For years now, Colorado has been a popular summer destination for professional musicians. The state boasts multiple summer festivals from Aspen to Boulder, and this summer, the 15-year-old Bravo Vail Valley series is getting a major PR boost, with the presence of the New York Philharmonic. “The orchestra’s residency will be the first of three annual appearances in Vail as part of an agreement announced nationally by the two organizations in New York in January 2002.”
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Death Of The Gay Bookstore
Gay bookstores were one of the hallmarks of the first twenty years of the Gay Rights movement. So why are so many of them dying off now that homosexuality is more widely accepted in mainstream society? “In the past 10 years, well over half of the GLBT bookstores in the country have closed, leaving about 40 to carry on a tradition that was crucial to gay liberation. There is no gay bookstore in Chicago; only three survive in New York City.” The reality may be that such niche stores have become victims of the success of the movement that spawned them. In an era when gay-themed titles are enthusiastically stocked by national chains and mainstream independents alike, it’s difficult for the niche stores to hold on to their clientele.
Muzak For The Hipster Crowd
Apple’s celebrated new MP3 player, the iPod, is making waves throughout the music industry, and in some very unlikely corners of capitalist society, as well. “Instead of piping bland background music over tinny speakers, enterprising music promoters are loading hundreds of hours of hip tunes onto iPods and renting them to restaurants, nightspots, clothing boutiques and hair salons.” The enterprise is giving independent musicians a chance to be heard by a larger audience than they would ordinarily have access to, and clients of the new service are thrilled to be getting something other than the typical Muzak.
Vandalism As Copyright Enforcement
Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) believes he has a solution to the problem of illegal file-swapping and downloading of copyrighted material: destroy the computers! Hatch wants technology developed which would disable or destroy any computer attempting an illegal download. The fact that such a plan would be in blatant violation of U.S. anti-hacking law does not seem to concern the senator, but the plan does not seem to have much support among Hatch’s colleagues.
The New Outsiders – Really?
“Recently, Central Europe has played host to a new generation of expatriate writers and, some believe, has once again become the displaced kingdom of some of the greatest prose and prose-writers – this time, in English. But outsiders toting backpacks and wielding Platinum Plus cards aren’t the right kind of outsiders for literature. They’re a Mercedes-length from the edge, and literature needs someone on the precipice. It’s dangerous on that precipice, but the danger, well, illuminates the prose. And there’s no more of that danger left in this Europe, once again at the edge of Empire.”
De Waart To Hong Kong?
Will Edo de Waart become the next music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic? “In a press release issued late Wednesday afternoon, the HKPO said that the 62-year-old Dutch maestro ‘has expressed an interest in the music directorship of the HKPO, but would like to get to know the Orchestra before considering the possibility further’.” De Waart is ending his tenure as music director of the Sydney Symphony and is former music director of the San Francisco Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra.
SAG And AFTRA Talk Merger
Hollywood’s two biggest actors unions are discussing a merger – the Screen Actors Guild’s 117,000-member union with the 80,000-member American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, known as Aftra, which also represents actors. “A merger has been discussed since the 1940’s, but it came up for a vote only once, in 1999, when the proposal fell far short of the 60 percent needed to pass. Now its proponents, including the officers of both unions, argue that while Hollywood studios and television networks are consolidating into bigger and bigger global conglomerates, the best way for performers to magnify their clout is similarly to band together.”
An Arts Agenda: How About Depoliticizing Arts Subsidy?
Britain has a new arts minister. There doesn’t seem to be much for Estelle Morris to do, though. But then again… under Labour, the arts have been shackled to the “grand, if vague, strategy of social inclusion and urban regeneration.” Okay, it’s time to jsutify cultural subsidies again. “The sting is that those who can’t or won’t play this game – and a game it usually is, on all sides – will be denied their ration of subsidy and starved into death or submission. Just about everybody who works in the arts is sick of the administrative grind of compliance and cynical about it, too – once you’ve ticked the boxes marked education project, chair-lift and minorities quota, you know your cheque will be in the post and your accountant can help you channel the money into something more meaningful.”
What If They Could Read Your Mind?
Researchers believe that advances in microelectronics and medical imaging are “bringing us closer to a world where mind reading is possible and some blindness is overcome with visual prostheses.” But as alluring as some of the possibilities may be, the capabilities of such technology may very likely have a nasty downside. “Researchers may one day find brain activity that correlates with behavior patterns such as tendencies toward alcoholism, aggression, pedophilia, or racism.” If so, what will that mean for those so labeled?
Fireworks or Art? An Easy Decision For One Town
Budget woes are affecting even the smallest towns in America. In tiny Susanville California, the city manager’s first crack at a $6.1 million budget included cutting the city contribution to July 4th fireworks. The town’s mayor has other ideas: “The Arts Council, they get $7,500 a year? I think fireworks is more beneficial than the arts council. They used to get much less than that before. That’s pretty generous.”