Revised designs are unveiled for a new opera house in Dallas. “The opera house is the centerpiece of the $275 million Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, which also includes the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, designed by Rem Koolhaas and his Office for Metropolitan Architecture; and the City Performance Hall by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of Chicago and Corgan Associates of Dallas.”
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America’s Cultural Obsession With Religion
“In the wake of the creationist “Scopes monkey trial” in 1925, the evangelicals (though technically victorious) realised they had lost the PR battle, and retreated from American public life. Now they are popping up all over the place, from the bestseller lists to pop music. In the wake of Scopes, the Bible Belt (H. L. Mencken’s tag) was seen as a home of hicks. Now evangelism is the religion of the upwardly mobile, of McMansions and office parks, with evangelicals almost drawing level with (traditionally upper-crust) Episcopalians in terms of wealth and education.”
All About Niches
It’s all about niche publishing these days. “Even the niches have niches. Chick lit breaks down into Latina chick lit, African-American chick lit, older woman chick lit, dick lit—which may be written by men, but is still geared towards women—and now fat-girl chick lit. If you have weight issues, get ready for books to regurgitate your dieting struggles, because the weight loss memoir, all of them written by young women, is very hot right now. It’s also a good time to be a knitter, with books on how to knit, how to form knitting groups, chick lit about friends who knit, even a spiritual guide with knitting metaphors. Any day now, the book about knitting for women who are overweight will hit the market. I’m sure of it.”
Washington State To Pursue Art Collectors
Last week the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that “millions of dollars in purchases by Washington art collectors have gone untaxed, and that an effort to collect that revenue was impeded by upper management and then suspended late last year.” This week a flurry of state investigations has been announced, and state tax collectors says they’ll start actively trying to collect the taxes owed.
Royal Academy Expels Artist
For the first time in 200 years, the Royal Academy of Art has expelled a member. “Professor Brendan Neiland resigned as Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools last July amid allegations regarding missing funds from academy accounts. The professor is the first artist to be stripped of his membership since James Barry was ejected in 1799. “
Making Media Safe For All…
Does American media need reform? More than 2,400 people gathered recently in St. Louis to talk about it. One issue? “In a very near future, high-definition television, telephone service, radio, and the internet could all be reliably piped into homes, cars, and portable devices through a single wireless service provider. The cable and telephone companies are banking on that destiny. Municipal wireless networks are an alternative, by which local governments offer low-cost or free use of high-speed internet as a public utility rather than a private luxury. But — surprise — bills banning municipal wireless have been recently passed in 11 states and are being considered in a dozen more, including Texas.”
Less Hollywood, More High-Tech
Hundreds of British movie theaters have been awarded government grants to install digital projection equipment, in exchange for which they have agreed to cut down on the number of big-budget Hollywood films they show, and to feature more homegrown flicks and arthouse fare. “The digital projectors will do away with the need for film reels – making it cheaper for distributors to get independent films seen.”
The Fall of Hyperion?
A while back, UK record label Hyperion released a CD of music by a French composer whose work had long been in the public domain. But then, a musicologist contacted the label, claiming that he had assembled the works on the disc from original manuscripts over hundreds of hours, and asking for a few thousand pounds for his trouble. Rebuffed, the musicologist sued, and won. “Hyperion took the case to appeal but lost again last week, leaving them facing legal bills of up to £1 million – a crippling sum for a small independent label. At first sight, the result seems a tragedy for the classical music profession, as Hyperion has produced some of the finest – and certainly most interesting – recordings made in Britain over the past quarter century.”
Emin’s Examination Of Self
Tracey Emin has a new exhibit that highlights a significant shift in her artistic style. It also highlights something, um, a bit more personal. “Were it not for the fact that nearly every work in the exhibition shows the artist luxuriantly masturbating, it would be possible to imagine that Tracey Emin had transformed herself into an artist with the sensibility of a Victorian lady watercolourist.”
The Anti-Orchestra
Ivan Fischer is not a conductor who is content to do things by someone else’s rulebook. “In 1983, when he was in his early 30s, Fischer decided to found his own orchestra and run it on very different lines from anything that had gone before. More than two decades later, the Budapest Festival Orchestra has become one of the world’s great ensembles, playing to packed houses at home and astounding audiences abroad with its brilliance and intensity.” And yet, the organization and culture of the orchestra are like nothing most musicians ever experience, emphasizing individual accomplishment as much as teamwork.