Ever since the mid-1990s, tech-obsessives have insisted that the printed page is on its last legs, and that the eBook is the wave of the future. So far, such bold predictions have proved to be almost completely unfounded, despite the increasingly popularity of online periodicals. “But advances in hardware, coupled with figures showing a growth in sales, suggest that more than a decade after ebooks first came on to the market the concept could finally be about to take off.”
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The Writers Who Never Seem To Finish
“Like general contractors, writers are famously optimistic when it comes to estimating how long a project will take. Fortunately, publishers are more forgiving than homeowners; deadlines are routinely extended one, two, even three years. But there is another category of writer, one for whom the laws of space and time seem to disappear altogether. Years bleed into one another as file cabinets bulge with extraneous information… Only by scratching away the layers of Liquid Paper on the line of the contract reading ‘delivery date,’ as if it were an instant lottery ticket, is it possible to ascertain when exactly the manuscript was first due.”
The Next Great Tenor, Part CLXVI
Whatever one may think of the Three Tenors phenomenon, there is no doubt that Messrs. Pavarotti, Domingo, and Carreras significantly upped the popular interest in opera. Now, the ‘next great superstar tenor’ has been anointed, and he is Juan Diego Florez, “described by Pavarotti as the singer who could replace him.” Florez, like so many other great tenors of the new breed, has built his reputation on substance rather than flash and dash. But will the allure of superstardom prove too strong to resist?
The Filmmaker’s Filmmaker
Filmmaker John Cassavetes never really won over the public during his lifetime, and even some prominent critics gave him a continuous cold shoulder. “Like Orson Welles, he didn’t always play well with others and he didn’t make all that much money for the movie industry. The other reason for the discomfort, I think, is that he called himself an artist. Many critics prefer their art with subtitles or not at all.” But a new box set of his work provides a window into the mind of a man who inspired a generation of better-loved filmmakers, even if his own work often went unappreciated by the powers that be.
Pop Art’s Sticky New Medium
“Inspired by graffiti, posters and the communal culture of the Web, stickers are gaining wide attention as an artistic phenomenon, academics and practitioners say. Hand-drawn, stenciled or screen-printed, the images float on the Internet, available for downloading, printing and pasting in ways that the creators could only have imagined. And as they make their way around the globe, from one e-mail in-box to the next, one cultural context to another, their meaning tends to morph.”
Tortured Artists Of A Different Kind
Three Canadian artists will have their first UK exhibition this fall, and if they achieve anything like the success they are enjoying in their home country, it will be a truly groundbreaking moment in the annals of art history. All three come from troubled backgrounds, and were educated in a program designed to combat a lifetime of depression and to build their self-esteem through art. Oh, and all three are chimpanzees. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Warming Up For The Cliburn
This year’s jury has been named and the rules have been set in the runup to the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas. “This time, the competition will present only two categories of medals. Up to four medals will be awarded, in any combination of gold and silver. Both gold and silver medals will carry $20,000 cash awards, concert management for three years and a compact disc recording on the Harmonia Mundi label.” Another change will require the finalists to perform a 50-minute solo recital in addition to playing concertos with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
Trading Short-Term Debt For Long-Term
“With debts mounting and its future on the line, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has drafted an unusual proposal to take out the equivalent of a 30-year mortgage on its house in order to fund new programs that it hopes will boost revenue and finance a deficit that is expected to grow to $12 million by 2008. The BSO’s board has agreed in principle to sell Meyerhoff Symphony Hall to a newly created nonprofit subsidiary, which will finance the purchase by issuing as much as $30 million in tax-exempt bonds, under one scenario presented to directors. The orchestra would then lease the concert venue back from the subsidiary for an amount to be determined.”
Is “Austin City Limits” Too Successful?
“Austin City Limits” used to be the name of a nice, genteel little television program presenting live music to a Texas-based studio audience. But these days, ACL is an institution, and a wildly successful festival that is rapidly outgrowing its capacity. “ACL got huge in just three years, and the growing pains are obvious. Last Saturday, when the attendance passed 75,000, ACL felt like rush hour in a subway station with people walking in all directions, cellphones pressed to their ears, oblivious to the music… Monstrous crowds may generate excitement and boost the local economy, but they can just as easily turn a festival into one big drag.”
Tracking The Audience
Nearly every American orchestra is in search of a larger core audience, and the question of where the classical music audience has gone is a subject that has filled books, magazines, and countless seminars within the industry. “No one-size-fits-all answer to the dilemma exists, but orchestras around the nation are trying different approaches – and some of them seem to be working.” The American Symphony Orchestra League has been studying the marketing techniques that work, and the ones that don’t, in an effort to provide its members with a concise and (dare we say?) simple strategy for getting butts in the seats.