“Ask a member of the general public what label their favorite musician records for, and they’re not likely to know. To many it seems an arcane detail, and in some sense it is. Labels are commonly viewed as a means to an end, as mere conduits rather than shapers of musical culture. We are aware of individual artists but often take for granted the aural and visual worlds that labels create through their catalogs.Today, many believe that the ‘golden age’ of jazz has passed. But there are probably more jazz labels than ever before. The vast majority are small, independent operations.”
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Aboriginal Art Sales Records
Australian aboriginal art has recorded record sales at auctions in Sydney this week. Most of the sales – an estimated 70 per cent of the works – were sold to international bidders.
Royal Shakespeare Shakeup Is Opportunity
Michael Billington writes that the sudden resignation of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s managing director is an opportunity for the company. “Normally the sudden resignation of a theatre company’s managing director would be interpreted as a sign of crisis. In fact Chris Foy’s departure from the RSC enormously strengthens the hand of its artistic director, Michael Boyd, in setting his seal upon the company.”
Czech-Mate
“Since the fall of Communism in 1989, Prague has emerged as one of the world’s favorite low-price, high-quality locations for filmmakers who want to shave 30 percent or more off the cost of a major production. But as the Czech Republic prepares to join the European Union next May, producers and film service companies here fear that unless they act quickly they may soon price themselves out of the market.”
Animated Culture Clash As Cartoons Go 3D
As Hollywood animation studios retire their traditional paper-and-ink projects in favor of 3D computer animation, the culture of animators is changing. “The shifting landscape inside Hollywood’s animation studios has created an unexpected culture clash between artists who were raised in the tradition of Pinocchio and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and those who came of age with Toy Story.”
Express Yourself
The Free Expression Policy Project has a comprehensive report on free expression in arts funding. “The report includes candid interviews with agency officials regarding funding disputes, political accountability, and most important, ways of reaching out to communities and opening up dialogue about challenging or provocative art. The report also contains extensive background on the “funding wars” of the 1990s, illustrations, and two appendices summarizing free expression statements and policies among all state arts agencies and a random sample of local agencies.”
What It Means To Copy (And What’s Allowed)
Is copying a movie or music outright theft (piracy) as the movie and music industries claim? Maybe. But maybe not. There are lots of misconceptions as to what is stealing, what is fair use, and what is infringement of copyright. Here’s a primer on what is allowed and what isn’t.
NYC Libraries Beg For Money
New York City libraries are seeing their budgets slashed and their services to the public cut. So “for the first time, neighborhood branches are putting out donation boxes, in a desperate effort to offset budget cuts that mean 3,000 fewer books a year for each branch, reduced hours of operation and interminable waits for best sellers.”
Painterly Projections
“One of the National Gallery’s most extraordinary paintings, Jan van Eyck’s Portrait of Arnolfini and His Wife, is at the centre of an increasingly ugly debate between scientists over whether the Flemish artist employed optical projections to help him paint it.”
Critical Memories
Frank Rizzo remembers two theatre critics. “The theater world this month lost two distinguished critics who enlightened their readers as well as decades of theater artists. Boston’s Elliot Norton, dean of American drama critics, died July 20 at the age of 100. Closer to home, Markland Taylor, who wrote for the New Haven Register and Variety, died in his home in Southbury on July 6. He was 67. Both were great influences, especially to this theater lover.”