A consortium of community groups, medical researchers, and arts groups in Cleveland has receieved a $1 million federal grant to mount a major study intended to determine whether the arts can play a major role in keeping children from indulging in illegal drugs and risky sexual behavior. The study will revolve around 300 test subjects, all African-American youths between 11 and 14 years old, who will participate in a specially designed arts curriculum, which will be partially designed by community leaders in the city.
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Songwriter Elliott Smith Commits Suicide
“Elliott Smith, whose fragile melodies and voice positioned him as a Nick Drake for a new generation, died yesterday of a knife wound to the chest, an apparent suicide; he was thirty-four… Smith’s life and career eerily reflect that of Drake, who mined a similar vein of melancholy folk-rock before an overdose (it has never been determined whether intentional or not) ended his career at age twenty-six. Like Drake, Smith’s output is striking and spare: Six full-length solo albums, three with his old band Heatmiser, and, true to the independent ethic that defined and dogged him throughout his career, a few handfuls of EPs and seven-inch releases.”
Pain and Perspective
Aside from one shining moment of Oscar glory, Elliott Smith’s career was mostly of note only to critics and fans who bothered to look past the corporate mess of the record charts. His music was generally full of darkness and melancholy, but rarely did it descend into despair. “He wasn’t a maverick in the Kurt Cobain sense. Or a satyr consumed by passion, like the late Jeff Buckley… He sang about rejection with a wistful air, and could sound as if he were enduring an ordeal and romanticizing its aftershocks at the same time.”
The Trouble With Slash-And-Burn Government
With deficits plaguing cities, states, and provinces across North America, and a political culture that deplores anything that looks vaguely like a tax increase, the arts are increasingly becoming a victim of a me-first society that doesn’t believe that government ought to be in the business of handing out any money to anyone, ever. Charles Gordon wishes more people would pay attention to the fundamental mistake that is being made by those who would zero out the arts as a budget item. “You feel for the artists, who are only trying to make half a decent living, and for arts organizations that are merely trying to give opportunities to young writers, actors, painters and musicians who struggle to find an audience in a world of couch potatoes.”
Yet Another Reason To Not Be A Bigot
“Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, is getting a valuable painting by Rembrandt that might otherwise have come to Montreal if the donor, Alfred Bader, had not been refused admission to McGill University in 1941 because he is a Jew. The painting, estimated to be worth millions of dollars, is the latest bequest to Queen’s from Milwaukee philanthropists Bader and his second wife, Isabel… [The] gift, titled Head of an Old Man in a Cap, was painted about 1630. It is one of only four paintings in Canada by Rembrandt van Rijn.”
Those Daring Young Pianists On The Flying Trapeze
Piano competitions are a grand old classical music tradition, but in recent years, it’s become harder and harder for some of the smaller events on the circuit to raise enough money to keep it all going. A case in point is Canada’s Esther Honens competition, run by Andrew Raeburn, who has been employing every technique he can think of to generate interest, and cash. Inlcuding, believe it or not, trapeze artists.
Ultraviolence & The MPAA
A slew of unbelievably violent and bloody new movies is hitting American multiplexes this fall, and absolutely no one seems concerned about it. Not only that, the Motion Picture Association of America appears not even to have considered assigning such gorefests as Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill its strictest rating of NC-17, which is generally given to films with graphic nudity and/or particularly harsh language. Should we care that movies are becoming bloodier by the day? Or, as the MPAA claims, is it all just good fun so long as the violence remains “cartoonish,” whatever that is?
What Is Wrong With Us, Anyway?
“We are so numb it no longer hurts when people call us demented. Once-unspeakable violence has moved from the unbalanced fringe into the middle of our surround-sound home theater systems. We’ve gone from ‘Impeach Bill’ to Kill Bill, from Animal House to House of the Dead, from the post-Sept. 11 death of irony to the postmodern death of revulsion.”
Low-Fi, High-Tech: Is Chip Music The New Punk?
Technology has officially invaded pop music, and the results have been, well, bland. Endless digital remixes and computer-generated backing instrumentals have created an entire catalog of dull, generic, lifeless songs by artists who really ought to know better. But a new do-it-yourself movement known as “chip music,” vaguely remniescent of 1970s punk, has emerged from the shadow of the technology beast, employing high-tech but low-fidelity “instruments,” such as old Nintendo GameBoys, to create music which reeks of contempt for the mainstream music industry. “The essence of chip music is in reverse engineering an electronic interface – whether it’s a Game Boy or a computer’s sound chip – and subverting its original design.”
Why You Want To Win A Booker
Vernon God Little, a novel by DBC Pierre (a pseudonym,) was listed at 1,124 on the UK’s bestseller lists two weeks ago. Then, Pierre was awarded the Man Booker Prize, and his satirical poke at American life shot up to 18th on the list. Not a bad upgrade, but Pierre still trails last year’s winner, Yann Martel, which remains at #10.