Pepe Garza was looking to revive a struggling radio station in Los Angeles. Looking for music, he took to the streets, and discovered a thriving scene, which he put on the air. Now, “Garza, a native of Monterrey, Mexico, has emerged as one of the most influential figures in the Latin music industry by giving L.A.’s immigrant population something it never had before — the chance to be on the radio and become stars. Until he moved here in 1998, the music of these working-class artists was dismissed as low-brow, crude or simply awful.”
Blog
Theatre Of The Real
If you want to see plays about serious issues of the day, New York’s not the place. Instead, the enterprising playwright heads to London. “Clearly there is a hankering in Britain for dramatic work that grapples with contemporary issues. Call it, if you will, the theater of dissent. ‘London’s the important place in my book, not New York or anywhere else in America. London’s where the interesting stuff happens’.”
Live From The Middle Of The Orchestra
Want to know what it’s like to be a working professional musician? Chris Pasles suggests you check in on some blogs – like Pasadena violinist Laurie Niles’ online account of naking it in the orchestral world of Southen California. Or ArtsJournal’s own Sam Bergman, in his recent blog (www.artsjournal.com/roadtrip) about touring with the Minnesota Orchestra through Europe…
The Well-Read Accountant
It’s World Book Day. And who’s celebrating most? Accountants. Why? A new survey in the UK for World Book Day reveals that “accountants spend more time reading books for pleasure than any other profession.”
Print It Danno! (The Prices, We Mean)
UK authors are protesting a plan to stop printing the prices of books on the books themselves. “The idea is that instead of being published with a suggested price, books should be published like eggs, as it were, so that the retailer alone would decide what to charge. But books are not like eggs. Every time we buy eggs, we are looking for the same thing we had last time; but every time we buy a book, we’re looking for something different. So when it comes to looking at the cost, we have nothing to go by, at the moment, except the recommended retail price.”
Hubble Paints A Van Gogh
“Scientists say the latest image from the Hubble space telescope bears remarkable similarities to Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night, one of his most famous paintings and renowned for its bold whorls of light sweeping across a raging night sky.”
Immortal – Haitink At 75
Bernard Haitink turns 75. “The great Dutch conductor has been around for so long and has been so prominent – first as head of the London Philharmonic, then in charge of Glyndebourne and Covent Garden, in addition to his regular guest work with a range of orchestras – that it is hard not to think that he must somehow be immortal.”
The Koolhaas Effect – Architecture Of The Unconventional
Architect Rem Koolhaas is involved in aa series of unconventional projects across the globe. “His unorthodox choice of project reflects an impatience with the rules of a profession that he entered only late in life.”
Book Critics’ Circle Prizes Announced
Edward P. Jones has taken the top fiction prize at the National Book Critics’ Circle Awards, for his acclaimed novel of slave life on a Southern plantation, The Known World. Non-fiction winners included Paul Hendrickson and William Taubman, and a lifetime achievement award was presented to Studs Terkel.
WTC Office Park Design Unveiled
“Design guidelines intended to give three-dimensional form to the World Trade Center redevelopment project – but not quite as exactingly as a draft prepared last year – are now being circulated for comment among planners, architects and officials.” The plans focus on the 5-building office park that will surround the Ground Zero site, an aspect of the plan which lacks the glamour of the Freedom Tower and PATH station which garnered so much attention when they were unveiled several months ago, but which will have much to do with defining the eventual look and feel of the area.