“Nine enormous and hugely unsophisticated skyscrapers are being mooted by the world’s architectural mega-corps. The London model dictates that, where a skyscraper is built, open space must be left around it, creating dim plazas. Consequently, tall buildings, while they do increase office space, fail to increase the density of the city, instead merely prodding the skyline with primitive architectural fingers, the sole aim of which is to create a recognisable logo. This leaves blank, unnecessary plazas, inevitably filled with the usual coffee shops and chain stores, the city becoming in effect suburbanised.”
Blog
Is US&O’s Financial Ship Starting To Turn?
The Utah Symphony & Opera’s embattled CEO, Anne Ewers, insists that the troubled organization is well on its way to recovery, despite huge deficits and an in-house revolt this past season that saw the orchestra’s musicians mount a public campaign to expose what they saw as mismanagement. Ewers’s offered to reduce her own salary by $25,000 to help the US&O cut expenses, and overall, the organization spent $250,000 less in the 2004-05 season than it had the year before. Other measures designed to stabilize the group include an end to the regular practice of engaging substitute musicians to fill out the orchestral ranks, and a mandatory $10,000 gift for each of the US&O’s 40 board members.
Cellist Donald White, 80
The first black musician to play in the Cleveland Orchestra has died. Donald White, who was hired by music director George Szell in 1957, played 39 seasons in Cleveland, and participated in a groundbreaking tour of the American Deep South in the 1960s, during which the orchestra threatened to cancel concerts if White was barred from segregated venues. He died this past weekend, aged 80.
Is Vinyl A Thing Of The Past For DJ’s?
“When laptop DJing first came on the scene a few years back, there was a small handful of software programs for DJs to choose from, and none of them offered the same range of song manipulation options available with turntables or even CD DJ players. DJs could cross-fade (or blend) digital tracks, but the crucial function of shifting the pitch (or speed) of a song to match beats was unreliable. There was also the question of credibility. Vinyl was for purists. Digital was seen as cheating. But in the last year, technology has finally caught up with DJs’ expectations — and given them a way to keep it real.”
Quantifying The Art Market’s Rise
What’s the art market doing? Well, it’s going up. Here’re the stats: Prices generally rose 4.1 percent in the first six months. The number of records set rose to 4,614 from 3,920 in 2004’s first half. The general increase in art prices generated a sharp rise in the number of auction records.
A New News Network For Scotland?
The Scottish executive has endorsed a controversial BBC plan to form a new news network to cover Scotland. “BBC Scotland’s head of news and current affairs, set out proposals for local news services which involve splitting Scotland into six regions covered by a network of 36 video journalists, who will shoot and edit their own reports.”
Will Actors Unions Stay In AFL-CIO?
The the entertainment industry-friendly Teamsters union pulling out of the AFL-CIO, will small unions like the Screen Actors Guild follow?
Outlook: More Theatre That Engages
“Five years ago, if you had looked at the programme for the Edinburgh Festival, you would have been overwhelmed by the amount of “up-your-bum experimentalism”. Now, though there is still an unconscionable amount of that sort of thing, plus a lot of other general silliness, there are also more plays than I can ever remember that engage with the big issues of the day.”
Why Cuban Ballet Jumps So High
Cuban ballet is at an extraordinarily high level. “The question is how such a small, impoverished country can produce such a huge quota of talent. Acosta claims it’s all due to the national temperament – the music on every street corner, the heat, the vibrancy, the instinct for rhythm. Cubans dance as soon as they can walk. But the primacy of ballet also has everything to do with the vision of Cuba’s prima ballerina, Alicia Alonso, and its president, Fidel Castro.”
South Bank’s New Maestra
Does Jude Kelly know what she’s got herself in for, running South Bank’s artistic offerings? “So anxious were the Board to get her initials on a contract that they have allowed her to carry on directing shows elsewhere, a license that will eat into her time at the desk. Still, look on the bright side: making plays will give her interactive access to the artists she needs to enliven the South Bank, and it will signal that the centre at last has a creative director who can do something more than sign off budgets and dine for England. It will be no small plus if she also feels a sneaking need to outshine Nick Hytner’s rampantly autonomous National across the Waterloo Bridge, giving the South Bank a novel will to win.”