letters well, stick ’em in print, and people will flock to the column. After all, nothing is more soothing for the ego than reading about someone else’s crisis. Oprah Winfrey and her post-Landers ilk, you could argue, merely take those Ann Landers-type letter writers and stick a camera in their faces.”
Art Of Random Selection
A couple of big festivals – one carefully chooses what art gets in as recommended by a jury. The other throws names into a hat and it’s luck of the draw. It’s not that one way is about quality and the other isn’t. “The thinking is that a nonjuried show is the one place where everyone has an equal opportunity. The other thinking is that this is supposed to be something that gets away from this tradition of sitting back with arms folded and judging something based on its quality.”
Edinburgh Fringe May Cut Free Sunday
Every year for 25 years, the Edinburgh Fringe has hosted a free Sunday, offering hundreds of acts and drawing 200,000 people. But costs have doubled in the past few years and organizers say they can’t afford it. “We love Fringe Sunday. It’s fantastic, a wonderfully inclusive occasion that gets a broad mix of people which you wouldn’t see in theatres. But costs have risen from £32,000 in 1998 to £65,000, and are set to rise in years ahead, while income from catering concessions was less than half that figure.”
Seattle Radio For Pod People
A really unusual radio station that’s prospering? “Seattle’s 720-watt KEXP, partly funded by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, last month became the first station in the U.S. to offer a “podcast” of full-length songs from albums for Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod music players. Podcasts typically are free broadcasts delivered via the Web to computers, allowing users to transfer the digital audio and listen anytime. In the next few weeks, KEXP says it will become the first to make its live radio broadcasts suitable for cellphones and handheld organizers.”
An Elite Soviet Ballet School Stays The Course
In 1972 a young reporter visited the elite training school for the Kirov Ballet. Now, all these years later, after the collapse of the USSR, the reporter returns to find… that the quality of training has stayed more or less the same…