What’s with all these musicals based on pop songs? “What’s baffling about musicals about music is their tautologous nature – it’s like baking a pie pie. Worse, however, is that everything that might have been good about original rock/pop subject matter – its fleeting, perfectly glistening moments – is obliterated in these mercenary productions, these Trocaderofications of rock, in which the glorious past becomes the cheap and waxen perma-present. What’s sad is how many artists, from Suggs to Rod Stewart, are prepared to collaborate in the ruin of their own often already dubious reputations.”
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Based On A (Not Really) True Story
“How much fictionalization should be tolerated before the designation ‘based on a true story’ becomes both a liability and a lie? The harm or benefit to society is debatable, but in examining these specimens of reality-based myth, a barometer of America emerges: Namely, they reveal the political climate in which we live and the sort of comforting untruths we crave at the movie theater.”
FCC To Stations: Go To Your Room!
The media “indecency” debate in the US is a classic parent/child conflict. “For our purposes, the role of the parents in this indecency script is played by the Federal Communications Commission. The kids are radio and TV stations. And for the past 15-20 years, the FCC has largely trusted them to keep the house of broadcasting orderly. The outcome, critics say, is a disaster, with food on the ceiling, busted china and God knows what going on in the basement.”
Twin Talent Towers
Manhattan Plaza is a subsidized apartment complex for artists in New York. “The complex’s two towers consume the entire block bordered by Ninth and 10th avenues and 42nd and 43rd streets. Inside is the most talent-laden village in New York, its residents packed in as tightly as a pastrami on rye in a profoundly delicious deal subsidized by federal, state and city housing programs.” Rent is based on a percentage of your income.
Pas de Pregnancy
Choreographer Sarah Morrison decided that pregnancy wouldn’t slow her down. So she’s choreographed a piece for herself now that she’s pregnant. Is it a pas de deux? “The improvisation is based on the idea of the psyche popularized by Carl Jung. The psyche is generated in the mind. The baby is developing in the body.”
Joan Kroc – Supersized Philanthropy
Joan Kroc was a dream philanthropist. “The maverick salvationist proved to be a maverick philanthropist, too. She gave away money the way the non-rich fantasize it should be done: no fanfare or foundations, no red tape or robber baron formality. Just the unexpected personal proffer of $1 million to prevent nuclear war, $3 million for a homeless shelter, $100 tips to the immigrants at the drive-through inquiring if she’d like fries with that . . . All the better if the lady in the blue Mercedes got away with her Filet-O-Fish (and a burger for her King Charles spaniel) without being identified.”
Acropolis Museum Plans Criticized
“Critics around the world are expressing outrage at the proposed design for the New Acropolis Museum in Athens, which many believe will fatally compromise the setting of the Parthenon. The issue has become so heated that it is thought to have contributed to the downfall of the Greek Government at last weekend’s election.”
Will That Be Tunes With Your Latte?
Starbucks is unveiling a new instore music service. The ubiquitous coffee chain plans to offer 250,000 songs for sale in its stores. Customers can then order tracks they like, have them burnt on to a CD and buy it when they leave.
How The Internet Is Changing Popular Culture
“More and more people are consuming their popular culture on the internet, particularly as faster connections become more widely available.” In the process, the business and creative sides of our creative industries are being transformed.
Pavarotti’s Final Opera Curtain
Luciano Pavarotti’s final Metropolitan Opera performance Saturday night was his last opera performance anywhere, he says. “At the end, there was an 11-minute ovation that featured four solo curtain calls as everyone from the orchestra to the standing room section applauded and yelled ‘Bravo’.”