Movie studios are jockeying for position in this year’s Oscar race. “In a year when no live-action movie has emerged to overshadow the competition, some animated films may have a shot at best picture nominations. Their prospects would be considered unlikely, except for the perception among academy members, if not the public, that there is a dearth of Oscar-worthy live-action films this year.”
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Entertainment Journos – Just Fans With Better Access?
Entertainment journalism isn’t really journalism at all, writes Geoff Pevere. “You have to wonder if the admittedly integrity-challenged dodge of ‘entertainment journalism’ hasn’t given up, bought fishnet stockings, miniskirt and stiletto heels and hung out the red light. When an actor walks into a room full of alleged professionals and is greeted by a shout, the jig is up. We’re just fans with better access.”
New Tech – As Found In Nature
Biomimetics is the fusion of ideas found in the natural world and technology. And science is learning to make new products by mimicing things found in nature. “Nature has been conducting evolutionary experiments for millions of years, so if we’re lucky enough to find something close to what we require in nature, then it’s very likely to have been highly optimized, and we’re unlikely to do much better.”
La Fenice Retakes Venice
The reopening of Venice’s La Fenice, one of Europe’s historic opera houses, was a grand civic occasion. “With le tout Venice and more on hand, the operatic reopening was as much a political and social occasion as a musical moment. Special guests included King Albert and Queen Paola of Belgium; Romano Prodi, the outgoing president of the European Commission who is busily planning his return to Italian politics; and a host of ministers and officials. Venetians who simply wanted to be there paid the equivalent of $1,290 each for the privilege.”
Redefining MoMA
Here is a new building for the Museum of Modern Art that respects history. “The building, which reopens on Saturday, may disappoint those who believe the museum’s role should be as much about propelling the culture forward as about preserving our collective memory. Its focus, instead, is a conservative view of the past: the building’s clean lines and delicately floating planes are shaped by the assumption that Modernity remains our central cultural experience.”
A Chinese Art Boom
China’s newly wealthy are buying up entire collections of art, sending prices soaring. “Awakening at last to their own cultural heritage, which was sold off to the West at knock-down prices at the turn of the century, the new rich are reversing that trend and are bringing the art works home. Former peasant farmers, who now wear diamond-studded gold watches, are investing in private museums to put their new-found works on display.”
The Death Of The Great Philanthropists
It is one of the topics that gets whispered about in arts circles, but rarely confronted head-on: a generation of great philanthropists is beginning to die out, with no replacements in sight. “These folks were more than just rich people who gave their money away out of a sense of noblesse oblige… They weren’t especially interested in having their names on buildings. In their best days, you’d see them — frequently — in the buildings of the organizations they supported and in other arts venues they simply found interesting.” These days, corporations are replacing individuals in major giving, and that doesn’t bode well for art, music, theatre, or the people who make it.
MoMA At 20 Paces…
The new Museum of Modern Art building is a fun place to walk through, writes Adrian Searle. “Whether Moma is the museum best placed to collect not the art of our time but the art of the future is another matter. Current American art doesn’t seem to matter to the degree it once did. And Moma shows us that, to a large extent, the art that has counted most in its history has been made elsewhere.”
India To Bulldoze Lutyens’ Legacy
The architecture of Edwin Lutyens may be the only good thing that came of British colonialism in India, but “almost every Lutyens bungalow in private hands has gone, destroyed in the welter of demolitions that took place between 1980 and 2000. Now it has been announced that the same fate awaits the remaining 60% of the Lutyens buildings still owned by the government… The idea is to replace them with ‘ultra-modern day fuel-efficient apartment blocks’, which, if the mock-ups published in the Times of India are anything to go by, will resemble bland 1960s student housing projects of grey windowless concrete.”
Has The World Given Up On Scottish Opera?
The UK’s music world seems to have accepted that Scottish Opera will be going dark for at least a year next fall, under a bizarre bailout plan proposed by the Scottish Executive. Andrew Clark insists that the supposed rescue plan should not simply be accepted by the public, especially since the Executive’s real aim may be to dismantle the company completely. “The axe has already fallen on the chorus. What about the orchestra and ancillary staff? Are they going to hang around for a year to see if there is a company worth reviving when the trickle of subsidy resumes in mid-2006?”