Is the English school curriculum being dumbed down? “More than 400,000 students took the AQA GCSE in English literature last year. The exam offers questions on one of eight novels, including Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, and The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger – both 20th century classics. But no 19th century novels make it on to the list, and teenagers can also get an AQA A-level without studying a single pre-20th century novelist. ‘This is a real sign of dumbing down. Many of the books which are put in front of children nowadays simply do not merit the amount of time which is spent on them’.”
Blog
Is The Quintessential Chicago Writer No More?
“Chicago was very much a writer’s town in 1951, even if no one obvious giant walked the Loop, and remains a writer’s town to this day, though the one indisputable giant of the last five decades, Saul Bellow, died earlier this month. Dozens of writers in Chicago — or from Chicago — continue to produce critically acclaimed novels and stories, occasionally inspired but seldom intimidated by the Ghosts of Chicago Writers Past. What may be on its last legs, however, is the idea of the quintessential Chicago writer, neck-deep in despairing urban realism, following in the bottom-dog literary tradition of Dreiser, James T. Farrell, Richard Wright and Algren. You just don’t hear that voice much anymore.”
Power To The People – Opera In An Ice Rink
“Graham Vick, the respected opera director, is attempting his own radical solution to declining audiences and the trappings of elitism by staging a Monteverdi opera with a mix of professionals and amateurs in a burnt-out ice rink in Birmingham’s Chinatown.”
Cast Album As Promotional Giveaway
Broadway cast albums rarely make much money. But they are very valuable as promotional tools for a show trying to hit it big. So the producers of Broadway’s “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” is giving away 50,000 copies of the show’s album as a way of promoting it.
Remmereit – A Star-In-Waiting?
James Oestreich reports that 43-year-old Norwegian conductor Arild Remmereit has come out of nowhere to be a star-in-waiting. He’s recently substituted at La Scala and at the Pittsburgh Symphony, and seems destined to be a major conductor.
Are Opera DVD’s Too Much Of A Good Thing?
Anthony Tomnasini views the flood of new opera DVD’s with alarm. “With the DVD boom, will the labels start issuing operas based primarily on the production’s visual elements? The market is already flooded with routine musical performances of well-known works that just happened to have been taped for DVD. Also, as dramatic as opera may be, it’s refreshing to hear just the music on a fine recording without the powerful distraction, in a sense, of a production. There are recordings that I never tire of because the visceral impact of the music-making allows my dramatic imagination such fancy. But I do tire of seeing the same sets and costumes, the same camera angles, the same close-ups.”
Women Lead At the Movies
Women have quietly taken their places at the top of the Hollywood movie business. “Though men still figure most prominently in the corporate echelons of the media companies that own the studios, and talent agencies like William Morris and Creative Artists Agency are still male dominated, these women, who over the years have fought and fostered one another as part of a loose sisterhood, have finally buried the notion that Hollywood is a man’s world. So striking is the change that some now see Hollywood as a gender-balanced model for the rest of corporate America.”
Examining The Oprah Book Club Phenomenon
Every book Oprah chose for her book club saw a huge increase in sales. So “why did the books come under so much criticism? The question goes to the core of our perceptions about culture and art. Oprah, Rooney posits, found herself caught in an ongoing unease in America between highbrow and lowbrow culture generally summed up as: If a huge number of people appreciate something, can it really be art?”
Expert: Famed Shakespeare Portrait A Fake
“One of the most recognizable portraits of William Shakespeare is a fake, experts say. According to Britain’s National Portrait Gallery, the image – commonly known as the “Flower portrait” – was actually painted in the 1800s, not while the Bard was alive.”
Will The Internet Save Indy Music?
“Radio is in decline; satellite services XM and Sirius are ascending. Warner Music is scrambling to meet shareholder’s demands, but independent labels Merge, Sub Pop, and Kill Rock Stars are watching records sell in unprecedented numbers. These days a band doesn’t have to be seen on MTV, or heard on WBCN, or written about in Rolling Stone for fans to find out about it. The Internet is challenging the corporate clutch on both radio and retail.”