Should criminals be allowed to earn money by writing books about what they’ve done? “The debate about paying criminals for their stories is an enduring one, with the slippery notion of morality at its centre.”
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Life In The Old CD Yet…
The compact disc is 20 year5s old. And two new enhanced CD formats introduced in 1999 offer big improvments in the sound of a CD. Questionj is – will consumers catch on and want them?
Sarasota Opera’s Winning Formula
The Sarasota Opera in Florida is thriving. “Sarasota County – with a population of just less than 326,000 – is home to two professional orchestras, more than 10 theaters, 30 art galleries and a ballet company. None of them raises bigger budgets or draws on a larger local, national and international public than the $4.8 million Sarasota Opera. Ticket sales this year declined only 2 to 3 percent, for a loss of about $46,000, from last year’s record revenues of $2.04 million – not bad for any opera producer in a flat economy. The less obvious reason is that Sarasota Opera is giving its audiences – business-suited seniors as well as the jeans-and-Gucci-loafers younger crowd the company actively woos – the kind of opera they can’t hear or see anywhere else.”
Rap Music In Trouble?
“Rap music, which ushered the wonders of hip-hop culture from graffiti-splattered playgrounds to suburban front lawns, is in trouble. Nearly three decades since spoken wordscapes were married to beats to create a new musical vocabulary, rap music is flirting with creative bankruptcy. A genre once characterized by innovative, restless spirit now seems little more than an assembly-line product. Take a menacing scowl, a few platinum rings and pendants, a video filled with lip-licking, come-hither hotties, and someone who can rhyme about bullet-riddled mayhem, cognac, sneakers, dubs, or the latest Hummer — and an MTV or BET-ready rap star is born.”
Stolen Iraqi Art Seized At Jordanian Border
“Jordanian customs authorities have seized 42 paintings believed to have been looted from Iraq’s National Museum, government officials said Saturday.”
Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley Cuts Budget/Performances
Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley has cut its budget by $1.4 million. “The company’s new budget of $4.9 million for 2003-2004 includes pay cuts for staff members, reduced operating budgets for all departments, reduced hours for some employees and the elimination of Sunday evening performances.”
Culture By Remote
Remote controls are one of the biggest innovations TV has undergone. “Ever notice, for example, that network series rarely have theme songs like in the old days? Thank the remote. Notice that there are no commercials between the end of one network show and the beginning of the next one? Thank the remote. Notice (if you’re old enough) that the commercials themselves are more sophisticated and less annoying than the ones the TV blared in the ’70s? Thank the remote. Notice those endless headlines crawling across the bottom of your screen? Thank the remote. Notice (ladies) that you can tell a lot about a guy’s control issues by watching an evening of TV with him? Thank the remote.”
Theatre Politique
David Edgar says political theatre will never disappear. “For most of the 30 years in which I have been doing political theatre, it has been on its last legs. Over those years, I have spent more time than I care to consider sitting on panels in black-box theatres discussing whether this much-contested genre has any future. In fact, as I argue roundly on such occasions, the anatomising of contemporary society has been the great project of British theatre-writing since 1956, and whenever one wave seemed spent, another arrived to take its place.”
The Power Of (War) Art
War is awful of course. But “war can produce gorgeous images and striking effects that furnish the raw material for sublime works of art. To anyone who has experienced war’s ravages firsthand, that idea may sound naive, grotesque, even absurd. Yet over centuries of human brutality, the aesthetic has seldom been at odds with the horrific…”
Pop Goes The Hip Hop
Hip hop is popular. Wildly popular. But it’s not like what you see in the pop culture, says Rennie Harris. “This culture, and specifically pop culture, has kind of convinced people that hip-hop dance is sort of a series of steps and patterns. A monkey can do that. They do regimented, synchronized movements in the military, but you don’t call it dance. This is not to disrespect that; the point is to let you know that what you are doing right now is not hip-hop, it has evolved into something else. And once it loses the soul, it is no longer dance.”