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The Cool New Magazine

A new magazine started showing up in bookstores last week. “In lieu of a title page, there is an unsigned list of the monthly magazine’s intentions, including a ‘focus on writers and books we like’ and a nod to ‘the concept of the Inherent Good’; and an editor says they also hope to include an interview with a philosopher in every issue. On the back cover, there is only a small hint at the cool orbit in which the Believer already spins.” It’s the new McSweeney’s endeavor…

Sony Will Lay Off 1000

Sony CEO Andy Lack, who succeeded Thomas D. Mottola about three months ago, “plans to eliminate 1,000 jobs in the United States and abroad as part of a broad cost-reduction plan that would try to cut expenses by more than $100 million a year, people close to the company said yesterday.”

Clear Channel Accused Of War-Mongering

American radio giant Clear Channel Communicarions “finds itself fending off a new set of accusations: that the company is using its considerable market power to drum up support for the war in Iraq, while muzzling musicians who oppose it.” Is Clear Channel keeping musicians with political opinions of which the company disapproves off its stations?

Nervous Tension

It had been 30 years since Roy McDonald had played as an extra in Ottawa’s National Arts Center Orchestra. So when he was asked to audition for an extra role in Symphony Nova Scotia, he was flattered…and a lot nervous. But “I was told the audition would be casual, which I incorrectly interpreted to mean friendly. I pictured me and the conductor in a brightly lit rehearsal hall – introductions would be made, smiles, a couple of handshakes, and then someone would say, ‘OK, Mr. McDonald, let’s hear you take a whack at the Beethoven.’ I had also imagined I would steadfastly avoid falling into the trap of getting nervous: I had nothing to lose.” Boy was he wrong.

Examining The Poetics Of Protest

On March 5, Poets Against The War presented Congress with 13,000 poems protesting the drive to war on Iraq. “To say that this was an unprecedented publishing event is putting it mildly. It may have been the beginning of a sea change—not only in the way that poems are published and circulated, but in the way that they are thought of in terms of their cultural role. The presentation capped off the most visible organized poetic protest against war with Iraq.”

Classical Chill? Throw It Back In The Deep Freeze

Rupert Christiansen ventures to a London club to sample the new phenomenon of “chill” music. “It sounded vile. I hasten to add that I write this without prejudice. I may be the paper’s opera critic, but I am not a musical purist. Some opera bores me rigid, and there’s plenty of rock and pop, from the Beach Boys to Coldplay, that I adore. But, as demonstrated by Anne Dudley and the BBC Concert Orchestra, classical chillout struck me as execrable. The Trades Description Act should be invoked: classical fallout would be a more appropriate and accurate title. Essentially, the two-hour performance consisted of nothing more than a medley of tunes mangled through samplers and synthesisers and then spewed out at a pitch of amplified volume associated with nuclear explosions.”

Art Deco As A State Of Mind

Art Deco was one of the most pervasive styles of the modern era. “But what is art deco? It is easier to say what it isn’t, for there was never any coherent theory, principle or aesthetic to it, nor any clear and particular source. Art deco, if anything, was simply the celebration of eclecticism as a virtue and stylistic opportunism as a principle. It scoured the world and the ages for its sources, from tribal Africa to Japan, and ancient Egypt to Peru, and then looked to contemporary high art, to cubism, futurism and the Ballets Russes for present excitements and stimulation.”

Interest In Iraq Art Soars

The British Museum reports that visits to its Iraqi exhibitions have tripled since the war on Iraq began. The British Museum has the greatest collection of Mesopotamian art outside Iraq. A spokeswoman confirmed that visits to its Mesopotamian and Assyrian galleries had risen significantly. ‘It’s just general curiosity from what’s going on (with the war). Members of the public are coming from all over the world.”

The Poetic Pope

The Pope has published another book of poetry. So how is it? Dan Chiasson is impressed: “It’s hard to get a sense of the pope’s poetics, in the broadest sense, but I can say that he seems to favor end-stopped vers libre—surprising, given his investment elsewhere in order and hierarchy. There are biblical cadences, to be sure, but mostly the poems strike the secular-didactic tone of self-help literature. Very little hellfire; what we get instead is mostly ‘Chicken Soup for the Aging Pontiff’s Soul.’ Still, what I’ve read of ‘Roman Triptych’ is rather good, in the way most celebrity poetry is rather good.”