Blog

Children’s Theatre Wins Tony

Minneapolis/St. Paul’s Children’s Theatre Company has won this year’s regional Tony Award. “Children’s Theatre Company has always had a very good reputation. But I think there’s an evolution in children’s theater that more of us are being considered as regional theaters, and CTC clearly has that designation.”

Dear Stanley: You’re Fired

Stanley Crouch’s last column in JazzTimes was blunt. In it he “accuses white critics of elevating white musicians ‘far beyond their abilities’ to ‘make themselves feel more comfortable about . . . evaluating an art from which they feel substantially alienated.’ Crouch also claims that white writers, who were born in ‘middle-class china shops,’ ensure ‘the destruction of the Negro aesthetic’ by advancing musicians who can’t swing at the expense of those who can.” And with that, the magazine fired Crouch…

That Future Where They Burn Books – Fifty Years Later

Fifty years after its publication, Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” remains “a favorite of teachers who assign it to English classes and librarians who appreciate its celebration of literacy as the hallmark of civilization. The public loves it, too. Last year, ‘Fahrenheit 451’ reached No. 1 on the Los Angeles Times best-seller list after Mayor Jim Hahn made it the centerpiece of a citywide reading program. Mr. Bradbury insists that the purpose of “Fahrenheit 451″ was not to prophesy. ‘I wasn’t trying to predict the future. I was trying to prevent it.’ In one immediate sense, he failed.”

Concerns For Stolen Cellini Sculpture

The saltcellar stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna over the weekend was crafted by the great Renaissance sculptor and metalworker Benvenuto Cellini in the 1540s. It was called by some the “Mona Lisa” of sculpture to give a sense of its importance, and is said to be worth $57 million. “It was extremely fragile. It wasn’t cast in solid gold, but hammered into its delicate shape. I think if it comes back it will reappear all in pieces or as a ruin. The whole thing happened in less than one minute; in such a hurry [I can’t imagine] that a piece of this fragility could survive.”

After Orchestra Fails – Can Miami Support Ambitious Arts Plans?

After the Florida Philharmonic collapse, arts watchers in south Florida are wondering whether the region can support a new $263 million performing arts center, currently under construction. “The issue, arts experts say, is whether the South Florida arts donor base is too narrow: too heavy on the elderly, substantially but not wholly Jewish crowd, often from the Northeast, and too light on young professionals, local Hispanics and wealthy, part-time residents from South America.”

After Growing, Latin Music Sales Down

Until this year, Latin music sales had been growing in the US. Now it’s flatlinedor declining, just like the rest of the music industry. “All these economic problems – with the Internet, with radio – minimize the company’s efforts. The No. 1 effect is you don’t launch so many artists, or as many new artists. You have to lower your production budgets. Everything has to come down to the reality of the marketplace.”

All The Hits – Picked Scientifically

Get the feeling that Top 40 songs are sounding more and more alike? Here might be one reason: computers. “Hit Song Science is a high-tech music analysis system that compares new songs to a massive database of chart-topping singles and predicts hit potential based on shared attributes. In other words, the more your song has in common with Usher’s ‘U Don’t Have To Call’ or Santana’s ‘Smooth,’ the better your prospects for stardom. All five of the major record companies – BMG, EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. – are using the service.”