The Colorado Symphony has narrowed its list of candidates to replace Marin Alsop as music director to four…
Blog
Of Fairness And Discrimination
“A graduate student at the University of Wisconsin studied the difficulties of former prisoners trying to find work and, in the process, came up with a disturbing finding: it is easier for a white person with a felony conviction to get a job than for a black person whose record is clean.”
Mr. Perlman Takes The NY Phil
Itzhak Perlman makes his debut as conductor with the New York Philharmonic. “There are a few things to be said for Mr. Perlman as a conductor. Whatever the flaws in his conducting technique, his inherent musicality goes a long way in communicating what he wants. Clearly he is not doing this half-heartedly, as some soloists have.”
Idolizing Talent – Is It Valid?
There has been much criticism of Lit Idol as a way of judging literary talent. But “Lit Idol, for all the apparent crassness of its format, is as good a means as any to truffle out new talent, and is only a pop-culture-friendly revamp of the short story competitions run by newspapers in the old days. But it has reinforced the perception that in contemporary writing, the words are no longer enough. The author must be all-singing, all-dancing, good looking if possible and, if not, with a sufficiently troubled past to keep the public interested.”
Indie Record Stores: Downloading Helping Our Business
Conventional wisdom has it that music downloading has damaged the recording business. But some independent record stores are “finding that file sharing can help create a buzz online that can lead to more sales, according to a panel of independent music store owners who spoke at the South by Southwest Music Conference & Festival here Friday.”
How Pavarotti Got To Say Goodbye To The Met
Last year, when Luciano Pavarotti canceled two performances at the Metropolitan Opera, it looked like his career at the Met was done. Met impressario Joseph Volpe intimated as such. But there the tenor was on the Met stage two weeks ago singing his farewells. So how did it happen?
The Community Powers Of Weather
Olafur Eliasson’s Weather Project installation in the Tate Modern’s vast Turbine Hall has been a phenomenal hit with visitors. But it’s coming to an end and Eliasson reflects on why it appealed to people. “I wanted a subject that implied `community’ and that was open-ended. Predicting weather is one way we collectively try to avoid the unforeseeable, which our lives are always about. The weather is a subject about which a community may also permit a high degree of disagreement: I can say `I hate the rain,’ you say, `I love it,’ and you may still think I am a nice guy.”
Of Obscenity And Small-Time Politics
Why is the US Congress making such a big deal about obscenity on the broadcast airwaves? Frank Rich says it’s politics: “While the current uproar over broadcast indecency is ostensibly all about sex, it is still all about politics, especially in an election year when a culture war rages. Washington’s latest crew of Puritan enforcers — in the administration, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission — are all pandering to a censorious Republican political base that is the closest thing America has to its own Taliban. The media giants, fearful of losing the deregulatory financial favors the federal government can bestow, will knuckle under accordingly until the coast is clear.”
UK Announces New Movie Investment Tax Credit
A new tax credit program for British filmmakers will help spur the industry. A government program that had given tax breaks for those who invest in UK movies is coming to an end, and the movie industry had complained that its discontinuation would kill British film investment.
Is LA’s New Cultural Affairs Department An Opportunity Or Political Salve?
Last week, Los Angeles’ mayor relented and decided not to kill the city’s cultural department to save money. “It remains to be seen whether the mayor’s redefined Cultural Affairs Department is more than a political tactic to quiet angry arts supporters as the city struggles to close an estimated $250-million budget shortfall. But the arts community shouldn’t simply declare victory and accept the mayor’s largely commercial vision of his new arts council. Rather, it should emerge from the affair with a new determination to position arts and culture at the center of city life.”