Where are the dance stars of tomorrow coming from? Likely the School of American Ballet. And a good place to go potential-spotting is the school’s annual workshop performances, writes Tobi Tobias. “Perhaps never again in their lives will they be so vulnerable and so beautiful. The perilous beauty of adolescence is evident everywhere at Workshop, all the more vivid because of the young performers’ unswerving dedication to the standards of mature professional artistry.”
Blog
Micro-Radio Kicks In
In the US there are growing number of “low-power radio stations operating in small towns and rural communities. They broadcast from an odd assortment of basements, garages, garden sheds, schools, and churches in an effort to return localism to the FM dial. About 238 of these noncommercial stations are currently on the air, while another 670 organizations have been granted construction permits by the FCC, and 897 more are awaiting approval.”
Will Rules Changes Make The Pulitzer All-American?
The rules changes governing the eligibility of various types of music for the Pulitzer Prize may be controversial among academics and classical purists, but Howard Reich says that the change is nothing more than a long-overdue acknowledgement that American music is more than Europe-Lite. “More than six decades after the Pulitzer Board began giving prizes for music, in other words, it has come to recognize that American music is not simply European symphonic art penned by American composers in its thrall. On the contrary… the folkloric roots of jazz, blues, gospel and the like born of oral tradition and originated not in the salons of Vienna and Paris but in the fields of Africa and the islands of the Caribbean.”
Bloomsday Without Blooms?
Bloomsday, the annual June celebration of James Joyce’s masterpiece, Ulysses, is always a big occasion in Dublin, where the novel takes place. This year, the 100th anniversary of the day detailed in the book, is expected to be a massive party. But a central theme of Leopold Bloom’s character is his Jewishness, and one can’t help but notice that the number of Jews in Dublin has been dwindling for decades. In fact, there are less than 2,000 left in the entire city.
A Newly Relevant Dance About Torture
Choreographer Ping Chong’s latest work is guaranteed to provoke thoughts about the recent Abu Ghraib torture scandal, but it wasn’t designed that way. The actual subject of “Blind Ness: The Irresistable Light of Encounter,” which premiered this spring in Ohio and moves to New York this week, is the brutal but century-old maiming and killing of Africans in the Congo by an occupying force of Belgians. But Chong has a history of creating provocative works, and the apparent American policy of torture and intimidation in Iraq makes the performance resonate like a national gut punch.
A Computer With An Eye For Fakes
Authenticating great works of art is a tricky business, and despite the phenomenal advances in technology over the last century, the process of spotting fake art is still more or less a matter of casting a practiced eye over the piece in question. But a team of Dutch researchers has “developed a computer system that quickly examines hundreds of paintings for telltale patterns. The results, they say, can lend credence to existing attributions or help dismiss them.”
Why Not Just Ban All Recording Devices?
Having sued thousands of file-traders and launched a full legislative assault on the makers of online file-trading software, the recording industry is now setting its sights on digital radio, claiming that “U.S. regulators at the Federal Communications Commission should ensure that the broadcast format limits… copying so radio stations don’t turn the airwaves into a giant file-sharing network.” Yes, you read that right: the industry is worried that millions of listeners will record songs off the radio and begin sharing them amongst themselves. Sort of like listeners to terrestrial radio have been doing for decades? Yeah, like that.
Football Songs Crack The Pop Charts
How crazy about soccer (excuse me, football, please) in the UK? Well, when the big tournaments are on, songs associated with the matches become so popular, they crack the Top Ten music charts. “Three football songs feature in the top 10 of the UK singles chart as the country is gripped by Euro 2004 fever.”
Tintin’s Last Stand
The Belgian boy reporter with the fluffy white dog appears to finally have found a scrape he can’t get out of. Tintin, the unlikely comic book hero whose adventures have been delighting children and adults around the world for 75 years, has emerged from retirement for one final adventure, culled from the notes of his creator, Georges Remi, who died in 1983 before he could finish the book. The final installment, which has already sold 400,000 copies in France, is classic Tintin in every way but one: the end of the story appears to leave the hero doomed.
The American Edinburgh
Charleston, South Carolina, is best known as a tourist town full of Old South charm and beautiful beaches. But in the summer, Charleston may be the most diverse and successful arts town in the U.S. Not only is it home to the stateside incarnation of the Spoleto music festival, but the high-minded chamber music plays alongside a decidedly Edinburghian fringe festival known as Piccolo Spoleto.