Violinist Nigel Kennedy still swears up a storm, even if his punker affectations have been worn off. “Many critics have forgiven me and think I’m a good boy now because I’m middle of the road compared to people like Vanessa Mae and Bond – at least I didn’t put drum’n’bass behind Vivaldi”.
Blog
Searching For The Meaning Of Art
Why do people seek out art? “We look at art in order to search for something — it gives us a particular place where we can search for something that we can’t see. There’s always something beyond the frame — not just what we see but what we don’t see — and it’s what we don’t see that we often desire. It’s quite mysterious. All art is a way of trapping something or freezing something about human desire.”
I Pledge Allegiance…(A Little Too Often Maybe?)
Don’t look for an end anytime soon to the interminable pledge drives on PBS. PBS president Pat Mitchell says it’s reality: “We know we are creating issues with pledge in terms of interrupting the schedule, and that some of our most loyal viewers don’t appreciate the programming that is often seen during pledge periods,” she said. But honestly – put yourself in the shoes of the station manager who is looking at a budget that has only 17 to 19 percent of guaranteed income each year. Period. That’s all that comes in from the government. The rest of it, you have to raise somehow.”
Is Latin America The Next Big Thing?
“The notion that Latin America will give birth to the next great wave of art and ideas isn’t exactly new. For several years the topic has been the source of lively discussions when arts folk gather. But how does an industry whose machinery is programmed to face New York and Paris turn to face Mexico City and Buenos Aires? Step by step … and step one just happened.”
Why Music? Scientists Want To Know
Why is music – pleasurable to be sure, but hardly essential to life – so ubiquitous to every culture? “Archaeologists have found evidence of musical activity dating back at least 50,000 years. Even babies as well as some animals, such as birds, whales and monkeys, have a built-in sense of tone and rhythm, according to a set of six papers on the origin and function of music in the July edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience. ‘Every culture we’ve ever looked at has music of some sort. But why that is so is a puzzle’.”
In Praise Of Minnesota Theatre
“When the Post-Gazette crunched statistics for an Index of Theatrical Activity of the 15 midsize metropolitan areas tracked in the Benchmark Series in 1998, Minneapolis-St. Paul regularly vied with Seattle for the top spot. Of course, New York and Chicago are securely Nos. 1 and 2 in the national rankings, but the Twin Cities vie for third…”
When Popularity Makes You Unpopular
“Norah Jones has replaced Diana Krall as the artist jazz critics love to hate. But if that bothers Jones – who will give a sold-out concert Tuesday evening at the Fox Theatre – she can take comfort in the fact that being a jazz pariah is nothing new. Traditionally, critics and fans have turned their backs on artists who pull off the trick of clicking with the masses. Over the decades, the list of performers whose artistic credibility has been questioned because of their commercial success has included…”
Benny Carter, 95
Jazz axophonist Benny Carter died over the weekend. “Carter’s career was remarkable for both its length and its consistently high musical achievement, from his first recordings in the 1920’s to his youthful-sounding improvisations in the 1990’s. His pure-toned, impeccably phrased performances made him one of the two pre-eminent alto saxophonists in jazz, with Johnny Hodges, from the late 1920’s until the arrival of Charlie Parker in the mid-1940’s. He was also an accomplished soloist on trumpet and clarinet, and on occasion he played piano, trombone and both tenor and baritone saxophones. He helped to lay the foundation for the swing era of the late 1930’s and early 40’s”
UK’s “Best” Museum May Have To Close
earlier this year Nottingham’s Galleries of Justice won the first £100,000 Gulbenkian Prize for Museums. Judges called the museum’s outreach programme “astonishing and thrilling and frighteningly good”. Now the museum is facing closure because it can’t pay its bills. “Without core funding, the future of the best museum in the country is in doubt and it is contemplating having to break up the teams of experts it has built.”
Is PBS The “Ralph Nader” Of Television?
“PBS is the Ralph Nader of U.S. television. It is honest and unbridled by commercial interests. It knows the difference between right and wrong; its news and documentary programs are agenda- and convergence-free. Like Nader, PBS has the unavoidable stigma of dreary smugness. Americans know Nader is a smart fellow, but they sure won’t vote for him. They know PBS is good for them, but they rarely watch. Everyone should watch PBS, really, but its audience remains a fraction of other networks’.”