According to one congressman, the FCC crackdown on “indecency” hasn’t worked, not because it was wrongheaded and infantile, but because it simply didn’t go far enough. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) is proposing to scrap the current system, under which offending TV and radio stations are fined for airing objectionable material, and replace it with criminal prosecution of offenders.
Blog
Democracy Flops In New York
“It had great buzz from London. It had terrific reviews in New York. It had ‘snob hit’ written all over it. And it had $2 million in the bank before opening night. And yet Democracy — Michael Frayn’s political drama about the spy who brought down West German Chancellor Willie Brandt — has collapsed almost as fast as the Berlin Wall. Once touted as a sure-fire Tony Award contender, the production will close April 17 after only four months on Broadway. It will lose nearly all of its $2.5 million investment.”
Frank Conroy, 69
Frank Conroy, who “headed the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa for 18 years, published just five books, a relatively small number for a writer of his reputation. But one of them was the lucid and evocative 1967 memoir that has been a model for countless young writers – the sort of book that is passed along like a trade secret. But Mr. Conroy was a personal model as well, a sympathetic but exacting teacher who at Iowa helped shape the early careers” of scores of writers.
Illuminating An Annoying Snob
Nothing will turn the media against you faster than overexposure, and for novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, the tipping point seems fast approaching. His third novel is garnering some scathing reviews, and his particular brand of literary snobbery (think Dave Eggers with more gimmicks) is fast wearing thin within the book world. “Given Foer’s rock-star status, who can blame the rest of New York for being a bit sick of Brooklyn’s literary boy wonder?”
Levine: A Man Of Two Cities
Leading the Boston Symphony and the Metropolitan Opera are (at least) two full time jobs. But “those who doubted that James Levine could juggle two of the most demanding and prestigious music directorships in the United States have been proved wrong. Moreover, in Boston, the question of his physical health and stamina has been a nonissue. But what about his creative health and stamina?”
Book Busking
Hawking your self-published collection of poetry on the New York subway might not sound like a fun way to make a living. But for Brad Bathgate, aka Blue, it’s the only life he knows, and when you watch him work his magic on a subway car full of jaded, hostile New Yorkers, you start to believe that there just might be something to this unusual sales technique.
How Muti Was Edged Out Of La Scala
Riccardo Muti’s departure from La Scala was a long time coming. He maintained artistic standards in the opera house, but elsewhere in Italy opera is in decline. “Artistic standards have plummeted. With so many jobs to fill, orchestras and choruses are enfeebled. Most of the great voice teachers long ago emigrated to the richer pastures of American campuses, and the quality of native singing is now in terminal decline. Against such corruption and mediocrity, Muti has resolutely set his face. Like all dictators, he ultimately overestimated his own power and allowed his ego to get the better of his judgment. But La Scala will be hard pushed to find a successor – Riccardo Chailly? Daniele Gatti? – to match his charisma and idealism.”
Music, War, And Memories of Britten
Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem,” isn’t often performed, largely because of its massive personnel requirements – a full orchestra, a separate chamber orchestra, plus several choirs and vocal soloists – but this week, the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra will combine for the first time in decades to bring the anti-war opus to life. And the music won’t be the only star: as luck would have it, a 93-year-old musician who played in the Requiem’s emotional premiere in Coventry, England lives three hours from the Twin Cities, and is being brought in to attend the concert and speak to the audience about the impact Britten’s work had on a shattered post-war British public.
Will Resale Royalties To Artists Hurt UK Art Market?
Staring next year artists in the UK will earn a percentage of the resale value of their work when it changes hands. “The measure would earn artists royalties of 4.5% on sales of up to £50,000, with a sliding scale coming into effect above that. However, royalties to the handful of artist millionaires would be capped at £9,000 for each sale. The payments would help some well-known artists.” But some say that the plan will chase art sales out of the country to the US
Humana In Need Of An Overhaul?
In a year when theatre as a whole seemed reinvigorated by politics and activism, Louisville’s venerable Humana Festival fell distinctly flat, says Michael Phillips. “The case of this year’s Humana Festival, the fifth under the stewardship of Actors Theatre artistic director Marc Masterson, is one of artistic Chapter 11. The festival, a venerable and well-known showcase for new work, needs reorganization, a fresh angle, a renewed reason for being in a theatrical world very different from the one in which it began.”