Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art has chosen a rising star over established names to design its new building. “A year after revealing tentative plans to build its first permanent home, the 8-year- old institution announced Monday its choice of London architect David Adjaye from among six international finalists to oversee the design.”
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Getting Together Games And Movies
The differences between movies and video games? Well, the differences are getting less and less. “Advances in technology since the ’80s enable game developers to model extremely lifelike figures — an imperative if you are using recognizable, A-list actors. Some of the newest technology even allows figures to show signs of emotion. As movies and games move ever closer, even the improved sound capabilities of game consoles are a factor, allowing the nuances of dialogue to come across more clearly. All of this has pushed the use of movie and celebrity tie-ins to new heights.”
Imagining A Park For The 21st Century
A competition asks planners to imagine what Chicago’s lakefront park ought to be in the 21st Century. “The thesis is simple but profound: We don’t live the way people did 100 years ago. Our parks should be designed accordingly.”
A 12-Year-Old Genius Of The Piano
Kit Armstrong is 12 years old, the youngest student at the prestigious Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He’s also, according to his teachers, a musical genius of the kind that comes along once in a lifetime. “Have you heard about this kid named Kit Armstrong?” is the question of the moment in the small international community of impresarios who decide which artists land recitals in leading venues and perform with orchestras. His name is already circulating in the wider entertainment industry. He’s been on David Letterman, and handlers are busy fielding his many media requests.”
30 Seconds With Dame Judi
Dame Judi Dench is one of England’s most distinguished actors. “She’s a peculiarly British heroine. An underdog. Dench is short and a little dumpy and not obviously glamorous. And yet she can transcend her given lot to become beautiful and heroic. In polls, she is regularly voted Britain’s best-dressed woman, Britain’s most admired woman (she recently beat the Queen down to number two), the woman we would most like to be.”
Virtual Orchestra Off-Broadway
A show coming to Off-Broadway is using a “virtual orchestra” and the musicians union is protesting. But the show’s composer says he isn’t replacing any musicians with the device – he likes the sound he gets from it. In previous productions, the show used three musicians, and it does now as well.
Grave Robbers Destroy 1000-Year-Old Mural
Grave robbers in Peru tried to steal a 1000-year-old mural, but destroyed it in the process. “They probably used picks or wooden poles in a futile effort to steal the mural — a black, yellow and white dragon in sculpted relief on a painted red background — but only succeeded in destroying it.”
A Lincoln Center Plan That’s “Evolutionary”
After years of debate, finally a plan for a Lincoln Center makeover that works. “What we’ve got here is the inverse of the Wow Factor: a new plan for the center’s public spaces so understated as to seem almost uncanny. It looks just like Lincoln Center, only smarter, more self-aware and amazingly confident in its sense of direction. The plan is evolutionary. It tweaks, here and there, the existing architecture of Lincoln Center, but the overall effect is to enhance the original rather than to negate or override it. It’s respectful. This seems to me an invaluable civic lesson at this intemperate moment in our national life.”
California City Funds Plan To Lure Artists
The city of Ventura, California has become so expensive to live in that artists moved out. So “last week, the city gave Minneapolis-based Artspace Projects Inc. $400,000 to begin work on a plan to provide homes and studios to at least 25 artists and their families. The company, which specializes in carving airy lofts out of abandoned industrial buildings, aims to raise at least $10 million, mostly from state and federal agencies and private foundations.”
Portland’s New Theatre Project Draws Critics
Portland Center Stage is getting a new, state-of-the-art home, one that will “put its facilities on a par with the country’s best regional theater venues in such cities as Chicago, Minneapolis and Dallas. It also will bring back to life one of the city’s oldest buildings, the 1891 Oregon National Guard Armory at Northwest Davis Street and 10th Avenue. And it is vying to be the most ecologically sound building so far completed in the Northwest. Sounds pretty good. What’s not to like?” So why so many critics of the project?