Los Angeles is about to get a major new Gehry – the Disney Hall. “For 50 years it’s been the world’s archetypical sprawling, privatised, centreless city of gated suburbs, fast food, fast, flashy architecture, malls and freeways; a city in which you need never sully your toes by touching a sidewalk. But now that Beijing, Shenzhen and the North Circular are out-LA-ing LA, LA has decided to become Paris. It’s been quietly turning its downtown into a proper city centre, like it used to be 80 years ago, before the car screwed it up. It’s introduced old-fashioned public space without security guards, lofts, pedestrian (gasp) boulevards, and posh, properly public buildings such as Rafael Moneo’s masterly Roman Catholic cathedral, and, the linchpin, the Disney Concert Hall.”
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Reading On The Decline In Japan
Japan has a proud literary tradition – it has one of the highest literacy rates in the world. But reading seems to be in a sharp decline. “Once upon a time, one could look into a Japanese train and expect to see people doing one of two things: either sleeping or reading. But today one sees commuters who are preoccupied with portable electronic games, digital assistants and cell phones which enable them to send e-mail and surf the Net.”
Nevada Opera Lays Off Staff, Cuts Production
After canceling a production, Nevada Opera has laid off three of its four full-time employees. “The Nevada Opera’s financial problems reflect a national trend among arts groups faced with declining donations and grants. Last year, one of Reno’s longest-running arts groups, Nevada Festival Ballet, closed its doors under the pressure of debt. ‘Unfortunately, we had to make some very difficult decisions. It’s like taking an organization, stripping it down to the bare bones and then slowly building it back up’.”
Is Literature Outgrowing Us?
Is reading an activity adults grow out of? Really? Alex Good wonders “how did a habit of mind (not to mention a form of artistic expression) traditionally associated with maturity and intellectual depth get turned into an essentially juvenile activity? I never would have thought, as a young man, that a love of literature would be something I would grow out of. Was I wrong?”
Making Music As Kid’s Play
MIT’s Tod Machover has developed a set of toys to help teach children how to make music. “Toy Symphony’s toys, developed by the Media Lab’s musician-computer whizzes, enable children to “make music” without having to learn notation or engage in the arduous physical and mental process required to play a musical instrument. Through computers, their users can explore musical concepts that are more sophisticated than their actual knowledge would otherwise permit. Music Shapers, soft cloth balls whose sounds are controlled by squeezing, and Beatbugs, which repeat and subtly alter rhythms that are tapped on them, are improvisatory performance instruments. With Hyperscore, a composition software program, the user creates color-coded musical motifs, draws them onto a grid, and plays the score back. If desired, the program will provide a variety of harmonies and modulations. With a little help from its MIT creators, this graphic “score” can be transcribed into conventional notation for acoustic instruments.”
NAJP Chooses New Arts Journalism Fellows
“The National Arts Journalism Program (NAJP) at Columbia University has selected this year’s fellows. In a departure from previous years, all seven of the critics and arts writers chosen for the program will participate in a research project – Reporting the Arts II – which will follow up on a 1999 study which measured arts coverage in 10 cities across America. This year’s fellows include: Caryn Brooks, arts and culture editor, Willamette Week; Willa Conrad, classical music critic, Star-Ledger (Newark); Paul de Barros, jazz and world music critic, The Seattle Times; Bill Goldstein, books editor, The New York Times on the Web, and contributing editor, WNBC-TV; Laurie Muchnick, book editor, Newsday; Valerie Takahama, staff writer, Orange County Register; Lily Tung, segment producer and writer, KRON TV (San Francisco).”
BBC Arts – Looking Up?
One of the biggest complaints about the BBC has been its declining arts coverage. But the arts fortunes seem to be changing. “Eighteen months of reassessment have resulted in a stream of new programme commissions planned to 2006. Twenty projects are listed in a special BBC booklet, including films on Michelangelo, Christopher Wren and Mary Shelley and landmark series, such as The Origins of Art. BBC1 is finalising plans for a series on British culture. Another strand, Arena, is being salvaged and turned into a biographical series.”
Foundations Upset At Potential Law Changes
The US Congress is considering a bill that would force charitable foundations to give away five percent of their assets each year. This would result in a big increase in money going to charities (and arts non-profits). “The bill has created a furor in the philanthropic world, with foundations warning that they could be forced to squander their assets and spend themselves out of existence. Its supporters, however, say it will actually rein in wasteful spending ? on salaries and overhead ? as it gives charities needed help in a time of withering government budgets and growing economic pain.”
Is Fewer Media Voices A Good Thing?
What will media ownership deregulation mean to you, asks Howard Rosenberg? “Meaning more media control in fewer hands. Meaning more cross-promotion. Meaning less diversity. Meaning fewer independent voices in news and entertainment. Meaning less competition and fewer options for information. It’s true that what we have now is often unreliable, a fact underlined by tag-along TV’s generally feckless, ever-manipulated, go-with-the-flow, yassah-Mr. President coverage of the war in Iraq and its aftermath. Everyone would profit if the quality of today’s journalism were higher. Diverse media, however imperfect, are essential to us all, however.”
A Tony Field That Actually Means Something
Where are this year’s outrages among the Tony nominations? Usually there’s at least something the nominators did that offends. “For the most part, however, the nominating committee has sorted heroically through the season’s extremely peculiar mixture of shows. The awards, to be dispensed June 8 on CBS, are not likely to be placed in unworthy hands. What hurts my head this year more than ever is the necessity of having to choose at all.”