“The Netherlands is an intriguing case study in the debate over how much public funding should go to the arts. Though the infusion of government spending on the arts in the 1970s and ’80s created an arts mecca hailed around the world, it also attracted hangers-on and yielded warehouses full of artworks of dubious merit and zero value on the commercial art market. Ultimately, the Netherlands found there can, in fact, be too much of a good thing. The government-backed support structure for artists created a talent glut, and it collapsed under its own weight.”
Blog
Santa Barbara Theatre Wars
A bitter power struggle at Santa Barbara’s only Equity theatre company has led to the formation of a rival troupe with impressive Los Angeles connections…
Musical Taste (Literally)
“But the stimulated sensation is usually colour vision. Synaesthesia, as the stimulation of one sensory perception by another is known, is not that unusual. ES is a professional musician who is able, literally, to taste what she hears. Almost every musical interval provokes a gustatory sensation in her. A major third sounds sweet. A minor third, salty. A fourth has the flavour of mown grass. Only an octave is tasteless.”
A Better BBC? (Hmnnn…)
Plans for reorganizing the BBC and abolishing its board of governors promise to transform the public broadcaster. But will the changes improve broadcast product?
Cross-wiring The Brain
Why do some people have a reaction in one sense when another is stimulated? “Neuroscientists think the condition occurs because certain regions of the brain “cross-activate” at the same time. So the tone perception center, for example, may be linked with the taste perception center. And studying synesthetes is giving clues to the working of the brain, one of the most complex structures in the universe.”
Namibia Debates Culture Bill
Is Namibia’s fractured culture the product of a lack of national debate about culture? The country is currently debating a bill to support national culture. “The absence of a cultural discourse may be symptomatic of the multitudes of problems that we are facing as a country. The area of culture and values is dominated by various sub-groups that sometimes transmit contradictory values. Art plays an important role in transmitting values and helping individuals to eternalise them.”
Bolshoi Slammed For “Pornographic” Opera
An opera scheduled to produced by the Bolshoi Theatre has caught the ire of “pro-Kremlin MPs”, who have branded the piece “vulgar and pornographic”. Scandal to follow. The opera is Rosenthal’s Children, which “features a godlike figure who creates clones of famous composers, and was to open later this month. The libretto was written by Vladimir Sorokin, a controversial postmodernist author.”
Queuing For Valkyries…
That line over there? Yes that one. What are they waiting for in the cold. At 6 AM? Hundreds of them? Tickets for Wagner. Think you’d see this in a US city? “I was there at 6am. The box office opened at 10. There were people queueing before me. I had no thermals, but cut a dash with pyjama bottoms under my jeans and a borrowed Cossack hat. I am no wimp, and have been called brave by dentists, but it really was stark-bollock freezing.”
Schools: Reading For Tests? Or For Pleasure?
Have UK schools forgotten to teach the joy of reading in their zeal to improve test scores? “Reading has always been seen as a source of considerable pleasure for many. This is important, but perhaps has been forgotten by some schools in their pursuit of higher tests results that will improve their position in the league tables. You will find no pleasure in books if you cannot read, but it is equally possible to be able to read and derive little pleasure.”
What We Read? (What Our Friends Read, Natch)
What’s most effective in selling a book? Word of mouth – personal recommendations. “Publishers often stand accused of becoming ever more sophisticated and cynical in their pursuit of creating instant author brands, when ultimately it is as likely to be good old-fashioned personal recommendation that really sells.”