Calling yourself an “art terrorist” probably isn’t a great career move in these times, particularly in London, but the self-styled guerrilla artist Banksy has somehow managed to win himself quite a following anyway. “Over the past few years, Banksy has emerged as an ingenious and dexterous culture jammer, adept at hacking the art world and rewriting its rules to suit his own purposes… Brits have come to expect daring stunts from Banksy, who uses a pseudonym to avoid arrest for past escapades. But critics see him as nothing more than an overhyped vandal.”
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Well, That’ll Teach ‘Em
“Movie studio Sony is to pay $1.5m to film fans who accused it of using a fake critic to praise its movies, according to the fans’ lawyer. In 2001, ads for films including Hollow Man and A Knight’s Tale quoted praise from a reviewer called David Manning, who was exposed as being invented. People who saw the films can now get a $5 refund from Sony’s pay-out.”
Language No Barrier To Harry
Translated versions of the new Harry Potter opus won’t be available for months yet, but French bookbuyers apparently see no need to wait. In fact, Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince is currently the fifth-most popular purchase at Paris bookstores, despite being available exclusively in English. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is nuts for Harry, as well: illegal Chinese translations are already popping up for sale in Asia, and German readers have been posting their own translations online.
The Boom Box In The Orchestra Pit
The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s decision to drop its live orchestra in favor of canned music for the upcoming season has been greeted with dismay from all sides. Musicians, dancers, and subscribers alike agree that the move will cheapen the company’s performances, and PBT officials can only say that they believe the move was an absolute last resort to keep the troupe within its $6.4 million budget. All sides are leaving the door open to the orchestra’s return, even for only a part of the 2005-06 season, if a late infusion of cash can be found.
Rattle’s Kids
Sir Simon Rattle has long had an obsession with bringing classical music to a wider audience, and his latest project is a daring effort to link two disparate sectors of German society. “Rattle’s brave determination to include some of Berlin’s most phlegmatic and recalcitrant teenagers into the orchestra’s working life, from the very start of his collaboration with the orchestra, has been captured in Rhythm Is It!, one of the most popular German documentary films for years… In a former bus depot on the edge of industrial wasteland in Berlin, the cooperation between the teenagers and an initially sceptical orchestra reaches its height in a performance of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, attended by an audience of several thousand. “
Fired As A Fiddler, Hired As A Conductor
Violinist Dennis Kim, who was recently dismissed from his position as concertmaster of the Hong Kong Philharmonic after music director Edo deWaart discovered that he had been auditioning for an American orchestra while supposedly on sick leave, has landed on his feet in a big way. Kim was named the new conductor of Korea’s Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra this week, following a series of auditions for the position. Kim is Korean-born, though he grew up mainly in Canada.
Investigation More Bad News For Getty
An investigation by the State of California of the Getty Trust is the latest bad news for one of the world’s richest institutions. “The Getty Trust, with an endowment of more than $5 billion, includes the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, a research institute, a vast library, an art conservation program and a grant-making office. The trust has suffered a number of administrative, legal and public relations blows over the last year. A number of senior officers have left, and staff morale is said to be low.”
Where’s That Vaunted British Sense Of Humor?
British comedy has become increasingly darker, and one theory is that Britons are laughing less, losing their sense of humor. “A survey earlier this year by cruise company Ocean View even concluded that the amount of time we spend chuckling daily has fallen from an average of 18 minutes in the 1950s to just six minutes today. Traditionally, the English only peep out from their caves of national self-disgust to trumpet their alleged good sense of humour, their subtlety with irony, their readiness for laughter. Has our comedy become unfunny, and is our laughter on the brink of extinction?”
The Wonder Of Cuban Ballet
Why does Cuban ballet get such a big response? “How much of a salve art offers is difficult to gauge, but the frustrations of Cuban life are revealed in the ballet audience’s response. There is something in the experience reminiscent of Furtwängler’s rendition of Beethoven’s 9th in wartime Berlin. Yet Cuban ballet is an art form caught in an aspic that has melted elsewhere. The Ballet Nacional is a piece of history preserved by the will of an ageing autocrat.”
Art By The Numbers – Surely There’s More?
“More and more do arts organisations feel they have to demonstrate their financial rather than their artistic prowess as a means of obtaining funds to support their existence. Arts festivals big and small commission economic impact studies to trumpet their success in creating employment, raising local incomes and encouraging tourism; understanding their cultural impacts often seems to take second place. Yet something is missing.”