What kind of culture does Canada project to the rest of the world? To itself? “I moved to Toronto in April, 1996, and have been slowly discovering that Canada (as a land, as people, as a political identity) and its culture are not always in sync. This is not necessarily a bad thing. A place where fringe, marginal or esoteric sensibilities come to stand for a whole country can’t be that bad. But it may account for the lack of interest in Canadian popular culture locally. If you don’t see your life reflected in your own culture, why look in the first place?”
Blog
Iraq Museum’s One-Day Show
“The Iraq Museum plans to hold a one-day exhibition Thursday — its first since the outbreak of war more than three months ago. The show is designed to ease the minds of those who worried that the museum’s collections had been devastated by a frenzied, two-day looting spree in mid-April while American troops were fighting to secure the city.”
Gioia: State Arts Funding Crisis
NEA chief Dana Gioia says there is a crisis in state arts funding. “He said although no state has eliminated arts budgeting, “the mere debate suggests that the political and social consensus that once existed on the necessity of public support for the arts and arts education is breaking down.”
King Of The Air-Guitar (No Kidding)
Okay, so these guys don’t make a sound, but they do have attitude. “The U.S. Air Guitar Championships were held Saturday at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip, and by the end of the night, a national air god emerged. Finally, the United States will be sending a representative to the (eighth annual) World Air Guitar Championships, held in Finland…”
CheckMate
A new exhibition features chess sets made by artists in the 19th and 20th Centuries. “There are 19 sets on display, each one set out to illustrate a move in an apocryphal game played between Napoleon, playing as white, and General Bertrand on St Helena in 1820. Five new sets by contemporary artists Damien Hirst, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Paul McCarthy, Yayoi Kusama and Maurizio Cattelan mark out the climax of the game.”
Hitler And The Arts
A new books examines Hitler’s aesthetics. “Adolf Hitler wanted to be the greatest patron of the arts in history. ‘It was a pity,’ he observed, ‘that I have to wage war on account of that drunk [Winston Churchill] instead of serving the works of peace’.”
Olympic Dreams…But Can You Deliver?
What should hosting an Olympic Games mean to a city? “Many Olympic cities have promised regeneration and few have delivered. From the Foro Italico in Rome to Homebush in Sydney, the world is littered with desultory, underpopulated Olympic zones that were once the subject of some planner’s proud boast. If the Olympics automatically gave its sites a boost, then Wembley, where the games were held in 1948, would be the hottest place in north London. This time, London has to mean it, and it has to deliver.”
Explaining Stanley Crouch
Stanley Crouch was famously fired from his critic’s job at JazzTimes. “Crouch’s position has less to do with color than it does with sound. He defines jazz within famously narrow limits—a music that doesn’t stray far from the blues or the techniques that have traditionally produced it, musicians who never, ever forget where and how the sound was born. One doesn’t have to be black to find a groove (though some critics have taken him to mean this), but one must be willing to bow to the “Negro aesthetic.” He is convinced that the white establishment resents a musical history from which it can’t help but feel alienated, and so champions jazz that sounds “white” instead of jazz that looks backward. In this view, the desire to innovate past swing is tantamount to fearing its origins and the people who created it. The lines between the advancement of a music and the rejection of its history become entangled in the vast mire of racial politics.”
US Threatens To Close Iraqi Publications
Right after Saddam Hussein was toppled, a flurry of new newspapers and magazines began publication in Iraq. But last week the US threatened to “fine or close down any newspapers that incite violence or endanger the security of coalition troops or any ethnic or religious group. The Americans defend their decision and consider it necessary for keeping Iraq safe and free of violence. They say the new papers lack responsibility and professionalism, and that they fabricate information. For example, one paper accused a coalition soldier of raping a woman and wrote that troops can see women naked through their night vision goggles.”
Bookforum’s Makeover
Bookforum magazine has relaunched with a new high-minded editor. Eric Banks is “an extremely smart and informed editor who we thought would re-emphasize Bookforum’s coverage of scholarly and art books.” And Bookforum? “Bookforum is one of those high-minded enterprises whose bills are paid by a wealthy benefactor—in this case, the profitable Artforum. Total circulation for Bookforum is about 40,000, with about 10,000 copies sold on the newsstand and about 30,000 subscriptions. (Bookforum is sent free to all Artforum subscribers.)”